58 Country Classic Sound

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58 Country Classic Sound

Postby Tom Partridge » Tue Aug 30, 2016 11:17 am

I have a 58 Country Classic pre Fender with TV Jones classic filtertrons and TV Jones wiring harness. I play through a Fender Vibrolux Reverb and both a Peavey Classic 30 and Delta Blues. Neither Peavey is modified. My question is that my guitar sounds quite mid-rangey. I set the Fender on 10 on both treble and bass and the Peavey's at 8 on treble and bass and the mids between 2and 3. Is this the sound I should expect to hear. I do not have this with any of my other guitars. Thanks Tom
Tom Partridge
 
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Re: 58 Country Classic Sound

Postby Norm » Tue Aug 30, 2016 12:13 pm

Raising the pole screws on each string on the pickups will increase the volume a bit on each string adjusted so you could try that. It can be a tedious process getting the balance right.

or just get one of these and put it at the bridge. You'll be close to the 6122.59 in tonal choice

http://www.tvjones.com/tv-classic-plus-pickups.html

I notice the Jones site now has "online chat" so you can ask them in real time about issues you may have
...that's how it looks to me...The opinion expressed above is my own and does not necessarily reflect the views of this station. Your mileage may vary...

Audio samples: http://www.youtube.com/user/acountrygent/videos
That should do it.
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Re: 58 Country Classic Sound

Postby LMark » Tue Aug 30, 2016 5:09 pm

Tom, lots of folk on the board have a Delta Blues. Perhaps someone will chime in. In the meantime, why not call Peavey (or check your manual) to see what positions on Bass, Middle, and Treble represent what is called a "flat" EQ on those amps? Once you know that, you can more intelligently cut the mids. Filtertrons naturally highlight the midrange a bit―more than Travis's P90s and way more than Gibson humbuckers, to my ear. I seem to recall reading that Chet discovered that a bit more midrange increased sonic clarity without tending to produce feedback quite so badly in live performances. You only have a treble and bass on the Fender it appears. Chet's Standel only had treble/bass, but it also had a slope or contour setting internally and was built on a Baxandall circuit--much different than [almost?] any Fender. And for recordings he often went straight in to the board. Who knows what all circuitry the sound went through there. One thing that seems a bit strange to me is that you have the treble way high on all three amps. Chet's tone was actually slightly dark. Do you have the tone control all the way up on the instrument as well? Try hiking tone to nearly max on the instrument and cutting it a bit on the amp. I keep thinking of more things as I write (sorry), but somewhere on the Chetboard is a Paul Yandell FAQ. Maybe he spoke of the settings he used on his Delta Blues. I know he put a JBL D-130 in it. That 58 is a nice instrument. I saw Paul with one that he had modded a bit one year at CAAS. It has a 24-3/4" scale. I wish they made one like it, but with a zero fret and a 1-3/4" nut. LMark
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Re: 58 Country Classic Sound

Postby Norm » Tue Aug 30, 2016 7:24 pm

On page 184 of the Paul Yandell book is the only thing I got on amp setting numbers:

"...People have asked me about Chet’s amp settings but I only remember
the settings on the MusicMan RD-50. He didn’t use very much reverb. On
the MusicMan amps the settings we used were: the clean channel on the
left with the treble at 3 and the bass at about 8..."
Paul Yandell, Second To The Best pp 184
...that's how it looks to me...The opinion expressed above is my own and does not necessarily reflect the views of this station. Your mileage may vary...

Audio samples: http://www.youtube.com/user/acountrygent/videos
That should do it.
Norm
 
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Re: 58 Country Classic Sound

Postby Tom Partridge » Tue Aug 30, 2016 8:15 pm

Thanks for the comments so far. The Fender is less of a problem then the Peaveys and the Fender settings are simply what worked best for me when I played in a rock n roll band. I use other Gretches [6120 dynasonics,tennesean ],Gibson, Fender, Rickenbacker without this issue. I just wandered if there was something inherent with that model or those pick ups or if it was simply me. I will try all suggestions starting with dropping the treble on the Peaveys. I am 65 and until about 15 years ago I played mostly Gibson guitars so it is possible that the Gibson sound is just what my ears consider as normal.
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Re: 58 Country Classic Sound

Postby LMark » Tue Aug 30, 2016 9:02 pm

I hope it's okay to tell a story. We lived way out in the boon docks of western Va. I started playing Chet stuff in the late 70s as a young lad on a Les Paul with alnico slugs at the front and a P90 in the rear. Dad had bought it in 1955. Somehow it had been built with a a slim profile neck that played like butter. It sounded good, but not quite like Chet of course. More like Merle. Dad was the biggest Travis fan on earth. Then Dad had Gibson make me a Les Paul around 1980. They put the horrifically horrid humbuckers that they used at the time in it. We had a Peavey 212 Classic because Dad had seen Chet playing a Peavey amp on TV (or read something about it maybe) sometime during those years. We still thought we got pretty good tone. Then a friend of Dad's had Gibson make a Super 400 and he even had a bigsby like Merle's put on it--which was no small feat back in those days. That fellow played his Super 400 through a big Fender amp. I didn't think my new Les Paul sounded so good any more. . . . It wasn't until the very late 1990s that I wandered into a Sam Ash (forgive me) near Philadelphia. They had these Gretsch guitars hanging on the wall. I had never played one or even seen one in real life so far as I can recall. When I plugged one in, I just sat there in astonishment at the sound--never having realized in all those years just how significant the filtertron was to Chet's sound. I picked up a 6120-1960 reissue in short order, then replaced it with a 6122-1962 reissue to get more sustain. My point is that the Filtertron/Supertron really does have its own sound. There is just nothing quite like it. If your ear has developed on Gibson-esque humbuckers or Fender single coils, or P90s, the Filtertron will sound quite unusual. But I find it very pleasing, especially since it sounds "just like" Chet. If you then add a Standel amp (or clone), you will again sit in astonishment for a while, having discovered another crucial component in Chet's signature tone. Each note on each string bubbles forth with the utmost separation and clarity. But of course, we can't avail ourselves of the most important components of all: Chet's hands or his "soul," if I may say it that way. We can try to preserve the style, some of the technology, and hopefully a good dose of Chet's sense of taste. LMark

P.S. I add that the Dynasonics are more like alnico slugs; not nearly so nice as P90s to my ear, and not even as good as the Gibson alnico slug. The Tennessean, if it is vintage, had Hi-Lo-Trons (I think). Were they single coils? They were not the same as the Filtertrons. So yes, you have a completely different pickup there.
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Re: 58 Country Classic Sound

Postby Tom Workman » Wed Aug 31, 2016 4:27 pm

As to the subject of tone, I'm always chasing that "perfect" sound. I play my 6122-59 Nashville Classic through a Traynor YCV20WR (tube amp) with a 12-inch Celestion Green Back speaker and to my ear it sounds really good. I was simply curious as to whether any of you Chet-style pickers out there use a Traynor amp. Regards, Tom W.
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