Tested: Where Does The Tone Come From In A Guitar Amplifier?

This whole series is basically a giant fuck you to Redditors everywhere in every specialty or niche.

That is the mystery question of the century. Tubes and speaKers for one.

That's why Rhett Shull is so dumb.

Great video, someone told me years ago, tubes dont come with frequency responce charts for a reason. Changed the way I looked at amps.

This was amazing!
If you could go as far as reverse engineering the pedals too - and selling the Tacklebox tone pedal - they'd sell like hotcakes! Jim Lill Music Boxes!

rectifier sag just results in Transient compression, ( you have to listen very closely to the way the notes initially open up )

it does make a difference, as soon as you know what you're listening for ... it's all in the attack; when the supply sags all the operating points of the tubes fold, then rebound, in a instant.

I yelled 'you motherfucker!!" the moment you said "so, I did that" XD
great hard work ma maaaaan
cheers from egypt

This has enough information in it to build the perfect amp simulator software.

the lords work

The tone comes from a magical spot within the guitar. You might call it the guitar's soul. It definitely has nothing to do with the pedals or pickups, though. These tones are imbued by the powerful wizards and warlocks that created these magical devices.

The tone comes from the grain direction of the ceiling joists.

Just one question... isn't rc boost a clean booster?? How the hell is it distorting?

Hmm..really good stuff here, great effort!! some very surprising results, it makes sense though.

Are you sure you don't know nothing about circuits? really sure? you are a genius!!!

Great video series. I knew where preamps and EQs are located have an effect on tone, but I thought pedals can get me where I want to go. My 1000 W Bass amp (that I never built) is Preamp, EQ, Driver. I may add additonal preamp and EQ sections that I can switch all in/out at will:

Preamp, Driver
Preamp, EQ, Driver
Preamp, Preamp, Driver
Preamp, EQ, Preamp, Driver
Preamp, Preamp, EQ, Driver
Preamp, EQ, Preamp, EQ, Driver
Preamp, EQ, EQ, Driver
EQ, Preamp, Driver
EQ, Preamp, EQ, Driver

Possible but pretty much useless unless a preamp/pedal is on the input:
Driver
EQ, Driver
EQ, EQ, Driver

1 Amp = Fender, Vox, Marshall, Ampeg, Peavey, Orange, Yamaha, and more... just flip some switches and dial it in.

Oh, and Effects In/Out loops after every stage.

Dude these videos are insane! Great job!

If you watch his other video on "Where does an electric guitar get its tone", he pretty much concludes its overwhelming from the pickups: models, placement, and height... and not much else.

That is, with indentical controls all at mid volume, the tone controls in the full treble (least cut-out) positions, identical pickups, wired and switched identically, in identical placements, at identical heights, any electric guitar: solid, hollow, or "air" (as in his video) will sound pretty much identical.

The body shape/material/paint, pick guard, hardware, neck shape/material, bridge/tremolo, string terminating point, nut, tuning pegs, and clamps, have little impact on tone. But string guage and flat vs. wound can alter some tone.

However, some heavy dense wood bodies may offer more sustain, but no change to tonal/timbre quality. These are not Stradivarius violins.

So to get YOUR tone:
Select a guitar for the best feel.
Select the brand(s) and model(s) pickups you want (a lot of selection here) for your tone.
Place and adjust the heights of the pickups for your tone.
Arrange them: series/parallel/single coil/double coil/split/phase/stack etc. for your tone.
Add switches to change the arrangements.
Add volume and tone controls as you like: This can alter the raw tone slightly when added (even at the least "intrusive" setting).

Me, I would do all of the above except no tone control. If you use any effects or an amp with tone controls, then, if you have 1 master tone control on a guitar, it can be moved elsewhere. If you have 3 pickups, a tone control for each would give you the most tone arrangements, but guitars rarely have 2 tone knobs even if 3 pickups are used. I made a simple pedal for my Fender P/J Bass. It's called "Vari-Tone". It has a bypass stomp button, a 12-way selector switch for various inductor/capacitor tone ranges, and a single potentiometer to set the tone in the selected range. I don't even use the tone knob on my bass anymore (leave it in the no cut-out: full treble position). I may buy and old Morely pedal and use it for the tone setting as Morleys don't use potentiometers, they use light and CdS cells for crackle free adjustment.

