Volume Boost options?

[DeanM]

well there is still the MV!!!! depends where you have that set!

[Slashwannabe1]

This is why the Jubilee amps were great... you could set rhythm volume and then lead volume.

[SteveD]

Welcome to the forum maxrossell and poxo.

Part of the Vintage Modern's sound is that the FX loop return feeds quite a hot signal to the power amp (like the early Plexis), hence, there's not much room left for a volume boost. As has been said, the amp is designed to work dynamically with the guitar's volume and player's touch per the 'old school' way.

An OD pedal in the front driving the preamp to saturation and something like a Boss LS-2 in the loop set to 'normal' and 'solo' levels would probably get you where you want to be.

I suspect a modern channel switcher may be more up your street. Try a JVM.

[Green Manalishi]

I will be the second to state using a Weber attenuator. I have a Mini mass with footswitchable bypass option. For the price of a boutique pedal (or in some cases less than a boutique pedal) you can get a Weber Mini Mass with footswitch. Set the attenuation for rythm and bypass it for leads. Very simple and easy to use, plus you get an attenuator for home playing.

It is an ideal solution for me. I tried the od and clean boost in front, didn't work, I tried the od/boost in the loop, didn't work, tried the od/boost to actually cut in the loop, sounded bad. I tried the LS2 and did not like the results.

Attenuator with bypass works very well for me. Ideal solltion if you want the same tone or gain but at different volumes.

Weber has one attenuator with several footswitchable volume options too.

Oh, and the Weber sounds pretty good to, for an attenuator, I like it much more than the Hot Plates I sold.

[Slashwannabe1]

Welcome to the forum maxrossell and poxo.

Part of the Vintage Modern's sound is that the FX loop return feeds quite a hot signal to the power amp (like the early Plexis), hence, there's not much room left for a volume boost. As has been said, the amp is designed to work dynamically with the guitar's volume and player's touch per the 'old school' way.

An OD pedal in the front driving the preamp to saturation and something like a Boss LS-2 in the loop set to 'normal' and 'solo' levels would probably get you where you want to be.

I suspect a modern channel switcher may be more up your street. Try a JVM.

Correct me if I'm wrong... but if you could mod the amplifier so that theres 2 volume controls that you could switch between where you could set one for rhythm work and one for lead like the jubilees that it wouldn't screw with the sound other than the obvious richness that comes with turning the amplifier higher?. I still think this would be a good way, because I feel it would be a little more subtle than boosting the input volume signal from the guitar which pushes the pre amp and makes your guitar basically a Foreman at a gain factory. I can deal with the little difference of power amp distortion if I were able to run both these volumes- 6 rhythm & 8 lead or 7 rhythm & 9 lead on the MV, where the sound is slightly different but still closer to itself than boosting the pre amp.

Basically I would like to make the master volume footswtchable for lead boost on the fly as to remove the pedals/wiring on the floor, and I would put the switch for changing between rhythm lead in the Marshall Range Switcher pedal ;-) I think this way it still would retain all the adjustability of the Guitars volume pots for gain purposes and retain the character of the amplifier without ruining your intended design.

With my set up rolling back my guitars volume pot for lower volume isn't an option for solo boost, it just has way less gain and barely any by the time it gets quiet enough to be suitable for rhythm work (around 2 on my volume pots).

Thanks Steve! The VM is still no matter what the best sounding amplifier I've ever used!

[maxrossell]

Okay, so here's my solution, tell me what you think:

Use the LDR for a cleanish sound, and the HDR for a dirty sound, but roll the body and detail back by about a third to maybe 10 o'clock (I was gonna anyway, cos I think I was losing some of the amp's character by gaining the balls off it).

For solos, switch back to LDR and stick an OD/boost pedal with the volume up into the front end. <-- Will this give me the volume boost I'm after, and have the added bonus of thickening out the LDR gain level, or will I just get a gain boost with no volume increase?

