Author Topic: Q about Concert Lead being used for guitar through 1x15"  (Read 1826 times)

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Offline younglungs85

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Q about Concert Lead being used for guitar through 1x15"
« on: April 03, 2012, 07:58:58 pm »
I play guitar through 3 amps. I have a red knob Concert Lead going to a 1x15" cab that I use to get bass / low mid frequencies. However, I can't roll the highs out of it enough. Would I be better suited with a Concert Bass or Beta Bass? Are the black faces better than silver faces?

Offline EdBass

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Re: Q about Concert Lead being used for guitar through 1x15"
« Reply #1 on: April 04, 2012, 08:38:28 am »
I'm not a huge transistor Sunn (or for that matter any transistor MI amp) fan, so I don't know a whole bunch about them. But, I think the Concert Lead and Concert Bass, and the Beta Lead and Beta Bass are voiced pretty similar tonally so I don't know if that's the answer.

What about a low pass filter, or probably even better just put a nice graphic EQ in front of the amp? You could attenuate the frequencies you don't want at will.
I have a nice Sunn dual 30 band w/ power supply that I just pulled out of a monitor rack that I upgraded, I'll list it here before it goes to eBay.


Offline Walt-Dogg

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Re: Q about Concert Lead being used for guitar through 1x15"
« Reply #2 on: April 04, 2012, 06:15:29 pm »
The Lead series heads ARE brighter than the Bass series of heads.
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Offline EdBass

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Re: Q about Concert Lead being used for guitar through 1x15"
« Reply #3 on: April 04, 2012, 09:45:46 pm »
The Lead series heads ARE brighter than the Bass series of heads.

How so? As I said I don't know too much about the amps, but I just skimmed over the preamp schematics for the Concert Lead and the Concert Bass and didn't see ANY difference in tone stack values; they appeared identical.

Did I miss something? What makes the Lead series "brighter"?

Offline Walt-Dogg

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Re: Q about Concert Lead being used for guitar through 1x15"
« Reply #4 on: April 05, 2012, 11:59:21 am »
The extra staging with reverb and distortion. Sunn amps by all means are very dark, I've just had the most luck with the Lead amps getting a brighter sound and I've used Concert Basses for guitar and Concert Leads for bass. Just because the tone stacks are the same doesn't mean the circuits are the same.
Gibson Les Paul Special
Electra X260
Squier Precision Bass MIJ
Science Hellhawk 100w
Ampeg VT-22/V-4
Science Mother
Mojotone Bluesbreaker 2x12
Mojotone British 4x12
Ampeg SVT 810

Offline EdBass

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Re: Q about Concert Lead being used for guitar through 1x15"
« Reply #5 on: April 05, 2012, 01:04:25 pm »
Hmmm. How do the distort and reverb circuits change the tone of an amp; particularly when they aren't engaged?
Obviously the overal circuit is different because of the addition of the reverb circuit, but isn't an amps tonality determined by the tone stack circuit?
I'm thinking that except for the Lead's added reverb circuit (Didn't I see a footswitchable distort on the Bass version as well?), the amps are pretty much identical and ought to sound remarkably similar.
Once again, I'm certainly not the world's foremost authority on transistor amps, or any amps for that matter.

But back to the topic; I would image to accomplish what the OP is trying to do putting a filter in front of the amp would be more effective than just replacing a "Lead" with a "Bass".

Offline loudthud

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Re: Q about Concert Lead being used for guitar through 1x15"
« Reply #6 on: April 05, 2012, 07:32:42 pm »
You could also insert an EQ in the Effects loop between the Preamp out and Power amp in on the back panel.