HEARTBREAKER AMPS

OK I NEED TO KNOW IF THERE ARE ANY HEARTBREAKER OWNERS OUT THERE I HAVE THE 84TH ONE THEY MADE AND NEED SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR SETTINGS TO GET THAT SANTANA TONE VINTAGE AND MODERN ,THEY ARE DIFFERENT HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I wish I could help you, but alas I do not own a heartbreaker. Not sure if there are many heartbreaker users here If its any consolation I wish I had one......

use your ears man! just start fiddling until you happen accross something cool...peoples tone settings will only work if you have exactly the same guitar with the same pickups and the same strings with the same pick...with the same tubes, dare i continue!

My best friend uses a Heartbreaker for his #1. Lemme see if I can get him to chime in here.

THANKS I KNOW THERE ARE ALOT OF FACTORS INVOLVED WHEN ACHIEVING A SOUND I JUST WANT TO SEE WHAT WORKS FOR OTHER PEOPLE AS A REFERENCE POINT

David,

Please do not use all caps when posting as this usually implies someone yelling.

Ned

Sorry about the caps I have a habit of doing that so I can type faster no offense meant

I use a HB and have for 5 years now. I will put soome of my farorite settings on the grailtone page. Ned set up a heartbreaker form there.

Santana's old tone is in the amp ... I don't care too much for his"new" tone so I havent looked for it.

The old tone for me cones on the first channel high gain with the boost activated. This is close to the Mark one tone. Both Gains at about 2:00 and master where you need it for where you are playing. 60 watt setting trim/fat switch to trim (with humbuckers) gender to female presence 3:00 a little reverb Treble at 2:30 - 3:30 Bass around 10:00 mids up but not too far... then use your ears. This should get close but beware it will be LOUD. I use compression a lot and that helps get the tone at a slightly lower volume.

Good luck and pick on!!

As far as I know, Carlos was using 2 Heartbreakers at the time when his tech was Rene Martinez: one of them for the "Clean" sound and the second one for the "Marshall" sound (for power chords).

Yet, for his lead tone, he has always used his Mark I.

Toddzilla has it, Love boost, bold, full power and then start tweaking. The standard speakers don't suit themselves to that tone, though.

The missing ingredient to finding Santana's tone is to turn your guitar's volume pot down to 7. In addition to a Mk1 with the drive about 2:00 or so.

igfraso said:

As far as I know, Carlos was using 2 Heartbreakers at the time when his tech was Rene Martinez: one of them for the "Clean" sound and the second one for the "Marshall" sound (for power chords).

Click to expand...

Really? I thought he was using two HBs into a couple of Revolvers for his clean and an actual Marshall for his dirty rhythm tone...I'll have to dig up the interview.

Martn

Amazing that you can get that sound out of an amp that can do convincing blackface and even tweed sounds depending on you preamp tube tone stack and the cab/speakers you use. And, after being monsta toned, I can get some great jmp/jcm tones. Really the Heartbreaker is still one of their best.