Tone Out Of Amp? Options

[Shuma13]

Hello,

I have not used my amp for a couple of months. I have been doing my practicing and lessons straight out of my RP255 into my headphones.

I have had some time with the wife and kids out of the house the last few days and have been using the amp. I cannot get the tone to sound anything like I am getting out of the headphones. It does not sound bad, but not what I want.

I have a small, old, Peavey backstage amp. For what I need an amp for it works. Just wanted to know where to start, or if I am asking for something that is not obtainable.

Thanks,
Brian S.

[MickeM]

I used to have one of those Peavey Backstage. Pretty sweet though for a solid state amp, it was my first amp so I guess the feelings aint gone.
Kind of buzzy distorion when too much preamp gain but the cleans were quote ok.

Don't expect it to sound professional. Headphone playing from one of those digital units can be rather rewarding, hetting the tone right into the ear beats an old solid state.

Perhaps you can try connecting the PR255 into the Peavey and use some effects from it.

[jstcrsn]

first off , you do not want your amp to have the same tone as headphones( phones have a different range than an amp has , and can deliver more bass tones - just at a lower level) along with a guitar players usual mistake of adding in too much bass ( we tend to try to reproduce our favorite album tones that also have bass in the mix).if you do this when playing live you will blend with ths bass and not stand out like you should
in short your ear has got used to the headphone sound
just be aware of this and use your amp enough to re-adjust your ear

[Mudbone]

first off , you do not want your amp to have the same tone as headphones( phones have a different range than an amp has , and can deliver more bass tones - just at a lower level) along with a guitar players usual mistake of adding in too much bass ( we tend to try to reproduce our favorite album tones that also have bass in the mix).if you do this when playing live you will blend with ths bass and not stand out like you should
in short your ear has got used to the headphone sound
just be aware of this and use your amp enough to re-adjust your ear

Excellent point

[Shuma13]

Thanks for the replies. I guess I will just live with it.

I used to have one of those Peavey Backstage. Pretty sweet though for a solid state amp, it was my first amp so I guess the feelings aint gone.
Kind of buzzy distorion when too much preamp gain but the cleans were quote ok.

Don't expect it to sound professional. Headphone playing from one of those digital units can be rather rewarding, hetting the tone right into the ear beats an old solid state.

Perhaps you can try connecting the PR255 into the Peavey and use some effects from it.

This is what I do, and it does not sound like it does through the headphones.

[Adrian Figallo]

if you want it to sound like the headphones buy an eq pedal, with a 10 band EQ you can tweak your tone quite a bit.

[MickeM]

This is what I do, and it does not sound like it does through the headphones.

Silly me, I thought you were comparing the RP255 by itself with the Peavey by itself hence my odd the reply then...

Every time the guitar signal passes through an item it will alter. Even if it's just a cord.
The RP would probably sound more headphones-like played through your Hi-Fi unit than then amp.

[SpaseMoonkey]

Silly me, I thought you were comparing the RP255 by itself with the Peavey by itself hence my odd the reply then...

Every time the guitar signal passes through an item it will alter. Even if it's just a cord.
The RP would probably sound more headphones-like played through your Hi-Fi unit than then amp.

As MickeM states I have to agree. When I had my Pod HD500, it sounded great in headphones. But when I put it on my amp it sounded different because you lose the tonal range. I ran my EQ flat on the amp and just boosted my highs up a little more and I still got a great tone out of it. But the weird part to me was when I had a friend bring over his recording gear and we hooked it up to the amp instead of the USB out on the Pod. It had a sound almost like it did via headphones it had that pro sound to it.

[Ivan Milenkovic]

Yes, your processor will sound better through headphones, simply because it puts out a hi-fi signal (which means it covers a wide range of frequencies evenly). Guitar amp is more midrange-focused device.

Try this:

- Turn off cabinet modelling on your processor
- Make very clean sound on your amp