I agree with about the bass control. I think somewhere around 9 or 9:30 is a rather "flat" setting for the bass, so at noon it's really thick. The Treble is similar also. I think it's flat around 10:30 or 11, or at least what I've become used to calling flat. The cool think about these Baxandall-like controls is that you can cut like this and it doesn't result in a weak or thin sound at all. Very musical.
I'll agree with others that the upper mids (1200 hz or so maybe) are a bit scooped, even if you back the bass and treble down. I think Chef might have liked cutting mids at 600 hz because it helped accentuate those upper mids a bit by bringing everything else down. That's a cool approach, and no problem to me. Key takeaway here is that you can get plenty of mids if you want I think, but it AIN'T gonna sound like a Shuttle when you do. Still has it's own mojo.
I can't play through a cab at all tonight because of neighbors and young kids, but I've been using the headphone out. I practice through headphones almost every night, so even that is a good reference point for me. This head just oozes with tubey goodness. It's really apparent when playing with a heavy pick. The note attack has that grunt even when the tone is kept nice and clean. It compresses in a pleasing way like only a tube front end can accomplish. Tone is just rich and buttery sounding which I know doesn't convey anything tonal at all, but man that's all I can think of.
I've already found a few different EQ settings that I like for different tones, but my favorite is bass at about 9:30 or 10, Mids at 1:30 (2.5khz), and highs around 11 o'clock. Sounds just about perfect to my ears.
The more extreme overdrive is a subjective thing. I really like it for some sounds I was going for, but didn't care for it as much when trying to get a couple of other sounds out of it. That's just the way overdrive is, so I'm just happy that I like the higher settings at all honestly. What's most important to me is the lower overdrive for getting an edge and some grit, and for that it also sounds about perfect for me.
On a side not for now, and a bit off topic, is that I'm continuously amazed at my Aguilar Tone Hammer DI and what it can do. After getting my SL900 tone dialed in, I decided I'd try to get my TH out and try to cop that tone and feel. I was running the TH into the FX return on the SL900, and then listening through the headphone out. I kept switching back and forth between the SL900 and TH until I got a fairly close thing going on. The AGS on the TH cuts the highs a good bit as soon as you engage it, so it doesn't quite have the upper gliss that the SL900 can have, but the mids and lows are right there. It doesn't quite have that all-tube feel either, but it's close and the feel it does have is just wonderful. I was really excited about this because most of what I do is with in-ears these days with no monitors or amps, and I rely on the TH quite a bit for my signal shaping. I'm going to try my new "Streamliner" settings soon, probably before I get a chance to actually gig the Streamliner. Or, I might just use the Streamliner as a DI box. After all, it's virtually the same size as an Avalon U5 and it's way more flexible.
