Santana tone with 525 exp+

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rjw

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Anyone have a setting for a near Santana sound with a 525 exp+ w/ 1 x 12" speaker (Shadow) This is not a combo
note : Humbucker les paul

thx
 
When I had mine (now use a 5:50+ combo and loving it) I would set the amp to the Burn mode (Clock face Settings)

Gain - 9:00 (9:30 - 10)
Treble - 12
Mid - 12
Bass - 10
Reverb - I turned it off but at 9 works when I had it one
Master - 11

25W or 15W modes

I used a Fryette Power Station to keep the overall volume in check while still being able to open up the amp.
 
rjw said:
thanks, I'll try that

Try it but I'll be surprised if it gives you a near Santana tone.
The 3 of you (Carlos, jazzphan and you) all have different amps.
Early Carlos was Mark 1-4, jazzphan has 5:50 & you have 5:25.

They all sound different and yours has el84 tubes.
The other 2 have 6L6.
Plus jazzphan cranked the tubes with a $600 power attenuator.
He's got master on 11 :mrgreen:
 
Newysurfer said:
rjw said:
thanks, I'll try that

Try it but I'll be surprised if it gives you a near Santana tone.
The 3 of you (Carlos, jazzphan and you) all have different amps.
Early Carlos was Mark 1-4, jazzphan has 5:50 & you have 5:25.

They all sound different and yours has el84 tubes.
The other 2 have 6L6.
Plus jazzphan cranked the tubes with a $600 power attenuator.
He's got master on 11 :mrgreen:

I agree. My tones were in the dumble vein when using the 5:25+ but they were a hair aggressive which I think is part of the Santana sound. However, another big part with his tone is sheer volume which is tough even without a attenuator! The Fryette is real helpful with using my Mesa at home
 
jazzphan89 said:
Newysurfer said:
rjw said:
thanks, I'll try that

Try it but I'll be surprised if it gives you a near Santana tone.
The 3 of you (Carlos, jazzphan and you) all have different amps.
Early Carlos was Mark 1-4, jazzphan has 5:50 & you have 5:25.

They all sound different and yours has el84 tubes.
The other 2 have 6L6.
Plus jazzphan cranked the tubes with a $600 power attenuator.
He's got master on 11 :mrgreen:

I agree. My tones were in the dumble vein when using the 5:25+ but they were a hair aggressive which I think is part of the Santana sound. However, another big part with his tone is sheer volume which is tough even without a attenuator! The Fryette is real helpful with using my Mesa at home

hey Jazzphan - i'm interested in the Fryette.
Do you mind giving us your review in it, particularly its attenuation (I know it does several things)
- Is it transparent in not changing base amp tone right thru its range?
- Does the attenuation dial work smoothly or is it jumpy?
- I see it has a loop - how does this work - if you're already using the Express loop for delay etc do you also have to use the Fryette loop or do you bypass it.....and does the Fryette effect tone of effect pedals ?
 
hey Jazzphan - i'm interested in the Fryette.
Do you mind giving us your review in it, particularly its attenuation (I know it does several things)
- Is it transparent in not changing base amp tone right thru its range?
- Does the attenuation dial work smoothly or is it jumpy?
- I see it has a loop - how does this work - if you're already using the Express loop for delay etc do you also have to use the Fryette loop or do you bypass it.....and does the Fryette effect tone of effect pedals ?

I'd say it's very transparent - the attenuator is a reactive load, so the amp "thinks" it's feeling a speaker on the other end and responds like it normally would. That being said, like all attenuators you notice a loss in high end and tonal flunctuations as the amp changes overall volume, however the PS has 3 switches that are a flat EQ/bright EQ/"Edge" EQ (more presence Id say) and these EQ switches matched with the presence and depth knobs make it so you can get the PS to be almost transparent while maintaining feel/tone at lower volumes.

