What exactly is a “Cranked” profile

  • Too bad Andy isn’t around to answer this, as it applies especially to his profiles, but there are many “ cranked” profiles.

    My question is,. Are the tone controls cranked ? If so, then all we need do, is cut tone to achieve almost any setting that

    Particular amp is capable of. I’m referring only to vintage amps with passive tone controls. Especially ones with only one

    Tone control.

    In theory, if this is the case, then only one profile needs to be done on an amp with. A passive tone circuit.

  • Yeah the nomenclature is not clear about this.

    Especially in and44 's case I think he has profiled a lot of vintage, non-MV amps, and often, to achieve more gain, has embedded several flavors of Boost/OD/Distortion pedal into the profile.

    Except for, well, when he has cranked the amp to get a similar result, which otherwise only would be possible at deafening volumes with the amp.

    To be clear, I don't think that all the tone controls are cranked but more all volume pots that have to do with gain, and tone controls then dialed in to as to what sounds best with the gain settings.

  • In my understanding & phrasing, a 'cranked amp' is one that has the gain & the volume turned up high. I'd imagine that a 'cranked profile' is a profile that has been created by setting an amp with its gain & volume very high.

  • Regardless of what the cranked amp definition is, your logic is unfortunately flawed.


    The passive tone controls on all valve amps are highly interactive. Turning the treble affects bass and mids. Turning bass affects mids and treble etc. The tone controls also affect gain levels in most amps but the effect varies depending on where the tone stack is in the circuit. So there is no way to capture the impact of adjusting the tone controls from a single profile .


    If you want to see just how interactive tone stacks are download the Duncan Amps Tone Stack Calculator and move the Treble Mid and Bass sliders. The frequency response graph redraws on screen as you do it. There are models for Fender, Marshall and Vox already loaded but if you look up the schematic online for any amp you can change the values in the model and see how they work.

  • If you want to see just how interactive tone stacks are download the Duncan Amps Tone Stack Calculator and move the Treble Mid and Bass sliders. The frequency response graph redraws on screen as you do it. There are models for Fender, Marshall and Vox already loaded but if you look up the schematic online for any amp you can change the values in the model and see how they work.

    Ohh, interesting...


    Given I requested the use of multiple profiles to try to emulate the amp changes more in line with the original, perhaps this is another option, just capturing the applied curves to better mimic the amp...


    I imagine....doing a fairly neutral profile, then the KPA doing a similar process but just looking at the changes rather than ( as I had suggested previously) to capture multiple profiles.


    This is obviously a suggestion for a new release ;)

  • Thank Alan. That’s why I mentioned amps with only a single “tone “ control.

    I also remember reading that back in the day, Marshall users found that rolling the bass control

    off would increase mids.

    So, my theory is pretty much shot down, cept for simple circuits, but maybe it is possible to

    build one or two of these curves into the software? ?