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Jule Amps Monique part 4

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#1,141
Gotta give a big shoutout to Jule!

I had a minor issue come up with Monique over the weekend. I contacted Jule explaining the symptoms. I explained what the pre was doing and the steps I had taken to isolate what was going on.
Through a series of emails, we got the issue solved. After applying the fix, I tested it for probably an hour here at home and about 3 hours at our rehearsal last night. Monique performed like a champ! Jule was willing to make sure my Monique was ready for our biggest show of the year this coming Saturday.
Customer service like this is hard to beat.
I also have to say, Monique sounded unbelievable at rehearsal last night.

On a side note, the show we are having next Saturday is a "friends" show. We invite many of our friends to perform on stage with us. One of our friends is a touring bassist. The other night, he commented on the great tone of my rig. He tried it out with his vintage Jazz and an upright. He LOVED the tone! Made me feel good! Oh, and I got to hear my rig from out in the theatre and I agree, it sounded great!

Thanks Jule!!!
 
#1,142
BurningSkies said:
And I did run my Monique last night for a bit with the Sensitivity knob pushed in. On the whole cleaner, clearer and more well behaved. As mentioned, the sensitivity control has less apparent affect on your sound, although its still there. It makes the tone appear to be 'wider' across the mids and top end. Pretty much as I remember it.
Click to expand...


I generally agree with that synopsis too when I use it with my crest, but mo reacts differently when I use it with my Puma's fx return. Btw, Burning Skies, those reggae tracks you posted earlier in the thread sound great! Sweet!

I actually just tried for the first time yesterday pulling out the Sensitivity knob and and cranking it to about 2 o'clock. It really gave my bass a rounded woody tone, but not edgy at all. However there are some variables going on here that I should mention.

I'm not using a minnie like a lot of you are, I'm still using the fx return of my Puma 900. I noticed many tonal variations on mo's line out between 3:30 - 4:30 with the Puma. The hotter you make the line out the more aggressive it gets, and that is totally due to the Puma, not Mo.

So for this experiment, I left the line out at about 4 o'clock to compensate for pulling out the sensitivity knob (I usually have it about 4:30 with the sensitivity pushed in). I really liked this sound. It seemed like the sound of my strings and neck were shinning through, and it still was a very warm sound, rounded (I believe due to the natural tube compression), punchy, and a bit brighter than when I have the sensitivity pushed in (seems a little darker when pushed in which I really like as well).

Again, I can totally change the sound of how that setting will react just by increasing mo's line out due to how the Puma fx return handles it.

After all this time I'm still amazed how many variations of feel and vibe you can get out of mo. I also tried my epi ul 212 series1 with it. It did sound really warm and fat, with still very good mid definition. However, I'm still selling it even though I did have second thoughts after hearing how great it sounded playing through it. For me, I like the flexibility of having 2 separate 112's.
 
#1,143
Mo as an overdrive - I have continued playing with Mo before my Mesa Buster and found that while the Buster's gain alone (without Mo) gets a little unpleasant sounding and harsh when maxed to get an overdrive, using Mo to boost the line level allows me to keep the gain on the Buster at about half but get a very warm, smooth overdrive. As Buster users know, the gain settings strongly influence the EQ flavor of this amp.

The tone with Mo cascading into Buster is pretty darn nice. I like hearing how the Mo EQ adjustments influence the amp's EQ settings. The DI on Buster is a bit crackly but I'll see if I can get clean recording soon.
 
#1,144
monsterthompson said:
The tone with Mo cascading into Buster is pretty darn nice. I like hearing how the Mo EQ adjustments influence the amp's EQ settings. The DI on Buster is a bit crackly but I'll see if I can get clean recording soon.
Click to expand...

I did the same thing with Mo into the Puma 900 front end. I dug the tone and extra flexibility, what I didn't like was sacrificing mo's DI out and using the puma DI. The puma DI sounds really good but I like the sound of mo's DI better. Also, As I stated here before I like sending my DI post everything! What I here on stage I want to send to FOH, eventhough I know it won't sound exactly the same through the pa speakers. But at least it's in the ballpark. lol! Perhaps someday I 'll get over that! Nah!!!
 
#1,145
maisbass said:
I generally agree with that synopsis too when I use it with my crest, but mo reacts differently when I use it with my Puma's fx return. Btw, Burning Skies, those reggae tracks you posted earlier in the thread sound great! Sweet!

