On the subject of amps.... David Bray ?

[Charlie_M]

Anyone ever heard of this guy?

I stumbled onto this today and thought I'd share the link to the soundclips

http://www.davidbrayamps.com/soundclips.htm

I really like the sound of this one here :

http://www.davidbrayamps.com/denson.mp3

which is reprtedly generated with a strat copy and an upgraded bridge pickup through one of these modified amps. Kinda makes me want a strat copy with an upgraded pickup. The sound of this clip really appeals to me.

But.... there are so many nice sounding setups in this list.

Enjoy !


Charlie

[brandondrury]

Yeah, this are definitely some great sounding amps in the hands of guys who know how to pull tones out of them.

which is reprtedly generated with a strat copy and an upgraded bridge pickup through one of these modified amps. Kinda makes me want a strat copy with an upgraded pickup. The sound of this clip really appeals to me.

Well, I would expect that this player (who is obviously very good) could make any guitar scream. I don't think the "copy" part of the Strat copy is that important in this tone.

Either way, it's obviously a great amp!

Brandon

[Charlie_M]

I was pretty blown away by the sublte difference in tone he gets just between mod1 and mod2 type setups. One is more like EVH and the other is more like an Angus Young kind of sound. He seems to nail it pretty darn well. I think this guy must really understand the connection between the electronics and the resulting tone in a very deep way.

If I'm hearing it right, it sounds like the player is able to go from a very
clean/bright/ringing/sweet tone to the edge of fedback with a nice crunch with a sweetness all its own, and make this change with just the volume knob on his geeetar. Does it sound that way to you? That is something I was never able to accomplish even back when I was playing a lot. I always found that the sound fell prety flat once I backed off on the guitar volume knobs. I wonder if that's part of what the mods are adding in. I suppose it's possible the guy is cranking up the amp and not his guitar knobs....

Truth is I should be working my skills instead of lusting after additional gear, but I think it's good to keep my ears open for stuff too as I crawl back to some level of playing proficiency. I couldn't justify that amount of cash for an amp until I get a lot better at playing though.

The tones I heard on this guy's links inspired me to get a couple books on amp electronics from amazon. I'm not gonna go off and come up with my own mods or anything, just would like to understand the whole thing better.

Charlie

[brandondrury]

If I'm hearing it right, it sounds like the player is able to go from a very
clean/bright/ringing/sweet tone to the edge of fedback with a nice crunch with a sweetness all its own, and make this change with just the volume knob on his geeetar.

I have heard this done in real life, but I can't remember the gear combination / player that did it. A big part of it comes from using power tube distortion (which I'm hearing a lot on these recordings). Backing off the volume on a great amp will sound great clean...sometimes. I also noticed how all of his amps seam to do this.

I've got a feeling that this is the volume. I really doubt if it's a knob thing and I doubt even more if it's a channel switching thing.

I agree. Very impressive!!

Truth is I should be working my skills instead of lusting after additional gear, but I think it's good to keep my ears open for stuff too as I crawl back to some level of playing proficiency. I couldn't justify that amount of cash for an amp until I get a lot better at playing though.

Agreed. The tone is in the fingers. A crappy player would sound terrible with these amps. It takes a great player and a great amp to make it work.

Brandon

[brandondrury]

The tones I heard on this guy's links inspired me to get a couple books on amp electronics from amazon. I'm not gonna go off and come up with my own mods or anything, just would like to understand the whole thing better.

I bought one of the Dan Torres books a while back and really liked it. It was actually pretty simple stuff, electronically. I just never jumped in and actually modded any amps.

Brandon

[Charlie_M]

Hey I picked up DanTorres' book also this weekend. Stopped by his shop. Nice operation. Seems to be a very busy shop. Amps and guitars awaiting service fill the place and people are busy working on them. Nice guy too. He had some cheap korean strat copy in there that was set up by his guitar setup guy - that thing was a real dream to play. His guitar setup guy must be very good if he could make that rough beast feel/play that good. I'm planning to bring my LP and strat over there to have his guy set them up. Just need to bring one at a time though - they have so much guitar work going on it might take them a week to get to a setup job. What a cool place. I'd love to buid one of his amp kits - maybe a summer project.

Charlie

[Matt]

Originally Posted by brandondrury

I bought one of the Dan Torres books a while back and really liked it. It was actually pretty simple stuff, electronically. I just never jumped in and actually modded any amps.

Brandon

BE CAREFUL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Storytime:

I am a tube amp fanatic. I like tinkering with old amps and tube radios. A few weeks ago I got 3 old tube radios going for a family member. This was fun, but I got a little over confident. I went to my parents house for dinner later that evening. My little brother drug out an old tube radio he got at an auction and asked me to look at it. I was over confident from my triumphs earlier that day and proceeded to shock the living fuck out of myself on this 60-70 year old radio.

The output tranny in this radio was TINY compared to an old marshall or fender amp. I got away with some minor burns and a tingling left arm for a day. I got lucky.

Smokey says: There's just no room for error when you're messing with the voltages in tube amps.


-Matt

[brandondrury]

Smokey says: There's just no room for error when you're messing with the voltages in tube amps.

You are looking at well over 400 volts in many cases.

I'm glad you posted this, Matt, because we all need to be reminded that guitar amp voltage can be lethal. We all want killer tone, but not literally!

So, make sure you review the safety manual, and if necessary, take a class on it. It could save your life.

Oftentimes, basic fundamentals (like safety) can get overlooked and understressed. This is a good time to remind ourselves of this.

Having said that, I can't wait until the day I have time to start modding amps. The guitar amp technology is monstrously primitive from an electronics standpoint, but very tough from a creative / artistic standpoint. It's amazing how the various sounds that changed our lives were done by simply reversing the order of a tone circuit (treble, mid, bass to bass, mid, treble) or swapping in a smaller resistor.

Brandon