What sounds good with your S-100 vintage or reissue

[tele4tone]

Hello!

It's been awhile since I have corresponded with the owners of one of the greatest guitars ever made and then reissued. My band heads in to the studio at the end of March. I have been experimenting a ton with the tone of my S-100 reissue. I have found a lot of things that work and don't work. I even rethought my pedal board to accommodate S-100 little nuances.

This is my board that I use with a Sundown A-50 and an Ampeg 2-12 closed back w/ Celestion V-30s. It does clean great and gets the overdriven tone well enough. It really likes the Wampler Triple Wreck and I get some great heavy tone with all of the definition and harmonics I need.

My band is a heavy ish sound with with some Sabbath type riffs in the mix. What works well for you guys? I'd like to experiment a bit before we go.

I hope to get some great ideas from you.

Thx, Jeff

 

[Qvart]

I have no idea. Don't own a single pedal myself - except a tuner! :lol:

I play through a 1990 100-watt Marshall JCM900 and my vintage S-100's SCREAM. The thing is the amp is geared more towards lead and I play lower-toned Sabbath-style stonerrock stuff. I just kill the treble and mids down to about a quarter and crank the bass up about three-fourths. Lead gain up as high as it'll go (TWENTY!). Also swapped out the preamp 12AX7 tube for a 12AT7 per capnjuan's advice. That smoothed the sound out a bit and killed the piercing shrill-ness this beast can put out.

Good luck!

 

[hugohurst]

hey qvart, that preamp tube swap... is it just the power section that needs to be rebiased when switching?
i've got a Sovtek Mig 100H that i love to death and have no reason to change, but i love to experiment, so why not try it out (unless i'd need it rebiased.) if it's a plug and play swap i might try it out.

 

[Qvart]

hey qvart, that preamp tube swap... is it just the power section that needs to be rebiased when switching?
i've got a Sovtek Mig 100H that i love to death and have no reason to change, but i love to experiment, so why not try it out (unless i'd need it rebiased.) if it's a plug and play swap i might try it out.

I think the bias only has to do with the output tubes. I just swapped out the preamp tube and it was fine.

 

[stclrob]

'96 S-100

Peavey VTM 60 (high gain):
Pre 10, post 4, low 8, mid 2, high 4, presence 7, gain 1 gain 2 comp up
ProCo Rat: distortion a little over half, filter three quarters, volume about half

This is my high gain situation (obviously). I just use my orange dual terror for lower gain settings (easy to dial in on those). My cab is a 2x12 closed back with celestian v30s.

 

[tele4tone]

My Sundown has some similarities to the JCM 800 and I did a a swap in the gain channel for a 12au7. I wanted less fizz. I really only use the clean channel tho.

 

[tele4tone]

'96 S-100

Peavey VTM 60 (high gain):
Pre 10, post 4, low 8, mid 2, high 4, presence 7, gain 1 gain 2 comp up
ProCo Rat: distortion a little over half, filter three quarters, volume about half

This is my high gain situation (obviously). I just use my orange dual terror for lower gain settings (easy to dial in on those). My cab is a 2x12 closed back with celestian v30s.

I love my Ampeg 2-12 w/ v30's...... fantastic speaker

 

[Hammer]

This:

...into a Peavey Classic 50 2x12 and/or a Fender HRD 2x12. The S-100s really love the vintage Rat and the Muff.

 

[Thunderface]

Great googly-moogly. My what a big pedalboard you have. :wink:

 

[Hammer]

Meh...chorus, delay, EQ and tuner are givens. Both amp switches I could remove...I hardly use them. The ABY switch is there so I can flip-flop between amps. My RAT will never go away...had that since I started playing. The Big Muff was added to try to dial in some fuzz...very Mudhoney. The Metal Muff is, well...for teh brootal metalz! The Fuzz Factory is just plain fun to mess with. And the Java Boost just sends them all to the brink of insanity.

I've got a pedal graveyard under the couch. A DOD Octoplus (FX35), Milkbox (FX84) and EQ (FX40b), a Boss Heavy Metal (HM2), an Ibanez Tubescreamer (TS5), a DigiTech Synth Wah/Envelope Filter, a Behringer tuner (TU300) and a Dunlop Original Crybaby. Oh, and a second vintage, albeit newer than the one in the pic, RAT.

