From biocy–(at)–at.spam.erols.com Thu Jul 16 19:31:22 CDT 1998
Article: 116002 of alt.guitar.amps
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From: Mark or Cyndi Van Ditta
Newsgroups: alt.guitar.amps
Subject: Re: Fender Sound
Date: Thu, 16 Jul 1998 16:13:28 -0400
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Mickey Ilardi wrote:
> What gives Fender amps their unique (clean) tone? Is it in the pre
> amp
> stage or the power amp stage? I have tried and owned numerous all
> tube
I believe a lot of the sound can be attributed to the placement of the
EQ, its slope resistor, and the .001 coupling cap between the preamp and
the modified-Schmitt-splitter. Placing the EQ between the first and
second stages of the preamp definitely does a good job of cutting down
on gain. The 100K slope resistor most definitely gives the stack a
much bigger dip in the middle frequency range (as well as shifts the
center point down in frequency), and the .001 coupling cap thins down
the signal reaching the power stage.
All in all, I think what makes Fender sound like a Fender is the
emphasis on upper frequency content while subduing middle and lower
content. The loss of low-content in the preamp and phase inverter
stages is made up from the big-bottom produced by most 6L6-type tubes.
To my ear, in a Tweed-type circuit, 6L6-type tubes tend to be boomy and
muddy at high volumes.
The classic, tweed-era circuit that is used in a most Marshalls is
optimized for gain (i.e., the use of the cathode follower to isolate the
tone stack from the previous gain stage). The EQ has a more shallow
slope; thus, the EQ has much less control over the middle frequency
range. The .02 coupling cap between the tone stack and the
modified-Schmitt-splitter allows more mids and lows to reach the power
stage; thus, producing a thicker sound.
Mark