Essentially, what I'm looking for here is a way to make the damn thing slightly louder for solos with a footswitch or pedal. I don't want to get rid of it because it's my favourite tone of all time.

EDIT - I should add that I'm running my master vol at about 11:30.

[slowpokerhino]

The boost issues really only apply in high dynamic range. I've boosted the hell out of mine in low range with no problems at all. Could work.

[maxrossell]

The boost issues really only apply in high dynamic range. I've boosted the hell out of mine in low range with no problems at all. Could work.

Really? Even when you're running LDR with the Body and Detail higher up (quite a lot of breakup)? I'm considering EHXs Graphic Fuzz, because I really like the overdrive tones on it and it has an inbuilt EQ section so I could boost the s*** out of the mids and add a little extra volume for solos. What do you reckon?

[Green Manalishi]

Consider the Weber attenuator footswitchable route, it really works.

[poxo]

OK,the 3 possible solutions are :

- A attenaudor footswitchable.
- A second volumen master.
- Change to Low Range and stick a od/booster

[C0ldFart]

Consider the Weber attenuator footswitchable route, it really works.

I can bet on that, the attenuator is on top of my vm in my avatar.

[Slashwannabe1]

For those of you too lazy to read my above post, heres the short version...

The best way I see, is to mod a lead master volume control pot and have it controllable via footswitch. I don't see it being that hard to mod the amp to switch between 2 volume pots. One pot controls rhythm volume and the other pot controls lead work.

I'm not a tech guru, but even I wouldn't be afraid to undertake this route given the correct information on how to do so.

Or I could always take one of the mexicans off my lawn and have them sit by my amp and wait for a solo to turn the master volume up hmmm that could work! Probably still a cheaper route than a THD Hotplate!.

[poxo]

Or I could always take one of the mexicans off my lawn and have them sit by my amp and wait for a solo to turn the master volume up hmmm that could work! Probably still a cheaper route than a THD Hotplate!.

[frank9310]

Your problem is a piece of cake to solve using an MXR KFK 10 Band Equalizer for $140 or $100 used. Plug it into loop. Set all the frequencies to the 0 unity position. Then turn the volume up to as loud a volume increase as you want it to be. Then on the far right side, turn the gain down a tad until it's equal to the amount of gain you have without the EQ being on but the volume being boosted. Problem solved. If you get an odd boosted frequency, back it off a tad on one or more of the mid to highs and you still have louder volume with no perceivable tone change. Works for me!

See http://www.jimdunlop.com/index.php?page ... oducts/mxr

[Slashwannabe1]

Your problem is a piece of cake to solve using an MXR KFK 10 Band Equalizer for $140 or $100 used. Plug it into loop. Set all the frequencies to the 0 unity position. Then turn the volume up to as loud a volume increase as you want it to be. Then on the far right side, turn the gain down a tad until it's equal to the amount of gain you have without the EQ being on but the volume being boosted. Problem solved. If you get an odd boosted frequency, back it off a tad on one or more of the mid to highs and you still have louder volume with no perceivable tone change. Works for me!

See http://www.jimdunlop.com/index.php?page ... oducts/mxr

The theory is good for a lead boost, turn down the amplifier gain and turn the pedal volume up... but for rhythm your still shit up creek without a paddle as its going to leave your rhythm sound dry.

For me I have a Boss GE-7 already boosting the pre amp with a mid boost for rhythm and lead tones and volume level is set to 0 even with the guitar signal. Anything else boosting the pre amp would be over kill gain on my lead tones. I am going to mod my VM with a Lead master thats for sure, I will lick this problem!.

Undoubtedly, probably the best way for the cleanest and truest lead boosting is having the amplifiers sound split off into stereo and ran through a PA and an alert sound man or guitar tech switching your boost on via pa control panel.

I still like the idea of one of my Mexican chair people turning the volume up on my amp as needed :woot