TC-50 (EL34) - LO channel shrill high end at low/med gain

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foofght

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Just got a TC-50(EL34) head, running it through a closed back V30 cab that I use with my Mark V:25.

I'm finding I enjoy the cleans on the Mark better, as they sound rather sterile on the TC. Still good, just not what I'm hearing that I like in the Mark V:25. Surprisingly the clean headroom is not THAT different when both are cranked to right before clipping.

Anybody have a hard time dialing out the high end on the LO channel (either normal or tight)? Even with the presence and high knobs all the way down, bass and mids at 75% it very icepicky if the gain is below 2 o'clock. Once you bring the gain past that the high end seems to diminish. No running the pedal, FX or reverb. HI channel seems what I'd expect.

Cranked it does seem noticeably louder than the Mark V:25 cranked in the Mark IIC or IV settings. Granted this is me standing in the hallway just outside the room where the amp is cranked!

I also have a TA-30 and am trying to figure which amp to keep of the 3 in my pursuit for a good clean, reasonable headroom, and good crunch. They each have their strong and weak points...
 
The EL34 do come off as being a bit on the harsh side and at first I felt the CH2 as overly bright, Ch3 was similar but a bit thicker. After about 20 hours of use the amp warmed up a bit. Now I dial up the treble and run the bass and midrange keeping the lines on the controls parallel to each other. Two things come to mind, cabinet size and type of guitar you are using. Vertical 212 is a bit darker in tone than say a 112 cab or even the 412 cab. Perhaps that explains my settings I use. Then the next question is. what color code are the power tubes? Reds and yellows will have more headroom (according to Mesa as they stated that a few times) so there may be more bright color to the mix. Blues or greens may offer a bit more compression or early distortion that may change the brightness. If it is too difficult to control, you may have a sensitive tube in V3 or V4 (depends on how much use on the power tube you have now). There is also another means to get some more control on your tone, GEQ in the loop. The beginning of the video starts off with the blue channel (lo gain, CH2) with a Mesa GEW set flat. You can see the typical settings I normally use on the TC-100 which basically sounds about the same as the TC-50, have that too. The power tubes have a few weeks of hard use on them since I recently changed them. Pair of Blues and Greens in the amp now. Preamp wise, a Mullard 12AX7 will help to cut some top end if used in V4 (last stage is the tone stack) or V3. Not much to gain or attenuate with preamp tube changes but however small it does help. SPAX7 will do the trick too if you want to keep with Mesa branded tubes.

https://youtu.be/oV-fi9ddAIQ
 
foofght said:
Anybody have a hard time dialing out the high end on the LO channel (either normal or tight)? Even with the presence and high knobs all the way down, bass and mids at 75% it very icepicky if the gain is below 2 o'clock.

Yep. There is a thread here somewhere where I recorded the TC50 channel 2 and a Rectoverb 25 for comparison. The TC channel 2 is a little thinner than other amps, and of course the Rectoverb is a bit thicker than other amps. Actually, in one of the first Mesa videos for the TC50 they talk about lowering treble and presence at low gain-ish settings on Ch2. I’ve found that to be good advice. As always, dial with ears, not eyes.
 
I havent really found i cant dial out the treble, i use buckers though... I set mine between 10 and 1 Oclock depending on the pickups. Sometimes i s0lit the coils and dial back the tone on the guitar but i cant see how i wouldnt be able to pull back the treble more on the amp if i needed to.


Perhaps the V30s arent brokwn in? They can be bitey and stiff in the high mids when they are fresh but considering you find it different in your Mark Im just guessing there.
 
Yeah, V30's can do that too.

CH2 on the TC series is tuned for a specific voice. As I said at first run the amp will have that shrill. I would not quite call it ice pick as my Mark V 90W had that beat by a mile. But it is what it is, CH2 has that thin sound to it. After some use on the amp, I have found I am dialing in more treble than I am trying to dial out. It does matter what your guitar set up is (SC or HB). This can also boil down to what instrument cable you are using. I have a few mogami cables. The platinum version makes any guitar sound too bright and brittle. Love the hot swap end on it though. I normally use the Gold version as this seems to offer the full sound spectrum and does not seem to have the low frequency attenuation like the platinum cable does.

As for the gain setting, I generally use a moderate gain level (set between 1pm and 3pm) and I run CH3 much harder. for the lower gain voice I use the clean channel on drive setting. That way I get three levels of distortion from plexi to overload. Since I have built up a new guitar with EMG DG20, will have to try it through the TC-50 or TC-100 and see how it sounds. For some reason I got stuck on the JP-2C and have not run my other amps in a while.
 

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