X-Mas Amp Mod 2019!

[Mattias Westlund]

I was looking at this thread the other day and had kind of a "waaaaait a minute..." moment. I took parts from the Squier amp to put together the Crate cab, right? So why not use the Squier enclosure and various other odds and ends I have lying around to make a second cab? After all, the Squier is close-backed and that fact alone should provide enough of a tonal difference that it might be worth exploring. So I did!



It should be mentioned here that after I did the Crate cab, I went back to the original speaker soon after. It just sounded better with the open back, same as the Fender speaker from the Squier amp sounds better with a closed back. Which makes sense, as guitar amp speakers are voiced or chosen according to the enclosures they sit in. So the Crate has its original speaker again, and so does the Squier. Anyway.

All this has led me down a rabbit hole of experimentation and discovery that I didn't think was possible with the cheap (some would say garbage) amps I have. The Line 6 Spider III is pretty terrible all on its own, but with the speaker out mod, going into the Crate cab, it sounds very different. Going into the Squier cab it also sounds different but in another way. This makes me think I should perform the same surgery on my Ibanez Tone Blaster 15W amp as well and see what that one sounds like through an external cab. And I have a Peavey Rage 158 in the basement that could easily be modified the same way.

Does any of it sound fantastic? I dunno, I've never been picky about guitar sounds. As long as I have a tone that I can work with, I'm happy. The Spider for example is very scooped, it has hyped lows and highs that makes it sound boomy and harsh all at the same time. Through a different speaker with rolled off highs and more pronounced mids, it sounds much better. Hitting the Spider's clean channel with a decent distortion pedal (which you should NEVER do with a modeling amp, according to all the self-proclaimed internet experts), it sounds passable enough that I've found myself noodling and coming up with riffs for days.

What I'm trying to say here is just... let's dispose of the elitist guitar playing myhts, shall we? There is no holy grail guitar sound or h/w setup, it's just a matter of what sounds good to you. Whether that sound comes out of a trash-picked practice amp with a $20 pedal or a $4000 hand-made boutique tube amp is unimportant. What's important is the music you make using it.

[Samulis]

(07-28-2021, 03:37 PM)Mattias Westlund Wrote: I was looking at this thread the other day and had kind of a "waaaaait a minute..." moment. I took parts from the Squier amp to put together the Crate cab, right? So why not use the Squier enclosure and various other odds and ends I have lying around to make a second cab? After all, the Squier is close-backed and that fact alone should provide enough of a tonal difference that it might be worth exploring. So I did!



What I'm trying to say here is just... let's dispose of the elitist guitar playing myhts, shall we? There is no holy grail guitar sound or h/w setup, it's just a matter of what sounds good to you. Whether that sound comes out of a trash-picked practice amp with a $20 pedal or a $4000 hand-made boutique tube amp is unimportant. What's important is the music you make using it.

Hey, those look great! I wish I was savvy enough with a soldering iron and such to do this kind of stuff... it seems like a lot of fun.

I agree completely. It is the same thing with mics; different tools that provide you different lenses through which to experience music and make what you want to make. No wrong answers, only the journey along the way.

[Nayrb]

Looks cool! Good idea making a second cab. I also still have a Rage 158. I think it's in the garage right now. I got it when I was 10 and it's held up like a rock for 24 years, but it doesn't sound all that great. It just doesn't get hot enough. I liked that for practice though, because it really pushed me to be accurate.

Speaking of unexpectedly good tone: years ago, I had this computer-based thing called a Black Box that had a pretty decent sound for 2006. I did some bad recordings with it, but the guitar never sounded totally awful (unless I was trying to be "black metal" about it). I gave it away, unfortunately. Kind of miss it.

I don't really have pics to share, but I recently refretted a friend's project guitar (under his supervision and using his tools). It also involved a soldering iron Now I kind of have the bug and I want to do some more such modding...

[Mattias Westlund]

(08-01-2021, 07:07 PM)Samulis Wrote: Hey, those look great! I wish I was savvy enough with a soldering iron and such to do this kind of stuff... it seems like a lot of fun.

To be honest, soldering isn't all that difficult unless we're talking PCB's. I've been soldering guitar pickups and cables and whatnot for 30+ years and I've sort of picked up what skills I have as I went along. I'm sure you could learn the basics in a week if you actually wanted to. That said, it does seem like a skill that is becoming increasingly esoteric. Just a few days ago, one of the kids was going to throw his LED light strip in the bin because our dear rabbits had chomped off the power cable. I told him it's an easy fix, it's just two wires. Some solder and heat shrink and it's as good as new. And he was like, "...you can actually do that??" And he's 17!

(08-01-2021, 07:07 PM)Samulis Wrote: I agree completely. It is the same thing with mics; different tools that provide you different lenses through which to experience music and make what you want to make. No wrong answers, only the journey along the way.

Exactly! And just like in the case of guitar gear, I know there's tons of mic snobs out there. Obviously a condenser is going to be better than a dynamic mic at certain common tasks, and vice versa, but other than that, I think being obsessed with a certain make and model of a piece of gear is really focusing on the wrong aspects of what we're doing as musicians.

