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Jule Amps Monique

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#941
In recap,

Boosting using the Monique EQ can provide a growl as well as a hot signal hitting the pre initially, or am I misunderstanding one of your previous statements?

btw, having your insight on Talkbass is a great help and I greatly appreciate it Jule :)
 
#943
juledude said:
I feel a bit bad that there is much in Monique that is different from what all of us have played in the past. It really is a "learning curve" situation.

The only time this configuration of a "Sensitivity" knob was available to bass players before was in the short lived Matchless Bass Amp. The short life of the Matchless Bass Amp had much to do with the guitar focus of Matchless Amps (and some other things). It is unusual to be able to change both the impedance and gain of any front end with one knob. The original idea was not mine. It came from my friend/astounding tube engineer/former Drag Race engine mechanic, Mark Sampson.

The Baxandall EQ is "strange" to us too, since it is not a parametric, and it is not an interactive EQ (as in most amps). The tone shaping that can be done with those three knobs as it pertains to gain/level/frequency is pretty dramatic - and not the norm.

She is not "normal" but I sure hope she is fun. ;)
Click to expand...

What!!!!!!
Let me say.....
What Monique is is intuitive. I've been actually wishing for 40+ years of performing that the tone controls would just do what they say. Add more/ less, subtract more/less. The fun live is going between the gain and sensitivity for different effects. There is so much easy natural adjustment possible without blinking lights, 88 bands of eq. etc.
I move the mid control just a tiny bit and it sounds just like I moved it a tiny bit.

Jule is so humble. This is the way amps are supposed to be.:)
 
#944
juledude said:
I feel a bit bad that there is much in Monique that is different from what all of us have played in the past. It really is a "learning curve" situation.

The only time this configuration of a "Sensitivity" knob was available to bass players before was in the short lived Matchless Bass Amp. The short life of the Matchless Bass Amp had much to do with the guitar focus of Matchless Amps (and some other things). It is unusual to be able to change both the impedance and gain of any front end with one knob. The original idea was not mine. It came from my friend/astounding tube engineer/former Drag Race engine mechanic, Mark Sampson.

The Baxandall EQ is "strange" to us too, since it is not a parametric, and it is not an interactive EQ (as in most amps). The tone shaping that can be done with those three knobs as it pertains to gain/level/frequency is pretty dramatic - and not the norm.

She is not "normal" but I sure hope she is fun. ;)
Click to expand...

I would add to this...that while I don't doubt the 20db sweep on each side of each tone control, it seems really counter intuitive in how it functions. When you crank it in one direction or another you can definitely feel it change the tone, but at no time does it seem extreme or too much, and how it shelves the frequencies of each different control is so integrated that you don't feel like you're creating a huge bump or dip. I've never had an EQ that works or sounds quite like this.

Baird6869 said:
+1.

It WOULD be funny to see the crowd's faces if you told them you are going to play a song for a 2nd time because you wanted to see "how your Monique sounded with the Sensitivity rolled back to just before noon, because last time it was at 2 o'clock." I would bet you would have to duck pretty quick!
Click to expand...

We used to do a bar gig and the owner would get SO drunk and dance and sing along in the front of the crowd. Then he'd be the drunk @ss who would request songs that we'd already played....so what do you do when the bar owner does that? Well you play the song again. Then the next day or week or whatever when I'd talk to him sober, he'd say how awesome we are, but we need to learn more songs because real bands don't play the same song twice in a set. :rolleyes:

We stopped playing there soon after.
 
#945
Monique is designed to be very sensitive to your pick attack and the drive that comes into that input jack. It is a characteristic that is difficult to articulate but great to play into. The harder you hit the strings the more grind you can put into the note.

So the answer to your question is, "Yes." When you do boost the EQ you will have to roll back your output level, but that is easy enough.

The TB crowd is wonderful. I feel that we could all get together and make music and smiles. I am glad to be here.

lburton2 said:
In recap,

Boosting using the Monique EQ can provide a growl as well as a hot signal hitting the pre initially, or am I misunderstanding one of your previous statements?

btw, having your insight on Talkbass is a great help and I greatly appreciate it Jule :)
Click to expand...
 
#946
Sorry for the derail, but that is friggin' great.:D

BurningSkies said:
Then he'd be the drunk @ss who would request songs that we'd already played....so what do you do when the bar owner does that? Well you play the song again. Then the next day or week or whatever when I'd talk to him sober, he'd say how awesome we are, but we need to learn more songs because real bands don't play the same song twice in a set. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...
 
