smoothing out distortion...

[BluesNRock87]

my amps gain channel produces a really great tone. its gritty, grainy, airy almost, great for blues, rock, and solos.

i want to try to smooth it out a bit, (more compressed?!?) make it sound more like trey anastasio of phish, anyone have any tips or know of ways to do it....pedals?

[Vasshu the humanoid typhoon]

Try with a good compressor, smoothens out alot if set to do so.

[kmcguitars]

Depending on what kind of amp it is?? You could try a lower gain
pre amp tube. I put a 5751 in my Princeton Reverb .I get alot
more head room. A 12AX7 is 100% gain on the chart. A 5751
is 70% on the chart. SRV is known to have used 5751.

[STRATDELUXER97]

Depending on what kind of amp it is?? You could try a lower gain
pre amp tube. I put a 5751 in my Princeton Reverb .I get alot
more head room. A 12AX7 is 100% gain on the chart. A 5751
is 70% on the chart. SRV is known to have used 5751.

The only problem with this equation though,is that we don't associate compression and headroom together...Headroom means staying cleaner,longer like a 65 Twin Reverb....Compression would be like what a Deluxe Reverb does at alot lower volumes..You are right in saying that a lower gain tube will give you more headroom,though he's looking for a more compressed tone...

Things like lowering the voltages to the preamp tubes's B+ is one way to get compression or another scenario would be going from a 5AR4 rectifier tube(if the amp has one) over to the 5U4 as an example or just experimenting with different brands of tubes and the biasing...You still have to stay within certain limits on the biasing though or your tubes will suffer...Not nit picking on ya KMC buddy,just adding some extra stuff is all...

John

[some_dude]

TS-9 Tubescreamer.

It'll push the gain higher, which'll naturally compress the amp more. TS-9's are also known for adding their own compression in addition to your amps natural compression.

I believe Trey Anastasio uses two Analogman modded TS-9's and an original TS-808 in his rig (three Tubescreamers in total). Santana also has a very smooth tone (in my opinion) and he uses two TS-9's for his violin like infinate sustain sound.

[Gearjoneser]

Yeah, get a Reissue TS-808 for $160.
Or a Fulltone Fulldrive II.
Both of those will "sew together the grit" making a smoother lead tone.

[BluesNRock87]

its a crate v series (older, 30 watt style). i love santana's tone, what i am going for is something like the violin like infinate sustaine. maybe ill swap my bd-2 for a ts-9, after i try using my dyna comp.....thanks, keep em coming