I actually just tried for the first time yesterday pulling out the Sensitivity knob and and cranking it to about 2 o'clock. It really gave my bass a rounded woody tone, but not edgy at all. However there are some variables going on here that I should mention.

I'm not using a minnie like a lot of you are, I'm still using the fx return of my Puma 900. I noticed many tonal variations on mo's line out between 3:30 - 4:30 with the Puma. The hotter you make the line out the more aggressive it gets, and that is totally due to the Puma, not Mo.

So for this experiment, I left the line out at about 4 o'clock to compensate for pulling out the sensitivity knob (I usually have it about 4:30 with the sensitivity pushed in). I really liked this sound. It seemed like the sound of my strings and neck were shinning through, and it still was a very warm sound, rounded (I believe due to the natural tube compression), punchy, and a bit brighter than when I have the sensitivity pushed in (seems a little darker when pushed in which I really like as well).

Again, I can totally change the sound of how that setting will react just by increasing mo's line out due to how the Puma fx return handles it.

After all this time I'm still amazed how many variations of feel and vibe you can get out of mo. I also tried my epi ul 212 series1 with it. It did sound really warm and fat, with still very good mid definition. However, I'm still selling it even though I did have second thoughts after hearing how great it sounded playing through it. For me, I like the flexibility of having 2 separate 112's.
Click to expand...

First off, thanks. I appreciate everyone's words for an off the cuff band practice recording after a few beers.

I think that the Monique really spotlights the tone of your bass and your playing technique in both settings, they just have different 'feels' to each of them. I found after playing for an hour or so with it in the low input, I wanted to pull it back out and get back to what I normally do use. I like the combination of that extra signal on the front end, plus rolling back the sensitivity below half way.
 
#1,146
BurningSkies said:
Hey Jule, had 'tape' running at this week's slightly drunken practice. Monique of various tones all over the place:

[SOUNDCLOUD]https://soundcloud.com/burning-skies/wakeup1?in=burning-skies/sets/root-shock-november-13-2013[/SOUNDCLOUD]

[SOUNDCLOUD]https://soundcloud.com/burning-skies/sweetreunion4?in=burning-skies/sets/root-shock-november-13-2013[/SOUNDCLOUD]

[SOUNDCLOUD]https://soundcloud.com/burning-skies/babylontree1?in=burning-skies/sets/root-shock-november-13-2013[/SOUNDCLOUD]

[SOUNDCLOUD]https://soundcloud.com/burning-skies/sorry1?in=burning-skies/sets/root-shock-november-13-2013[/SOUNDCLOUD]

[SOUNDCLOUD]https://soundcloud.com/burning-skies/games2?in=burning-skies/sets/root-shock-november-13-2013[/SOUNDCLOUD]
Click to expand...

Not being a Monique owner I hadn't really explored these threads and missed these tracks. Burning!!!! Loved this sooooo much. REALLY!! PM me info on how to get some more recordings of you guys.

That Monique sounds really sweet. I might have to go try one out now. Thanks for the post!
 
#1,147
MuthaFunk said:
Not being a Monique owner I hadn't really explored these threads and missed these tracks. Burning!!!! Loved this sooooo much. REALLY!! PM me info on how to get some more recordings of you guys.

That Monique sounds really sweet. I might have to go try one out now. Thanks for the post!
Click to expand...

+1 Nice, full, fat, warm tone in those clips... very nice!.
 
#1,148
MuthaFunk said:
Not being a Monique owner I hadn't really explored these threads and missed these tracks. Burning!!!! Loved this sooooo much. REALLY!! PM me info on how to get some more recordings of you guys.

That Monique sounds really sweet. I might have to go try one out now. Thanks for the post!
Click to expand...

Thanks. :) Most of the spur of the moment recordings and updates can be found on my Soundcloud page, and pretty much all action is on our facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/RootShock

Real studio recordings should hopefully happen sometime this winter, most likely here: [Invalid or Expired Link Removed]


KJung said:
+1 Nice, full, fat, warm tone in those clips... very nice!.
Click to expand...

Thanks Ken, there is no editing (obviously from some of my half@assed playing on some of those tracks) or EQ on the bass. Sometimes I have more mid content to my tone, but it depends on the night and what I'm feeling.

One of the reasons I first got interested in the Monique was that while the Kern makes some of the most stunning tones I've ever heard, I found it too 'soft' and 'undefined' in a recorded mix. There were moments that it made such a beautiful sound that I would get distracted by it, but once I heard it in the mix (either live or semi-studio) it never had the punch on the front end of the note that I wanted. The Monique DOES have that, probably at the expense of some of the super extreme 'pretty' moments of grace the Kern has. One of these days, I'm going to record the band and take two lines and use both units so I can compare and also maybe blend them.