#948
SCT1422 said:
I will be joining the Monique club sometime next week and looking forward to it.. My 50th birthday is next Friday and we have a gig that night that I want to give it a workout !!!:hyper:
Click to expand...

Happy B-Day!

My Monique is paid for and on it's way soon as well.:hyper:

I was in North Tonawanda last week. I was on a top secret booze and children's clothes smuggling operation!:hiding: Damn the Canadian Government and their taxes!:p
 
#951
juledude said:
Monique is designed to be very sensitive to your pick attack and the drive that comes into that input jack. It is a characteristic that is difficult to articulate but great to play into. The harder you hit the strings the more grind you can put into the note.

So the answer to your question is, "Yes." When you do boost the EQ you will have to roll back your output level, but that is easy enough.

The TB crowd is wonderful. I feel that we could all get together and make music and smiles. I am glad to be here.
Click to expand...

One thing that works is after you set your tone, crank your volume so you can play gently. This works for your hand wrist health anyway. Then when you hit hard it's not louder but will grind up nice.:)
 
#953
Baird6869 said:
Happy B-Day!

My Monique is paid for and on it's way soon as well.:hyper:

I was in North Tonawanda last week. I was on a top secret booze and children's clothes smuggling operation!:hiding: Damn the Canadian Government and their taxes!:p
Click to expand...

I grew up in North Tonawanda, moved out here after college. The Monique club is hitting home! :D
 
#956
chadds said:
One thing that works is after you set your tone, crank your volume so you can play gently. This works for your hand wrist health anyway. Then when you hit hard it's not louder but will grind up nice.:)
Click to expand...

I have to agree with this. I have never noticed such change to tone from your attack on the strings. Strong attack gives a classic overdriven sound. Very handy in a three piece during a solo the bass sounds almost like a bass and guitar playing together. There is a depth that fills wonderfully and a fullness that is sort of 3d.

It's sort of like having an overdrive pedal, but it's just in your fingertips
 
#957
Codger said:
It (impedance change) shouldn't make any difference with an active bass. Why would I want it to with a passive? How is this a Good Thing?
Click to expand...

I use a Summit TD-100 in my recording rack (well not much, Monique is here). It's impedance knob makes it like you brought 5 different sounding Fenders to a session. There is no effect on an Active bass. The Sensitivity knob on the Monique has great affect on an Active bass. What would make for more edge on an electric bass adds another variation to the Active Ashbory's string bass palette, a tight clear 1920s upright tone.

Whatever it's doing there's so much choice.
 
#959
chadds said:
I use a Summit TD-100 in my recording rack (well not much, Monique is here). It's impedance knob makes it like you brought 5 different sounding Fenders to a session. There is no effect on an Active bass. The Sensitivity knob on the Monique has great affect on an Active bass. What would make for more edge on an electric bass adds another variation to the Active Ashbory's string bass palette, a tight clear 1920s upright tone.

Whatever it's doing there's so much choice.
Click to expand...
The Summit has a separate impedance control? I wonder if it is changing the input capacitance? That's a known method of tweaking the tone of a passive. Neutrik even has a Invalid Link Removed that lets one tweak the capacitance loading on the instrument cable. (That's my speculation - Neutrik doesn't actually say but their response plots sort of imply it by changing the resonant frequency of the pickup.) If the impedance change were purely resistive I'm not seeing how it would do anything except change the loss.

WRT Monique, it has a single sensitivity control that also changes the input impedance. Some sort of plate-grid feedback could change both the stage gain/linearity and the impedance, though whether the impedance change would be reactive would take some simulation maybe to find out. Whether Monique is doing that - no idea. Maybe Jule will pop in to add a comment. Either way, its a refreshing idea.
 
#960
lburton2 said:
I don't want any flame for this, but is the "fuzz" in this video the camera's mic clipping?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lukj0St-XqU
Click to expand...

That's always been my assumption--when Stew hits the chord at about 1:42, you can hear the signal completely overdrive the camera mic with that solid-state crackle, and that has a similar flavor to the other "fuzz" you hear in the clip. While you get some idea of Monique's punch and tone, I've always thought of that clip as more of a demo of the Nordstrand bridge humbucker and Stew's playing. Of course, we'd need the input of someone who was actually there--this is all pure conjecture.
 
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