What type of guitar and amp are you using?

THE KBK ... This is the last known signal. We offer Sanctuary.

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You've isolated a real problem for us surf guitarists. A lot of gear, including mouth drooling vintage Fender amps just don't perform well in the lower registers. The easiest solution is to switch to the bridge only pickup selection when you're playing more than a few notes down there. This can require some fast switching or a little rearrangement of your guitar part to accomodate this. I did notice when I was testing the new Quilter amp (solid state) That my lower strings had way more clarity than the 62 Bandmaster. Still, how much of an overall problem this is is entirely subjective.

Danny Snyder

"With great reverb comes great responsibility" - Uncle Leo

I am now playing trumpet with Prince Buster tribute band 'Balzac'

Playing keys and guitar with Combo Tezeta

Formerly a guitarist in The TomorrowMen and Meshugga Beach Party

Latest surf project - Now That's What I Call SURF

My setup seems to be handling low end just fine:
69 Twin Reverb turned to a head (so basically a Dual SHowman Reverb), Blackfaced, NOS Philips 7581A power tubes. 2X15 JBL D-130 in a Dual Showman sized cabinet. AVRI Jazzmaster with 15-65 flatwounds tuned a whole step down to D.
In my old band, because of switching to distrotion I ended up playing live through a Marshal cabinet with 4 V30 and the bottom end was also tight.
I do remember that in the beginning my amp had Sovtek 5881 power tubes and they were terrible.

The Scimitars

kick_the_reverb wrote:

AVRI Jazzmaster with 15-65 flatwounds tuned a whole
step down to D.

Fady

El Mirage @ ReverbNation

Duh.. Any metal/shred guitar equipped with EMG 81's through a Boss Metal Zone into a Mesa Triple Rectifier with Scooped Mids.

Last edited: Sep 30, 2011 08:50:51

Yeah...tennis elbow be damned...I suggest playing 11's or 12's...They will really tighten up your low end...If you are brave, go for flat wound strings as well.

THE KBK ... This is the last known signal. We offer Sanctuary.

www.thekbk.com
http://www.deepeddy.net/artists/thekbk/
www.reverbnation.com/thekbk
www.facebook.com/thekbkal

As far as geetar is concerned

For resonant low harmonics you should pluck the string as far away from the bridge as possible (this can take some getting used to with faster playing because the string vibration is wider at this point). Tighter notes - closer to the bridge.

Bassier notes = bigger gauge strings

Smoother = ground wound or flat wound

harder attack and/or better hemi-demi-semi-quavers = thicker pick and thicker strings

As far as the amp goes

Something with 12" or 15" speakers

6L6 output tubes

Big output transformer (More iron in the core = more bass)

Fewer gain stages throughout the pre-amp and tending towards bigger coupling cap values, and with all stages' cathodes fully-bypassed, esp V1 stage in the preamp = more of the geetar p'ups initial tones. (The reason you want as few stages as practical, is to prevent overly-muddy tones and blocking distortion from clagging up the signal. But you want all stages to pass as much bandwidth as possible - to a point - to keep bass in the signal. You may need to adjust the cathode-bypass values and coupling cap values a bit to eliminate blocking distortion caused by too much low freq too early in the pre-amp).

My ideal pre-amp has two stages(1) with 'tweed bassman(2)' type gain stage values (with a BF Princeton Treble-Bass tone stack, or BF fender TMB tone stack, and vol control, in between these two 1st gain stages. These tone stacks are configured to enable ease of getting the 'scooped-mid' sound), and a PI then a fixed-bias push-pull output stage. This is like most blackface fender topologies.

(1) an input stage, then tone stack/vol then tone stack recovery stage

(2) i.e.: fender hi-lo inputs, with V1 having 1M grid leak, 100k plate resistor, 1k5 cathode resistor bypassed with 25uF, and 22nF coupling cap

Use a high bandwidth tube in V1, like a 12AY7 (which has lower gain which can be advantageous), or even a 12BZ7 which is high gain, high BW (if you can find a nice NOS one that isn't too microphonic). Higher BW tubes give a fatter signal with less 'noise floor' (if used in V1), and then use a 12AX7 stage as a TS recovery stage in order to boost the voltage gain going into the phase inverter. It you use a LTP phase inverter with this setup, you'll be able to ultimately drive the output tube grids harder when you crank it. If you have a cathodyne inverter instead, you will get quite clean signal up to a point, but it suddenly can turn nasty when it goes into clipping, and you typically won't be able to get as much drive for 6L6 grids (altho it will work very nicely with 6V6 or EL84 grids, but those output tubes aren't as 'chuggy' on bass notes as 6L6s).

My 2CW of rambling

He who dies with the most tubes... wins

Surf Daddies

Last edited: Sep 30, 2011 18:43:09

Nah you don't have to do any of it. ;-). But you could try the higher bandwidth pre-amp tubes I mentioned, and different string gauge, or changing the pickup height as simple things.

However, the amp is as important a part of the electric guitar instrument as the guitar itself, and the things that most limit the amount of bass you can get from electric guitar is how the amp is made, including the speaker(s) and their enclosure, type of output tubes, output transformer size and the way the gains stages are set up to roll-off bass frequencies. If you don't want to tinker with the amp you have, then you could get a different amp that is more to your liking, or accept your amp the way it is and work within the limitations of the sounds you can get out of it. Pedals will achieve a certain amount of tonal colouration, which you may or may not be happy with, but the 'chuggy' bass sound on the bottom strings really needs an amp that is properly set up for that job.

He who dies with the most tubes... wins

Surf Daddies

Sounds like your strings might be a little flubby if you feel that the sound isn't tight enough. I played with light strings for awhile and when I started going heavier then the light strings just went out of tune like crazy because I was used to bigger stuff.

If it's your low end that's the problem then maybe go for some Ernie Ball Skinny top heavy bottoms which have an A of 42 and an E of 52 (or you can go for "Not Even Slinky, for your whole setup to be tighter). You can still keep a light high end, and a slightly bigger low end that will have more tension and more clarity.

If your fingers aren't beat enough for heavy roundwounds, flatwounds are amazingly smooth to play.

"Dude it's SOOO drippy!! It's like water is going to start spurting out of your amplifier!"-Nathan Charles Dirig

narciso wrote:

killbabykill34 wrote:

I would try different strings. You didn't mention
what
guage you are using but considering the other
equipment
you listed, I cannot understand any other reason why
you would be having a muddy low end.

I use daddario round nickel 10-46 strings or pure
nickel pyramid 10-46 and red 0.50 tortex pick (I can
handle heavier picks and 11s strings but with 12s and
1.5 picks my tennis elbow might start awakening while
playing tremolo). Actually I am not having a muddy low
end problem. With those cabinets the overall sound is
fine and the low end is good too (and HUGE especially
with the Jensen 15" loaded cabinet) but I would like to
tighten the low end more to get a clearer and sharper
'machine gun' sound while playing tremolo.

Thanks for the replies!!!

Machine gun sound, as in staccato picking/double picking/whatever you call it?

"Dude it's SOOO drippy!! It's like water is going to start spurting out of your amplifier!"-Nathan Charles Dirig