Because of it's design, the PS has a very smooth taper on the volume knob. No "clicks" like the Rivera Rockcrusher. The wattage of your amp dictates (I think) how much attenuation is possible before unity volume is achieved. In my experience, the higher wattage of the original amp, the higher attenuation threshold. The specs on the PS are that it's a 50W 6L6 power amp, and I have not tried plugging into it with a higher than 50W amp - I know guys that run their SLO's into it so it should be fine for plexi style amps and such as well. That being said, the attenuation can get jumpy at times, but great tone is achievable at almost all volume levels and much more so than other attenuators i've used.

The attenuation feature is the most-widely used option for me - but definitely not the only reason I bought it! I'm a big deadhead, and I really want a twin reverb type preamp, so I could used the PS as 50W 6L6 power amp - pretty cool option. It has line in and line out options, so you can essentially give any tube amp a line out to run to FOH or if you want to do some late night recording with your DAW.

The Loop - the loop is fantastic. It's post power amp, and the delay repeats are pristine and not affected at all by what the volume levels are set at. If I have my Express 5:50 cranked to power tube breakup the repeats would get dirty, not the case with a PS. Also, you can add an effects loop to any amp that doesn't have one, like say your old favorite champ or small amp like that. It is also a reamper, similar to a Bad Cat Unleash but I preferred this to the Bad Cat I tried. That means that you can turn any amp into 50W 6L6 monster that can hang with a drummer. Is this an issue with the Express 5:50+? Yes and no. No in terms that I already have a 50W option available to me without the PS, but yes because - say my favorite sound is the 5W class A, but when it's at drummer volume I can't even hear myself. Not anymore - with the PS I can slave that 5W sound to the 6L6 power amp and bring the volume up to hang with a drummer, essentially making your small amp sound big.

I'm not the best with technical information, but I hope that helps a little bit. I can record with the line out into my DAW and show you how that works too.

This thing cost all the dollars though, but it's definitely worth it if you can divide out the feature set. It was $600ish shipped to my door. It's an attenuator/reamper/line in/line out/effects loop/tube power amp and probably can do a few other things. When you do that, it's about a $100 a feature - not to mention the attenuator is world-class. Seriously. On the flip side, you have to have a justification to use all the features.

Oh, one more cool thing I like about mine. Managaging stage volume/backup amp. We all know tube amps sound great louder, but at that volume the sound guy is having a conniption. You can get that feel and sound you love with your amp, then use the PS to reign the overall dB back in, or send it to FOH without having to mic (I also mic, so I can mix the two spreads) Also, if your main amp ever dies, you can plug right into the PS and get through a gig that way if you had to - I keep a small preamp pedal in my bag just in case, but any OD pedal is technically a preamp pedal and can work.

I hope this helps!

Here are some links to great discussion on the Gear Page about this unit - but if you're on the fence I definitely recommend it!

the gear page Fryette Power Station site:www.thegearpage.net
 
rjw said:
Anyone have a setting for a near Santana sound with a 525 exp+ w/ 1 x 12" speaker (Shadow) This is not a combo
note : Humbucker les paul

thx
Hi rjw,
There is a fellow on this forum with the username revgsmall who has mentioned that he goes for a Santana tone with a 5:25+ and the PRS Santana guitar. You might want to pm him to get more info, or search for his posts.

Cheers,
Steve
 
rjw said:
Anyone have a setting for a near Santana sound with a 525 exp+ w/ 1 x 12" speaker (Shadow) This is not a combo
note : Humbucker les paul
thx

I've got a 5:25+ head and a Forte' 3D single 12" and the only way I get that Santana tone is with a Zendrive 2. the burn channel can come close, but I use the blues channel with the Zendrive to really get me there.

Al
 
jazzphan89 said:
hey Jazzphan - i'm interested in the Fryette.
Do you mind giving us your review in it, particularly its attenuation (I know it does several things)
- Is it transparent in not changing base amp tone right thru its range?
- Does the attenuation dial work smoothly or is it jumpy?
- I see it has a loop - how does this work - if you're already using the Express loop for delay etc do you also have to use the Fryette loop or do you bypass it.....and does the Fryette effect tone of effect pedals ?

