Jimi Monterey tone in Bias Amp 2
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Encouragement for anyone struggling with Marshall tones in Bias Amp 2...I’ve had a love/hate relationship with EL34 tubes ever since I became aware of rock and Marshall amps. Most of my favorite Marshall sounds have not been EL34 examples. I tend to associate the EL34 sound with crispy-crunchy top and hollow, phasey midrange.
Since using Bias, I tended to use the EL34s in my Marshall presets because they have such a present and cutting top end - hard to find fault with it at first.
But the hollow, phasey midrange is also faithfully recreated. I could never get a Fender-y clean tone because of this.
Tried KT88 and 6550s before, but for whatever reason, wasn’t excited about the tone.
After some tweaking in other modules, I tried the KT88 and 6550s again this week and boom, Jimi at Monterey (yes I know the Monterey amp was KT66, but close enough). The 6550s provide enough cleaner headroom that you get the firmer midrange like a Fender.
Compared this to my Bassman preset and it’s exactly what you’d expect - very similar tone, but with the extra Marshall grunt.
And yes there is a Super 100JH amp match included in Bias 2, but it’s just ok. A well crafted original preset with Celestion G25M gets closer than anything I’ve yet heard digitally.
The proof was running through my Fulltone ‘69 before the interface - with previous Marshall tones it sounded congested and compressed. With the Monterey tone it sounds big and full like it should.
