OK, This is a bit of a challenge, given we haven't got a lot to go on... But I'll accept.
I run stereo wet/dry with high headroom amps. Typically it's a pair of blackface twins for the dry and 4x12's for the wet, occasionally I piggyback 4x12 cab onto my JC-120 and run either my quad or 1959SLP.
Setups change depending on my whimsical nature and it's nto always the same though. about 2 weeks ago I was running twins into 4x12's and quad reverb and JC-120 with my S/C 2x12 piggybacked.
The point of explaining this is the behaviours I notice changing are more to do with the speakers than the amps. Certain amps don't like greenbacks, and others don't like alnico golds, and my vintage G12T75's are good with everything, while the original speakers in the JC120 are fussy with dirt.
I think it's more important to know what the speaker does with your clean sound than your dirt pedal. "generally speaking" amps of a feather, sound together. and Brands apart are worlds apart. Sure there's always a demonic Mesa dual rectifier hiding under a black curtain in the corner which wants to kill you at every chance, but reality is that expecting any backline gear to be good ? it's probably going to be a bassbreaker or a hotrod deluxe, maybe an AC30 if you're lucky, and if you ask for a twin or a super, you'll get one with tired valves.
That's just how it is. Ask for a Marshall, and there will be some POS moisture-soaked conductive PCB inside a JCM900 head which sounds like it's about to fart and die. If you ask for something 'decent', 9 times out of 10 you will get the biggest POS the backline rentals can drop from a forklift.
I spent a bit of time thinking about how I usually set up my dry amps, and what works with them set up as a dry amp (dirt only no modualtion/delay).
It may help, it may be completely opposite to how you function as a player.
1 Fender blackface cleans: Yes, A tube screamer (808 style) Or my always pedal, the Hudson Broadcast. I wouldn't give either of mine away. Before someone asks, yes, I have fancy new 808's and originals, and guess what.... there is sweet f-all difference except at really high volumes, when the new pedal is better.
2. Silverface twins/supers/quads - Same as above but I also prefer a Blues Driver or an xotic AC booster into my silverface twin or my quad. (pre-ultralinear 100w no-push/pull master vol versions)
Ultralinear Twins and super-twins... oh boy. 1. KNOW how to EQ a super twin, or don't use it. Ultralinear twins... they're notoriously difficult from a 'variable' because they have probably been stuffed around with more than any other amp in history. set everything to 5, and run a TS808 into the front.
3. Vox amp - my #1 goto is the Hudson Broadcast, occasionally I use the JHS @+, and if I want the 'TS' humpy thing, I go with my TS9DX - depends on how much chime you want to dampen and how much more over the top you want your mids. I can't explain to you why my 808 and me, do not play well into a vox. I can make it sound OK, but the broadcast feels like the result of about 13 billion years of evolution in difference.
5. Marshall Plexi / 4x12's again, Broadcast, TS808, and funnily enough the JHS @+ which is essentially already a plexi pedal in a box, but it pushes EL34's SO well it's not funny.
6. Roland SS amps - Blues Driver. and that is pretty much a given, since er Boss... But the TS808 is perfect for taking that super bright JC clean and making it a little dirtier. Good with single coils but not really hot single coils in my experience, and Humbuckers are a risk, depending on how they bite.
If you want a laugh, the RYRA Klone will knock a JC in the guts really hard, and I've not been able to make my broadcast or AC booster work with it unless I gain stack them, and use the AC Booster as the 'extra hit' while using the broadcast as the slightly hairy 'casual' sound.
7. Katana 100 - don't need anything. I have a bunch of presets I have worked on and a GA-FC, and if you know what a computer with a USB cable looks like, you can load a katana with your tone studio presets and rock out, without the need for a pedal board in many cases. If I am going to a friends place for a 'pandemic practice session' and our social distancing measures fail, I would not feel bad if the katana had to be taken away by people in hazmat suits and incinerated. So it's actually been a LOT of fun as well as being light and portable - and it also takes isopropyl wipes REALLY well. It's perfect.
If you can work your preset banks in a katana, then you don't need any backline. If you're lucky enough to be able to fly, and cannot take it as luggage... then someone at your destination HAS a katana. They are everywhere. They're like the modern mans deluxe reverb or ac15 or DSL40. Everyone has one, or knows someone who has.
Now I'm not suggesting these will work for you, but they work for me, and I've spent quite a bit of time delving into the subtle differences and pretty much know the sweet spot for my gear.
I would as an example avoid using the @+ with the JC-120, as it's like a 1959SLP on '2' - that glassy fizzy thing that can be dialled out of the pedal, but it really only works on the JTM45 switched setting and pedal gain dialled down a fair bit on the boost side.
The AC booster and the Broadcast work well for me as a stacking thing. I reluctantly found the Klone does not work stacked with either, without generating a lot of noise. That's just my experience.
Klone by itself is great into fender amps and into a vox, but not in my plexi, My ears can't deal with it.
I use the tubescreamer for shaping more than serious dirt. I will use them like a boost more than a dirt thing. "Just hairy enough" if that makes sense. Same with my Blues Driver, which I usually stack with a TS to get a bit more on the upper mids without making it searing.
And to the end of all this, I run a pair of Empress ParaEQ's. I use them to shape the wet and dry signal chain to provide attenuation to specific frequencies that can sometimes get out of hand when there are a lot of loops.
You can achieve the same thing with a valve preamp like a kingsley jester, or try a germainum fuzz Setup to be a mid-strength bit of hairiness and then straight into the front - of the amp and use your volume control more effectively. i.e. roll off a bit.
I'm actually stuffing around with a bunch of red dot, blue dot and orange dot 4 leg germaniums (NOS) that I dug out of old manilla packets in my drawers a few weeks ago. Some have the dreaded tin whiskers on the can. I hope they are OK inside. But the point of all that is I'm messing with the Rangemaster boost that was installed (but not working properly) in my Da/SC c120R amp. It's not an OC44, and I think that is because it was in the amp and not in a box. Or some tech responsible for the butchery inside probably pillaged it... But I have the tagboard circuit out and replicating it on some breadboard hoping to have that reinstalled as a correctly functioning part of the amp once more.
Again, the point is that is a 6xE34L output stage and it's quad inputs are as clean as a whistle, until you feel physical pain from sound pressure. So the butchered circuit definitely was integrated in a way that made the amp more useable. Useable by giving the preamp circuit some hair, and perhaps this is why later Sound City models got a nickname 'Sounds ****ty' because they were too loud and clean to the limit. Certainly not the popular or desirable characteristic of the 1970's.
Just my experiences and some thoughts.
Last edited: Jun 14, 2020
