Marky Forrest Posted January 31, 2019 Share Posted January 31, 2019 Beautiful Strat and nice amp, Ian. I like your wife's sense of humor too. That's not a bad exchange for a beach vacation, assuming you get to go with her. LOL I have two Strats with maple fingerboards and 9.5" radius. Love both of them. Congratulations! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MichaelT Posted February 4, 2019 Author Share Posted February 4, 2019 I finally got to play the new guitar and amp at band volumes yesterday. Weather was pretty brutal last week so we just got together without amps. It was weird playing a Fender Strat, since I've been a Flying V/Les Paul guy for so long. There's definitely some songs we play where the Strat sounded better and a few songs where my Gibsons sound better. I used the Marshall Code50 yesterday as well instead of my DSL40CR and it's PLENTY loud enough at 50 watts. I think I had it on maybe 3 or 4 on the master volume and 2 on the channel volume. This amp is a very valid gigging amp if you like the tone of modeling amps. I like my tube amps better but this will definitely get the job done. Being able to program in up to 30 different sounds with effects on the footswitch is a nice feature and I can change them with the footswitch or on my iPad. As Kidblast has said, the presets aren't all that great and they take some tweaking, which is pretty easy to do with the iPad. It would be nice if it had an interface into my computer like the Fender Mustang does but overall I'm pretty happy. In my opinion it's a great practice amp and a good gigging amp, along with being a really nice backup amp. I'm pleased with the guitar and amp both. An effects loop would be nice because even though I don't use pedals much, it would be nice to be able to add my pedalboard in an effects loop for additional sounds or effects if needed. One of the things that's nice about it is that I can use one sound set at volume 2 and then create another sound, which is similar and set the volume for it at 2.5 or so for a lead boost. I like that feature. I'm still playing with all the settings on the amp. The Strat is great and with the maple neck and the Strat sound, it really rounds off some tones for some of the songs we're doing. Our other guitarist bought a 2010 Fender Strat Deluxe on Saturday and we both showed up with them yesterday. The other guys were teasing about the two Gibson guys (He also has two Les Pauls) showing up with Strats. Our singer also plays a Les Paul Studio and is looking to buy a Telecaster this year. I foresee me bringing a couple guitars to practice and gigs. I'll probably play my Gibsons for 80% of the songs we do. The Strats sounded particularly good on a few of the country songs we do. Anyway, that's an update after playing them for a week and for the first time at band volumes. They'll definitely get the job done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kidblast Posted February 4, 2019 Share Posted February 4, 2019 Good stuff Michael. Happy to hear the Code 50 is going to do the job. They are definitely loud enough to jam and gig with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MichaelT Posted February 4, 2019 Author Share Posted February 4, 2019 Good stuff Michael. Happy to hear the Code 50 is going to do the job. They are definitely loud enough to jam and gig with. Thank you for the discussion on it. Your recommendation and helpful tips were what convinced me to give it a try. If you have a few recommended settings that you use, I'll surely appreciate it. I have at least 4 presets pretty dialed in. Thanks again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pippy Posted February 4, 2019 Share Posted February 4, 2019 This post could almost be subtitled "It Might Get Loud!!!!"... Thanks for the update on using both in a 'live' setting, Michael. Did you have any LPs with you in order to compare the Strat and a Les Paul at the same pre-sets / settings? I ask because after I bought my Music Man 2x12 in 1980 I spent about a week - pencil and paper in hand - knob-twiddling on amp and guitars to have a rapid reference chart to familiarise myself with vol / tone settings for, say, Rory G. as opposed to early '70s Clapton or Mark Knopfler. Then when I eventually got my R0 I did just about the same and was amazed to see that all my basic 'Strat' settings on the amp worked just as well with the R0; all I really needed to adjust was to add a bit more Mid to give the Strat more mid-range meat. I'd be interested to read about any thoughts you have using both with the Marshall in part because my pre-MM gigging amp was, as it happens, a 2x10 Marshall...... Pip. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MichaelT Posted February 4, 2019 Author Share Posted February 4, 2019 This post could almost be subtitled "It Might Get Loud!!!!"... Thanks for the update on using both in a 'live' setting, Michael. Did you have any LPs with you in order to compare the Strat and a Les Paul at the same pre-sets / settings? I ask because after I bought my Music Man 2x12 in 1980 I spent about a week - pencil and paper in hand - knob-twiddling on amp and guitars to have a rapid reference chart to familiarise myself with vol / tone settings for, say, Rory G. as opposed to early '70s Clapton or Mark Knopfler. Then when I eventually got my R0 I did just about the same and was amazed to see that all my basic 'Strat' settings on the amp worked just as well with the R0; all I really needed to adjust was to add a bit more Mid to give the Strat more mid-range meat. I'd be interested to read about any thoughts you have using both with the Marshall in part because my pre-MM gigging amp was, as it happens, a 2x10 Marshall...... Pip. I haven't gotten that far yet. I've been working on dialing in a Strat sound so far. I had to up the mid and lessen the treble once I got there and played at a louder volume. I'll be tweaking it with the Les Pauls and Flying V's this week. I'll definitely let you know. The one Les Paul that I did play through it and it sounded good with the "Strat" settings was the Goldtop with P90's. I haven't tweaked my tube amps yet for my Strat and I'll be doing that as well. We practice as a band on Tuesdays and Thursday, so my free time is the off nights. I'll definitely post an update when I have one. And, as far as "It Might Get Loud" goes, I think my old 70's Fender Twin Reverb was the loudest amp I've ever owned. I've not had my 100 watt Marshall cranked up more than a couple of times. The Fender was definitely loud though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kidblast Posted February 4, 2019 Share Posted February 4, 2019 Thank you for the discussion on it. Your recommendation and helpful tips were what convinced me to give it a try. If you have a few recommended settings that you use, I'll surely appreciate it. I have at least 4 presets pretty dialed in. Thanks again. Hey Michael, so that's about all I have for the modified presets I tend to use the most. I do have some more set, but I keep going back to those same three or four, as those just seem to work for me.. For the amp models, I'm using the JTM45 for most of the cleaner sounds, I like the Plexi, and Silver Jubilee for the gritty blues sounds, and the JCM800 works pretty good for the more cranked up, hard rock sounds. I found most of the changes were with the noise gate settings, and then the EQing. esp with single coils, I like to dial back the high frequencies, they just get a bit too much for my ears if I'm using a strat/tele or my SG classic w/p90s Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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