a grandpa from the 70"s - New hi gain rigs & clips

  • Hi all !


    I'm struck by the snow, at home, so I took some time to profile my beloved stack I bought 20 years ago for a few euros.


    This monster is a full tube head, everything oversized here (huge cab 3 x 10" speakers) except the power ( no more than 30w). It was made in France or Italy in the early 70 I guess...


    Bassist will love it as well as jazz guitarists and tube lovers, this amp still has stock EL34 Philipps tube (they were made in brintain at this time).


    The clean sound I was able to profile with a crappy mike is really good IMO, but I had to switch the cab with a free Andy one from the last rig pack (Big twin).


    If a bassist can give it a try I would love to have some feedback, as well as Jazz or Single coil guitars.


    here is the head : a bit ugly but warmer that any tube amp I could hear IRL, thanks to stock tubes & caps.


    [Blocked Image: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lSxS…gi0hd8I/s640/DSC04552.JPG]



    HERE IS THE RIG PACK

  • Hi, waraba,
    I tested your profile just on severals guitars and pickups and I vote the following:
    Attila Zoller Pickups (Jazz Humbuckers): unbelievable fat bass, had to lower it by eq, overall it sounds ok
    Fender N3 Noiseless (stacked humbuckers): really great sound for jazzin' around, I immediately had to jingle a while :thumbup:
    Fender P90 Pickups: the HELL - that is really an unbelievable great and wonderful jazz sound :thumbup: :thumbup: - no matter if clean or crunched, I'll give this combination this night to record!!!!
    With the P90 it jumped into my Top-3 jazz sounds on the KPA with the potential for a true No. 1.
    Many thanx for this "ancient" treasure ...
    Will come up later again when I checked my 4- and 5-string bass "dakotaring" ... 8o

  • Hi Cube, thx a lot for this very good and complete feedback , I also felt in love with this rig, the Big Twin cab from Andy does really a lot in this Rig. But I discovered that the rig also makes a very fine preamp if you disable the CAB , since the original amp is full range. On vocals it should be very good to warm a track I guess.


    I don't have a real soundcard here, so I cannot make a clip, if you record something please post it , I'm really curious :P . I agree that jazz humbuckers shine on this rig, I have only this 2cm thick masonite wood guitar to test it, but it's mounted with a old jazz duncan SH2 on the neck position, it sounds just like a Gibson L5 !!! the bass jazz runs are incredibly smooth & warm while very 60's in the sound.


    I wonder how a bass will sound on this rig ( I did'nt have a bass to setup a real bass setting while profiling) but every bass players trying the real amp wanted to get it back to their home ;) .


    Fun part is that I took several electrical shocks while profiling due to the amp not beeing grounded and Not ISO compliant, to say the least, I also had to wear earplugs due to a very weak mike... While upstair , my kids got frightened by the bulldozer sound that KPA makes at the end of the profiling process :D . This rigs came with pain,but it was well worth it !!!

  • Hi, waraba,
    I just had my basses run through your Dakota.
    For the 4-string (Ibanez), single-coil & humbucker: It's a warm round and defined sound over the whole scale of tones, very common in presence and tone overall the fretboard. It's fun to play that solid standard sound, but I miss a little bit a specific identity. It's (wonderful) neutral.
    For the 5-string (active pickups and preamp): The same as above but it seems to me that unfortunatly the Dakota cannot handle the very low frequencies of the B-String in proper way, tuning down one whole step or more increases the problems, there's only a giant low bubble.
    But anyway - I like this amp alot and it will find it's place in the top row of my KPA for one of my nicest jazz-guitar amps.
    Again thanks a lot - and care for yourself when touching the Dakota, these e-shocks might be dangerous!
    :thumbup:

  • Ok great tests, thx for taking this time . I profiled with treble & Bass at 12 o'clock, it should be interesting to profile with a real bass and play with channels & settings to do a better bass vintage profile.


    Anyway we're both happy with the jazz guitar profile, I will profile with a single coil next time and try different settings (there is a presence push on the treble pot, I also need to cranck it a bit for tests ) and channels (4 on the Dak). I had very bad results with upping the gain knob on the KPA (muddy), did you achieve crunch sounds with the gain or with a pedal or booster ?


