LEGACY... hmmm.. Kinda bummed

12090 Views 80 Replies 37 Participants Last post by 3bolt79, 4 mo ago

piranha

Discussion Starter · Aug 14, 2008

I bought a Legacy half stack recently. I'm starting to be honest with myself. I'm kinda discouraged. My purpose in writing this is to get some ideas.

First of all the clean channel is deadly clean. Best I've played on.
However the Lead channel, well, I was hoping for Steve Vai tone. That's not what I'm hearing. Sounds quite mild to me. Not Vai'ish at all.... to me at least.

I put a dod EQ in the loop and have improved it alot. Only issue with that is the mild hum I hear.

I did some research and bought a Keeley SEM DS-1... Still bummed. It sounds compressed and bass'y when used with the amps Lead channel. Got the gain set at 6 on the amp and no distortion on the pedal.

I'm going to continue to tinker. I'm guessing that the tone I want is likely only found at higher volume. In all honesty I've only really tinkered with the tone at louder bedroom levels which is still hardly registering on the amp volume knob.

The guitar I play is an RG 560 with an SD blackout in the bridge
Really looking forward to your replies.

21 - 40 of 81 Posts

waylay00

· #21 · Aug 17, 2008

But when the sweet spot is found, it kills any solid state amp out there

DEADTUNES666

· #22 · Aug 18, 2008

waylay00 said:
But when the sweet spot is found, it kills any solid state amp out there

Maybe, I'm not convinced with all the hassle that they kill solid state, but...the people we play for wouldn't know the difference between a gorilla 15 watt, and a Matchless anyway, except maybe for the volume output. :lol:

That's just me...

just42dave

· #23 · Aug 26, 2008

had mine for 2 weeks couldnt stand the horrible hum tried many different tube variations sold it for v3 good amp just noisy sucker

TheMusicBucket

· #24 · Aug 29, 2008

DEADTUNES666 said:
Maybe, the people we play for wouldn't know the difference between a gorilla 15 watt, and a Matchless anyway, except maybe for the volume output. :lol:

Very true!

rufes

· #25 · Aug 30, 2008

The Legacy is definitely not a plug and play amp. You need time to get used to it and requires high volumes to give its best.

If I had to choose one only amp to have it wouldn't be a Legacy but it is a good amp.

Spending some time choosing the right speakers for your taste is important.

Regarding the previously mentioned JSX I didn't like it at all. It just gives poor marshall tones. I prefere a real Marshall for many reasons but specially tone-wise.

lateralus819

· #26 · Oct 19, 2008

Hmmm I'm a huge legacy fan and i kinda disagree with all of this. The legacy is in fact an OVERALL amazing amp and the tones from it are down right splendid. It can in fact get heavy on it's own. Heres some of my clips, I'm new to micing amps so this isn't exactly how it sounds its actually 10x better!

http://media.putfile.com/the-tone gilbertish tone.

http://media.putfile.com/idk-56-11 SLIGHTLY boosted.

http://media.putfile.com/december-of-hell Straight legacy

http://media.putfile.com/new-song-54-26

Enjoy.

shogun

· #27 · Oct 19, 2008

lololololololol

a) dont buy a tube powered half stack for bedroom use
b) how could you miss the 10,000 negative reviews towards the legacy?

Lefty Robb

· #28 · Oct 19, 2008

lateralus819 said:
Hmmm I'm a huge legacy fan and i kinda disagree with all of this. The legacy is in fact an OVERALL amazing amp and the tones from it are down right splendid. It can in fact get heavy on it's own. Heres some of my clips, I'm new to micing amps so this isn't exactly how it sounds its actually 10x better!

http://media.putfile.com/the-tone gilbertish tone.

http://media.putfile.com/idk-56-11 SLIGHTLY boosted.

http://media.putfile.com/december-of-hell Straight legacy

http://media.putfile.com/new-song-54-26

Enjoy.

Yup, mine sounded exactly like that, mush with no definition.

CosmicDebris

· #29 · Oct 19, 2008

If it is so great an amp then why does steve use a fender for cleans and pedals for distortion?

lateralus819

· #30 · Oct 20, 2008

What kind of music do you play rob? This amp is mainly for leads which it EXCELS at. I myself am even looking for a new amp, not to place this as it sounds awesome. But for nu-metal type tones.

Valhalla

· #31 · Oct 20, 2008

waylay00 said:
It's just like most good tube amps. You really have to get it going at decent volumes to get that singing tone. Vai used to use modified JCM800s. Same thing here. They don't sound as good as they do when they are cranked.

