Amp Settings for "Typical" Jazz Tone

[Marker]

so many factors. but…

Set the amp eq at 5 (or whatever flat is) and use the volume and tone knobs on the guitar to dial in the sound. I find with most pickups the sweet spots tend to be vol dialed back between 7 and 9.5 and tone somewhere between 3.5 and 6.5.

The amp eq can then be adjusted to whatever room you’re in or the band dynamic, etc.

I always find that it’s ideal to mostly adjust one set of eq parameters at a time, so I start with the guitar and then make adjustments on the amp. On a Fender amp I often find I have the bass around 5, mids dialed back to 3 or 4 and the treble on 4 or 5.

[Christian Miller]

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[grahambop]

[jaymen]

Here is what I find works for Jazz with my Gibsons, and my Fender 1957 Stratocaster on the 65 blackface fender amps:

On the blackface '65 Fender Deluxe Reverb and Princeton Reverb tube amps, turn up the guitar volume to about 6, turn up the amp volume until the guitar notes sound out fully with warmth and overtones. ( too low of an amp volume control, the amp will choke the tone) . This will be around 4-5 on the Princeton and about 4 on the Deluxe Reverb. Set the guitar tone at about midrange.

Start with the amp Treble and Bass at around 4. With humbuckers, plug into input 2, single coils like input 1 better. If the bass notes are too boomy, back off the bass control a little. If the treble is muddy, turn up the treble on the amp a little.

Another method I use with my single coils on the 57 Stratocaster( mid boost) is to plug into input 2, set the bass and treble controls of the amp to around 1-2 and adjust them up a little at a time, as needed to get your tone. If so equipped, set your tone on the guitar full up, and back it off while playing a note until you hear it get that nice warm ringing sound. If no tone control on the guitar, use the amp tone controls as mentioned above. You can also try this with really hot humbuckers, as it tames them down a bit for Jazz(use input 2).

The Twin Reverb has a mid control, so you can start with the the treble and bass at around 3-4 and max out the mid control for mid boost.

Most amps, and guitar volume and tone controls rarely work well when at either extreme (max, or minimum) Strive to get enough volume and a range of tone such that your guitar's controls are about in the middle of their range so you have some adjustment. For example, I find I often have my guitar's volume between 6-8, and the tone between 4-6, depending on the amp and guitar.

On the Deluxe Reverb and twin reverb blackface Fenders, the vibrato channel is a little louder and brighter, I prefer it because it has vibrato and reverb, which are also a BIG part of jazz tone: try initial settings of 4 on reverb, same on vibrato speed and intensity, fine tune to taste. The Twin has a bright switch you can turn off, try it if you have too much treble.

If none of this works, you may have old tubes, they do loose fidelity with time and so do your strings, so change them before freaking out. This is a very overlooked part of finding your best tone. Also make sure your pickups are not too close or far away from the strings because if they are, you will never get good tone.

Note that the Deluxe Reverb may be too bright with a single coil pickup plugged into Vibrato channel input 1, if so, plug into input 2. This is true for all blackface amps, so try it out and note tone shifts possible, go with what works for your guitar.

If you have a Twin Reverb, and a Deluxe Reverb, or a Princeton Reverb, link the two together by going in on input one of the smaller amp, come out input 2, and plug that into input one of the twin reverb. Now you can use the smaller amp to control the highs, and the lows will be controlled using the twins controls...really great tone!

Hope that helps you find your tone. I struggled for years with solid state, never got anywhere near what I was wanting to hear. Then I plugged into a Fender 65 blackface series amp and eureka! They are the holy grail.

Final note, The Prince-of-Tone (65 Princeton Reverb) is capable of giving a little warm distortion at fairly low levels and will easily be overdriven, especially with humbuckers, if you max out the guitar volume. To prevent the speaker from farting out, just turn down the amps bass to around 2.

[Bob_Ross]

The Twin Reverb has a mid control, so you can start with the the treble and bass at around 3-4 and max out the mid control for mid boost.

