EG5 - Lower gain = bigger sound?

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mboogman

mboogman

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Lately I've been backing of on the gain of my EG5 a little. It's hard to describe how great this module sounds, and how versatile it is. Does it make sense to say that with the gain on Ch A set a little above 9:00, this thing sounds massive! The note definition is amazing. Chords ring out loud and proud, but it still feels extremely heavy. It's making me clean my playing up too. Not as much gain means not as much hidden. :lol: :LOL: It's something else when an amp inspires you to be a better player. Just plain cool.
 
It's interesting to see this post! I just got an EG3/4 back from Bruce where he dialed back the gain by like 25 or 30% with some resistor tweaks. I like this module but didn't really need to turn the gain up past noon on the B channel to get what I needed. My initial listening impression after the mod is that now the gain is a bit more controlled and maybe more 'natural' sounding (i.e. less 'pedal' sounding). I realize for some folks and for some styles it seems you can never get enough gain, but there just seems to be a point with it where you no longer hear the sound of the guitar, the pick-ups, the dynamics, etc. --just more gain and more noise.
 
Don't get me wrong. For recording some of heavier riffs, I'm all about getting the gain pretty high, but for my typical live setting, having the "big" sound versus the saturated sound makes a big difference. Like JH always said, turn knobs with your ears not your eyes. ;)
 
I agree, I run the gain on most of my modules around or below noon.

In a live setting, I usually run the gain setting on the EG5 around 10:30, and it sounds really big.

I'm using a Penta 12AX7 in V1 & a TS12AX7 in V2.

My settings for the EG5 are:

Gain A 10:30
Gain B 11:00
Bright 0
Bass Boost 1
Bass 10:30
Middle 12:00
Treble 12:00
 
Agree....as a general rule, for any tone/module, less gain will give a "bigger" sound....some "older" songs have much less gain than you realize, but still sound huge...most of Jimmy Page's tones in early Zep were pretty low gain, compared to modern tones...but the songs still sound huge....
 
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