I'm looking for a suitable distortion pedal for My K100-2 [message #15735] |
Tue, 31 May 2011 04:59 |
Djims
Messages: 10 Registered: May 2011
|
Junior Member |
|
|
Hello,
I'm looking for a very good distortion pedal with a good flavor for my Cascade K100-2 head with 2x12 Original Jensen C12N. i tried my TRex Alberta (TS like) and i'm not convinced.
Does anyone tried a vintage Proco Rat into a K100-2 or K100 head with Jensen speaker ?
Thanks a lot for your support
Jeremie from Paris
|
|
|
|
|
Re: I'm looking for a suitable distortion pedal for My K100-2 [message #15741 is a reply to message #15738] |
Tue, 31 May 2011 21:19 |
cassent5150
Messages: 341 Registered: August 2009
|
Senior Member |
|
|
Call me old school, but I have alot of guys at gigs asking similar questions and all I use is an old Made in Japan Boss SD-1. Yes it has the JRC 4558 chip just like some tube screamers. It has a warmer sound than any distortion petal I've ever had the pleasure of trying. We got caught in the rain on an outside gig and my pedal got wet and quit on me. I went to no ends trying to get that sound back. I found 2 more on ebay and paid the money to replace it with another made in Japan Boss SD-1 These were made at the Roland Plant while it was in Japan before it moved Taiwan. My set up is Strat into a Boss SD-1 into a Digitech RP-50 Channel 5 factory setting then strait in to any plexi face Kustom. When I show up for a jam I watch everyone reaching to there amps and turning knobs trying to get that awesome tone. I just posted some pictures a couple days ago of the band (SCR) on the comment board you may be able to see the set up at my feet. I'm the one singing playing that lipstick red strat. My theory on my sound is get your distortion then EQ it how you like it then go to the amp with it. It works for me!!! Steve C
Steve C
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Re: I'm looking for a suitable distortion pedal for My K100-2 [message #15758 is a reply to message #15752] |
Thu, 02 June 2011 10:50 |
zedsalt
Messages: 65 Registered: March 2008
|
Member |
|
|
I'm reminded of all of the "he came in with a truckload of amps, and the only amp that ended up on the album was the tape machine's" stories I've heard/read from engineers through the years, including more than a few that corresponded to some of the biggest names in Rock, telling an interviewer about some combination of exotic and/or expensive amps that was responsible for a magic tone they achieved on what became a classic song.
And I've long since lost count of the number of times someone has refused to be believe that some tone I've crafted didn't involve an amp. When it appears hopeless, I usually say something like, "OK, you got me; it was a ___________ (insert name of some obscure, cheap, old amp here)" or "If an amp has an input for harmonica, check it out; if it's labeled 'harp', buy it" (actually there's more than a grain of truth in that one).
The point is, uniquely ear-pleasing tones will always be of value, especially as long as there are people who believe there are rules to this sort of thing.
|
|
|
|
Re: I'm looking for a suitable distortion pedal for My K100-2 [message #15760 is a reply to message #15758] |
Thu, 02 June 2011 10:55 |
|
Well, as for the former, I can imagine people bringing the same setup to the studio that they use live and finding that while it works great live, it doesn't translate recorded. Doesn't mean the guy was dumb for thinking he needed all those amps, just means that the show and the studio are different situations. In fact, I was just reading an interview in Tape Op in which such a story was related, and the guy telling it was both the guitarist and engineer in the story.
|
|
|
Re: I'm looking for a suitable distortion pedal for My K100-2 [message #15761 is a reply to message #15759] |
Thu, 02 June 2011 10:58 |
|
Might be worth pointing out that I'm using this on bass, and the Rat II isn't considered a bass distortion. It's one of the very few with which I don't lose too much low end for my liking, but having the filter knob all the way "up" helps (the Rat's filter knob runs a bit counterintuitive to how you think of a "tone" knob). I've been asked more than once during tear down how I was getting that distortion tone. And, it always helps to have a great clean tone to start with, for which I credit my Kustom and my P-Bass.
Oh, it also doesn't sound at all the same when I get one of those sound guys that wants to run me direct from in front of my amp. Distortion on bass run direct, to my experience, always sound like crap. I tell them just mic the thing.
[Updated on: Thu, 02 June 2011 11:01] Report message to a moderator
|
|
|
|
Re: I'm looking for a suitable distortion pedal for My K100-2 [message #15773 is a reply to message #15763] |
Fri, 03 June 2011 11:50 |
zedsalt
Messages: 65 Registered: March 2008
|
Member |
|
|
I probably should clarify- I wasn't poking fun at anyone for being a gearhead (way too much of a "glass house" situation), I was getting a laugh out of the obstinacy that even the most revered among us display when faced with some engineer trying to get us out of our habits by doing something like taking a link out of our signal chains and/or getting us to use a piece of gear that's not among our faves. I mean, like Jimmy Page talking for decades about the custom mods on the Marshall he recorded "Dazed and Confused" with vs. decades of Glyn Johns saying that the studio version was strictly a Tele through a Tone Bender into a tiny, close-mic'ed Silvertone amp (or was it a Burns? a Baldwin, maybe? something tiny and cheap and nasty, like so many of the great "Arena Rock" classics were recorded with)...c'mon, that's at least good for a chuckle.
