Vid of Trey talking about his rig

[fulltone1989]

Adjustment issues with guitars such as truss rods have a lot to do with humidity.

[webephishin]

sssoooo, that little jazz run that he does at 1:12 sounds so sexy....anyone have any good jazz resources they recommend or scales to work on?  I've been stuck in the pentatonic lately and i wanna get the hell out of it...I WANT JAZZZ BROTHA

[Happyorange27]

In part 2 Trey says he has nothing but vocals coming through his front monitors.  I would think that he would have at least some guitar going through them to help sustain but then again he has four speakers behind him. But when the speakers are behind him won't that hinder sustain since there is not a direct path for sustain?  Also that doesn't sound like the sound bubble Brad Sarno speaks of.

[webephishin]

In part 2 Trey says he has nothing but vocals coming through his front monitors.  I would think that he would have at least some guitar going through them to help sustain but then again he has four speakers behind him. But when the speakers are behind him won't that hinder sustain since there is not a direct path for sustain?  Also that doesn't sound like the sound bubble Brad Sarno speaks of.

How would the monitors (front or back) help with sustain? 

[Happyorange27]

If you get a monitor to push air toward your guitar's body, you are going to increase your chance of feedback immensely.  Resonance!  If it's only from behind, your body is blocking those heady vibrations.

[Stecks]

sssoooo, that little jazz run that he does at 1:12 sounds so sexy....anyone have any good jazz resources they recommend or scales to work on?  I've been stuck in the pentatonic lately and i wanna get the hell out of it...I WANT JAZZZ BROTHA

Sure, TONS!  Email me if you want.

I think the BEST scale to know to start learning jazz is the Major scale - seriously.   I think he's just playing G major right there (hendrixy-ish "Wait til Tomorrow"-y vamp you're talking about?)

[Stecks]

Adjustment issues with guitars such as truss rods have a lot to do with humidity.

Yeah.  Living in the Midwest, I usually have to get mine adjusted a few times a year, even though my guitar is built like an Abrams tank.  Correct me if I'm wrong, but lighter, hollow/semi-hollows and archtops are more susceptible to this?  I was assuming that the density of the wood, surface area (basically physical properties of the guitar, etc) may have something to do with it.  That being said, I try not to sweat too heavily on it/take it swimming in Lake Erie. 

[Happyorange27]

And in the video you can see both TS9s are Silver mods.  Thought he might have reverted but no.  That's why 3.0 sounds so bright and clear.

[IamWILSON]

So Trey uses Celestian G12-80 Classic lead speakers right?  Anyone agree? Anyone have one or used one?

It kinda looked like that's what it was.

I have 2 speakers that are very similar and they've been 2 of my favorite speakers.  I have a Mesa C90 (made by Celestion), which from what I've researched is very similar to the Classic Lead 80.  And I also have the Egnater 1x12 cab with at Elite 80 (made by Celestion, but I think in China), and I remember reading Bruce Egnater's post somewhere saying that it is the CL80 with a couple tweaks to get the sound he wants for the Rebel amplifier. 

They are both loaded in different cabs, but when I've compared all my speakers with the same amps, I've noticed these 2 are nearly identical in tone.  Both are very transparent, but I think I like the Egnater speaker a little better.  Just seems a little warmer/smoother, while I think the other sounds just a little sterile in comparison.  I will note that my Egnater cab is way more used and broken in than the Mesa cab, so that may also figure into the comparison. 

And Happy, because I know you also are a fan of the Cannabis Rex speaker, that is the other one I really like alot, and was toying with the idea for a while to get a 2x12 speaker cab made and match a Cannabis Rex with a Classic Lead 80.  I think it would be a hell of a sound!

[Happyorange27]

Yes that would be divine. 

[webephishin]

And in the video you can see both TS9s are Silver mods.  Thought he might have reverted but no.  That's why 3.0 sounds so bright and clear.

What i noticed about his TS9's in the video is that both of their levels are cranked all the way up...this is different than this pic from this forum....http://strangedesign.org/forums/index.php?topic=2.0

Anyone care to elaborate on this?

