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ifailedshapes

ifailedshapes

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So as much as I love my Ace, I can only afford one amp, and I'm not sure this is the best fit for an only amplifier. If I had the money, I'd keep it without hesitation since it really is that good at what it does, but at the end of the day, I'm looking for a warmer tone. I'm going to play through as many amps as I can in the next few weeks, and maybe even play some different guitars through the Ace. One thing I can say with absolute certainty is that I don't recommend pairing a Strat with a Stiletto.

Anyway, yeah, there might be a sweet amp in the classifieds pretty soon. :(
 
Lol. That's funny. I was just trying to get a feeling for what type of tone you're going for. It's possible that the tone you like is the same one I don't. :)
 
ifailedshapes said:
Lol. That's funny. I was just trying to get a feeling for what type of tone you're going for. It's possible that the tone you like is the same one I don't. :)
Click to expand...

Strats sound awesome through them. The tightness and brightness helps the tone cut through, including tones that involve fuzz pedals...
 
KH Guitar Freak said:
ifailedshapes said:
Lol. That's funny. I was just trying to get a feeling for what type of tone you're going for. It's possible that the tone you like is the same one I don't. :)
Click to expand...

Strats sound awesome through them. The tightness and brightness helps the tone cut through, including tones that involve fuzz pedals...
Click to expand...

Yeah, but it's that biting, cutting tone that just doesn't work for me. Like I told my wife (who, for once, actually understood what I meant), if I was in a rock band, especially with multiple guitars and/or keyboards, the brightness would help me cut through the mix and have my own voice. I'm not in a rock band, though, and for now only play at home and church. I go to a modern church (actually usually play drums, as that's my main instrument) with an awesome music program, so it's not like I'm playing everything on the clean channel in the keys of G or E (those churches irritate me).

It's not that I don't like the sound. It's just that it's not what I want for my main sound. I've been kind of a forum ***** lately, posting a little in all of them. Everything I know combined with everything I'm reading really has me narrowing my search down to either a LSC, ED, or something non-Mesa.
 
Hey,

Like you I play in a Worship team and have a Stiletto Ace (mine is the 1x12). I use a MIA Strat, a 1976 Ibanez Strat copy and a Heilo made by Ash Custom Works here in NZ (check out the website, great handmade guitars). If we are doing a 3-4 piece and I am playing more rhythm I use the Fat Clean setting keeping the bass and mid about 12 o'clock and roll the presence down, in a bigger worship band I use tight clean and wind the bass up a bit and that kind of sorts out the other frequencies. I have no problem sitting in the mix but I have found with this amp that I need to set the switches and eq for the musical environment with my ears, certainly not my eyes.

My secret weapon is probably the Diamond Compressor, it fattens up the amp and balances the highs but I don't feel the need to have it on all the time.

For context, I gig professionally and play just about every genre you could imagine for a modern guitarist except metal, and teach music for a living at university level. In the four years that I have owned this I have never looked over my shoulder and thought "I need a different amp for this situation".

My point is that you might want to step back a bit before you sell the Stiletto - finding an amp that cuts through nicely is, well, plain difficult! Many amps that sound great alone in the shop do not sound great in a band, they just create mud and get lost in the bass guitar. I suggest you have another go with the eq and switches at stage volume before you make the final call.
:)
 
Bozie said:
Hey,

Like you I play in a Worship team and have a Stiletto Ace (mine is the 1x12). I use a MIA Strat, a 1976 Ibanez Strat copy and a Heilo made by Ash Custom Works here in NZ (check out the website, great handmade guitars). If we are doing a 3-4 piece and I am playing more rhythm I use the Fat Clean setting keeping the bass and mid about 12 o'clock and roll the presence down, in a bigger worship band I use tight clean and wind the bass up a bit and that kind of sorts out the other frequencies. I have no problem sitting in the mix but I have found with this amp that I need to set the switches and eq for the musical environment with my ears, certainly not my eyes.

My secret weapon is probably the Diamond Compressor, it fattens up the amp and balances the highs but I don't feel the need to have it on all the time.

For context, I gig professionally and play just about every genre you could imagine for a modern guitarist except metal, and teach music for a living at university level. In the four years that I have owned this I have never looked over my shoulder and thought "I need a different amp for this situation".

My point is that you might want to step back a bit before you sell the Stiletto - finding an amp that cuts through nicely is, well, plain difficult! Many amps that sound great alone in the shop do not sound great in a band, they just create mud and get lost in the bass guitar. I suggest you have another go with the eq and switches at stage volume before you make the final call.
:)
Click to expand...

What is your sound situation? Do you mic your amp? Is it isolated? What about monitors?

