Rocker 30 - What Tubes??

[charlieallen50]

I've been gigging my Rocker 30 pretty regularly for about a year now. It's great at the old school style gritty stuff but recently I've joined a Soul Function Band playing all the classics by Otis Redding, Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder ect and I just can't seem to get it to sound right. I want to get a bit more sparkle out of the amp, it can sound a bit muddy and flat - especially the natural channel. I've been using my little Laney LC15 plugged into my PPC212 as a substitute which has a little bit more chime and sparkle, probably because of the el84s and lower wattage. It's okay but I'd really love to get the Orange out there as I know it could sound alot better.

I was wondering if there is anything I can do in the valve department to get this sound I so desperately want!! Any Ideas??

Thanks.

[Ronnie Robinson]

OK first things first, its called the Rocker because its great at doing Rock and I'm sure when it was designed it was n't thought of being a soul funk Amp. The Laney you mentioned has a great clean channel (but a very poor overdrive channel- I use to own the 30 Watt version) so it excels in differents areas of the music spectrum.The Rocker is an entirely different beast.

The natural channel can be made to sound fairly good and Ive found it is very guitar dependant. My Strat with vintage pickups sounds great, full of life with loads of quack however my SG ( with good quality PAF type humbuckers ) sounds quite dull and lifeless on the clean channel. If your in a funk / soul band I presume your already playing a Strat ?

As for valves I prefer EHX preamp and Svetlana winged Cs in the power Amp section but again just to stress the Rocker is really a (classic) rock Amp.

[Ronnie Robinson]

Sorry the Laney Amp I was referring to was actually the Laney VC 30.

[TESLA_EL34]

try this:

tung sol 12ax7 in the preamp
SED winged C in the poweramp

you also need a bright guitar with bright pickups and strings.

[libtech]

Hey I REALLY like the tung sol el34b's in the power section, great harmonics, also for brighter eh or tung sol 12ax7's work really nicely!

[TESLA_EL34]

the tung-sol el34b are more round and warm sounding.
they are not a real EL34.

the tung-sol el34b sounds more like a 6L6.
i like the clean tone with them. i like em not so much in the distortion...
they sound really good clean and have a good compression with a funny touch sensitivity.
if you don't use so much distortion this tube could be nice. it's also a question if you get the
distortion from the poweramp. if you use that classic rock poweramp distortion, there are
muchhhh better el34's available...the best are NOS

[Y0UNGBL00D]

Just put some russian. Svetlanas in mine. Pretty good stuff. Sparkly with balls to boot

[indianDYsummer]

Yeah, I've had good experience with putting tung-sol 12ax7s in for the sparkle. They're a bit high gain, so you might notice your amp breaks up a bit earlier on the gain dial too.

[Jabberwocky]

I use Svetlana Winged Cs in the power stage of my Rocker.....lovely bright tone, but I would agree with what has already been said here.....the R30 is a rock amp and sings best with the gain up on the dirty channel or the volume up on the clean, and neither are what I would call sparkling or chiming. Sounds like its the classic Fender Deluxe sound you are after....chime with a touch of crunch.
That said, I play a fair bit of Funk and Soul, and with the Strat on mid and bridge pups, tone pots full up, volume and gain on the dirty channel at about 11 oclock, and the mid backed off to about 9 oclock on the Rocker, and a tickle of analogue reverb, I get pretty close.

[charlieallen50]

Thank's guys. I'll have a look into experimenting with the tubes. I play an SG Standard. I got drafted into this band as the old guitarist emigrated and they had a big string of gigs lined up over this summer. I bought the amp because I loved the classic, warm, overdriven sounds it does oh so well, I just need to make it into a more versatile beast. Also does anyone have any recommendations on any outboard spring reverbs or preferably any high quality reverb pedals?

Thanks.

[TESLA_EL34]

i use a malekko spring chicken and i think it sounds good with the rocker.
but maybe i can give you a better idea what it sounds like.

http://www.zshare.net/audio/77202658883c9e58/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

i start at 0:21 secs and you can hear the malekko set relatively wet
it was the first test with my band, so i did no tine tuning.

i don't remember the settings but the reverb was up past 12 o'clock
i even used it together with my fuzz factory through this entire demo.
in the end i engaged my trem.

i have another demo with the malekko and other stuff...
i quote myself from the orange soundclips thread

funny 100% band jam with my rocker 30. not the usual sound that you would expect from an orange rocker 30.
it's more or less psychedelic rock.

http://www.zshare.net/audio/75986543d2061485/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;