08/09/2019
Since my Stormhenge creations have been getting more exposure through the band, I find myself explaining after gigs what creates that unique sound, and how the guitars can be so loud and blazing, yet not overpowering, never harsh, and never in the way of the vocal. Well, with the amps themselves it's mostly old tech. Components that range from having their genesis in the 1940's through the 1990's. but mostly it all comes from my ear. I want to hear certain things, and not hear others, and usually that's referring to frequencies, but there are a few mystic rattles, and clangs that actually sound like something has broken loose inside the amp and is rattling around, but it's not anything PHYSICALLY rattling, which is where the mystery comes from. And that rattling is a key component to the magic.
Most modern guitar amps (and on the high side, bass amps) are frequency hogs - trying to keep frequencies reserved for vocals all to themselves. And that's the dance. The heart of the guitar sound is in between 1k-8k, same with the high end edge of the bass guitar where the clarity comes through, but the vocals have to live in that same range to be heard clearly while still having a slamming mix surrounding them. So it becomes a battle.
I very diligently selected certain and sometimes unorthodox tubes, resistors and capacitors in order to smooth out the 3k and 5k bands, not eliminate mind you, just mellow them out so the 2k and 4k bands still have that blazing edge to them while actually punching a hole for the vocals at 3 and 5k. You might then ask, "Isn't that the same as just EQing those frequencies out?" Well, yes and no. See if the guitar tone you're employing has a characteristic that NEEDS 3k and 5k in order to be punchy and you EQ them out, the guitar sound loses it's edge and starts to sound "scooped" Try it with a graphic EQ and your amp. Record a track of your guitar with a part that really needs to be punchy. Then start cutting, randomly, one at a time 1k, 2k, 3k, 4k, 5k, all the way up to 8k and notice how mellow the tone gets. The trick was finding the right "voicing" of the preamp tubes' cathode bypass, and the right resistors and values to ground, and then the right caps and resistors and pots in the EQ, and the same thing again going into the phase inverter to enhance the correct harmonics, so that the meat of the sound could actively thrive at 2k and 4k while 3 and 5 were just as present and musically harmonic, but less distorted. And then there's the other obvious stuff people have observed, like the use of a variac.
The other major aspect of the Stormhenge sound is that the amps are essentially defective. On purpose. I did a ton of research. AND I was fortunate enough to be able to meet with some very famous guitar legends, and pick their brains for inside info. And it used to be; you'd have to play between 20 to 30 sometimes even more of 60's era Marshall plexi's before you'd find a "magic" one. Same with the JCM800's. And it turns out the magic ones were made wrong. Their components were not even close to spec. And as a result, the right mix of defects is what created that unique and killer sound. So then the quest for me became, how to purposely build a magically f**ked-up amp? What were the key ingredients in those defective amps that created that tone rather than just making it sound defective? And after a very long period of trial and error, I think I figured it out. But you have to judge for yourselves.
So if you're seeking the path to creating your own magic, here's what you're in for... years... I do mean years, of listening to different amps, and then again more years of trying different components in an amp you are familiar with. Different tubes, Different chokes. Different types of transformers, Different circuit components -- A .047u sliver mica cap sounds different from a .047u ceramic. Also a Panasonic .047u polyethylene cap sounds different from a .047u Sprague polyethylene, and so on. Different voltages at different points in the gain stage create different levels and qualities of saturation. And different circuit designs yield different species of gain. And then there's the wires. Which kind to use at certain points in the circuit. How long or short to make the runs. There's sooooo many things that factor into it. So you have to wander into the forest blind and find your way out by way of thousands upon thousands of hours of trial and error...
...or you can buy a Stormhenge. lol 😁😁😁😁
(And then there's the speakers. I'll discuss those and the axes in another post sometime)