(08-02-2021, 02:10 AM)Nayrb Wrote: Looks cool! Good idea making a second cab. I also still have a Rage 158. I think it's in the garage right now. I got it when I was 10 and it's held up like a rock for 24 years, but it doesn't sound all that great. It just doesn't get hot enough. I liked that for practice though, because it really pushed me to be accurate.

What vintage of Rage 158 do you have? There's a few of them. I have the all-black early TransTube one, from (I think) the mid nineties. There's also an earlier one with a teal stripe, as well as a newer model with details in red. Might even be a modern one with the silver knobs, I'm not sure.

(08-02-2021, 02:10 AM)Nayrb Wrote: Speaking of unexpectedly good tone: years ago, I had this computer-based thing called a Black Box that had a pretty decent sound for 2006. I did some bad recordings with it, but the guitar never sounded totally awful (unless I was trying to be "black metal" about it). I gave it away, unfortunately. Kind of miss it.

Huh, never heard of that one. Computer-based? Like the Line 6 POD's you could hook up to your computer via USB?

(08-02-2021, 02:10 AM)Nayrb Wrote: I don't really have pics to share, but I recently refretted a friend's project guitar (under his supervision and using his tools). It also involved a soldering iron Now I kind of have the bug and I want to do some more such modding...

Refretting or fret dressing is something I would never attempt! Looks very difficult and time-consuming and you need to absolutely know what you're doing if you don't want to wreck the guitar beyond rescue. But I'm thrilled to hear you liked doing it, we need more people with such skills

[Nayrb]

(08-03-2021, 10:25 PM)Mattias Westlund Wrote:

(08-02-2021, 02:10 AM)Nayrb Wrote: Looks cool! Good idea making a second cab. I also still have a Rage 158. I think it's in the garage right now. I got it when I was 10 and it's held up like a rock for 24 years, but it doesn't sound all that great. It just doesn't get hot enough. I liked that for practice though, because it really pushed me to be accurate.

What vintage of Rage 158 do you have? There's a few of them. I have the all-black early TransTube one, from (I think) the mid nineties. There's also an earlier one with a teal stripe, as well as a newer model with details in red. Might even be a modern one with the silver knobs, I'm not sure.

(08-02-2021, 02:10 AM)Nayrb Wrote: Speaking of unexpectedly good tone: years ago, I had this computer-based thing called a Black Box that had a pretty decent sound for 2006. I did some bad recordings with it, but the guitar never sounded totally awful (unless I was trying to be "black metal" about it). I gave it away, unfortunately. Kind of miss it.

Huh, never heard of that one. Computer-based? Like the Line 6 POD's you could hook up to your computer via USB?

(08-02-2021, 02:10 AM)Nayrb Wrote: I don't really have pics to share, but I recently refretted a friend's project guitar (under his supervision and using his tools). It also involved a soldering iron Now I kind of have the bug and I want to do some more such modding...

Refretting or fret dressing is something I would never attempt! Looks very difficult and time-consuming and you need to absolutely know what you're doing if you don't want to wreck the guitar beyond rescue. But I'm thrilled to hear you liked doing it, we need more people with such skills

I got my Rage 158 when I was 10, and that was 1997, so it's the all black TransTube one. When I worked at a guitar shop between 2005-07, we had that red one with the added hot gain switch that we used up at the front to test stuff out. I was into TransTube back then because I didn't have the money or the know-how to deal with tubes, and good digital stuff was in its infancy and totally out of my league. I even had a TransTube half stack (the XXL).

Yeah, the Black Box was a USB dealy. It was really annoying, because when you used it as your soundcard, it cut the bass out entirely for some reason. It's possible that was user error, though. I wasn't all that savvy back then. Still, wish I still had it as something to plug into my old Rage 158 for better tone

I used to do fret dressings when I worked at a shop, but it was sort of the hackish get-it-done-fast version that I would probably not do nowadays. I didn't get to actually do the filing on the recent project, but I will when I get my own project guitar to work on. This time around I just removed and installed old/new frets. One thing I've learned about modern mass-produced guitars is that the reason the frets are so high is because they haven't taken the time to properly level the fretboard. Once you get the old frets out, you can sand it down a bit and make it more level. It also gets to be more smooth that way. This is assuming you don't have a sealed fretboard, of course.

[Mattias Westlund]

(08-04-2021, 12:29 PM)Nayrb Wrote: I got my Rage 158 when I was 10, and that was 1997, so it's the all black TransTube one. When I worked at a guitar shop between 2005-07, we had that red one with the added hot gain switch that we used up at the front to test stuff out. I was into TransTube back then because I didn't have the money or the know-how to deal with tubes, and good digital stuff was in its infancy and totally out of my league. I even had a TransTube half stack (the XXL).

TransTube is actually a very good solid state emulation of a tube amp, and it gets better with every generation. I had a head-modded Peavey Bandit, the silver knob variety, and it sounded fantastic through a VHT 2x12" cab. To be honest I don't understand why people bother with tube amps when solid state and modeling have come so far, but then again I've always felt that other guitarists are able to hear stuff I can't The weakest link of the Rage line is the speakers, which are too harsh-sounding to do the amp any favors. I've heard that replacing it can work wonders.

