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IMPORTANT SITE REMINDERS ARE LISTED AFTER THIS RANT (so please read all of it in order to find the rules >:3)
On this mega I shall take the opportunity to rant about one of my favorite things: the Webnovel UNJUST DEPTHS!
Do you love transgenders?
Do you love communism?
Do you love queer romance?
Do you love killing fascists in a giant fucking mech?
Would a plotline with all of these things happening in a underwater retro-futuristic gundam setting intrigue you?
Especially if its actually really well written with good characters, rich worldbuilding, and a marxist leninist transfem author?
All of the answers should be: YES I DO ~~or else I WILL BAN YOU~~
Since you obviously love all of those things then Unjust Depths is perfect for YOU yes YOU! It is DESTINY
The Imbrian Ocean is at a time of severe instability. The monarch of the vast Empire that spans its unjust depths (:3) is sick and nearing death, every territory of the ocean now vying to carve their own Destiny out of the chaos. From the Volk fascists 
, Zionists 
(they literally will not die why are they still here oh my god), The 'Anarchists' (social chauvanists) 
in Bosporus, and the monarchs 
of each vast noble domain, each vies for power and prestige no matter who they crush underfoot, but it would be a pretty depressing story without a bright light in the dark.
On the edge of the Empire sits the glorious Union! The (Soviet) Union 
is a socialist federation of three states (and one anarchist mountain 
)that were formerly slave colonies under the Imbrian Empire until they broke away in a fierce liberation war. They have spent the last 20 years since then building themselves up. Whether they be Human 
, Shimmi 
(Catgirls who usually follow a religion closely related to modern Islam), and Kattaran 
(a hybrid humanoid species with characteristics of sea life ranging from sharks to cuttlefish)building socialism side by side.
First lead under the revolutionary leader Dashka Kansal, then the Idealist Ahwalia who lead the country to near ruin in pursuit of building a utopia on pillars of sand, then under the scientific socialist 
leadership of the Grand Marshall of the Union, Bhavani Jayanskar (I love Jayanskar so much shes basically as if Stalin, Lenin, and Zhukov were rolled into the same person but was a black lesbian badass who wore the uniform REALLY WELL)(she aint the main character at all tho shes only in very few scenes i just love her so much). Under Jayanskar, the Union has been growing their economy to both eliminate hunger and give everyone a home 
, but also growing their military capabilities for the inevitable return of the Empire. The Union is alone, but with the people by its side nothing, not even Destiny, can snuff out true freedoms light. 
As war wages between the Empire and Republic (basically underwater USA) once more over the lands between them, the facade begins to finally crack...
And a border conflict between the Empire and Union escalate, and the dreaded reconquest begins.
Amidst this turmoil, lives our main characters (yes there are multiple and all of them are lovely). Each of whom I personally love dearly, and are very well characterized. Many are soldiers of the Union, some are scientists, some are divers (mech pilots), some are lost strands finding new meaning after joining this band of Brigands
All are Communists 
All serve the Union 
All would gladly give their lives to defending socialism 
but even they would have little inkling of the adventure set in store for them as the lands beneath the waves erupt in fire, fury, and revolt
Can these transgender badasses kick fascist ass?
Can they kiss? (oh my god please kiss ISTG THERE IS SO MUCH SHIPPING AHHHH ITS GLORIOUS)
FIND OUT HERE: https://unjustdepths.com/
please do or else I will pout incessantly
just try it pleeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaase i need to talk to someone about it after Cromalin went AFK
(I miss her, she was a real one)
REALLY IMPORTANT RULES BELOW, MUST READ
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As a reminder, be sure to properly give content warnings and put sensitive subjects behind proper spoiler tags. It's for the mental health of not just your comrades, but yourself as well.
Here is a screenshot of where to find the spoiler button.