I'd say it's very transparent - the attenuator is a reactive load, so the amp "thinks" it's feeling a speaker on the other end and responds like it normally would. That being said, like all attenuators you notice a loss in high end and tonal flunctuations as the amp changes overall volume, however the PS has 3 switches that are a flat EQ/bright EQ/"Edge" EQ (more presence Id say) and these EQ switches matched with the presence and depth knobs make it so you can get the PS to be almost transparent while maintaining feel/tone at lower volumes.

Because of it's design, the PS has a very smooth taper on the volume knob. No "clicks" like the Rivera Rockcrusher. The wattage of your amp dictates (I think) how much attenuation is possible before unity volume is achieved. In my experience, the higher wattage of the original amp, the higher attenuation threshold. The specs on the PS are that it's a 50W 6L6 power amp, and I have not tried plugging into it with a higher than 50W amp - I know guys that run their SLO's into it so it should be fine for plexi style amps and such as well. That being said, the attenuation can get jumpy at times, but great tone is achievable at almost all volume levels and much more so than other attenuators i've used.

The attenuation feature is the most-widely used option for me - but definitely not the only reason I bought it! I'm a big deadhead, and I really want a twin reverb type preamp, so I could used the PS as 50W 6L6 power amp - pretty cool option. It has line in and line out options, so you can essentially give any tube amp a line out to run to FOH or if you want to do some late night recording with your DAW.

The Loop - the loop is fantastic. It's post power amp, and the delay repeats are pristine and not affected at all by what the volume levels are set at. If I have my Express 5:50 cranked to power tube breakup the repeats would get dirty, not the case with a PS. Also, you can add an effects loop to any amp that doesn't have one, like say your old favorite champ or small amp like that. It is also a reamper, similar to a Bad Cat Unleash but I preferred this to the Bad Cat I tried. That means that you can turn any amp into 50W 6L6 monster that can hang with a drummer. Is this an issue with the Express 5:50+? Yes and no. No in terms that I already have a 50W option available to me without the PS, but yes because - say my favorite sound is the 5W class A, but when it's at drummer volume I can't even hear myself. Not anymore - with the PS I can slave that 5W sound to the 6L6 power amp and bring the volume up to hang with a drummer, essentially making your small amp sound big.

I'm not the best with technical information, but I hope that helps a little bit. I can record with the line out into my DAW and show you how that works too.

This thing cost all the dollars though, but it's definitely worth it if you can divide out the feature set. It was $600ish shipped to my door. It's an attenuator/reamper/line in/line out/effects loop/tube power amp and probably can do a few other things. When you do that, it's about a $100 a feature - not to mention the attenuator is world-class. Seriously. On the flip side, you have to have a justification to use all the features.

Oh, one more cool thing I like about mine. Managaging stage volume/backup amp. We all know tube amps sound great louder, but at that volume the sound guy is having a conniption. You can get that feel and sound you love with your amp, then use the PS to reign the overall dB back in, or send it to FOH without having to mic (I also mic, so I can mix the two spreads) Also, if your main amp ever dies, you can plug right into the PS and get through a gig that way if you had to - I keep a small preamp pedal in my bag just in case, but any OD pedal is technically a preamp pedal and can work.

I hope this helps!

Here are some links to great discussion on the Gear Page about this unit - but if you're on the fence I definitely recommend it!

the gear page Fryette Power Station site:www.thegearpage.net

thanks very much jazzphan - excellent review & sounds like a great unit :mrgreen:
 
SteveB said:
rjw said:
Anyone have a setting for a near Santana sound with a 525 exp+ w/ 1 x 12" speaker (Shadow) This is not a combo
note : Humbucker les paul

thx
Hi rjw,
There is a fellow on this forum with the username revgsmall who has mentioned that he goes for a Santana tone with a 5:25+ and the PRS Santana guitar. You might want to pm him to get more info, or search for his posts.

