Calling on the DC Cartel for some help

[jdurso]

Ok so here's the situation (and not like that duchebag from Jersey Shore even though i'm from the Jersey Shore); I'm trying to start up a project again with my best friend, only thing is he's ampless and probably will be for the near future. Lately I've been mostly trying to get my recording rig off the ground and the more I look at my Mills cab the more i realize how ridiculous it is to own a 4x12 but not be playing out often. I also realize that even if I was playing out i would rather my Roadster + 2x12 cab or Axe-FX and Atomic FR. With that said I'm selling my Mills cab (still the best cab on Earth) to fund a combo that will be owned by muah, but will be mostly played by my best friend. I obviously gravitate more towards the Mesa territory, especially when it comes to the gain departement, although I still find an old Fender Twin clean hard to beat. My friend on the other hand is more of a Fender bluesy-Marshall lead type guy. So with that said I'm trying to find an amp that he's going to love playing as much as I'm going to love owning.

Thus far I've boiled it down to a couple options; DC-10, DC-5, Mark III, Rivera Quiana, Rivera Fandango, Rivera R100. The problem i'm finding is any of those amps to demo without dealing with people selling them used (don't want to give them the wrong idea) and a clip of the DC-5/10 or Mark III playing squeaky clean. The latter is what I'm looking for help on... does anone have a clip of their DC-5 or DC-10 playing sqeaky clean. It wouldnt hurt if I could find some clips that run hit upon a bunch of tones but most of what i'm finding is cheesy leads and metal tones and while thats fine and dandy, I really have no idea how the cleans sound. I've read many times about how people compare (at least on this forum) the DCs and Mark's cleans to that of Fenders but trying to find a clip of that is super tough. Now I've demo'd some different Riveras and while I think they may fit the bill more, I find they sound under powered and that you need to have them paired with the right speakers/cab or else the low end turns to ****.

Also has anyone pulled of a Trey Anastasio type lead tone with their DCs? I know early on he was using a Mark III with an OD and Compressor in front but not sure how close you could get with the DC (even if using a similar setup).

 

[plumptone]

I have 2 amps - a DC-3 and an F-50. The cleans on both these amps is very good, but I also use a Keeley Compressor most of the time. Sometimes I run both amps in stereo, and other times not. I play strats and teles.

You can get a decent approximation of Trey's sound on pretty much any DC series running clean and using some sort of OD and compression for processing. You get closer still if you use the overdrive channel, but run the gain low and use 2 ODs - and light compression. Trey's trick is that he uses two tube screamers. From what I recall, one is set with the drive all the way off and the volume all the way up. The other is set as to run as a standard overdrive pedal with the OD maxed.

I accomplish this in my set-up with a Fulldrive 2 OD pedal. It's got regular OD and a boost to put things over the top. Combine that with the compressor and you'll be sustaining all night long - even into musical feedback like Trey.

But don't forget, a huge part of his sound is the guitar - the Languedoc. It's a real hollowbody.

Look up some Phish on Youtube. He's using the Mark III again these days. On some shots you can see the graphic eq - he has the middle slider all the way up. If the eq is engaged, that's got to be having a pretty profound effect on his sound as well.

Good luck!

 

[Sixstringpsycho]

Here is a studio clip of my DC5 combo clean with a setting I use occassionally. www.myspace.com/horizonsdawnmusic. I can get some clips to you of a more "fenderish" setting. The DC is a verstile amplifier that can touch a lot of tones. I'd be happy to do some clips or videos to help

 

[MJ Slaughter]

jdurso,

Here is a very fast recording I did noodling around on my DC-10 using my PRS Custom 24. http://soundclick.com/share?songid=8801895 The pickups on this guitar are pretty hot but I can still keep it clean if I need to. Just guitar into amp. There are 6 short segments:

Clean Channel

Very clean
Clean with a little hair
Light crunch
Crunch with gain pulled

Lead Channel

Gain at 3
Gain at 8

This is not the best representation because the amp was turned down pretty low with the wife and kids around and the strings aren't the freshest. Sounds much better pushing some air like any tube amp would.

 

[jdurso]

Thanks fellas... much appreciated.

Found one locally for the right price i might pull the trigger on (DC-10 combo). Also found a Quinana at a GC thats about an hour away that I want to go demo.

Keep the clips coming if you have them.

 

[Monsta-Tone]

I haven't tried a Quianna yet, although I've always wanted to.
The guys at Rivera suggested a Fandango for me since I wanted more gain.


As for the DC's, the 10 has the best spanky clean, hands down. All of them have great cleans (although the DC-5A has the grittiest cleans).
I'm a clean freak! I kept the DC-10 out of all of the amps that I owned at the same time because I could stay cleaner louder!
At the time I had: Mark IV A, DC-3, DC-5, Heartbreaker, Roadster, Soldano Hot Rod 100, & Soldano Lucky 13. The DC did not have the warmest cleans, that award went to the Lucky 13, but it did have the spankiest ones and the best all around features.

Plus, you can go from low gain tones like the Allmans to early Santana easily with the lead channel. I keep mine dimed because we play some heavy stuff, but there are tons of low gain tones to be had in there!

The key to a great clean is to start with the GEQ off and all of the parametric EQ knobs in the middle.
Keep the gain below half way and the master a little higher.
It's super loud though and the amp likes to really start breathing at 3 or 4 on the Output volume, so you might have to turn the channel master down a bit.

 

[jdurso]

I haven't tried a Quianna yet, although I've always wanted to.
The guys at Rivera suggested a Fandango for me since I wanted more gain.


As for the DC's, the 10 has the best spanky clean, hands down. All of them have great cleans (although the DC-5A has the grittiest cleans).
I'm a clean freak! I kept the DC-10 out of all of the amps that I owned at the same time because I could stay cleaner louder!
At the time I had: Mark IV A, DC-3, DC-5, Heartbreaker, Roadster, Soldano Hot Rod 100, & Soldano Lucky 13. The DC did not have the warmest cleans, that award went to the Lucky 13, but it did have the spankiest ones and the best all around features.

Plus, you can go from low gain tones like the Allmans to early Santana easily with the lead channel. I keep mine dimed because we play some heavy stuff, but there are tons of low gain tones to be had in there!

The key to a great clean is to start with the GEQ off and all of the parametric EQ knobs in the middle.
Keep the gain below half way and the master a little higher.
It's super loud though and the amp likes to really start breathing at 3 or 4 on the Output volume, so you might have to turn the channel master down a bit.

Good stuff Monsta