Sorry for the late reply, been busy gardening since the weather's really nice today and it's supposed to rain next week
I currently have a solid state Marshall MG15 mini stack, so I'm leaning towards a mini tube head and just use it with the two 1x12" cabs. They're not the best speakers, but I'd rather get a better sounding more versatile amp and wait to upgrade to a better 2x12" cab later down the road. The head I have now does a decent reverby clean tone, a decent distortion for like, RATM type tone, and a surprisingly good dimed gain tone for an all treble kind of TRVE KVLT black metal "nekrosound." Trying to do anything else with it is kinda assy, the overdrive at lower gains sounds really fake, and it doesn't handle lead playing or metal with staccato type palm muted chugging at all. Going lower than about C# gets really muddy sounding and "woofy" with too much low mids, and it only has a 3 band EQ so I can't really dial it in.
Looking at the Joyo Bantam zoMBie-II (mini Mesa-Boogie Dual Rec clone) or VIVO (mini Peavey 5150 clone), the Blackstar HT-5 (or the later upgraded model with the spring reverb), the Orange Micro Dark, the Peavey 6505 Piranha, the Randall DH5H Diavalo, the Jet City JCA20, the EVH 5150 III LBX, Friedman BE-Mini, Hughes&Kettner TubeMeister 18, or Diezel VH Mini. Maybe the Peavey Invective MH if I wanna splurge a bit.
Also considering some used modeling rigs like a Digidesign Eleven rack, or Line 6 Pod HD500. Maybe a used Axe-Fx if I can find a deal on a used one, but going with a modeling rig would mean also getting a power amp to play through a cab, and that'd be another expense. The versatility would be nice though, and the Eleven rack interfaces natively with ProTools for home recording stuff, but I'd probably also need a floor pedal controller to use any of those as a live rig. I also haven't used ProTools in like a decade plus and suck at mixing and engineering, so I'm not sure how useful that is to me. The Axe-Fx was pretty revolutionary for a lot of prog metal nerds when it came out, and the Pod HD500 has been used by some bands I like that get some pretty surprisingly good times out of it. I haven't heard much of the Eleven rack, but it's the most affordable option for a modeler that is considered usable for recording with instead of just being a multi-fx board.
I'm not the most knowledgeable about dialing in tones and building a rig that all work together well, but I do alright at getting decent sounds out of the stuff I have and like nerding out about gear so feel free to drop some recs or ask me whatever, haha
no problem! I am a chronic slow replyer ... uh for the most part, I guess lol
oh that's cool, I used basically a 10W marshall combo for the longest time when i was young
I've actually literally never used a non-combo amp. I've looked into it, I even set aside some money for a new amp, but ended up holding off because I didn't want to go to a music store and play badly on an amp in front of everyone in order to figure out if I like it lol
ooh, yeah my tube amp is the Epiphone Valve Special lol, I got it for $80 when I walked into a music store one day and it was in the middle of the floor cuz they just got it in and they were like "hey you want this? $80".
It's not super great at clean tones, but it can sound really nice in the sweet spot, when it's not buzzing (I need to get it looked at), unfortunately the sweet spot is a bit too loud for me haha
If I start doing too much delay/reverb it gets muddy fast, but a nice simple tone is pretty good. I've been looking for something with a nice clean that I can really shoegaze it up to for the times I want to play.
That's pretty cool, I have trouble really "dialing in" certain sounds, if something sounds good, it's because I stumbled on it by accident, and uh I will not write it down for some reason.
Damn that's unfortunate! My 10W Marshall IIRC I found kinda limiting too, I couldn't get it to sound like the music I was playing along to at all. I do wonder if this is my general incompetence though.
Damn, wolf tones are the worst. I have one on the low C# on my violin, I have had to practice a lot to make it not stick out super loud, it always just sounds like a sad animal, lol.
What do you think causes this in amps, though? Is it the size of the cabinets, or the amp?
Wow, you've really been doing some research. There's so many amps to choose from, and it's such a big decision that will affect your playing a lot. (I was looking at a one of the Orange lunchboxes a while back tbh) How do you decide?
oh no, and then there's modeling rigs too ... maybe i will stick with my Valve Special after all then, there's no way I can make the right decision.
oh, that seems like a nice plus! I have touched pro tools a little bit, most experience with Ableton but lately am full Linux so have been trying to get used to Reaper.