Cheers,
Steve

Been away for a while, so thanks...I'm back on it
 
jazzphan89 said:
hey Jazzphan - i'm interested in the Fryette.
Do you mind giving us your review in it, particularly its attenuation (I know it does several things)
- Is it transparent in not changing base amp tone right thru its range?
- Does the attenuation dial work smoothly or is it jumpy?
- I see it has a loop - how does this work - if you're already using the Express loop for delay etc do you also have to use the Fryette loop or do you bypass it.....and does the Fryette effect tone of effect pedals ?

I'd say it's very transparent - the attenuator is a reactive load, so the amp "thinks" it's feeling a speaker on the other end and responds like it normally would. That being said, like all attenuators you notice a loss in high end and tonal flunctuations as the amp changes overall volume, however the PS has 3 switches that are a flat EQ/bright EQ/"Edge" EQ (more presence Id say) and these EQ switches matched with the presence and depth knobs make it so you can get the PS to be almost transparent while maintaining feel/tone at lower volumes.

Because of it's design, the PS has a very smooth taper on the volume knob. No "clicks" like the Rivera Rockcrusher. The wattage of your amp dictates (I think) how much attenuation is possible before unity volume is achieved. In my experience, the higher wattage of the original amp, the higher attenuation threshold. The specs on the PS are that it's a 50W 6L6 power amp, and I have not tried plugging into it with a higher than 50W amp - I know guys that run their SLO's into it so it should be fine for plexi style amps and such as well. That being said, the attenuation can get jumpy at times, but great tone is achievable at almost all volume levels and much more so than other attenuators i've used.

The attenuation feature is the most-widely used option for me - but definitely not the only reason I bought it! I'm a big deadhead, and I really want a twin reverb type preamp, so I could used the PS as 50W 6L6 power amp - pretty cool option. It has line in and line out options, so you can essentially give any tube amp a line out to run to FOH or if you want to do some late night recording with your DAW.

The Loop - the loop is fantastic. It's post power amp, and the delay repeats are pristine and not affected at all by what the volume levels are set at. If I have my Express 5:50 cranked to power tube breakup the repeats would get dirty, not the case with a PS. Also, you can add an effects loop to any amp that doesn't have one, like say your old favorite champ or small amp like that. It is also a reamper, similar to a Bad Cat Unleash but I preferred this to the Bad Cat I tried. That means that you can turn any amp into 50W 6L6 monster that can hang with a drummer. Is this an issue with the Express 5:50+? Yes and no. No in terms that I already have a 50W option available to me without the PS, but yes because - say my favorite sound is the 5W class A, but when it's at drummer volume I can't even hear myself. Not anymore - with the PS I can slave that 5W sound to the 6L6 power amp and bring the volume up to hang with a drummer, essentially making your small amp sound big.

I'm not the best with technical information, but I hope that helps a little bit. I can record with the line out into my DAW and show you how that works too.

This thing cost all the dollars though, but it's definitely worth it if you can divide out the feature set. It was $600ish shipped to my door. It's an attenuator/reamper/line in/line out/effects loop/tube power amp and probably can do a few other things. When you do that, it's about a $100 a feature - not to mention the attenuator is world-class. Seriously. On the flip side, you have to have a justification to use all the features.

Oh, one more cool thing I like about mine. Managaging stage volume/backup amp. We all know tube amps sound great louder, but at that volume the sound guy is having a conniption. You can get that feel and sound you love with your amp, then use the PS to reign the overall dB back in, or send it to FOH without having to mic (I also mic, so I can mix the two spreads) Also, if your main amp ever dies, you can plug right into the PS and get through a gig that way if you had to - I keep a small preamp pedal in my bag just in case, but any OD pedal is technically a preamp pedal and can work.

I hope this helps!

Here are some links to great discussion on the Gear Page about this unit - but if you're on the fence I definitely recommend it!

the gear page Fryette Power Station site:www.thegearpage.net

Thanks again for the great review.
I've sent you a PM asking for advice on cabling :)
 
Hey there,

I got an internal error when trying to reply, so here's what I wrote:

You can just pick up a regular speaker cable, the longer the cable the heavier the gauge though to support the current going through it.

