Quad Pre - how to "tighten up" the sound

[scubidru]

I'm a relatively new owner of a Quad Preamp and am looking for a way to to tighten or focus the the lead tone of the lead channels. It seems, for palm muting with higher gain settings, things just seem a little to loose or and kind of boomy. Even though theres a lot in the chain, it seems to have the same effect with the processers bypassed. I keep the bass under 3 and unshifted. My chain is as follows; EB volume>wah>EH Big Muff>EH Eng Muff'n>Slow Gear>Quad Pre(nothing in the effects loop and the main outs feeding the chain)>Rocktron Replifex>Rocktron Intellifex(usually bypassed, only used for reverb and occasional added delay)>BBE 362>Mesa 2:50>Yamaha PA speakers(I use the replifex mainly for cab emulation,delay and EQ). I have a blend of EH and GT preamp tubes installed in the Quad and GT's in the 2:50. I'm open to any suggestions on signal chain routing, tube selection, additional components, or simple adjustments. Hopefully, someone has experienced something similar and can recommend a solution

 

[dmt]

the type of tubes and the location and therefore function of the tube in the circuit affect the tone more than you will know. mine came tubed with mesa tubes and two new production tungsols, and i didnt like how it sounded. I felt that my soun was in there someplace i just didnt know where. I ended up using a mix a NOS tubes of various brands and types.

The end result is a good well balanced sound. I would recommend picking up some NOS or Used pream tubes off the bay, or through the tubestore.com or something. Get a few old RCA's for gain or Sylvania's, maybe a few European tubes as well and you can further fine tune your tone. This would allow you to take a lead tone that is "almost there" and tighten it up or fatten it with a different tube for that spot.

I spent a good few hours playing just with which tubes I wanted where. Then end result is worth the effort.

I would also recommend using a boost pedal to emphasize the tone you are going for, maybe push the mids and boost the level a bit etc and you can get a crunchier sound out of the amp. Also, the GEQ on the preamp is critical. The sliders are very much interlocked and depending on where they are set will change the characteristics of the distortion/overdrive. Generally Mesa GEQ's favor the treble sliders, make it the most power full.

Most importantly, the GEQ on the poweramp and on the preamp channels! You try pulling the bright knobs on each channel? That wll cut some of the bass and boost the highs, that may be enough...

 

[scubidru]

I think the tubes may be an area I would like to approach first. When I first purchased the amp, I had to knock some dust off, clean the pots and immediately changed the tubes only because new/unused one were available and they had performed well in previously owned preamps. As per your suggestion, I just dug the the old ones out and swapped v11, v12, v13. Not incredibly better, but very noticable and some of the boominess vanished and higher freq's are more present. As far as the prescence controls on the 2:50, i've never really liked them, seems to increase a frequency my ears don't appreciate so they just sit at 2 o'clock. Thanks for the response, I'll start looking for some NOS/used tubes and see what happens. I always assumed it was over-hyped, but it seems like the way to go.

 

[JT_Marshmallow]

I have the Studio Pre which is the smaller version of the Quad. To get rid of that boominess when palm muting:

- I use the recording outs into my power amp
- I use the treble knob between 8-10, bass at zero, middle at zero
- Turn all the tone shift switches OFF
- Make sure none of the Lead Master, Drive, Volume, or Master knobs are all the way up, as this will result in noise.

Now, if you want to add some low-end to the signal, use the left-most slider on the GEQ. It will even work all the way up! This will make the amp chug like a ************ without farting. Its mainly the Bass knob that makes it fart and feel flubby. I typically only use a higher setting on the bass knob for when I'm configuring a good clean sound or a lead/solo kind of sound.

As far as tubes go, I have who-knows-how-old generic Sovteks in there and I am still in love with the sound of this preamp. I do plan on trying new tubes soon, and when I do, I'm sure it will only sound better.

I made a video demo of how to configure the Studio Pre. It would also apply to the Lead 1 mode of the Quad as they are quite similar. (The tone stack and gain structures are almost identical as far as I know.) Here's the vid:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiYIkO7kCxs

 

[dmt]

The Studio Pre will give you better sounds when running it into the amp like that, its more shrill on the main outs, not really so on the Quad. It sounds just fine on the main outs. big difference to the Studio Pre.

As for EQ for using the recording outs, keep in mind that you are basically going to have to EQ the preamp for direct recording as well, and if possible run it through an old analog console or tume mic pre, that will fatten up the sound.

I think the 2:50 will give you a modern sound, and youll probably want to EQ it to put back a good bit or mids...

 

[scubidru]

I owned a Studio Pre for about 24hrs (had to send it back, as it was a POS from Daddy's Junky Music, emphasis on the "junk") prior to the Quad. The sound of the Studio is what drove me to purchase the Quad. To my ears, the two units sound and react differently. But in both units, after trying the recording out, I have no intention on using them due to the fact that they seem to get rid of a lot of higher frequency content. Today I tried to run my BBE 362 through the effects loop instead of last in chain and seemed to clarify the the preamps output a little better and as a bonus had a little less hiss. So far, with the tube changes and some signal re-routing, I can tell i'm closing in on my tone. I may add a slight boost to the front end via some kind of modded tube screamer type pedal, just to get a little more of a crunchy addition to palm mutes.

 

[scubidru]

I spent quite a bit of time fine tuning the tone in my Quad Pre this week and found some really great tones via trial and error. I finalized the chain as follows; Quad (main outs)-->BBE 362-->Replifex-->Intellifex-->Stereo 2:50. As for the tubes, I went through some old Mullards, Raytheons, Japanese RCA's, EH's, GT's, and a GT 7025. The tube selection didn't seem to alter the tone a great deal (other than the Mullards seemed to lower the high freq content so they went back in the box, and the GT 7025 was a good fit in V11). My overall impression was that the best tubes for the remainder of the sockets were the tubes that tested stongest. Also note that if you want to try tesing different tubes , be sure to leave the reverb tank connected because a portion of your signal continously passes through it and effects the tone dramatically. After settling on the tubes the gave the most pronounced signal, it seemed much easier to EQ (more reaponsive), had a defined increase in overall gain and a tighter/more focused gain structure. I had also tried a couple of overdrive pedals (the MI Audio Blue Boy was pretty good) but the gain and tone are good enough without. Pretty sure I'll stick with this setup for some time because this is the first time I've had four usable, distinct channels that sound great.