Harsh Fender Princeton Tones and other amps

[Tal_175]

I tried an AER, which I love for gypsy jazz guitar, but they made the Eastman sound like almost too acoustic-y. I also tried the Roland, it was just too bright. So was the Acoustic. What I meant by harsh was when I played upper strings beyond 9th fret, I got a loud, nasally tone. I changed picks and cut my fingernails, still sounded too bright and brittle (better adjectives).

If you don't like acoustic-y and bright, I think you're looking for a solution in the wrong place. This is just how Eastman guitars are voiced. I use Henriksen's frequently. They certainly sound more acoustic-y than my Princeton. If you're looking for that thick, smokey type of sound, you'd need a less resonant, laminate, ES 175 style archtop. Even a semi-hollow would get you closer to that than a carved Eastman.

[Christian Miller]

Yeah maybe get a 175 or 335?

[alltunes]

Telecaster player and Princeton aficionado Jim Campilongo dimes the bass control. Bass and treble at zero may produce the most mids.

The reissue:

[ruger9]

Jim actually dimes the bass AND VOLUME (live). He controls everything from the volume and tone controls on the guitar. It's a unique way to go, I've tried it.... not easy to control. But obviously it works for him!

At home, with my Princeton, I run it about 3 (which is 90% clean), then use a pedal if I want to add mids/fatness/grit, either an MXR Timmy or JHS Morning Glory v4 (Julian Lage hipped me to the JHS):

Julian uses a Deluxe reverb clone, btw.

[st.bede]

If the amp is new, could it be that the speaker is just breaking in? Generally a new speaker will sound harsh, and will mellow out significantly after a few dozen hours of playing.

So bear with it for a few weeks, or leave it playing with a looper a few hours at a time, and then decide on it ..

I totally forgot about mentioning that... I have experienced a number of new speakers needing to break in. That is probably the Occam’s razor answer.

[mr. beaumont]

Try setting your bass and treble knobs on the amp to 0.5

Really.

[ruger9]

Try setting your bass and treble knobs on the amp to 0.5

Really.

Yeah, it's weird how so many people think tone controls "shouldn't" be run as 0. Use your ears, not you eyes.

Turning the bass and treble to 0 on a PRRI will bring out the mids (as much as is possible), and then you can INCH up either one as necessary.

[rolijen]

Have you tried a 5751 in V1? Input 2 will be so non-harsh you’ll love it. You’ll even be able to use input 1 for a bit more edge without sounding driven.