Mesa speaker out > Speaker cable > PS Amp In (select correct ohm) > PS speaker out 1 > Mesa speaker or extension speaker.

You have to have one plugged in at least, but two works fine as well. They should match ohms, Im not too up on parallel wiring so if you have a mismatched load Id probably email Fryette about it.

Fryette only provides the power cord, so you'll need two speaker cables (male to male is correct) one going from your amp to the PS, and another going to your cab from the PS. If your speaker in your combo has a speaker cable already attached, just set the PS on top of your amp when you use it and it should reach no problem.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask here or there are a lot of guys on TGP with this. Once again, probably the best gear purchase I've made in awhile.
 
jazzphan89 said:
Hey there,

I got an internal error when trying to reply, so here's what I wrote:

You can just pick up a regular speaker cable, the longer the cable the heavier the gauge though to support the current going through it.

Mesa speaker out > Speaker cable > PS Amp In (select correct ohm) > PS speaker out 1 > Mesa speaker or extension speaker.

You have to have one plugged in at least, but two works fine as well. They should match ohms, Im not too up on parallel wiring so if you have a mismatched load Id probably email Fryette about it.

Fryette only provides the power cord, so you'll need two speaker cables (male to male is correct) one going from your amp to the PS, and another going to your cab from the PS. If your speaker in your combo has a speaker cable already attached, just set the PS on top of your amp when you use it and it should reach no problem.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask here or there are a lot of guys on TGP with this. Once again, probably the best gear purchase I've made in awhile.

ok thanks very much again :)
my 5:50 original has a very short factory fitted cable from the combo speaker (with male plug) >> 8 ohm speaker jack so its not long enough to connect to a PS sitting on top.
Plus I sit my combo on a slanted stand so a PS would slide off.
So I'll need to either
a) make 1 speaker cable with male & female ends so I can extend the combo speaker cable ....or
b) make a single longer combo speaker cable & solder it direct to the speaker.

Was your existing speaker cable long enuf to sit the PS on top of the 5:50?
 
It was, but barely. You can probably get a cheap 10ft speaker cable, and if you solder off the plug on one end and solder that to their respective terminals on your combo speaker you should be good to go, although I use one of those On-Stage stands for my amp, and the feet on the PS coupled with the Express' handle actually lets the PS rest on top of the amp and be sturdy enough for me... worth a try. Also, the back of the stand rises up a bit past my combo when it's on the stand so that helps as a "safety net" if the PS every slides back.

I hope that last bit made some sense. Need more brown work water.
 
jazzphan89 said:
It was, but barely. You can probably get a cheap 10ft speaker cable, and if you solder off the plug on one end and solder that to their respective terminals on your combo speaker you should be good to go, although I use one of those On-Stage stands for my amp, and the feet on the PS coupled with the Express' handle actually lets the PS rest on top of the amp and be sturdy enough for me... worth a try. Also, the back of the stand rises up a bit past my combo when it's on the stand so that helps as a "safety net" if the PS every slides back.

I hope that last bit made some sense. Need more brown work water.

Thanks - yep got my Power Station last week.
Excellent product & performs exactly like you said - very happy - thanks for the tip jazzphan :mrgreen:
 
jazzphan89 said:
When I had mine (now use a 5:50+ combo and loving it) I would set the amp to the Burn mode (Clock face Settings)

Gain - 9:00 (9:30 - 10)
Treble - 12
Mid - 12
Bass - 10
Reverb - I turned it off but at 9 works when I had it one
Master - 11

25W or 15W modes

I used a Fryette Power Station to keep the overall volume in check while still being able to open up the amp.


Hi- i just ordered a 5:50+ head...what settings are you using on your 5:50+ combo for a Carlos tone? Thanks very much.
 
Congrats! I'll check when I get home - I did "swap" settings, using the "Crunch" on the Green Channel for my OD, and the "Blues" set low for my cleans. It's possible to find that sound with the "Burn" as well.
 

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