Hi, I have spent hours trying to develop a clean sound and I am beginning to think it's not possible with this amp. It is way too bright, or high toned... It's like the guitar's B string is way louder than the other strings.. I have tried 2 stratocasters, and my alvarez acoustic and they all sound horrible. These guitars sound fine on other amps. I have even turned off all of the effects and I can still hear that high ringing noise, so it looks like the problem is not something I can adjust away... Has anyone else experienced this? Hopefully I am missing something simple, because I love the idea of the amp and interface.
You're right Dave, I should have thought of more details. I am using the Code 100H amp head and a Marshall MX 412B speaker cabinet with 4 12" celestion speakers. My main guitar is a Fender Strat Plus with the lace pickups. And I have re-watched several youtube videos and I believe all of the code amps have this issue. Now that my ear is looking for that ring, I hear it in all of the clean samples in the videos too. However, in all of the sample videos, the guitarist is strumming very very lightly, so it is not as noticable. If they were to play an aggressive strum like Long Train Runnin by the Doobie Brothers, I'm sure their sound would be unacceptable too. And I have tried all of the presets and tried to make my own. Even with all of the effects off, I hear the ring.
Per request, here is my response to Bud as a starting point...
After reading through your comments and thinking about possible solutions I decided to do some research into Ritchie Blackmore and his gear.
His main sound was from a stack with a Marshall Major 200W head as his primary amp and (2) 4x12 cabinets. Pretty classic at the time. This is a version of the 50W and 100W Plexi from the 60’s where the 200W was originally a PA version. If you listen to some of the early Deep Purple stuff (Machine Head for example) you will hear a Stratocaster with more mid-range than say a Clapton tone of later times. Blackmore also did most of his work with finger plucking rather then pick, which helps with the mid’s.
So I am suggesting you start with a Plexi or DSL preamp, going into a Marshall 30W or 100W power amp. As you go through each cabinet sample you should hear the mid’s change. Don’t forget about Resonance and Presence as these settings will affect the ‘ring’, as it were, of the power section and cabinet emulation. Especially the Presence. EQ should be set at ‘5’ or 12 o’clock as a starting point then fiddled from there. I would expect you will decrease Treble and Midrange accordingly. No effects should be on as this will affect the signal tone depending on the effect being used. But you probably already have this process figured out so I’m just going through the process to see if it makes sense to me…
My suggestions are based on a CODE 25 and other experiences so my apologizes if I am way off base for the 100W head and cabinet you have.
Perhaps you could do me the favor of testing the presets I have posted and let me know what you think or if I am close. They are ‘Strat’, ‘Mor Paul’, and ‘Filtertron’. You will find the Mor Paul a little darker and that may help you.
Another thing to examine is the pickup. I’m not sure if you have covers on yours but if not check the height of the pole pieces. You may just have a hot section in the pickup. If you are able to lower the pole under the specific string that can sometimes help with signal strength. Another thing I’ve done is rotate the pickup 180 degrees. It’s not always a solution but it can help through the process of elimination.
Tell me… what other amps are you using where you DON’T get the ring….? Maybe we can find the proper setting based on that.