Captain Pedantic would like to point out that a Twin Reverb has the classic Fender tone stack, where maxing out the Midrange control does not provide "mid boost" ...it simply provides the closest thing to flat response that the amp is capable of (notwithstanding whatever settings the Bass and Treble controls are at, since they're all interactive). In a classic Fender tone stack equalization circuit, the Midrange control is capable of cut only; there is no boost.

"If I can't dial in a good tone in 2 minutes, it's the wrong amp"...

That's the thought that goes through my head every. single. time. I'm faced with a Mesa/Boogie Mark X amp! They are lovely amplifiers, incredible well made and well apportioned, but sweet jesus does it take freakin' forever to sort things out and dial in a tone I can use!

[bluejaybill]

It depends on the type of tone control circuit the amp has. Many solid state amp have a flat frequency response when controls are centered. For those amps I’d start there and tweak the bass and treble knobs to taste. I usually end up with a fair amount of treble cut. The bass setting depends on which guitar, what instruments are in the ensemble, and the room.

Fender tone stacks only have an approximately flat frequency response when the bass and treble controls are near minimum. So for those I start with the bass and treble at minimum, then tweak them upward to taste. If there’s a mid control, I leave it around 8.

Magnetic guitar pickups generally have a smoother frequency response when the volume pot on the guitar is rolled back, so that’s an important factor in my tone. I’ll only roll it up for crescendos if I need to cut through the band. Of course the amp’s volume knob must be turned up to compensate.

I like tube amps, but these days I’m mostly using a solid state amp for weight and convenience. With my solid state amp. I use a Joyo American Sound pedal for EQ with the gain set very low. It warms the tone up and makes it much easier to dial in what I want to hear. I’ve never been much of a pedal guy, but I bring that one everywhere.

All good advice, but probably too late for bluewaterpig, who hasn't posted here in 7+ years! I hope he found his jazz tone!

But, having used Fender tonestacks for years, it was an epiphany to realize that flat on a DR was when the treble and bass controls are very low. In that setting, mids are probably in the 7-8 range, if there was a mid control. So that is a good starting point for me, and I always roll back the volume and tone on the guitar a bit.

Another way of thinking about it is, turn the dials from zero until you just start to hear a change. That's a good starting point. On most tube amps.

On SS amps, many of them have active tone controls, so it's all different. On the Little Jazz, 11 o'clock was a good starting point, and then I usually roll back the bass a bit.

But it's different with every guitar, with every amp, and my ears even hear things different every day, so...

And lastly, getting an EQ pedal was life changing, for me anyway.

[supersoul]

That's the thought that goes through my head every. single. time. I'm faced with a Mesa/Boogie Mark X amp! They are lovely amplifiers, incredible well made and well apportioned, but sweet jesus does it take freakin' forever to sort things out and dial in a tone I can use!

An epiphany for me was finding that my favorite sound on a Mesa 50 Caliber Plus (with the 5 band EQ) was to bypass the entire preamp and plug my guitar straight into the effects return, clear and full sounding.

[Bob_Ross]

An epiphany for me was finding that my favorite sound on a Mesa 50 Caliber Plus (with the 5 band EQ) was to bypass the entire preamp and plug my guitar straight into the effects return, clear and full sounding.

There's enough gain for an instrument-level signal to drive the effects return?!?! I wouldn't have expected that. Thanks, I'll have to give that a try!

[strumcat]

If you lower your pickups you can turn the bass up on your amp quite a bit more without getting a booming or muddy sound, and that gives the first few strings a more bell-like and less twangy sound. Works for me anyway. (Sorry, I posted this on the wrong thread the other day.)

[Jimmy Mack]

When I played Twin Reverbs (3), I could never figure out why the Mid pot was there - when I used it, it just seemed to add a "cardboard" layer to my tone - not very flattering or useable. Other Fender amps I owned did not exhibit this!
So I moved on.
Bought a Princeton Reverb modded with a Mid control added - wow - what a great tool that pot is on that amp.
Now I also have a PR II from the 80's, also has a Mid pot and boost. Again, what a great pot to have.

I suspect that a Deluxe Reverb with a decent Mid control would be the best of many worlds tone-shaping-wise, it's so easy to deal with and dial tone in.