I have heard of this one, actually the price doesn't seem as bad as I was expecting. I got a Boss MS-3 a while ago which was my first experience soldering patch cables, it's pretty good, but I don't a lot of patience for trying to perfect a sound, I'm more focused overcoming technical hurdles (I completely forgot how to read sheet music, for one, and my picking has never really been great, and I struggle with certain strumming patterns, and my callouses keep disappearing since I practice so infrequently and have really soft/sensitive skin...)
that's really cool :) I tried to get into gear. Furthest I got was a Blues Driver and the aforementioned MS-3 lol. (Okay I also own a Rat, it sounds great tbh, the hype is justified)
I literally have made little practice sets of stuff to get down clean just to have memorized before to not feel embarrassed playing in a store lol
Valve specials are neat, I've seen people make mods for them but the simplicity is kind of admirable as somebody that can get lost in the weeds with minutia in gear. It just has an input and a volume knob that doubles as the gain control too, right?
I like the versatility of being able to use a cab for different heads or as a speaker for listening to stuff on, a lot of combo amps have line out options for driving a different cab and Bluetooth for listening/playing along to stuff, but they didn't really when I got the mini stack. The wolf tone thing you mentioned I think is a combination of how the amp's EQ effects what frequencies it emphasizes in the output and the speaker size+the resonances in the cab. Angling a cab with a stand so it's sitting 45ยฐ up and contacting the floor less will change what frequencies are "woofy" and can fix some low pitch muddiness, but this amp and cab combo just doesn't like going lower than drop D most of the time without getting kinda assy.
I guess just weighing how good I think they sound vs price vs versatility and features and going with what has the best balance for me. The Joyo Bantam zoMBie-II looks like the best value for me and I could put the savings vs some of the pricier amps into pedals or new pickups, but the Peavey Invective MH is more upscale and has built in attenuation to lower wattage settings and has a built in noise gating option, a footswitch boost option, and a "tight" footswitch option that basically makes it a third channel to pair with your distorted rhythm channel for leads. It has preamp and post+gain adjust and a master resonance and presence control too...
I've been wanting to upgrade the stock pickups in my main guitar for awhile and I'd like a multi band floor EQ and a noise gate. A nice delay might be cool too, I really like the Electro-Harmonix Grand Canyon. I've always wanted a Whammy too... Hmm ๐ค
There's a Joyo Bantamp line model that's a Fender Twin clone, a Fender Blues clone, and a Vox AC30 clone that all might be good for that. I think they're all 8 ohm and 20 watt, so you might be able to use the Valve mini combo as a cab for those if the Valve has a line in jack for the speaker that's separate from the instrument line in jack. Those Joyo lunchbox amps all sound pretty good for the price from what I've seen and they have Bluetooth inputs, headphone jacks and FX loops. The more I think about what I want, the more I think the zoMBie-II XL is the right amp for me but that Peavey Invective MH is tempting...
Mine has a lot more than that. I think the Valve Jr is the one with the very few controls, this one has gain/master, simple fx like reverb, bass/mid/treble knobs. the basics.
oh, that's fascinating!! I always wondered why people angled the cabs...
wow, yeah that is a lot of features. built in noise gate is pretty cool,
fascinating, how does that work? does it blend some clean in? or?
Wow!! Okay I have to ask, what does resonance and presence actually do, like mathematically, and then also to the sound?
eeee the grand canyon, i've heard that one demoed. I like big thik delays, I was looking at some but then thought to myself "surely i wouldn't use these that much." I love making these harmonic textures in all my music making, where the resonances kinda feed back into something larger and more beautiful ... delay is my jam.
Damn, I was liking the sound of the Vox AC30, and the Fender Twin when I heard them online. Good to know.... Was it the Bluejay that you were thinking?
I don't think the Valve Special has line in, unfortunately, but I would totally get a cab anyway. What do you look for in a basic cab for that Fender Twin/Vox sound?
Damn, FX loops even!
Damn, that price different though! I can't believe how much cheaper the Bantamps are tho... I am very tempted...
According to the manual from Peavey that I found a pdf of, it "the TIGHT function reduces the gain and alters the EQ of the Lead channel to provide a quasi-third channel that mimics the CRUNCH channel on the original Invective 120 head for a more articulate and full sounding high gain option than that of the full blown onslaught of the Lead channel."
lol, full blown onslaught
So it's like, an anti-boost pedal that tightens up the lead channel to make it into a crunch channel?