 

[stclrob]

a Boss Heavy Metal (HM2)

Do you not need that anymore??? I'd take it off your hands.

 

[Hammer]

a Boss Heavy Metal (HM2)

Do you not need that anymore??? I'd take it off your hands.

With the Metal Muff, I don't use it anymore, but the kiddo does from time to time. It's the Made in Taiwan version, anyway.

 

[stclrob]

a Boss Heavy Metal (HM2)

Do you not need that anymore??? I'd take it off your hands.

With the Metal Muff, I don't use it anymore, but the kiddo does from time to time. It's the Made in Taiwan version, anyway.

Ah, I've been searching for the Into the Grave sound, can't get it.

 

[capnjuan]

... I think the bias only has to do with the output tubes ... I just swapped out the preamp tube and it was fine.

Si; preamp tubes have a cathode resistor that sets the bias of the tube ... 'self-biasing'. The 12A_7s, 5751s, 6EU7s, their friends ... and the friends of their friends ... are all self-biasing.

 

[tele4tone]

I don't miss my big pedal board. I liked the flexibility, but I really don't use all that stuff live anymore. I do miss my phase 90 stuck in a crybaby enclosure tho....great effect

so preamp distortion for Qvart
Rat for stlclrob
Rat, muff, or Metal Muff for Hammer
Any other contributors?

Thx, Jeff

 

[stclrob]

I don't miss my big pedal board. I liked the flexibility, but I really don't use all that stuff live anymore. I do miss my phase 90 stuck in a crybaby enclosure tho....great effect

so preamp distortion for Qvart
Rat for stlclrob
Rat, muff, or Metal Muff for Hammer
Any other contributors?

Thx, Jeff

It's worth mentioning the vintage Rats sound very different from the modern Rats. If you're considering one, try to play both if you can.

 

[Pwal]

I don't have or don't use many effects or pedals, but after many experiences, I've settle with:
- Dunlop Cry Baby
- Tonebone Hot British
- Holy Grail Nano Reverb

As I'm no longer gigging, I'm running this through a modded Epi Valve Jr half-stack. And for the first time in years, I really like my sound.
I'm currently looking at a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe, just to have something more powerful if I ever need it (you never know). But I haven't heard from the seller in a while.
I may add a flanger at some point too.

 

[Gorgar]

For basic tone (sounds like you're asking about that more than modulation and such), mostly I played my S-100 through an AnalogMan Sun Lion (Beano Boost side mostly), a T-Rex Moeller overdrive, occasionally a Metal Muff, and into a 90s Fender Super (kind of like a Super Reverb with the Hot Rod Deluxe gain channel, nice amp). The low E wound up being a little overpoweringly bassy high up the neck, but other than that it worked well. I got most of my modulation tones out of a Red Witch Moon Phaser Deluxe (top output into amp, bottom output with a dummy plug in) and a Moog ring mod for tremelo.

I also found it worked better than any other guitar I owned at the time with a Laney AOR Pro Tube. Flying Vs were too muddy, Strat was too shrill, but the S-100 made metal riffs sound great.

 

[Csquare4]

S100 -> BK Butler Tube Driver -> MemoryMan Delay -> Traynor YGM-4 StudioMate -> Marshall 8x10 cab.

Tone heaven.

The Tube Driver is loaded with a 12AU7 (instead of the 12AX7 that came with it)...I have found it allows me to dial in a much broader range of warm overdrive, more organic and not as "gainy". The YGM-4 is just fat and punchy and I usually like to run the 4x8's (Jensen C8Ns) in parallel with my Marshall 8x10 with the original Celestion 7442's. I have several guitars, amps and various pedals...this is my rig of choice for the time being. When I volume up, it is bone shiver good.

Craig

 

[drunkenguitarist]

My RI sounded decent with my old peavey ultra 1x12 for the heavy stuff. I had it for nearly 13 years before it finally died on me. It was quickly replaced by a fender deluxe reverb ri.
The S-100 responds quite well to all kinds of dirt pedals. Anything from big muffs, tone benders, fuzz faces, etc. The phase switch really helps in regards to achieving a wider variety of tonal options in comparison to a regular HB(Bridge) - HB(Neck) configuration.
I love mine, just need to get it back up and running again. A shame that it's been locked up in its case for the better part of three months now.

Here's a shot of my current board.