    I also plan to do a cab profile once a get my hands on a proper mike. I the meanwhile I use the Dak as a full range monitor on the KPA , and while the tonal color is very present it's incredibly warm on a few rigs.


    W

  • ... I had very bad results with upping the gain knob on the KPA (muddy), did you achieve crunch sounds with the gain or with a pedal or booster ? ...


    My Fender P90s got a hot outpot and as I plugged the Tele with the P90 in for the previous test I forgot to change the input preset (I made specific input presets for every guitar I got) so I've got an (accidential) crunch made exclusively by (input) gain. :whistling:
    I don't use the KPA-internal distortion pedals often, the more I use the standard boost of the KPA to drive the amp. Sometimes I plug a Blackstar HT-Dual Valve Distortion (Channel 1, slightly set to US-sounding) between guitar and KPA (only for humbuckers). 8)
    I totally agree with you that turning up the KPA gain leeds to desaster, it's way better to decrease gain from a heavy sound to reach excellent crunch or light distortion. 8o

  • Hi !
    I just received my Gi100 direct input box, so I finally could do more profiles from my old Dakota amp. This time i tried several combinations with fully cranked amp.


    I did most of the profiles with a 'generic' guitar (splittable HB) to get some usable rigs on both types of pickups, but they really shine with a specific type (just like in real amp life !).


    I tweaked them on a pair of Yamaha HS80, so they will probably sound better with FRFR systems.

    King DAK - Fat Freddy HB
    , wich is the fully cranked volume matched with Kalvitz bogner's cab. The results is a very heavy rig, with a very 'Marshall' bite in it, tons of basses but still vintage in the sound,
    best suited for hard rock rythm. I profiled with the bass knob at 9 o'clock , but it's still amazingly bassy & punchy.


    Be sure to try this one with Humbuckers, it's very sensitive to gain so keep the gain in a close range to it's default setting. It does not clean up very well IMO ( try lowering your guitar vol pot instead)



    King DAK JTM 42 SC : Be careful HIGH volume is the same rig (fully cranked vol) but best suited for single coils. I used a JTM45 cab that matches very well here for heavy rhythms.


    Hope you like em as much I did, I know this amp had some brutality in it, but without the KPA and those fantastic cabs, I could never hear this grandpa ringing like a vintage JCM.


    Here is a short clip


    You might have to disengage stomps& Lower volume.

  • Hi again ,


    I finished sorting out my rigs , the clean ones and a little bonus.


    The Clean fender, JTM & blackface rigs are based on the organ channel, with or without presence switch activated. Basses were at 9 o'clock , treble and vol at 12 o'clock.


    The results are much less bassy than the 1st profile , but still very warm & highly recommandable with their own voicings (from the best cabs I could find :andy's twin & blackface, and JTM cream JTA45 cab ) and the amp stack of the DAK.


    The last one is a specific LES PAUL rig, made for Bridge & Neck HB it's aim is to enhance the famous growl of les pauls and sustain, i love this rig :)


    Once again here is a little clip of those 4 rigs in action , in a laid back blues/funk style. Sorry for the the bass line, I played it on a telecaster (with Mr Dakota rig) ;)

  • I forget to give a few tips for those profile :


    • for hi gain rigs ( Fat freddy , JTM42 , LP growl ) : There are 2 boosts available for each rig , activate A & C slots together (wah pedal boost combo) , or activate B & D slots ( pure booster at 0 + EQ, I know this is a dirty trick but it turned out to sound really great on my gear)


    It will give you a great solo sound with a Kinda Boogie feeling ( focused ,gainier ,tight & singing). I guess it simulates a good driven preamp.


    • for clean rigs ( Twin, black & JTM clean) :

    Play with the input sense (clean on 10 for instance) it will drive those clean amps in crunch/solo mode, wich is much better than upping the gain on those rigs.


    Thanks to CUBE for this great tip (like a lot of discoveries it happened by error juste like 'tarte tatin ' recipe :thumbup: )


    Those tricks did work on a lot of other rigs BTW

  • Hi !


    2 new clips I recorded last week with those Dakota rigs :


    clean amp


    drive amp



    https://soundcloud.com/waraba/annoying-mosquito ( this one is a bit stupid )


    https://soundcloud.com/waraba/slide-freddy ( I used a bottleneck on my les paul on this one)


    Another one one the tele (DAK3) : https://soundcloud.com/waraba/red-dog-sick-home