I love these videos. This makes me so glad that I play mostly digital :D

Yeah. If the kind of amplifier circuit made a noticeable difference that would mean that the circuits were broken and not doing what they're intended to do very well - because there is a RIGHT way to amplify a signal. Any difference would mean that at least one setting was out of spec and not amplifying RIGHT.

Great video. But in any given amplifier, preamp tubes, power tubes, the speaker and the rectifier interact in idiosyncratic ways with the rest of the circuitry. Amps with dual rectifiers and/or dual sets of power tubes and/or dual bias types do not adequately illustrate this. But great job showing how solid state pedal distortion can sound great.

Great video. Sharp, straight to the point, funny and informative :)

If I ever hear this guy say "I'm just a performer, I don't know anything about software engineering", I will stop the video and then go quit my job.

A few hours after the publication of this video a white van registered in the UK pulled up in front of Jim's house...He hasn't been seen ever since...

you are doing the guitar lord's work.

Brilliant and thorough. I'm going into a studio in Bristol, UK tomorrow, to play & record through these classic amps from the 50's & 60's. I will show this video to the engineer. If you start making some more FEVOXMARSH amps I will buy one! keep up the great work. Cheers, Simon.

Instant sub!

As usual, Jim asks the right questions and tests things simply and logically. Therefore, he gets the right answers and simple, logical results. Demystifying by removing all the marketing jargon and all the semantics in the bias that we players and our guitar culture suffer from. Immense thanks, Jim.

I’d buy a shirt that said I’m just a performer I don’t know anything about circuits

We definitely need schematics for ghe Tackle box. Actually, this video would probably be the best promo ever for it and he could manufacturer them and put the industry out with his monopoly xD

You are brilliant my man thanks!🙏🙏🙏

Holy crap, this is remarkable. The only choosy thing I could for more in an amp/dirt pedal test is concerning touch responsiveness and rolling volume back to clean up from a higher gain amp. That's something I do a lot in my playing, and my experience (or partial self hallucination) is that usually, different pieces of gear do this differently than others.

You're meddling in things that ought not be meddled in! It's dangerous!

FOLK ME!! Absolutily incredible! Thanks for sharing so much! We should be able to find our own tone in any amp!

Very interesting information!!

So how can such a cool guitarist be such a 45 supporter... don't you understand who 45 is yet, or does your cap represent something else other than MAGA lunacy?

I'm just a performer, and I know everything about the circus.

That damn smile

In the mid 1990’s I went into a high end stereo shop. I sat in a room and listened to some B&W 802 speakers. They were $5000 and I was blown away by the absolutely amazing sound quality. The sales guy told me: “You’re not listening to $5000 speakers, you’re listening to a $20,000 sound system.”

What I didn’t realize was how much all the other components and even the room treatments affected sound quality. The guy told me that those same $5000 speakers would sound the same as my $400 speakers if I just replaced that part of the sound system. The pre amp, source such as CD player, power amp(s) all helped determine the quality.

I listened to some very expensive pre/power amp combinations and wasn’t impressed. Then, I found a little gem of an integrated amplifier. It was an “Kraken” made by a company called Alchemist. It made those 802’s come alive and the sound was awesome; for about $1800. It ran pure class for the first 5-10 watts and topped out at 55 watts; and it ran really hot despite the massive heat sinks on the side of it.

Anyways, this video reminded me of that part of my life; so very long ago at this point.

Man, you are a legend

The EL84s and 6v6s sound nearly identical to me.

the amp is a lie.

Just brilliant!

Imagine thinking the rectifier changes the tone... All it does is switch the power supply from AC to DC.

is this guy still alive? fender will wanna ender him im sure

I'm just a performer, I know nothing about circuits but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

Easiest subscribe button smash in a while

Hi. Jim. Would you teach me how to build a tackle box?

Jim you need to start a guitar and amp company and then go into witness protection. And be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Good video man, but you’re just a performer and don’t know anything about circuits though.

Thanks for pulling back the curtain on a very shady industry. No wonder all these budget brands keep springing up, I guess the party is over for the bigger brands thinking they have the magic sauce in their building. Nope just hype and brand name.