Have you tried the driver tube swap yet? It cleans up the mids considerably, but I keep mine lower, too, around 4-5. I have a VERY hard attack and a ton of midrange in my tone because of that.
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Mesa Boogie 400+ Settings Help
- Thread starter TeenZombie01
- Start date
I agree, and that brings up a good point. This is my non-technical explanation greatly simplified because I could not explain it otherwise. -
The reason that the mids are cut only (on the Fender tone-stack) is because of the way that the ear interprets midrange to begin with. It is the strongest range of our hearing and really doesn't need a boost but rather a cut, the highs and lows are what require the most emphasis, especially at lower volumes.
I myself keep my settings around 4-6-7 (B-M-T) with all the pull-outs pulled out. I could not imagine turning the mid "up" to a flat 10.
Of course YMMV and DB is another animal altogether.
PBG,
Are you saying that a 12au7 swap will make it sound more in the direction of an SVT? How so? Personally I think my 400+ has way more bottom than my '76-79 SVT ever had, but nowhere near the puch and growl. Each one has its strengths IMHO.
The 400+ has the classic Fender tone stack and gets boomy very easily. Part of that sound is driver stage overload which will make the lows more flubby. The amp may have more bottom, but it's not what I consider "useable" bottom. The SVT's tone stack plays to its active midrange, but the power and driver sections are extremely clean and it has a lot more headroom on tap; that's where the "punch" comes from.
Subbing a 12AU7 in the 400+'s drive section lowers its gain and greatly increases its current handling ability, IOW it "opens" up a bottleneck in the amp's circuit. It will still sound like a 400+, just one with more punch and less "overshoot" in its preamp. In that respect, the swap gets it closer to SVT territory, but it cannot do the SVT low midrange slam. Its tone stack just isn't voiced that way.
PSB,
Very useful info. Thanks for the reply! I think I will give it a try, I've got an old Silvertone 12au7a lying around here.
Very useful info. Thanks for the reply! I think I will give it a try, I've got an old Silvertone 12au7a lying around here.
after configuring the eq at a couple of practices i'm getting a pretty good sound with 6-5-3 (mid-bass-treb).
