Phaez DuoPhonic...My Re-Discovery...

Thatbastarddon

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So.....I’ve been farting around with my old Mesa Dual RectumFryer lately...reacquainting myself with the controls...BED8317B-E01A-4B88-B5DD-C2E6B0093D47.jpeg

...but I had a rehearsal tonight...and we haven’t had one in a while, so I didn’t want to stir things up too much...Four 6L6 tubes, pumping out 100 Watts is a big change from a pair of 6V6 tubes, pushing 22 Watts...so I swapped the Phaez back in....
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...But....this time I took a slightly different approach to setting up my gain structure....
This time, I let the power amp have the load in a much more aggressive manner. I, essentially, (nearly) dimed the master volume, and balanced the two preamp circuits to taste....WOW!!!!!! Much better approach with this amp!
It’s much quieter at idle. It has a bit more “sag”(in a good way) when keeping up with a full band. It has, dare I say, Mesa level gain on tap....gain that’s still easily controllable with a guitar volume knob...AND...it has that gorgeous, round, Blackface Fender clean on that other channel! Good stuff!
...and did I mention that it’s much more quiet at idle?!?!....I mean, I can tell it’s “on“ when on the high gain(Daisycutter) channel, but not by much....it’s a light white noise....my bassist’s clean rig is in the neighborhood... The clean(L) channel is very nearly silent...Ummmmmmmm.....yeah....l like it.....I like it a lot!

Just wanted to share....
 
How were you setting it up before?
The clean channel to nearly break-up(about 2 o’clock)....the dirt(Daisycutter) channel gain to about the same(2 o’clock)....the Daisycutter channel has its own master/level control to balance the two channels(set between 11-12 o’clock).
the master would end up at around 10:30-11 o’clock to be at “band level”.

Tonight, I started with the master at around 3:30-4 o’clock, and ended up with the clean channel at around 9:00 o’clock, and the Daisycutter gain around 2:30, with its level set to match the clean(to taste-a bit louder @10-10:30ish).
On the Daisycutter channel, full guitar volume yielded creamy, smooth, distortion...almost a Muffy fuzz...
When I backed down on the guitar volume, I got some good Mick Ronson tones...Ziggy era....
We covered our palette pretty well tonight...Ziggy era Bowie, to Sabbath, to BOC, to original dynamic dirt/clean stuff...I didn’t feel the need for my Muff-box at all...
 
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If you can get the volume you want, then dimming power tubes brings out a great sound. It's weird, kinda, but not all the crunch and gain is in the preamp, sometimes the really nice crunch is in the powertubes. It's not exactly the same, but my baby Randall tube amp worked best when the power tube was cranked and just bring the volume in with the gain control.

Right, now I've said my piece it's back to the Yamaha THR10... :(
 
That‘s how I‘ve been setting up my master volume Marshall’s. That way they sound more like my non-masters, without the high volume. Still get some nice sounds, and I don‘t need to swap pedals or make major adjustments going from amp to amp.
 
That‘s how I‘ve been setting up my master volume Marshall’s. That way they sound more like my non-masters, without the high volume. Still get some nice sounds, and I don‘t need to swap pedals or make major adjustments going from amp to amp.
Agreed! That is the way I always had set up my Laney, the clean channel in the Phaez does sound nice when it’s pushed...but there’s so much headroom on that channel that the master needed to come down to allow that slight grit at band volume. The pristine clean is a fair trade though.:)
 
Alright then....I’ve gone down to “record” the Phaez twice now. Each time I’ve burned through the allotted time by playing.... ;) ....can’t seem to put the guitar down to actually set up a mic or three. Hopefully I will find the time this weekend(or maybe Thursday night, if rehearsal is canceled). After watching the Mesa 5:35 VS Mini Rec video today, I burned through a couple of hours just playing around with the Phaez, instead of recording samples. What a great little amp this is...I hope the new neighbors don’t call the local constabulary on me.:) The Daisycutter channel can get pretty brutal.
 
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