Posts Tagged Rivera
Taking Tone To The Next Level: Pt 2
In a frenzy of tonal expectancy, I ordered the speaker. Scouring the warehousespeakers.com I decided on the 12” HM75 speaker because it was the closest speaker to the Celestion G1T2T-85 already in my R-55.
It felt like it took longer than it really did to be delivered. When it did arrive, I immediately texted my friend whom we’ll call Jason. I am the least handy person in the world so Jason offered to help me put it in. This turned into him putting it in and me watching and making wise-cracks about solid-state amps (thanks, Jason).
The first thing we had to do was give a proper A/B test of the old speaker vs the new. I set up my rig and let a nice E chord ring. The R-55 is a mellow, smooth-sounding amp and has always sounded a little shallow. The shallowness of the amp is partly due to the depth (or lack thereof) of the cab. From what I have been able to find out, this is also the reason why Rivera discontinued the model in favor of the Chubster which is the same amp with a deeper cab.
The other reason for the shallowness was my blatant neglect of the amp.
Jason and I got tired of hearing the old sound, so we (he) got to work installing the new one. It was a fairly simple process especially if you are just sitting watching someone do the work. It looked like it was pretty much just unplugging the old speaker, loosening a couple screws, pulling out the old speaker and then repeating the process in opposite order with the new speaker.
My friend whom we'll call Jason ripping off the grill of my Rivera R-55
Getting that old speaker out of there
We (he) got the new speaker in and the sound was incredible. It really was power-stance-inducing tone. Everything sounded bigger and more expressive. Highs and mids were clear and distinctive and after messing with some dirty contacts in the EQ nobs, the bass came out like it had been hiding all this time.
Me doing an interpretive pose to express the magnitude of the power-stance-inducing-tone we were hearing after the new speaker was put in. This is also me committing the number-one sin for the internet: showing your face.
Me, being so engulfed in the tone coming out of the new speaker that I forgot I was still in a power stance.
Both my friend, whom we call Jason, and I were freaking out at this point. The combination of face-melting tone and the school-girl-like giggles that were coming from both Jason and me must have been a strange sound so Jason’s wife (whom we’ll call Shari) came up to investigate. After hearing the amazing sounds coming out the Rivera, this was her reaction.
Shari dropping her jaw after the jaw-dropping tone from the amp. (All pics used with permission, especially this one. Thanks for being so cool Shari-if that’s your real name.)
This whole experiment has proven to be the biggest single leap in tone advancement I have ever made. No pedal, no guitar, and certainly no instrument cable has made such a difference in the sound quality of my rig. My conclusion is if you really want to take your tone to the next level, research replacing your stock-tone-sucking speaker with a better quality one.
Keep sharp.
-Jed
Taking Tone To The Next Level: Pt. 1
This is the question that is on my mind most of the time and I’m guessing on yours as well. No matter where we are on the tone hierarchy we are always trying to get to the next level.
Getting to the next level can often feel like inventing the light bulb. You try a thousand things and nothing seems to work and then one time you flip on the power switch and better tone is coming out of your amp. You don’t even play better, but you feel like you do. You crossed over to another level of tone.
Yesterday I crossed over to another level of tone. I am so excited. You guitar players know what I mean.
A couple of weeks ago a friend who we’ll call Jason (which is convenient seeing as his name is Jason) crossed over to the next level in tone.
He plays through a 15 watt 1×12” Trainor Combo. He has had it forever (God said let there be light and there was Jason with his Trainor) and it has always been a decent little amp.
Then a couple of weeks ago we were hanging out at his house and the discussion veered towards gear. His face lit up (which happens a lot when we talk about gear), “Jed, you have to see what I did.”
We went to his “rehearsal space” where he had his guitar, pedalboard and amp set up and ready to go. He handed me the guitar like a kid on Christmas afternoon, turned everything on and told me to play. So I did.
There is no expletive I could say to describe what I felt at that moment. It was one of the most humongous tones I had ever heard coming out of a little 1×12 combo. The low end had an amazing tight response and everything just sounded clearer and bigger.
I turned to Jason to enquire what was making the difference. He began to tell me that he had replaced the speaker with a speaker from warehouseguitarspeakers.com.
I was impressed. It was the kind of tone that kept me from putting the guitar down. It is amazing how good tone inspires faster playing.
Since that day I have completely rethought tone, amps, pedals and even guitars. For exploratory research I have bought a speaker from the same company that Jason bought his from, and am planning on putting it into my Rivera R-55.
The next post will be an update on this tone trek and I hope to have it up in a couple days.
Until then, keep sharp.
-Jed