JVM Forum

So... I was sitting here at home just thinking...
I going to test my thoughts tomorrow..

How much affects the preamps volume settings the sound?
The less resistance on the way should be better or?
Full blast on the preamp and just use the master volumes?

and yeah.. while am at it.. I want more headroom on the clean channel?!


.........back to the whiskey

Clean: Dime one of the MVs. Keep the gain dialed back. That will be as clean as you can get. Volume on green not affected. Orange and Red yes.

The rest? I'm going somewhere in the middle. See the ultimate EQ thread

In theory no effect. In practice for myself and others maxing the masters and using
channel volumes does have an effect, more vintage / warm.
Best bet is see what you think for yourself and let us know.

In theory no effect. In practice for myself and others maxing the masters and using
channel volumes does have an effect, more vintage / warm.
Best bet is see what you think for yourself and let us know.[/quote]


Santiago says that the Channel Volumes and Master Volumes are essentially the same and there is no difference in sound if one or the other is maxed.

However, i tried a simple comparison between these 2 settings:

Crunch Channel Orange Mode: Master on full, Channel Volume on half, Gain on half

Crunch Channel Orange Mode: Master on half, Channel Volume on full, Gain on half

I noticed that with the Channel Volume maxed and the Master on half, the sound was much fuller and fatter than with the volumes the other way round. This is open to debate!!!

Well I got "less transistory", but it goes to show that some of us perceive a difference

The debate goes on ....

To me, maxing the channel volume makes the sound more saturated.

I just had a quick look at my JVM's and noticed that all the Volume Channels are on 10 except the Crunch Channels which are on 8.5.
It sounds more saturated to me too, thats why I have it full.
I dont want the Crunch channel to be so saturated so i dial it back a bit.

For those of you that hear a difference in tone depending upon whether you crank the channel volume or the master volume...... I am just curious ...... are you running any equipment in either of the loops??

The reason why I ask this is because I think if I'm not mistaken, the channel volumes are "pre-loop", whereas the master volumes are "post-loop". At least thats what my meters are telling me on my external equipment that I have plugged into the loops. Maybe Santiago could confirm this??

Anyway, if that is the case, then I could understand how you could hear the difference, since the higher you turn the channel volume, the harder you are driving your effects devices (even possibly clipping, depending on how high you set the channel volume). Whereas, turning up the master volume doesn't affect the signal level that the effects devices are seeing.

Try this ..... unplug all of your effects devices and bypass the loops. Now crank the channel volume, then try the master volume. Still hear a difference?? Maybe my assumption is incorrect and someone can clarify this for me, but that sure seems to be what my meters are telling me .... and my ears too by the way.

Where is the Ultimate EQ thread? I have never seen that around here. Is that another site?

Stinger, very good point. The loop is post channel vol and pre-master. I originally had my Crunch and OD channels nearly dimed. But as you mentioned, this resulted in some saturation due to my effects in the loop. Now the channel vols are near 12:00 and the loop saturation is gone.

MP

For a low volume sound, I've found it best to set the channel volume on half and the master at about 9 o'clock. I'm not sure why, but to me it just sounds best like that. If, for example, the channel volumes are located earlier in the preamp than the master volumes, increasing these will be hitting more gain stages than a volume control placed later which would support having a more saturated/higher gain sound.. That would be more like a vintage amp with a PPIMV though. You'd crank up your preamp volumes and then use the later control to cut the signal going into the power amp. I'm not sure about the loop deal since I never use it, but I still think I hear a difference (or I'm paranoid). At any rate if theres a level for the loop (again..don't know since I've never really used it) you could be using the loop as an extra gain stage even if you aren't using any pedals by boosting your signal with the loop level. Interesting what we're getting here..

Stinger,

I don't have any effects on the loop, and I still can hear the difference in saturation. To me cranking the channel volume is equivalent as using a distortion box before the amp = to have more saturation on the sound.

The downside is that it results in heavy feedback if the volume is too high.