A lot has been mentioned of the brightness of the express. I thought I'd share my results.... Leave the circuit alone and, 1. use a long (20 feet), lower gauge speaker chord from your cab (mentioned by KF in the trainwreck pages), or 2. use a couple dark sounding preamp tubes (that's what tworock did).
A 120K R in series with a .0047 cap across the PI plates on a toggle switch or pushpull switch is also a good non-invasive mod.
Just a thought...
Jake
Two simple high end solutions
Moderators: pompeiisneaks, Colossal
Re: Two simple high end solutions
Thanks Jake - I just posted a question about a similar concern , fizzyness on certin high notes, ill try the long cord & I was already considering doing some tube swapping, I have lots of them laying around is there any particular brand that youve found darker than others?
JOE
JOE
Resistors not Transistors !
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Fischerman
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Re: Two simple high end solutions
I just put in a Tungsram and a Munich RFT. Both are excellent tubes for the wreck, with the Tungsrams being particularly good for harmonic content. Wrecks are super sensetive to tube changes, so trying different combos to taste makes a lot of sense.joe6v6 wrote: I have lots of them laying around is there any particular brand that youve found darker than others?
Sgt OD has great insight on these things and he has a 'wreck clone in his inventory (plus, he's played through a real wreck). He's got a lot of stuff in stock and good prices.
http://mhuss.com/sgtoverdrive/
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geetarpicker
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Re: Two simple high end solutions
I've done quite a bit of recording work with my original '89 Express.
On plenty of occasions I would run about a '40 cord from the guitar to the amp (w/ no pedals), old Sylvania 12ax7s, and my 4x12 has rather dark sounding '71 era G12M 25s w/lead cones. Never quite experimented much with the speaker cables. However with all that going on sometimes the overall tone was quite dark at times, even with the bright switch in the full bright position which is mainly where I run the amp. A short cable and switching the bright switch off never did it for me.
I once talked to Ken about the high end roll off of different guitar cables. He even talked about a box he made someone with a rotary selector switching in various small caps to control the roll off effects.
To be honest I tend to find the Express too bright with just say a 6-10' cord. Usually I like at least 20' of guitar cable, two hooked inline with an adapter, or a single long 40' cable.
It also works fine onstage. Usually a 20' cable is just too short anyway.
I does make a difference.
On plenty of occasions I would run about a '40 cord from the guitar to the amp (w/ no pedals), old Sylvania 12ax7s, and my 4x12 has rather dark sounding '71 era G12M 25s w/lead cones. Never quite experimented much with the speaker cables. However with all that going on sometimes the overall tone was quite dark at times, even with the bright switch in the full bright position which is mainly where I run the amp. A short cable and switching the bright switch off never did it for me.
I once talked to Ken about the high end roll off of different guitar cables. He even talked about a box he made someone with a rotary selector switching in various small caps to control the roll off effects.
To be honest I tend to find the Express too bright with just say a 6-10' cord. Usually I like at least 20' of guitar cable, two hooked inline with an adapter, or a single long 40' cable.
It also works fine onstage. Usually a 20' cable is just too short anyway.
I does make a difference.
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Jackie Treehorn
- Posts: 236
- Joined: Thu Jan 20, 2005 4:54 pm
- Location: New Orleans, LA
Re: Two simple high end solutions
Here's an easy one: use a phase reversed speaker cable. At least with my two Marshall cabs, it tends to give more lower mids and more sustain.
Re: Two simple high end solutions
I've learned some good things in this thread 
Joe: in addition to Moose's comments, you could also try a 12AX7-C. I believe that's the tube Two Rock used in their Ruby amps to darken the tone.
So far the best combination for me for current production tubes is a lowish gain Ruby 12ax7 in V1 and Sovtex LPS tubes for the rest. The LPS tubes are actually on the bright side, which I think might have something to do with increasing harmonics (similar to Moose's point). I might try putting the LPS tubes for V1 and V2, and then a 12AX7-C for the PI.
Jake
Joe: in addition to Moose's comments, you could also try a 12AX7-C. I believe that's the tube Two Rock used in their Ruby amps to darken the tone.
So far the best combination for me for current production tubes is a lowish gain Ruby 12ax7 in V1 and Sovtex LPS tubes for the rest. The LPS tubes are actually on the bright side, which I think might have something to do with increasing harmonics (similar to Moose's point). I might try putting the LPS tubes for V1 and V2, and then a 12AX7-C for the PI.
Jake