(08-04-2021, 12:29 PM)Nayrb Wrote: Still, wish I still had it as something to plug into my old Rage 158 for better tone

You should check out Behringer's pedals. Super cheap and many of them sound surprisingly good. Since they have plastic casings and somewhat flimsy knobs I wouldn't go gigging with them, but for a home setup they're absolutely fine.

Actually, I'm using four of them on my pedal board. The Ultra Metal is great for heavy tones!

[Mattias Westlund]

Nayrb, I'm also thinking about adding one of these to my setup. I have overdrive and metal high gain covered, but it would be nice to have something for more classic hard rock tones. I've watched a few youtube videos of it and the Marshall emulation in this thing sounds amazing. According to reviewers this pedal is perfect for getting some more variety out of small practice amps and such, so it might be a good choice for your Rage too.

[Nayrb]

Noted on the Behringer pedals! Looks great, really. And yeah, I agree about Transtube and modelling. I love that I can just plug into my computer and get all kinds of great tones now. I do like having something to just plug into and play, though, without having to fire up the whole rig just to mess around. That same reasoning is why I plan on buying a cheap practice keyboard again next time I move and have the space for it. I'm practicing more proper keyboard scales and such these days, and it's nice to just have an instrument handy that I don't have to plug into a computer.

I will say (repeat, actually), that the best rig I ever played through was an EVH tube head going into a computer. I think the computer was mainly for cab modelling; the rest of the rack was external amp/pedal-board stuff. But I think I'm just not savvy enough to be able to make sounds like my friend who did set that up (same guy who does the luthierie). When I play my modest JB equipped guitar through it, I can somehow get tones that sound like raging EMGs.

[Mattias Westlund]

(08-16-2021, 03:03 PM)Nayrb Wrote: I do like having something to just plug into and play, though, without having to fire up the whole rig just to mess around. That same reasoning is why I plan on buying a cheap practice keyboard again next time I move and have the space for it. I'm practicing more proper keyboard scales and such these days, and it's nice to just have an instrument handy that I don't have to plug into a computer.

That's my exact reasoning for having amps as well. With my PC, even if I set presets up in something like VSTHost instead of using Reaper, I will still need to run the cable to my audio interface, I will still have to muck around with the mouse to turn effects on and off or adjust settings, and I will still have to deal with latency. With an amp, I can just power it on and play. It's just much less of a hassle. Also (and this is just a personal preference, having spent far more time playing through amps rather than amp sims) I prefer the sound and feel of an actual amp to that of a simulated mic'd guitar sound coming out of my studio monitors. That's fine for tracking but it's not the same.

(08-16-2021, 03:03 PM)Nayrb Wrote: I will say (repeat, actually), that the best rig I ever played through was an EVH tube head going into a computer. I think the computer was mainly for cab modelling; the rest of the rack was external amp/pedal-board stuff. But I think I'm just not savvy enough to be able to make sounds like my friend who did set that up (same guy who does the luthierie). When I play my modest JB equipped guitar through it, I can somehow get tones that sound like raging EMGs.

The EVH amps are monsters. Never played one myself but I've heard them being demoed and they sound really great. Oddly enough, the various 5150 sims I've tried leave a lot to be desired. The TSE X50 2.0 for example won a lot of praise when it came out but it never really clicked with me. It's not a bad sim, I just couldn't get any tones I was really happy with out of it. So clearly modeling isn't 100% there yet. Still, I will take imperfect simulations over a bulky, expensive, fragile, high-maintenance and power hungry piece of hardware any day of the week, no matter how good it sounds.

[Nayrb]

(08-17-2021, 05:56 AM)Mattias Westlund Wrote: The EVH amps are monsters. Never played one myself but I've heard them being demoed and they sound really great. Oddly enough, the various 5150 sims I've tried leave a lot to be desired. The TSE X50 2.0 for example won a lot of praise when it came out but it never really clicked with me. It's not a bad sim, I just couldn't get any tones I was really happy with out of it. So clearly modeling isn't 100% there yet. Still, I will take imperfect simulations over a bulky, expensive, fragile, high-maintenance and power hungry piece of hardware any day of the week, no matter how good it sounds.

I think I agree. I love modelling and what it can do, but I also like being able to lay back on a couch or something and just play. I often play without an amp now for that very reason.

I remember trying Peavey's Revalver plugin a while back, and it was intense. I seem to remember it being pretty awesome for heavy tones. Not sure what happened to it, really. I feel like Peavey makes awesome stuff, then gets bowled over by somehow bigger names in the industry and no one ever hears about their stuff again. I mean, who better to model the 5150 than the makers of the 5150? But you're right, other makers just don't seem to get it quite right in the modelling realm, though what they do is still pretty cool. I think it's usually a combination of things like power amps, cab sims, and such. I don't think any "in the box" option is representative of what it can do without some tweaking and such. Every really good rig of that type has all been put together by the same guy, and it's usually a sort of erudite Frankenstein setup. One day I'll pick my favorite and copy it and see how it goes.