Guitar Gear Forum

Just messing around with some shit.. and I was revisiting one of my old favorite mic combos, the AKG414 with a sennheiser 421.. Well I didn't even get to the Senheiser.. So its all 414.. Not super common to just run a condenser on distorted guitar but it sounded BIG of course.. And maybe lacks a touch of aggression.. But one thing about the 414 is its accurate. Just put it center of the speaker but like 6-8 inches back from the grill and it really seems like thats about as uncolored of a tone I can capture Anyway micing the 15 ohm EVH Celestion.. I went thru all my "tones" I use for live.. My 5153 el34 100 watt. I honestly use Blue sometimes and sometimes I go Red channel.. But Ive lately found the perfect way to dial in the blue.. Can't believe I never got it right before.. But its good enough for metal. I did kick it up juuuust a touch with a 6 band.. Like a few cunt hairs.. Just wanted a bit more output to match the Duncan blackouts which is my favorite tone using the blue channel.. Gain on 10 and can't go wrong..

Ad then I used my 6505 boosted with a Marshall Guv'Nor.. All using my PV HP Special with a BK Miracle Man pickup... They are honestly all pretty damn close.. Close mixing yielded much different results.. But all in all these ARE trying to be dialed in similarly cause while I shift between gear live, I want some consistency so they've all been dialed pretty close.. Its a Slayer song (Necrophobic) cause its short and I don't want to post works in progress at the moment. Drum shells o this track are killer but the cymbals are pretty hissy.. Oh well, I didn't play it?record it.. It was 66samus from Youtube.. Great drummer

6505 Guvnor https://app.box.com/s/31e5j8qj18s6910hu0qawksoip9grlab

5153Blue https://app.box.com/s/r24hq2u17l28w1qa9box54xtyn6oo1ik

5153 red https://app.box.com/s/i250axrlxzrhgy519v2gjl7p8n961ybj

Ad even tho its all so close, I think I like the 5153 blu the best for this. Its more accurate to the Slayer sound, but also its just the one I like best

Also another "fun" thing Ive found, is to really slam these CAPI 500 mic press ad then use the pad to step down the volume.. While these are API preamps basically the on ei have has an extra transformer that is basically emulation the actual fader on the mixing console.. So definitely when you hit the preamps harder and had them down, they fatten up in a really pleasant way.. In fact, its WAY better.. I was almost gonna sell these cause I liked the NEVE stuff for guitars.. Little water and not so mid forward.. But when hammering the CAPI stuff, its still mid forward but it just fattens the guitars in a real pleasing way..

They all sound great. And pretty close. I was listening through my wireless headphones on my phone at first and was like... wtf? They sound the same. Then I went to my studio monitors and I was able to hear the differences lol
I like the Blue channel better as there is a bit more of that Marshall upper mid frequencies.

Funny thing is if this was a "blind" test, I would have guessed that the Red channel clip was the 6505. It sounds more like the 6505 than the 6505 clip. I think the Guvnor smoothed out the midrange a bit on the 6505, which is actually cool.

If I had to rank them;

Blue
6505
Red

But they all sound great and the differences are subtle.

Yeah I agree on most of that. Altho I will say after comparing these amps like a 100x. lol they usually have a pretty clear difference.. But I also have prolly almost always close mic'd with a dynamic.. Cause for sure those PV mids are ALWAYS the difference on just about every other comparison I've done.. I don't need them to sound the same. Cause I like em each for what they both can do.. So Id honestly say what sorta leveled the playing ground was the 414 and it being around 6 inches off the grill.. Maybe it gave everything that second to bloom a bit..not sure, but if I were to do a comparison with just a 57 o the grill I guarantee they'd sound way different! well. as different as 2 5150's sound!

Interesting. I actually find the 6505 and blue channel to be pretty close here. The red channel stands out with that extra compression and juice that it has. You know I'm gonna say it!! I like the red best lolol. But I don't dislike either of the others, and can easily see how that extra clarity and mid bump adds to the Slayer flavor.

