Ceriatone Forum

Everyone, 

So for the last few weeks I haven't been playing my BM OTS.  I was finding the OD to be fizzy and rather unremarkable.  Sad, but true.  I had been running an NOS RCA 12ax7 in the V2 and thought that maybe it had gone bad, so switched it to a TAD 7025 Select, which did sound better.  However, it was still not great.  So, I put it down and played acoustic for a while. 

This morning, as I was powering up the amp, I noticed that the Voicing switch was set on Jazz instead of my usual rock.  I flipped it back and BAM the amp was what I remember it to be: RAD. 

So, the point of this thread is to comment on the Jazz voicing of the OTS series.  Full disclosure, I am running a BM 100w with the C-lator, Tung-sol RI in V1/V3 and the RCA in V2, TAD 6L6-GCs.  Though I run pedals, I won't mention them here because I felt the same negative response from the Jazz setting with or without pedals.  As you may have noticed, I am not too much of a fan, though I can see how some would love it.  And yes, it is probably just the style of music I play. 


Thought?

  Yes 95% of D-style amp user's use the Rock Setting.

   It is although Larry Carlton's preferred setting to use the Jazz setting with the Preamp Volume up high (like 2-3:00). I guess it really depends on personal preference etc. as well as guitar choice. Larry Carlton did spend a lot of time just using the Clean channel in past. In recent year's he has been using the "Dumble Ripper Voicing" (Bludotone's and real Dumble ODS's) which is a a Bluesmaster variant with cathode follower OD (like a Marshall etc.) and still uses the Jazz setting.

The Jazz voice is definitely not the Rock voice. But IMO it is a very usable voice. Atleast with my regular HRM 50 w/LNFB switch. I like to use it with LNFB off and "deep" & "mid boost" on. Then with Humbucker/Single Coil combinations and sometimes bright switched on, I get very nice clean sounds for chording, ect. Very likely the nuance would be harder to appreciate in a band situation, but for recording purposes (and just nice "jazz" chords by myself) I like it. Having said this, you can't beat the rock voicing for OD stuff, and just heavy duty rumble.  8)

i've been diggin the jazz voicing on the clean side with a bit higher preamp and master volume, controlled by the c-lator as the globall master and using my mega pab mod through it. gives a nice different OD sound

The Jazz voicing changes the standard Fender style TMB tonestack into something that is known as the James Tone Stack (or close to it anyway).

The James Tones Stack has a completely different response  and probably the most noticeable difference is the amount of loss that is induced i.e. you loose more of your signal compared to the Rock setting. In theory, tonestacks with greater loss allow you more variation in tone with the TMB controls - can't vouch for that as I really haven't played with it that much in the Jazz setting.

I'd say that if you want a  nice OD tone using the Jazz setting, you will probably need to increase the internal OD trimmer to let more signal through to the OD stage.

i actually don't use the OD channel with the jazz setting much. i just drive the clean channel hard and push it even harder with my modified PAB circuit or with my clean boost pedal.

you know i must be the only one....i use the jazz voicing almost exclusively. with the preamp setting at about 2 to 3 oclock and bass way up treble about 12 oclock and mids to taste.
i use the klein to wind up the output stage for some some output stage distortion.
with this setting i get some really loud sounds with plenty of clarity and the PAB just tips it over the edge for some nice early marshally tones
i love the rock voice on the clean channel but somehow love the tight focussed tone of the jazz setting on the OD channel. i get a VERY transparent tone which allows the sound of the guitar to come through.

i agree!!!