My Fender amp play's Hendrix...

Ok. An mp3 worth a thousand words.

I did not believe it myself but I've recorded some bars of Hendrix's "All along the watchtower" with a Fender amp.

After listening to it I said to myself "What a wonderful amp!"

Guess what amp it is?

http://www.download.stratquebec.com/watchtower.mp3

 

(LONG POST!)
First of all guys, I really appreciate your good words and I thank you very much. Sincerly the goal of this thread is not to attract me those kind words, although it makes makes feel me good!

Ok. The amp (some have guessed) is a Fender Cyber-Deluxe. An all "no tubes", completly SS. Really the last short recording I made with it, the Hendrix stuff, surprised me a lot. It sound very awesome to my ears .

Really, what I want to share here is that the Cyber-Deluxe, at least on a home recording basis, is really the amp Fender claims to be. Very good sounding and do a very great job on amps models recreation too, at least the Fenders one.

And It has more than that : A lot of features like build-in very high quality reverb, effects and delay, also a pretty good compressor and even a noise gate. All that plus an excellent stereo output for direct recording or PA use, an expender output to slave another amp, midi, effects send-return etc, and I must admit, more often than not, very it sounds very "tube like".

Like all of us, if I could afford it, I would have many tube amps like Marshall, Boogie, Vox, Fender... and many hybrid and many modeling... For sure I would like to have them all, but unfortunately, I can't!

So the Cyber-Deluxe, to me, is the one that makes me feels like I would have all thoses!

What a pleasure to get all thoses sweet tones, in particular that Hendrix like on "All along the watchtower", in your headphones, at 3h00 AM while everybody around is sleeping! That's the kind of satisfaction this Cyber amp gives me.

I think that the trick to tap this amplifier its bests sonorities is to use it at first in "manual mode" (wich is a Cyber-Deluxe unique feature) using the clean amps types like the Tweed1, the Blackface1 and the Dyna-Touch1(why not!).

That way you don't use a pre-configuration (preset) full of noisy high gain distortion and effects, especially if you guitar is equiped with single coils!. No, try it in manual mode with those clean amp types and you'll have, so to speak, a "really" clean virtual vintage Bassman, vintage Twin, or Modern Dyna-Touch Fender amp to play with!

Then try them with a little bit of effects. Wow! And now, to get those clean amps a little bit "dirtier" use the compressor set to 3 or 4 and use your guitar volume knob to control the gain, just like you do with a tube amp. And now try the headphones...incredible!

Once you feel comfortable with those clean amp types, go for the the one with more gain like the Tweed2, Blackface2 and Dyna-Touch2 and don't forget to reduce the GAIN knob, maybe it's on 10!!! More often than not, the gain set to 4 or 5 is really enough.

And now go on with the other amps types like British and Modern, *paying attention* to the GAIN and VOLUME knobs to control the distortion. Pay attention too to the trim knob. It's red led must not go to the peak to often.

In any cases, that's the way I did with my Cyber-Deluxe. After all, that Hendrix like tone was found using the ultra clean tweed1 amp type adding compression-3 to get that little sweet crunch, simply! It remained to add some reverb, delay and just a bit of rotary speaker (vibratone) to give the tone that subtil atmosphere...

IMHO, any serious guitarist should take the time to learn how to use that "just a solid-state amp...".

So the amp here is a Tweed recreation which could be a 1954 Champ, a 1959 Bassman or a 1955 tweed deluxe.

Here's the settings of the parameters:

Open the amp in manual mode
slect Amp Type : Tweed1
Trim level : 5.5

EQ'S:
Gain : .....9.9
Volume : ...9.9
Treble : ...4.2
Middle : ...9.9
Bass : .....6.8
Master : ...4.0
Compression : 1 for the rythm, 3 for the lead

Noise Gate:
Noise Gate : ......Off
Noise Gate Depth : N/A

Reverb:
Reverb Type : ....Spring1
reverb Level : ...4.4
Reverb time : ....7.6
Reverb Dwell : ...6.4
Reverb Diffusion : 7.1
Reverb Tone :......5.6

Effects:
Modulation F/x : ...............Vibratone 1
Vibratone Level : ......................1.9
Vibratone Rotor Speed : ................2.9
Vibratone Doppler Frequency Shift :.....5.8
Vibratone Low-Pass Filter Range : ......1.2
Vibratone Amplitude Modulation Depth : .9.9


Delay:
Delay Type : .................Tape 5
Delay Level : ................4.4
Delay Time : ................6.0
Delay Feedback : .............3.6
Delay Wow & Flutter : ........6.0
Delay Low-Pass Frequency : ...7.5

The guitar used is a stock 2002 American Series Stratocaster, mapple neck. The Delta-tone feature was disable (bridge tone knob to 9). The bass used is a Cort Action V and the drummer name is PC-Drummer, a sweet little simple software.

The mp3 was recorded with a digital tascam 788. Just a bit of compresssion added to the drum tracks. Nothing on the Bass and the Guitar. The bass was plugged direct in the tascam. For the guitar, all comes from the Cyber-deluxe!

Now you have it all!

Rene

 

Thanks Mark!

I'm happy that you experience the same level of satisfaction with the Vox Jeff! On day I'm gonna give it a try, for sure. Go on my friend and record some sound bytes with your Valvetronix to share with us!

Rene

 

Thanks Wally!

I totaly agree with you about "tube vs ss". It's an old debate and any "musician ears" can hear the difference between the two, especially on overdriven tones, or with stomp boxes, but as you know, tube amps needs to be crancked to give their best tones.

So, what I want to point out here is simply:
"What a pleasure to get all thoses sweet tones, in particular that Hendrix like on "All along the watchtower", in your headphones, at 3h00 AM while everybody around is sleeping! That's the kind of satisfaction this Cyber amp gives me."

I do used tube amps in the pas but they couldn't give me that Hendrix tone at 3.00 am in my headphones while everybody around is sleeping!!! I did that recording during the night in a very quiet room and what a surprise I had when I listened to the mp3.

Really at least for direct recording, that amp is a killer...and has no tubes to take care, swap, bias, replace, being new or NOS.

I don't know how will sound that preset live though...


Rene

 

Thanks for the compliment my friend. I really do appreciate. You're a gentleman.

"I guess what one needs is a tube amp with a headphone out and a load/speaker simulator to achieve the silence"


Oh, that would be nice!

Take care Wally!

 

" I did roll back the tone on both the amp & the Guitar. It really sweetened up the tone. "

That make sens since I think the tone must not be too bright.

"Thanks for taking the time ..."
Glad that it had helped.

Just a note : It's a Cyber-deluxe Jerry!