The 6505 and the blue are fairly close. I actually don’t really hear more mids on the blue since I defscoop them more . Maybe a bit more crack in the highs. That’s kinda Marshall like. Plus with the gain dimed it fattens up a good amount. But it’s real punchy still. I find the blue has wider mids and the Red has more of that hardness in the mids. Maybe a little more pointed and snarl. Blue has the growl to it and red has more snarl. Lol. So here’s just a single track jamming. Same setup. I actually kicked the mic and didn’t bother moving it back and maybe can’t have it DEAd center. Lol. I had it close yesterday but it got moved to straight on so it has a little pokey ness. I think you’ll see , they aren’t much different. Just find the blue a little more pure and Warner overall

Blue first then red at like 1:20 or sumthin

https://app.box.com/s/51zo4mc75yfwpe9hqb4bwajhs0frkjud

Endtime wrote: ↑Wed Sep 25, 2024 5:38 pm Yeah I agree on most of that. Altho I will say after comparing these amps like a 100x. lol they usually have a pretty clear difference.. But I also have prolly almost always close mic'd with a dynamic.. Cause for sure those PV mids are ALWAYS the difference on just about every other comparison I've done.. I don't need them to sound the same. Cause I like em each for what they both can do.. So Id honestly say what sorta leveled the playing ground was the 414 and it being around 6 inches off the grill.. Maybe it gave everything that second to bloom a bit..not sure, but if I were to do a comparison with just a 57 o the grill I guarantee they'd sound way different! well. as different as 2 5150's sound!

Yeah for sure. There's a difference, and it was clear through decent monitors. My headphones are shit, but that's a different story :lol

I think the Guv'nor "de-peavey'd" the 6505 a bit. It smoothened out the mids a bit and put it more in line with the EVH. Although that could due to be the mic position as well.

The Blue has the higher mids that are Marshall-y and that is always what I like to hear in a guitar tone, being a Marshall player. It's not necessarily more mids, they're just tuned higher with more cut. EVH did a killer job voicing their Blue channels to keep that Marshall vibe that Ed liked. On the EL34 version is even more noticeable.

Guitarbilly wrote: ↑Wed Sep 25, 2024 11:07 pm

Endtime wrote: ↑Wed Sep 25, 2024 5:38 pm Yeah I agree on most of that. Altho I will say after comparing these amps like a 100x. lol they usually have a pretty clear difference.. But I also have prolly almost always close mic'd with a dynamic.. Cause for sure those PV mids are ALWAYS the difference on just about every other comparison I've done.. I don't need them to sound the same. Cause I like em each for what they both can do.. So Id honestly say what sorta leveled the playing ground was the 414 and it being around 6 inches off the grill.. Maybe it gave everything that second to bloom a bit..not sure, but if I were to do a comparison with just a 57 o the grill I guarantee they'd sound way different! well. as different as 2 5150's sound!

Yeah for sure. There's a difference, and it was clear through decent monitors. My headphones are shit, but that's a different story :lol

I think the Guv'nor "de-peavey'd" the 6505 a bit. It smoothened out the mids a bit and put it more in line with the EVH. Although that could due to be the mic position as well.

The Blue has the higher mids that are Marshall-y and that is always what I like to hear in a guitar tone, being a Marshall player. It's not necessarily more mids, they're just tuned higher with more cut. EVH did a killer job voicing their Blue channels to keep that Marshall vibe that Ed liked. On the EL34 version is even more noticeable.

It’s really tough to beat the blue. We had practice yesterday and I decided to switch between the 2. Both work like I want. I didn’t hear much difference in how I sat in the mix. BUT the red has this deeper frequency. Not always great for multitracking. But it does add weight to every note. I could hear that weight pretty easily so I might actually dig the red live more. Blue with how I have it dialed is more Marshall and doesn’t quite hit that same depth in tone. Maybe with less gain I could dial it up some. But to get some saturation on the blu channel, gain does have to be up pretty high. Max in my case! Lower gain it’s punchy as fuck especially if you kick the resonance up. Which I would do. But when cranking the gain it fattens the tone up which I have to lower the resonance to keep it from getting muddy. That’s what “new” to me! Lol. I never brought down the blue channel resonance to where it is now. I don’t know why. Overall I usually could crank the resonance on the blue up much higher than the red. But cranked gain, raise bass control up and lower resonance to like 3 (out of 10) and it’s another metal channel! Haha. But like I said with those goofy tone words. The blue has more growl for sure and red more snarl

Sounds killer