Cool tone discovery on my 330!

beatcomber · Post by **beatcomber** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 6:23 am

Wow, I was fiddling with some settings on my 1984 Rick 330 and Traynor YCV40WR, and came up with a GREAT tone combination. What happened was, a couple of nights ago, Gretsch Tennessean in hand, I tried to emulate the tone of a Vox AC30 on the already Vox-ish Traynor. I set the treble at 3/4ths up, the bass at 1/4, the midrange at 2/3rds, and the Presence at 1/2. It sounded very good and Voxerific.

Last night I plugged in my old 330 and didn't touch the amp settings. My 330, with its original 22-year-old HiGain pickups and thicker-than-normal body top with X-bracing, has a somewhat thick, growly tone, even when unplugged. When I played it through the Traynor with the tone controls set so bright, it sounded a lot clearer and sparkly. The bridge PU by itself took on an almost Tele-like sting.

The real payoff came with both PUs selected. On my 330, the neck PU is almost inaudible unless you roll up the 5th knob a bit; I'm not sure if this is normal. But anyway, I rolled up the 5th knob about a 1/4 turn (the notch in the knob is pointing at the headstock), just to give a little more body to the newly brightened tone from the amp. Wow! Whadda sound! No more muddy growl, plenty of jangle and bite, and seemingly better sustain! The whole character of the instrument changed for the better. I couldn't believe it!

winston · Post by **winston** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 6:34 am

Ah ha! Glenn, you have discovered the wonder of the fifth knob. I use a 350 to play blues and I can get LP tones out of mine using a Peavey 212 Stereo Chorus.

My V64 manages to produce Strat-like tones using the same amp settings. Rics prove to be very versatile once you start playing around with the settings on your amp and guitar.