More of the 11R/GSP2101 Marriage

Some more testing:

Here is a tune recorded with only the GSP2101.

Think it sounds very very close to the 11R. I have some Sovtek 12AX7's coming this weekend so it can only sound better.

Let me know what you guys think:

Opportunities - NARSH

The chain went....

Michael Kelly 1954 with Buddha DarkRiders into 11R

GSP2101 in the FX Loop in order to use the Cabinet emulation of the 11R into the PC.

Bass was the 11R and my SChecter Raiden 4.

You know, I am finding more and more every day that what sucks the most looking back is that being young you don't have the experience to know that what you have is actually what you would have wanted, be it a girl-next-door hottie or a well made preamp. I had this pre back in the day and I have no idea why I sold it, maybe I have rose colored glasses but it seems that now I am mostly chasing tones I had when I had the 2101 in front of a peavey 50/50 into a 212.. The grass is always greener as they say..

Cool tune, great tones and great playing! Well done man.

I totally agree. But then again, I still have the 11R now and anything serious will get that thrown at it, but still - jamming to poison or Ratt in my home studio through the 2101 puts a huge smile on my face.

Hey NARSH if you have not got MIDIWizard by Graham Pearson (gsp-2101@yahoogroups.com) for the 2101 I highly recommend it and the second PPC as well. I went through the the process of trying different tubes in the 2101 (Doug at www.dougstubes.com made up a sampler set for me, highly recommended) and found that it made a subtle but very noticeable differences, I wish I could remember where I stored my notes! I seem to remember liking the Mullard, but can't remember if that was what I settled on..

I was thinking about the second ppc since the unit already has the artist upgrade, but the ppc is almost $300!

I'll shoot Graham an email tonight. I downloaded the sysex97 app so I could back up my patches but I would love an editor.

I just ordered the sovteks to see try it out but I'd be down to order more. Definitely having some fun.

Thanks man!

Yikes $300 I should have taken mine out and sold it separately

Yeah but... In my recent 80s processor kick I scored an ART SGX2000. Can't wait to try that. I couldn't afford any of these when I was a kid so this is a blast!

Cool!

Sounds great, different tubes will change the sound and feel a lot, hope that works out for you. Almost sounds like a JJ tube with the overall darkness & warmth it always has.

They are actually the stock tubes. Surprised they still work.

Hang onto that tube, might be worth saving or selling on the black market haha

The SGX2000 I purchased in 92 for around 650 and the next year upgraded to the express (another $90 for it and $150 more for the X15 Ultra foot) that was allot more money then!

I still have it and was giging with it is my main sound until i picked up the 11 rack almost 2 years ago yes it still works and has some killer sounds especially the dual pitch shifting.

If I could just convince Singtall to pick one up and teach me how to tune that sucker in it would be money hello!!! LOL

Oh yeah it has a stacked tube in it which is 2 12AX7's in one casing and will make some pretty nice distortions with the ability to run them in parallel and in a series and in conjunction with solid-state distortion you could get some very warm and Very smooth tone. that unit was way a head of its time.

I found some web pages with presets but you need a midi connection to your computer.

Hmmm send over the links! I dug my old midi to usb connection to mess with the 2101 so that should work here as well.

Any suggestions for tubes? I just put some sovteks in the 2101 and the sound did improve quite a bit. So I imagine the sgx will need that done as well.

The stock tubes I had in mine were penta 12ax7's, they weren't too bad. I had jj ecc83's, cheap chinese 12ax7's, the electro harmonix 12ax7's, and even tried a couple nos ge 5157's, but the ones I like the most were the jj ecc803's.. They all give a difference to the texture of the distortion paths..

i used Tungsol tubes when i had mine because i like a little more clarity and in my distortion.

It's a Tandem Tube... Not sure anyone else makes a single package tube with 2 inside.

http://www.x15setup.com/english.htm
http://www.franknitsch.com/ART/sgx-2000.html#tech
http://www.glennthomas.net/art/sgx2000/
http://www.angelfire.com/tx/ARTSGX2000E/

pm me your email and I will forward the email I got from vic's webpage were he says to "email for the presets"

I've searched around and can't find anything about the tube in the sxg2000 but i did find a guy that talked about sending his to a guy in VA to fix his lcd and said he changed the tube to a Sovtek and he was impressed... so I could be wrong about this but I seam to remember that from somewhere?!?!?!?!

this is what ART Says on there site in the discontinued section:
Programmable Preamps. When designing the 2000 Express, our engineers researched and designed a tube preamp circuit that rivals the most classic of vintage tube amps. The result is a sound that is warm, yet brilliant, and breathes the way only a tube amp can. The SGX 2000 Express offers 8 variations of the Tube and the Solid State circuits that have their own unique sound. Choose Tube only or Solid State only, and for maximum gain, run through both preamps by selecting a stacked option. Tone, gain and output are all adjustable. A Tube Contour control, located on the front panel, adjusts the tube's tonal characteristics. There's no need to use a speaker simulator or any other "special" black box when running the SGX directly into a console. The preamp design is so precise you'll swear the guitar is mic'd.

Which now makes me want to try some a hot "Grove Tube" brand tube. btw what do you guys think about grove tubes compared to all others?

Tungsol's were my favorite overall, JJ's are nice too. I'd say for Van Halen & other 80s rock sounds Tungsol's are perfect & for modern metal riffs JJ's. Everything in between is too high or too low output and gotta EQ the noise & crap out of stuff to get what you want, leaving underwater tones.

OK so far, the SOVTEKs are PERFECT!!! Not to dark, not to bright, tons of punch... I'll post the tune up shortly.

Really like the sounds you are getting with the GSP2101/11R combo! I'm intrigued enough to dig out my GSP2101 and try to hook them up. What output are you using from the 2101 into the F/X loop. I messed around with this briefly years ago but wasn't getting the chain and plugs working without distortion. Are using an amp sim in the 11R along with the cab emulation?

Sounds fantastic!

DR

I went with rushian's suggestion in this post:

11r forum post

I also remembered that I bypassed the preamp and just used the effects on the GSP2101 when using 11 rack amp models (i.e. you do not want to feed a preamp into another preamp, if that makes sense!).

absolutely.

The last tune I did, which sounds jaw dropping to me, is run the preamp of the 2101 (I wanted the tube driven sound) and the cab emulator of the 11R.

The chain looks something like this:

Guitar -> Distortion(11r) -> 11R FXLoop(2101) -> Cab(11R) -> ParamEQ (11R) -> XLR out of 11R to Rokit8 Monitors

It sounds freaking huge live and in the mix:

GSP2101 - New Patch

Thanks Narsh and Rushian for the tips. Got the two coupled. Fun to hear some of the old 2101 patches again.

DR