Weber Blue Dog vs. Eminence Red Fang - Phishy speakers

[sour d]

Lol, I have always been a fan of the silvers personally. I have considered trying a few other TS's, mostly OD9 Silver. I am interested in the VOP9 as well, but I think the voicing might not be right for Phish. It is interesting to hear you guys don't like it as much, I would be interested in hearing more about what you don't like with the Silvers and which TS you prefer.

Silver mod is much more transparent. Nice for hearing more of what your guitar sounds like. Early 80's ts9's with the jrc4558d opamp are a lot warmer sounding. More mid hump. If you use 2 tube screamers the silver mod is good for the cleaner position while the.early 80's ts9's is better for dirty. I actually prefer a ts10 for my clean with low drive and high level into a ross. Nobody talks about the ts10. I recently got an ibanez jet driver to try and I was very impressed with the mid knob. If you are looking for more mids on your dirty screamer this is it. Its like ibanez has paid attention to the modders and dropped us a nugget at a reasonable price. I love tube screamers and I have owned or currently own all different incarnations.

[IamWILSON]

Lol, I have always been a fan of the silvers personally. I have considered trying a few other TS's, mostly OD9 Silver. I am interested in the VOP9 as well, but I think the voicing might not be right for Phish. It is interesting to hear you guys don't like it as much, I would be interested in hearing more about what you don't like with the Silvers and which TS you prefer.

I'm a big fan of the original vintage ts-9s and ts-808s from the early 80's.  When I was getting back into playing gigs back in '02 and I became interested in quality tone products, I started with 2 Keeley modded Ts-9.  A "plus" and a "baked" model.  I got myself a Keeley compressor at the same time.  The serial number is in the 500s!  Anyway, I liked the tone of these modded tubescreamers, but was never fully sold, as they interacted kind of funny with the comp.  When Phish came back for 2.0, I didn't like Trey's tone as much and found out he was using the Analogman modded pedals, so I didn't bother trying one of them.  It's just doesn't sound real.  It's too electronic, digital, or fake sounding.  Just not as authentic as his signal used to sound.  

A couple years ago I finally decided to find out what the hype of the vintage ts-9s was all about.  Got one on Ebay and loved it, which led to getting a 2nd one, and then a backup, which sounded even better than the first 2!  It definitely had something more special about it!  Not to say the other 2 aren't great od pedals, as they all are so similar, but when you start comparing them, you will hear some subtle differences.  The midrange hump sounds great in these old ones.  Maybe its the combination of the components inside that does it, or how old and how long they've been used; I don't know.  Next I got really lucky and was able to get a vintage ts-808 that was beat to shit, casing was bonded back together after being busted open, but everything inside the pedal is original and the tone is definitely a step up from the ts-9.  More clarity, more transparency, really clean sounding, even when the gain is turned up!  And it reacts really well to dynamics.  So I use it as my always on pedal, and use my 1st choice ts-9 as my gain pedal to add on more overdrive.  The combination of the 2 work so well together that I have actually stopped my search for great tubescreamer tone.  

Having said all that.  I am beginning to experiment with finding some different kind of od and fuzz tones.  I'm just kind of thinking about designing another pedal board with some dramatically different options to get some more unique sounding tones.

[Happyorange27]

sours that's a good idea trying to use silver for clean and original for dirty. Maybe even 12volts on the silver and sag 7 volts on the dirty to really get extremes.

[Heady Jam Fan]

This discussion got me thinking about voltage doubling circuitry with something to regulated it down to 12v. I might have to try that mod in my clean TS9 and possibly my compressor for a little more headroom and clarity!

PS - I have been talking to Weber about the speaker and I guess they appreciated the review/comparison (I sent them a longer write up of my thoughts). They told me I could keep the speaker! That was very cool and totally unexpected.

[Happyorange27]

Cool Heady.  Didn't one of the Weber guys pass away a while back?

[Heady Jam Fan]

I think the original founder, Ted, did, but I am pretty sure it is his son or something that is running the company - he signs everything "TA Weber."

He had said the speaker was used before he shipped it, though it looks brand new, but in his last email he said it definitely needs some breaking in still, which makes sense (and may be audible in the comparison). I have heard these speakers have a relatively slower break in and really have a significant improvement over that course. I told TA that I would be happy to share the speaker with anyone in the PGH area who wants to test it, and if I pick up an extension cab, I might run it along with my Red Fang as I think they would balance each other nicely.

And per the effect discussion above, Retro Sonic said their pedal is meant to be at 9v (which I read as: don't increase the voltage), but I still think that would be cool to run a TS at 12v.

[IamWILSON]

That's awesome Heady!  First of all I thought it was cool that they'd send you a speaker to try out before purchase, but I figured maybe you had to send some sort of deposit or something.  But they obviously stand behind their product!  If you use those 2 speakers together, that really might provide some great tone, as I think they'd balance each other pretty well. 

[Heady Jam Fan]

Yea, they really do and are self-described as relying on grassroots, word of mouth marketing. While I definitely wanted to test the speaker out, I don't know if I would have done a down payment or deposit just cuz money is tight right now for me. I think they are just hoping those they target for this sort of marketing are honest and willing to do their side by sharing their unbiased opinion. I really liked how TA said we would discuss the purchase or return of the speaker after I give my opinion because I felt no obligation to review their speaker more favorably than my actual opinion - I know this is questionable in other situations, not being able to know if the review is trustworthy or if gear was given in exchange for a favorable review, but that was not the case here.

[ShockedAndPersuaded]

I've got a 50 watt ceramic in my DR clone and it is fantastic. Once they're broke in its pretty hard to beat.  Nice demo Heady.

[Heady Jam Fan]

Thanks man - I wanna break it in, but not looking forward to the process of it

[Happyorange27]

Run a continuous loop through it while your at work:)

[Heady Jam Fan]

Lol - the thought crossed my mind, up at the full 50 watts! I think my roommates and housemate (split house in 4 apartments) would not be happy oranges.

[Happyorange27]

Yeah I figured. You could build an isolation box then you could use it any time and crank it up and it would be almost deaf to your peeps. Put a mic in there and get all that breakup. Google isolation boxes if you are not familiar.

[Heady Jam Fan]

Yea I have definitely thought about that. It would be great for recording, but even as a DIY, it seems the resources are a little pricey. Maybe next year if I find myself in a creative mood.

[Buffered]

Sorry for bumping a dead thread, but I have the opportunity to trade my Weber California for a Weber Blue Dog. The owner has no idea of the specs besides it's 8 ohm. I'm not really chasing the JBL tone nowadays, so the trade would be nice to try something new.. Do you guys know of any identifiers besides the label?

Really digging the Steamboat Hemp 100 Heady suggested, so this Blue Dog might be a little excess.