Math is not my strong suit lol
In my experience, they tweak the overall response to how "bright" or "dark" changes to the EQ effect your tone. I've noticed them changing the feel of an amp more in higher watt amps where you turn the master volume up more and keep the channel volume down for more "headroom" at the same decibel output. If your bass/mid/treble controls on the EQ are like, three lights pointing out of the amp that changing the dial on effects the brightness of each, resonance and presence are like adding a tinted screen in front of the bulbs. Changing the resonance and presence settings changes the amount of tint or the color of it in this analogy I guess? You're coloring the entire EQ range with them, but not actually cutting or boosting specific ranges individually. I found this article that explains it more articulately and more knowledgeably than I can.
The Bluejay is a Fender Blues Junior clone, the Tweed is a Fender Twin clone, and the Atomic is a Box AC30 clone.
Classic Twins and AC30s are both open-back 2x12" cabs. I think most Twins have Jensen C12K speakers and AC30s have Celestion Greenbacks. I don't really know how much the type of wood effects the sound of the cab, I know birch cabs have a reputation of being "brighter" and oak cabs have are supposedly "warmer" relative to each other, but it might be like fretboard wood where some people swear maple boards are "snappier" and rosewood is "darker," but it's a really minute detail to me. I don't claim to have the best ears by any means, but there's a lot of woo in gear snobbery. It's a lot like audiophiles with hi-fi stereo setups in that way sometimes.
Yeah! From what I've heard, they're all really cool affordable little amps. They make a cute little 1x8" cab to match them for $100 that has a Celestion 815 in it too.
they know their audience!
I have to admit, I am not sure I followed that quote, other than, lol, you know.
Same, lol, I should have said "technically" in retrospect. And, actually, I should have asked for an analogy, because...
This analogy really helped. Thank you!
Damn, I can't find the Tweedy anywhere I can buy it in Cold Country, but I'm also not really sure where to look haha.
So I'm getting here that size and number of speakers is probably #1, and then speaker type is #2? And then there's probably minute differences after that between wood type (and yes I've heard about the fretboard woods lol)?
Yeah totally, it makes it really really hard to navigate some of this stuff. It also pushes prices up, I want something I know is good, but like some of this stuff is so many thousands of dollars I would be using on something else, and how much of a difference is there? Few people on the internet seem to want to say "I spent $2k on a Fender Twin, and this $300 setup was just as good." probably because they're invested into it, and there's a whole bunch of psychology at play too. Idk these are just idle thoughts.
Tbf I like high-quality sound but I agree, it's really hard to avoid some of the "Snake Oil" stuff. I've probably overpaid on audio equipment in the past.
I'd say in order of significance,
Size of speaker(s). 12" are the standard for the majority of guitar amps, but smaller speakers can be found mostly in combo amps. Smaller speakers can't reproduce lower frequencies as well, but still sound really good. A lot of famous recordings were made with small combo amps cranked in the studio that had 10" or 8" speakers.
Type of speaker(s). Magnet type, alnico vs neodymium, etc. Don't know much here. All I know here is a lot of vintage classic tones had alnico speakers and that neodymium is lighter weight and is supposed to stay more signal accurate at higher volumes than alnico.
Number of speakers (a 2x12 played at the same volume as a 1x12 with the same speaker is still going to sound different with all other things equal since multiple speakers all outputting the same signal are going to have miniscule imperfections in the signal's reproduction that'll make the 2x12 sound "fuller." This is basically what a chorus pedal effect does with a lot more exaggeration than two well paired speakers of the same model.)
Open or closed back cabinet (other things equal, an open back will feel more "open" and have brighter high end response, closed will be "punchier" and have more low end.
Angle of speakers (angled vs straight 4x12s, they "fill a room" slightly different depending on the venue, natural room reverb and perceived volume at a distance will be different between an angled or straight 4x12 because of an angled cab's top two speakers pointing upwards slightly.)
Cab wood type (uhuhuhuh... "wood.")
okay, wow!! this is a great simple explanation actually, literally no one on the planet has been able to say this in a way i understand, thank you!! thinking about cabs ... thanks forthe explanation! (gonna save this post too :))