Djims, probably the best piece of advice anyone can give you is to not be afraid to return something that just doesn't give you the sound you like. Unless you have a friend who runs a brick-and-mortar music store who wouldn't mind you dragging your amp in to check out a bunch of pedals, that's your best bet. You know one thing you don't want is a Tube Screamer clone (probably...I mean, there's a pretty wide range of tones among all the clones). So, maybe a Big Muff...or a repro of an old DOD...or the aforementioned Germanium fuzz...or a silicon fuzz...or chaining a couplefew amps together...or taking the preamp out of a reel-to-reel recorder...if nothing else, it's an awful lot of fun to try stuff out.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Re: I'm looking for a suitable distortion pedal for My K100-2 [message #15803 is a reply to message #15796] |
Mon, 06 June 2011 09:37 |
C4ster
Messages: 686 Registered: June 2001 Location: Mukwonago, WI (Milwaukee...
|
Senior Member |
|
|
I have K100-1's and K100-2's and the -1 is brighter than the -2's normal side. But, the speakers are the biggest determining factor. I love the sound of the CTS 12's for guitar. They were sold as a bass cabinet. I also have 2 K100-2's with JBL E140's and that works well for guitar also. Again, a bass speaker. I need to find a good pedal for my style also. I have a Digitech Rp200 that I hate. I am ready to back to simple analog pedals or build a tube distortion box. But most fuzz type pedals create tons of higher order harmonics that a Kustom will turn into ear piercing sounds that I don't find pleasing. I had an Ibanez Tube Screamer from the 80's that has mysteriously disappeared. I am seriously considering buying a vintage TS because I did like that one with a Kustom K200. I suspect that one I will be happy with.
Conrad
|
|
|
Re: I'm looking for a suitable distortion pedal for My K100-2 [message #15806 is a reply to message #15803] |
Mon, 06 June 2011 12:13 |
cassent5150
Messages: 341 Registered: August 2009
|
Senior Member |
|
|
I suggest that you give a early (Made in Japan) BOSS SD-1 a try. Take your head to a guitar center and hook to a cab and try some petals out. I think you may find what your looking for a whole lot easier this way. The Boss SD-1 they make today still isnt all that bad sounding (through my K200's), they seem to stay warm sounding even through the solid state of Kustoms.
Steve C
|
|
|
|
|
Re: I'm looking for a suitable distortion pedal for My K100-2 [message #18807 is a reply to message #15735] |
Fri, 31 May 2013 13:36 |
chicagobill
Messages: 2006 Registered: April 2003
|
Senior Member |
|
|
I haven't had a chance to completely figure out what this mod does yet, but two of the caps that he is removing will actually increase the treble response of the amp. C116 and C118 are there to eliminate high frequencies, like radio signals and oscillations. Removing them will not help tame the high end of the amp.
Removing R127 is the only thing that I see will let less high frequency enter the circuit. And don't replace it with a jumper or you will have the exact opposite effect.
That entire circuit is exactly the same as the circuit in the model K100-1 bright channel.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Re: I'm looking for a suitable distortion pedal for My K100-2 [message #18812 is a reply to message #18806] |
Sat, 01 June 2013 03:11 |
bozole
Messages: 3 Registered: May 2013 Location: Paris (France)
|
Junior Member |
|
|
Hi
pleat wrote on Fri, 31 May 2013 12:46Very cool post. Not being a tech. When removing the 4 parts, do you place a jumper wire in it's place to complete the circuit, or just remove the parts?
pleat
You just need to remove the parts, no jumpers at all
chicagobill wrote on Fri, 31 May 2013 19:36I haven't had a chance to completely figure out what this mod does yet, but two of the caps that he is removing will actually increase the treble response of the amp. C116 and C118 are there to eliminate high frequencies, like radio signals and oscillations. Removing them will not help tame the high end of the amp.
Removing R127 is the only thing that I see will let less high frequency enter the circuit. And don't replace it with a jumper or you will have the exact opposite effect.
For me, just removing R127 is not enough to calm really the treble boost implemented in this amp ... I tried this at first, and it definitely wasn't enough
I'm definitly not a transistor specialist, I exclusively work on tube amps, but this time I made an exception to mod this amp for a friend, and I can assure you that removing this 4 parts (3 caps and 1 resistor) made the amp way more usable with a guitar : no more treble boost.
The purpose was to convert the K100-2 channel (just one channel in this amp, and it has the treble boost circuit as the bright channel from the K100-1) to the K100-1 normal channel (keeping the reverb effect), making it way more usable with guitars, and that's exactly what this mod does ...
For R170, we finally choose 120K (I edited my original post with this new value), because with 270K, you loose the possibility to go in "surf" territory with the reverb ...
We finally selected by ears 120K which is really fine (the reverb is in my point of view way too pronounced in the stock circuit ...)
[Updated on: Sat, 01 June 2013 03:12] Report message to a moderator
|
|
|