[IamWILSON]

And in the video you can see both TS9s are Silver mods.  Thought he might have reverted but no.  That's why 3.0 sounds so bright and clear.

What i noticed about his TS9's in the video is that both of their levels are cranked all the way up...this is different than this pic from this forum....http://strangedesign.org/forums/index.php?topic=2.0

Anyone care to elaborate on this?

That's how you get the maximum ts9 tone out of those pedals!  IMO, there is no other way to use them.  When I was doing the Phish coverband thing I used mine (both '82's - no mods) both with volume maxed, gain on the dirt one was maxed too. The other I usually had the gain around 9 or 10 o'clock.  You hear the sustain he gets out of his gear when he plays the long note in the video?  That is just as much due to the TS9 settings as it is he's using the Ross compressor.  The cool thing is you can turn them all the way up, and if you use your compressor after it, you kind of gate your volume with the compressor, so you're not overbearingly loud.  I know another poster on here said that he didn't even have the volume knob on his Mesa MkIII very high either.  If that is all true, that means that the ts9 is a large part of his overall tone, not to discount what the Languedoc is doing for his tone either though. 

[ShockedAndPersuaded]

I agree on the maxed out TS's being the shizzz. Can't beat 'em through a DR.  You just don't get the same response otherwise. My only problem I've been running in to with the maxed volume TS's-->Comp is it has been mushing my comp out to the point of sounding.....well.....mushy. Sloppy, tubby, flubby, flabby low end. I'm using a CompRossor and running all o this to my MKIII. It sounds REALLY good on the clean channel and not as flubby but the lead channel is another story. That's where all the mush happens. I've tried all sorts of eq'ing but to no avail. Makes me wonder what mods (if any) he's had done. From what I can tell his settings on the Boogie look like the following:
Volume 1 - 8.5 pulled
Treble - 5.5 pulled
Bass - 2.5
Middle - 5.5
Master volume - 3 (this is loud btw)
Lead gain - 3
Lead master - 3

I was snapping pics like the papparazi while watching the video. You can see some of the numbers on the blue tape. The others I gathered by the space between 1 and 10 on the knobs.  These settings still yield a pretty saturated gain on the lead channel (and the clean for that matter) with all the preamp tubes being 12ax7's. I swapped V1 for a 12at7 and V3 for a 12ay7 and the PI for a 12at7 and this got me closer to a "cleaner" more articulate sound like he's copping. Anyone that's ever played a Boogie knows the magic happens in the higher Volume1 setting. So this begs the question. Is he using a mix match of preamp tubes or has he had some sort of gain reduction mod done? I dunno.

HappyOrange I'm pretty sure those are Vintage 30's. I have a pair and its the same logo on the magnet. Not to be confused with the G12H30's.  Those are the heavier magnet greenbacks.

[Happyorange27]

Shocked thanks. That does look to be the case. I got off on a tangent.

[IamWILSON]

Shocked-  Does your Mesa have the graphic equalizer?  I think that's an important part to the equation of the lead channel.  I have an MkIII and it sounds great on any channel I use it on.  From your post, it sounds to me like its either your compressor or the amp that's causing the mushiness.  Remove the comp and see how the amp reacts to the maxed ts9s.  And I wouldn't rely too much on what you see in the picture of his settings.  Unless you're running all the same gear, I don't think thats gonna give you what you want to hear.  Listen with your ears, not your eyes.  Yes the eyes can give you a good reference point to start with, but don't concern them with the end result.  I don't have my boogie dialed in to the "Trey sound" anymore, but from memory, I can tell you that I had my treble knob turned up to about 7 (maybe even 7.5), bass around 1 or 2, and mids at about 4.  Also, just find the sweet spot on the volume knob (mine was around 6 to 7.5), and then let the master set the overall loudness of the amp.

Hope that helps... and back to my original thought about the GEQ.  I believe that it effects the signal after the gain stages, so that should make it easy to remove any mush that you believe is created while the the tubescreamers are maxed and the amp is in the lead channel.  And you can set the GEQ to only be on when you are on the lead channel.