Fryette Power Station users... Give me your thoughts

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ledvedder

ledvedder

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I've had the Fryette PS100 for a while now, but never used it in a band setting. It's been great at home, used to tame my Plexi, as well as into my DAW. I tried it for the first time last night at band rehearsal with my Plexi. I have to say, I wasn't that pleased with the tones I was getting. Something was lost, it's hard to describe in words. There was no punchiness, no thump or girth. I wasn't using any of the dials, they were turned down. I had the switches in the middle at first, then tried them both down on the flat setting. That made it even more bland. It was nice to have the ability to use post effects through the Fryette loop. Delays were much more lush than they are when I've tried them through the Plexi's loop. Bit I feel like my overall amp tone is better when using the ppimv on the amp itself. I'd love to hear everyone else's thoughts on this. How do you dial in your PS when using it live?
 
Where do you have your presence and depth controls on the power amp in the power station set? If they were all turned down, that is likely your issue right there.
 
Yeah don't just leave the knobs off; use them to dial in the tone/response
 
I didn't mess with the presence and depth knobs, since I've read they're best left off 🤷
 
I love my PS100. Run the Caswell through it and fiddle occasionally with with presence and depth. Mainly depth. The presence makes it a bit “tinny”. Ehh goofy term but that’s what I think of
 
The Presence and Depth are flat when off.
I got the PS-100 and a Tone King IronMan II. I like both. I'm not playing out so it's strictly home use.
There is a guy call baronvonschredster or something on YT and he demos both units w/ a cranked Marshall.
The IronMan II seemed to retain the harmonics and punch more than the Fryette. Listen to this-

 
I love mine but I just have the 50 watt. I think a tube is either going out on this or my 6505. I need to check it out. I am planning on sending my Mark IV into Mesa this week but my 6505 is going into the shop once my VTM is finished.

But I always use the controls on the Fryette. Putting this in the signal chain will affect your tone to some degree so thats what the controls are there for IMHO.
 
ledvedder said:
Where do you set them roughly?
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Devin said:
Really depends on what amp/guitar/style of music I'm playing but I think right now at home I'm running presence at about 9:30 and depth at about 11:30

It's just two knobs man; turn them shits until you like it
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That's pretty close to how I set them on my PS100. Between 10 & noon seems to be the sweet spot on the bulk of my amps depending which one is running through it.
 
Does the PS100 have 6L6 Tubes? If so, if so, your tone is being colored and effected by those tubes.
 
I think that even tho the Powerstations have fairly neutral power amp sections they are still colored and don't seem to have the lowest and highest frequencies right. I started using a SS power amp just for this reason. And since I have a Rivera mini Rock Rec loadbox I decided to sell my PS2 and get a SS amp. I run a Suhr Iso Lineout box with level control out of the other speaker jack to my rack for FX/power amp.

You already have a tube power amp in the signal...putting another one on top of that, even tho it is fairly neutral, is too much imo.
 
I bought a PS2 when I bought my ‘78 2204 about 6 weeks ago. To be honest I found the PS2 took away some of the warmth and feel of the amp and I’m now running the 2204 just using the master volume (I was pleasantly surprised to find out the master volume actually works really well, even at home levels). I’ll give the PS2 another go when I get some free time, just to see if I can get a better match to the amp’s natural tone.
 
Run my PS100 with my 79 JMP 2204 and 83 JCM 800. In both cases I cannot hear any difference using the Fryette. Maybe my ears suck. I use vintage Celestion 65's & 75's and have read that it's necessary to EQ in the presence and depth knobs with this combo. I run the switches in the middle with the depth/presence around 10 o'clock on the green channel. Red channel boosted a bit with the depth/presence around 11 o'clock. Works well when gigging. Neither amp has a loop so putting a reverb/delay through the Fryette is a real treat.
 
ledvedder said:
I didn't mess with the presence and depth knobs, since I've read they're best left off 🤷
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Don't concern yourself with what you've read - the internet is mostly wrong. Turn those knobs (and mess with the switches) until you're happy!
 
Has anyone changed the tubes? I bought mine used, so I have no idea how much life is on them. They're Svetlana 6550's and a JJ ecc832.
20221006_143929.jpg
 
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