We mic and isolate all guitar amps, and we use an Aviom in-ear monitoring system. We have a great sound engineer who makes sure everything meshes together well sonically. So I'm not worried about cutting though a dense mix, as I fully trust our A/V crew.

I'm trying to remember the last time I actually played guitar outside of home. I'm one of those guys who plays everything at a fairly high level, so they put me where the need is. Right now we have an overabundance of guitarists, so I play drums, bass, and keys.

I do appreciate the input, though. As I've said in a different forum on here, I'm just gathering information right now. The next step is go to the store and try everything. I will be bringing both guitars and my amp that day, and might even decide that a different cab is what I need. All I know is the current setup has got to change somehow
 
A speaker swap might be a step in the right direction. Man, I know what you are going through. There was a time when I felt the same way about my Deuce. From reading this forum for so many years I've seen it happen many times with the Stilettos. Rather than trade mine off, I just kept at it until I am at the point where I love my amp more than ever. The platform is there.
Changing out the V30s was a huge step for me. I know a lot of guys love them but like you I was looking to loose as you said, that biting cutting tone. After that, the adjustable bias mod changed everything. Neither of these things cost me a lot of money either. When I played with my old band I only took my Strat out twice in nine years that I can remember. I did not like the Strat with my Stiletto. It had to be humbuckers. Last night I played my Strat at home for a couple of hours and I must say it sounds pretty kick a$$. I do add an overdrive but outside of it sounding like a single coil pick up guitar none of that spike is there anymore.
I'm just saying.
I wish you best of luck with what ever you decide to do. We're all searching for that tone so it is what it is. New amps are cool too. :wink:
 
Well, I put my amp on Craigslist. It's more of a feeler than a commitment to sell. Now I need to get my butt over to my dealer in the next couple days so I can see if I really do want to sell this thing or not. Luckily, it's only a 20-30 minute drive.
 
Quick update: I'm trading guitars with my dad today, so I'll have a PRS Hollowbody I (very warm guitar) for the next stage in life. I'm curious to see if changing guitars is enough to make me happy with the sound. Hopefully it is!
 
Sounds like you're being fairly thorough going through things; have you tried running an EQ thru the loop? It made a HUGE difference with mine...like having a whole different amp. What I really liked was lots of change for a reasonable price. Good luck... 8)
 
Well, I didn't like the sound with either guitar. Here are a couple things I wrote last night.


ifailedshapes said:
I made the mistake of playing a Mark V today. I brought my Strat to GC and spent 1.5 hours playing through it. I am in love. It's like it was made for me and my guitar. Nothing else will do now. **** it. :)
Click to expand...

ifailedshapes said:
I played through a Mark V today. I played one when they first came out, but didn't spend much time with it. I have extensive experience with a Mark IV, and I remember being really excited when the Mark V was announced. (I even made it the background image on my iPhone, replacing my then girlfriend, now my wife.) My main gripes with the IV were the shared tone controls, global reverb, and only having one EQ for three channels. The V, as you know, addressed all three of these. As I found out today, it even has a more useful master volume; whereas the IV was either off or loud. :)

Sadly, the local shop who had the Mesa contract lost it to Guitar Center, so the amp I played was a G.C. floor model. Channel 3 was substantially quieter than the other two channels, so I'm sure it had a bad preamp tube.

I played channel 1 in Fat mode. Man, that mode is made for a Strat neck pickup. I already knew I would love that, though, so I went on to channel 2. I tried all 3 modes and instantly bonded with the Mark 1 mode. It was warm and dark, yet it wasn't muddy, and I could hear each string. I love the gain of my Ace, but I liked this mode even more.

Channel 3 took more tweaking. I liked the basic tone of all three modes, but the dodgy tube made it impossible to truly judge it. I've got to say that I was pleasantly surprised to get non-metal tones! Every video I've ever seen has a scooped metal tone on this channel, so I was expecting to cringe. Instead I really enjoyed it.

I was also pleasantly surprised by the reverb. I had just a tiny wash dialed in, but it was so tasty. Just enough to fill the sound out, but not enough to be obvious.

So as I said in another thread, I'm in love, and nothing else will do. Haha. Seriously though, I have found MY amp. I don't think it's perfect, but it's the best amp I've ever played through. All I need to do now is sell some more gear, save some more money, and then it will be mine. Oh, and I actually really really like the standard black for this amp. I'm usually drawn to the custom jobs, but there will be a plain, run of the mill, black Mark V head in my future.

Geez, I'm gushing like a little school girl with a playground crush. Yeah, it was THAT good. :mrgreen:
Click to expand...
 

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