Polytone Mini Brute III

[Skadiddle12]

Put the tone switch in the Brite position.

In the photo, it's in the Dark setting. That's instant woolly.

Ok, so to get the "Polytone jazz" sound, setting on Brite. What EQ? What tone on the guitar?

[mr. beaumont]

If you're running a MBIII at 8 for practice, you're either deaf as a bat or something's wrong with that amp.

[sgosnell]

EQ settings are whatever sounds best to you. The only way to find out is to experiment - change all the settings and see what you hear. What I like may be far from what you like. Start with everything flat, and adjust to taste from there.

Bats are not deaf, in fact have extremely sensitive hearing, especially in the upper ranges. I've heard deaf as a post, but never deaf as a bat.

[Greentone]

The early MiniBrute amps were 90 watt input (75 watt output) amps. I have a couple like that. A few years later, the same models were rated as 160 watt input (110 watt output) amps.

I can hear the difference in output between my "90" watt and my "160"watt" MiniBrutes. The "90s" sound quieter. They work well when I play solo or in a duo, but get a bit lost in a larger band setting.

[Greentone]

I'm playing a 90 watt MiniBrute in a small combo, here, (bass) with no problems in terms of volume. It's the same model/vintage as the OP's version above.

[Herbie]

”(...) tone rolled off on guitar, I feel like the sounds of the chords are mushy.(...)”

You are right! But don’t blame the amp for it!

There is mass of people who think that jazz guitar means tone zeroing. But the truth is that by turning the tone too low You lose a lot of the dynamics of Your playing. And clarity etc. Wes used his thumb, that’s why his sound is so soft, not the tone-zero thing.

It would help if You tell what sound are You trying to achieve. I know guitarists that use Polytones for rock, soul, every genre with every guitar.

If You are trying to get the Joe Pass feel with a Strat with 9’s You have to have Joe’s fingers!

I am sorry but I have never understood the ’how do You adjust Your amp’ questions (except when I got a Tweed Deluxe clone). Turn the knobs until You find the sound!

Good luck with the quest!

[Skadiddle12]

Thank you for all your comments guys. I was curious, when paired up with a 175 does the high or low input give the better sound? My Gibson ES-175 has humbuckers.

[Greentone]

I use the low input with humbuckers.

[Skadiddle12]

I use the low input with humbuckers.

What's the reason in choosing the input? Also, what input would I use with a single coil Strat?

[Greentone]

Reason : sound. It sounds better to my ears.

Strat, hi input.

[Cunamara]

So- the "brite" switch is a 3 position switch: bright, normal and dark. Start in the middle. Set the tone knobs to 5. That's the most neutral sound the amp will provide. Then leave the knobs alone and try the switch in each position to hear what it does. Then repeat that plugged into the other input, which gives you another comparison. Many people will prefer single coils in the "high" input and humbuckers in the "low" input, but not all. Once you've got some sense of which input and which switch position you prefer, this is your basic recipe. To season to taste with salt and pepper, then sweep the knobs one at a time through their range to hear that and see what you settle on.

You're not going to get a fat classic "jazz" tone from a Strat, but you should be able to get a very nice tone. The classic tone should be easier with the ES-175, but you'll have to start the amp exploration process all over from the neutral state.

[garybaldy]

yeah running into mixer is fine..if mixer is connected to speakers (and there's sound!) than there's a power amp somewhere!!

cheers

Does the volume control affect the level of output from the main out to the mixer? If so, if I have the volume up high, would it distort the mixer? Thanks.