first thing about the egnater tourmaster amp i want to mention that i removed the rear grate from this amp, and installed the fan to blow directly on the power tubes. i also use another small fan blowing into the back of it at practice. yep, 2 fans. this is paramount..the hotter this amp gets, the mushier it gets (as with a lot of others, but this amp heats up quick at high volumes...and smeeellllllls wondahful). removing the grate gets rid of that boxiness, and lets the amp breath a bit.. i cant tell you to mod your existing fan like i did mine (mines already out of warranty), but, if you take the rear grate off, you'll notice that the rattle will go away a LOT. whatever you do, KEEP some sort of extra decent fan blowing in the back of the amp. i posted a pic of how i modded my "m" mod and my fan mod too. i also posted a pic showing how i have mine hard wired. i got rid of the crappy clip on type speaker cable too, and put a longer, more decent cable on mine....it feeds right up where the old one did.
SETTINGS for the egnater tourmaster amp :
i run density on MAYBE 1 depending on guitar..usually on zero at practice, and we are EXTREMELY loud....we have a huge PA and NO volume constraints at all...
i run my master at 12 oclock
presence backed a hair off full on.
density set really low.
all power grid on 100 watts, all channels on 100 (except clean 2, i have it set to 20 watts).
i keep a multimeter on it for the first hour or so and my bias is set to 132 at idle. ***have you checked your bias?
instead of typing, im just going to post a pic of my current settings.
ch1 (clean 1) you can see i have a bell like clean going on in ch1 (but usually i just keep the volume down and use it as an amp mute, or, when i want i use it for super clean stuff by simply putting the volume back up)
ch2 (clean 2) i have set for an early grindy, ranchy dirt tone, but, it's still pretty clean.
both channels have the contours engaged, but channel 2 i have the contour knob wide open (almost does nothing, but just a small notch)
ch3(OD1) i have set for a pretty damn good GnR appetite type distorted tone...tight, yet thick, but not flubby and kinda tinny, it cuts REALLY well. when i want more distortion, all i have to do is flick the switch up to modern (i like keeping my options open, as you can see). very vocal like with an LP or similiar guitar with humbuckers.
ch4(OD2) this channel, IMHO is the hidden gem of this amp for either rhythm or solo. i HATED this channel at first...while od1 is crank and wank, set and forget ( i haven't touched those knobs for 3 months now, but still have always loved od1), OD2 takes a while to learn how to dial it and more importantly, HOW to play it. too much bass and mids, and she will flub out..the bass knob is key on this channel. and while i do like this channel to be more scooped, it still cuts through our band mix well even without the amp master at 11.
you wont get dimebag like tightness and scoop out of this channel, but you WILL get close to THAT type of scooped tone if you want, but, think more gary holt (exodus) type of tone/saturation; more alive than dime's solid state tones. i dont love a lot of gain, i never have. but, if your amp is "m" modded, it has enough gain. reason i say that, my "m" mod (again) components are all on switches on the back, and without the gain mod switch engaged, i still don't crank my gains...higher gains mean higher saturation at higher volumes...which i dont want. however, my gain mod is a pot that controls how much gain gets fed to each OD channel, as opposed to the egnater m mod that just uses a lower fixed value resistor...
try scooping this channel, and opening up OD1....as it looks to me that you have your settings reversed from how i do....i personally thought OD1 excelled at a more cutting superlead/jcm800/etc distorted tone...and the od2 was better at heavier tones.
i'm not experiencing any flub or mush with my current settings or set of power tubes (i use the 50$ matched quad of ruby tubes from guitar center...the cheapest they have). the stock groove tube 5881s did tend to make the amp feel sluggish and mushy, and sound bland at higher volumes. i remember posting about this about 2 years ago or so.
first thing, i would check your bias on your power tubes, if they're too hot (above 140ish) this amp becomes a garbled, mushy mess, real fast, especially if you aren't keeping the amp cool during operation. the manual tells you how to check that.
if your bias is within recommended range, try those settings that i posted (first take a pic of your settings though, so you can always go back if you hate the new way), even if you crank your gain with the amp master around 11amish (beyond this is just ridiculously loud, and once you hit 2pm on the master dial, you're just adding saturation..trust me
), you should notice a difference in the "flub" effect compared to how you had it set.
and, if you see no results, try a new set of power tubes. those rubys sound fine to me at low and high volume. i got lucky, they were the first pair of power tubes i tried aside from the stock 5881. if you need to know which rating i bought, i can tell you that too...i dont remember right now.
just for shits n giggles, i'm going to try your settings with the 5881's this week sometime at low and high volume. i'll let you know how that goes.
get back to me and let me know if any of this works for you.
aside from the vent rattle, and needing to lower your bass, i suspect you may have a high bias and possibly power tube replacement is needed here as a result.....my amp sounds spectacular at low and higher volumes (if i didnt say that before)
on another crappy note though, as i was down there, i plugged in, and noticed my reverb wasnt working again!!! i just put a new fuckin revert tranny in this amp 4 months ago too!!!!!!! i did end up writing a new tune for the band though, so i guess not all is lost.
