SL2 not as tight as I thought??

[mightyjoeyoungxnj]

Hey guys,

The way I heard it described before I got it was a hot rodded JCM 800 tone. I totally get that and I do dig it a lot!! But my palm mutes are definitely not as tight as I'd like. Perhaps it's the pickups in my LP. Or maybe I'm jsut spoiled from having a 5150 before hand. Believe me, I can appreciate great Marshall tone, and this is it!!

Am I having unreal expectations here?? I am definitely buying the EG5, for sure. Just wanted to throw this out there and see what you guys think.

I'm also putting different speakers in my Orange cab...Most likely some Scumbacks, so I'm using my Avatar 2x12 for now. It's not the tightest cab in the world, so I'm sure this contributes to it.

-Joe

 

[mightyjoeyoungxnj]

Also, it definitely sounds tighter with my strat (JB junior bridge)...

So it could very well be my pickups. I'm thinking of getting some Suhr Aldrich pups for the LP.

-Joe

 

[bstaley]

I totally understand what you are describing. If you go back and read my initial review when I got my M4 that was my only complaint. The SL2 really is killer but the only complaint I have is it is not quite as tight as I would like. Maybe Bruce designed it to simulate the sag feel of cranked power tubes, I dunno. Next week I am sending back my ERect module to have him tighten the low end since that is really my only complaint with the ERect module as well. I love the mids and highs of that module.

The only negatives I've heard about the Tourmaster head is that the gain channels are too loose. Other than that everybody seems to love them. Maybe that is just the way Bruce prefers his amps to sound. One thing that helped my SL2 tighten a bit was to put Tung sols in both tube slots.

Don't worry about the EG5. It is tight. Much tighter than SL2. Not quite VHT or Engl tight, but it doesn't need to be. It just sounds killer the way it is.

 

[aeroic]

Hey guys,

The way I heard it described before I got it was a hot rodded JCM 800 tone. I totally get that and I do dig it a lot!! But my palm mutes are definitely not as tight as I'd like. Perhaps it's the pickups in my LP. Or maybe I'm jsut spoiled from having a 5150 before hand. Believe me, I can appreciate great Marshall tone, and this is it!!

Am I having unreal expectations here?? I am definitely buying the EG5, for sure. Just wanted to throw this out there and see what you guys think.

I'm also putting different speakers in my Orange cab...Most likely some Scumbacks, so I'm using my Avatar 2x12 for now. It's not the tightest cab in the world, so I'm sure this contributes to it.

-Joe

Pickups do make a big difference. The sound between my Heritage 140 Les Paul w/ Seymour duncan seth lovers in it vs my main guitars w/ EMG's make a big sound change.

Secondly, tubes make a big difference too. I'm using a Chinese 12ax7a in V1 and a Tung-sol 12ax7 in V2. That made it tighten up a LOT. Nothing near a EG5 tightness, but tighter for me. I do think they designed it to get some of that power tube sag, to get more a "brown sound" out of it. For me, I love that because I use Channel B of the SL2 for soloing. It really smooths things out a lot. But, with the tube changes and the right pickups it does stay much tighter than stock.

One thing I would recommend is to not use the Bass switch on the SL2, as I found that it makes the tone a bit more flubby. I run the SL2 on channel b at about 2 o'clock on gain, 1:30 on bass, 10:30 on mids, and 1:30 on treble, and its pretty damn tight! Again, the EG5 is much tighter than the SL2, and gives more a modern vibe vs the SL2.

Hope that helps.

 

[jmgman69]

Also, it definitely sounds tighter with my strat (JB junior bridge)...

So it could very well be my pickups. I'm thinking of getting some Suhr Aldrich pups for the LP.

-Joe

Call Wade at MCP for a set of High output,it does more than just tighten up the guitar...It tightened up all the modules.I threw in a set of Nukes in an SG custom and Damn it's vicious!Or just have Bruce thow his mojo on it

 

[mightyjoeyoungxnj]

Thanks for the replies guys!

For the record, I'm not trying to take away from this module at all, it really is great! But yes, I think it is designed to have the Marshall sag and not be a modern metal machine. That is totally fine too as I love the tone it has.

I also have some of the 12AX7B Chinese tubes on the way. I also noticed the effect that the switches have on the tone. The bright switches seem to help as well as add some gain. I'm definitely going to pick up the EG5 for my \m/ needs.

Thanks for the help guys. I'm gonna try pickups in the coming months too, see how that goes.

-Joe

 

[EWSEthan]

IMO, the SL2 played loud sounds much better than at low volumes. Granted this is true for all modules/amps, but I think comparatively, I think the EG5 sounds "more badass" at lower volumes than the SL2.

If you crank it up, do you still feel the same?

 

[mightyjoeyoungxnj]

IMO, the SL2 played loud sounds much better than at low volumes. Granted this is true for all modules/amps, but I think comparatively, I think the EG5 sounds "more badass" at lower volumes than the SL2.

If you crank it up, do you still feel the same?

No, I do think it's better at high volume.

I guess I should say, in my experience so far, it's easy for the SL2 to sound muddy if you aren't careful with the controls. I need to do more experimenting.

I think the 12AX7Bs will help out.

-Joe

 

[bstaley]

Thanks for the replies guys!

For the record, I'm not trying to take away from this module at all, it really is great! But yes, I think it is designed to have the Marshall sag and not be a modern metal machine. That is totally fine too as I love the tone it has.

I also have some of the 12AX7B Chinese tubes on the way. I also noticed the effect that the switches have on the tone. The bright switches seem to help as well as add some gain. I'm definitely going to pick up the EG5 for my \m/ needs.

Thanks for the help guys. I'm gonna try pickups in the coming months too, see how that goes.

-Joe

Agreed. The SL2 is killer the way it is, however, my personal preference for any "high gain" tone is tightness. I was never much into power tube saturation for my tone. That's why I went with the VHT 2-90-2 and KT88 tubes. Also, as has been stated the SL2 does really work better at stage volume while the EG5 shines at pretty much any volume. I find with the SL2 I need to leave the Bass Boost Off and leave the High boost on 2.

What would be cool is if the Bass Boost Off could be modified to be the setting when Bass Boost is on 2 currently. Then we would have the option of going two levels tighter as opposed to two levels looser. Is this a possibility Jeff?

 

[aeroic]

IMO, the SL2 played loud sounds much better than at low volumes. Granted this is true for all modules/amps, but I think comparatively, I think the EG5 sounds "more badass" at lower volumes than the SL2.

If you crank it up, do you still feel the same?

I don't at all, but for me I might be in a different view here because of my power section. The SL2 and EG5 for me sound the same at lower volumes and higher volumes because I use them w/ my VHT 2/90/2 which has 6550s in it which give me more headroom.

When I have played the EG5 and SL2, I felt they both sound awesome at low and higher levels. One thing I did notice w/ the SL2 in particular, if you use the Bass switches at all, they really start to get farty on the low end and really mushy when the volume increases. Similar situation w/ the bright switches, both modules become shrill at higher volumes when the bright switches are on. So I've found to do my tweaking w/ the Low, Mid, High and the modules sound great for me all the time.

The only times I use the bright or bass switches are on the VX, T/D, and COD. The T/D is Bright on 2, Bass on 1, VX is Bright on 1 / Bass is off, and the COD, the bright and bass are on 1.

Eric