In fact, I'm going to dig up some recordings made pre-Monique for a bit of a comparison...
 
#1,149
BurningSkies said:
Thanks. :) Most of the spur of the moment recordings and updates can be found on my Soundcloud page, and pretty much all action is on our facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/RootShock

Real studio recordings should hopefully happen sometime this winter, most likely here: [Invalid or Expired Link Removed]




Thanks Ken, there is no editing (obviously from some of my half@assed playing on some of those tracks) or EQ on the bass. Sometimes I have more mid content to my tone, but it depends on the night and what I'm feeling.

One of the reasons I first got interested in the Monique was that while the Kern makes some of the most stunning tones I've ever heard, I found it too 'soft' and 'undefined' in a recorded mix. There were moments that it made such a beautiful sound that I would get distracted by it, but once I heard it in the mix (either live or semi-studio) it never had the punch on the front end of the note that I wanted. The Monique DOES have that, probably at the expense of some of the super extreme 'pretty' moments of grace the Kern has. One of these days, I'm going to record the band and take two lines and use both units so I can compare and also maybe blend them.

In fact, I'm going to dig up some recordings made pre-Monique for a bit of a comparison...
Click to expand...


You are very much describing the decision I go through every gig when I decide on whether to gig the Glockenklang or the Aguilar TH500. Both put out about the same wump, but just totally different vibes, with the Aguilar's meaty, rough, mid present, low mid meat and organic top end tone just sitting in a mix effortlessly, and the Glocks bigger low end extension, uber clean mids, and extension into the treble stratosphere often sounds better at home than in some of the busy mixes I play. But, man, when it works, it works great! I'm looking forward to seeing where the DeMonique sits relative to those two.
 
#1,150
KJung said:
You are very much describing the decision I go through every gig when I decide on whether to gig the Glockenklang or the Aguilar TH500. Both put out about the same wump, but just totally different vibes, with the Aguilar's meaty, rough, mid present, low mid meat and organic top end tone just sitting in a mix effortlessly, and the Glocks bigger low end extension, uber clean mids, and extension into the treble stratosphere often sounds better at home than in some of the busy mixes I play. But, man, when it works, it works great! I'm looking forward to seeing where the DeMonique sits relative to those two.
Click to expand...

Don't be surprised if it pushes them both to the back. Though Monique isn't for everyone so time will tell.

I can say that the decision for me is easy - Monique unless I'm feeling really lazy and I'm playing a low-key gig. In that case the Puma is sitting in the car so I don't have to take anything out of the house.

Frankly at this point I've actually thought of getting a Tardis and putting that in the car as the backup and selling the Puma. Monique is that good - at least for me.
 
#1,151
nostatic said:
Don't be surprised if it pushes them both to the back. Though Monique isn't for everyone so time will tell.

I can say that the decision for me is easy - Monique unless I'm feeling really lazy and I'm playing a low-key gig. In that case the Puma is sitting in the car so I don't have to take anything out of the house.

Frankly at this point I've actually thought of getting a Tardis and putting that in the car as the backup and selling the Puma. Monique is that good - at least for me.
Click to expand...

+1
I agree, it is that good. It is all I have used since the purchase. Hard not to.
 
#1,152
Finally rebuilt the home studio (after getting rid of the drum kit). Monique in her natural quarters. Still have some tidying up to do. What a pita...lost track of how many times I've built/rebuilt.

newStudio.jpg
 
#1,156
Same here, too! It's such a solid, thick toned, transparent amp. I love the simplicity of the controls; it's impossible to pull a bad tone.

I just got a fairfield cuicutry barbershop to give it a little grit and love it, very complimentary. Still playing around with it, but it gives it more openness and air along with the grit.

I can't ever see myself needing or wanting another amp.
 
#1,157
Since I have no bass, cab or amp GAS, I have been trying out some pedals for fun.

I was never a pedal guy, but am having a blast screwing around with my looper, delay, overdrive/distortion, etc.

In any case, Monique takes incredibly well to pedals IMO. As an example, the Darkglass B3K sounds killer if you need raunch or some grit from Monique.
 
#1,158
I agree, the Darkglass plays well.

I am finding my ear has grown fond of the voicing of my Buster and Mo is a little polite compared to the Mesa voicing. Certainly different tools for different jobs. The clean recording of Mo makes her a great choice for that task.
 
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