+1. Of course the Legacy will sound like ass at lower volumes, just like any other tube amp...If you want an amp for your bedroom, get a Line 6 or something instead of wasting all that coin on an amp you will never gig with....

shogun

· #32 · Oct 20, 2008

Lefty Robb said:
Yup, mine sounded exactly like that, mush with no definition.

that was a tad rude.. you can make a roland cube sound great if you mic it properly-- the opposite goes here.. the first clip def. sounded the best..

lateralus819

· #33 · Oct 20, 2008

^I'm VERY new to recording guitars. I just recently got an sm57 but i don't have an interface so i plug right to the computer. I still haven't gotten placements correct either, this is the best i could come up with with what i have...It sound's way better in here then it does on the recordings and these are done with the volume below 1 un-attenuated.

newbieguitarmaker

· #34 · Oct 20, 2008

This guy gets a good tone with his Legacy on all his vids, he is using a hotplate though. But I would too

Lefty Robb

· #35 · Oct 20, 2008

lateralus819 said:
What kind of music do you play rob? This amp is mainly for leads which it EXCELS at. I myself am even looking for a new amp, not to place this as it sounds awesome. But for nu-metal type tones.

Everything from instrumental to death metal. Leads and Rhythm.

shogun said:
that was a tad rude.. you can make a roland cube sound great if you mic it properly-- the opposite goes here.. the first clip def. sounded the best..

How is it rude? I was talking about the overall tone, not the playing.

lateralus819

· #36 · Oct 20, 2008

Are you baseing your opinion on the fact that it can't do metal or what?

Lefty Robb

· #37 · Oct 20, 2008

When I got mine I knew well in advance it didn't do metal

kotornut

· #38 · Oct 20, 2008

To be honest, I've kinda been learning about setting up things like Vai and Satch do. Here in Japan most people live in an apartment. That means most people don't have a half stack or even a big combo. But at the practice studio they usually have a Marshall and a Roland JC 120. Sometimes they have a Peavy 5150 or a 6505. Wlel under these circum stances you have to learn to use a pedal board to get your tone. And it requires a lot of tweaking, but I feel you can get as good of tones this way, I mean obviously you can; Satch runs his live amps pretty clean and uses a pedal over that, has for years. ANd not many guitar players would say he sounds like crap. Vai too.

Generally, I have found that I prefer to use a super clean amp with my distortions coming from good pedals. It took me a while to get used to this. I used to play a Rectifier half stack in the States and only used the amps distortion. But now I wouldn't have it any other way. Sure I'd love to have my own big amp, but honestly I'd be in the market for something with out standing clean like a Legacy (the clean is unbelievable) and then run my distortion through it. You have the added benefit of having an amazing clean, whereas a lot of great amps for high gain, like Mesas, lack in the clean department.

I think Jim777 said it best (I'm pretty sure it was him) "You should get the amp with the best clean you can find because you can always add pedals to get your distortion but there are no clean pedals." That's a paraphrase, but I thought about it and he's right. For years I loved my Mesa's distortion tone, I still would, but I never even knew what to use a clean channel for then, now I'm always looking for a great clean channel. So be greatful, the Leagacy has some of the best clean tone available.

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bucket_bot

· #39 · Oct 20, 2008

JayRobIBZ said:
I'd like to throw in an opposing view. When I had my Legacy half stack I was completely satisfied with the tone. I agree that the clean tone was fantastic. I really enjoyed it while being pushed with an OD-3. That is how I got my Satriani tones. For the Vai like stuff I usually just boosted the lead channel with a GE-7. I like to run my amps a little hotter than they need to be for the situation and use a volume at the end of my FX loop to limit the volume. Maybe that had something to do with it. Either way, I hope you can find a way to work it out because the Legacy is capable of producing some of the best tones I have ever had the pleasure to play with.

I also found that the demo Vai did on carvin.com was spot on what the amp could produce on its own. Does yours sound like that?

+1 to that. Exactly...if you listen to that demo you will here Steve say that all that is added to the amps raw tone is a little delay....and Vai's fingers of course!!

Also if Volume is an issue you could consider the Carvin X100B, awesome tone even at Low Volume. I am able to use mine at home on the 25W setting with the clean channel on around 8, Lead Channel on around 6-7 and Master Volume on between 4-6 & no noise complaints so far!!
Using it with a 2x12 Cab with a Vintage 30 & a G12H.

Excellent review can be found here:
http://digital.premierguitar.com/premierguitar/200811/?folio=168

However I would add that the X100B's clean channel...although excellent is not a patch on the Legacy's!

lateralus819

· #40 · Oct 20, 2008

Lefty Robb said:
When I got mine I knew well in advance it didn't do metal

Hmm everyone's taste is different, not gonna force you to like it! What did you replace it with and what wasn't "You" about it if i might ask?

21 - 40 of 81 Posts