Cagey said:
Superlizard said:
Huge fan of power supply sag (and lower filtering FWIW) in my tone and anyone else's. :icon_thumright:
So... have you removed your chokes and replaced them with resistors yet? Because theoretically, that'll help that scenario. Some pretty serious guys have done some A/B testing and can't tell the difference (no surprise there), but there's a large contingent out there that's convinced power supply chokes affect tone. Of course, that same contingent wonders what effect the metal corners on their speaker bottoms or which brand of capacitor they use has on their tone, too <grin>
Well I am serious about tone, but I don't go to amazing extremes. I also don't push concepts I haven't tried yet.
I do believe that if the signal goes through it or... if "it" produces the signal, it's gonna affect the tone... whether or not it's perceptible depends on the
ears listening, and as we know... not everyone's ears are equal.
Replacing the choke with a resistor would be an interesting experiment, but I'm more than satisfied with the tone I have to forego any other "tricks".
I can't say if it would make a difference simply because I haven't attempted to do so.
However, as far as caps go, my experience has shown that cheap ceramic disc caps (as in amp volume pot "bright" caps) seem to impart crunchier highs as opposed to
smooth highs (at least until you turn it up to "10" of course).
There's also the carbon comp resistor vs. modern construction resistor argument... among countless others.
Certainly there is BS when it comes to this subject, but far too many people dismiss the
entire ball of wax due to their lack of hearing or experience. As well, many
play with so much clipping and compression that even a mod/tweak which would normally have a major tone effect does little to nothing.
For example - one might think a string is a string, and so they all sound the same. Well, not all strings are equal tone-wise. Replace your steel-wound strings with nickel-wound strings, and I
guarantee you'll hear that awful metallic treble on the wound strings (from steel-wound strings) disappear.
Another example - one might say a tube is a tube, but I've got several sets of current-manufactured 12AX7/ECC83s that say otherwise because they all sound different from each other, and more
importantly, sound inferior to the NOS tubes in my stash.
The fact is,
some of it is truth. But if one doesn't educate themselves on the subject, they're left in the dark and don't know
who to believe. Of course, it's just as easy for the neophytes
to cry "BS!" on an internet chat board over facts and/or laugh at how say Eric Johnson can hear the difference between a carbon 9V vs. an alkaline 9V... as it is for the shrewd guitar parts manufacturer
to make BS claims about their stompbox getting the "brown sound".
Bottom line is if one is serious about their tone, they will theorize, discuss, experiment and learn. Those that aren't serious won't bother to put the time in, and instead assume their hard-earned
$$$ will do the work for them. The latter are the ones who get suckered by the manufacturers every time; a captive audience.
