Jumpering channels ruins tone?

[JackGriffiths]

After my love affair in a guitar store with a Super Reverb, I decided to plug in my Bassman and turn it up loud, to see why I was sitting in the store thinking, 'why can't my Bassman sound this good?'. I quickly realised that by taking out the jumper patch cable between the bright and normal channels I'd used the whole time and using just the bright channel, I got the fat, warm crunch I was looking for. With the channels jumpered, the added gain and fizz was just plain nasty. For ages, I'd been thinking something might've been wrong with the amp. It sounded SO much sweeter and clearer. Granted, for clean sounds, jumpering the channels helped thicken the sound out pleasingly, but with overdrive it was a mushy mess. Is this just me, or has anybody else found jumpering channels really messes with your tone just for the benefit of the extra gain? I'm pretty much a strictly humbucker guy - so I was enjoying jamming on my Joe Walsh/James Gang and Pete Townshend tones!

Still lusting after the Super though, felt it was a little tighter and better suited to humbuckers.

Jack

[ESBlonde]

I always jumper my 4 hole plexi. Mixing the channel levels gets me everything I need, though they are usually even. I rarely get to blow at full chat though and so pedals provide the gain. No problem here.

[JackGriffiths]

I always jumper my 4 hole plexi. Mixing the channel levels gets me everything I need, though they are usually even. I rarely get to blow at full chat though and so pedals provide the gain. No problem here.

Just guessing as I've never had the opportunity to explore a Plexi properly, but I think they might respond a little better to jumpering than Fenders. The Fenders aren't as bright when overdriven and are much, much thicker. The Marshalls also have a tighter low end and run on smoother output tubes (EL34 vs 6l6). There's also considerably more gain (and overall volume) coming out of my Bassman when the channels are jumpered than when they are not, I don't know if this applies to Marshalls but I assume it might as the Plexi has its roots in the Bassman circuitry.

[guitarfishbay]

I don't really enjoy the tone I get when jumping channels on my AC30C2. It has a master volume so you can run the channel volumes higher at lower volumes to get some overdrive. I find it has enough gain for the tones I like from it on the high input of either channel already. I don't think the structure of the gain suits being run any higher, and I prefer the different natures of each channel and would rather just plug in to either / or.

[jpfamps]

The bright and normal channels on the Tweed Bassman are very similar, differing only in a bright cap on the "bright" channel.

The later Plexis have a much brighter "bright" channel, which is effected by rolling of more bass.

Later Marshalls also have smaller value grid coupling caps.

Too much bass energy causes an unpleasant distortion, called blocking distortion, which Fender amps are more prone too.

Thus I would not advise jumpering the channels on a Bassman, whereas this does work well on a Plexi.

[longtallronnie]

My AC30TBX sounds its best with the normal and brilliant channels linked imo. I find the normal channel too dull and the brilliant too bright but together, wow!
Still gassing for a bassman though.

[parker_knoll]

yeah, my Hiwatt sounds best jumpered and it gives you a bit more gain which the Hiwatt needs

[ICBM]

My AC30TBX sounds its best with the normal and brilliant channels linked imo. I find the normal channel too dull and the brilliant too bright but together, wow!

Try jumpering to the Vib/Trem channel as well - guitar in Brilliant, Brill to Normal, Norm to V/T - that way you can blend in a small amount of the effect, instead of the all-or-nothing of using the channel by itself.

This is why the AC30TB/6 is still the definitive and only true AC30, in my opinion. You can't get that with any other model, and it's truly beautiful.

[cosmiccarrot]

I always jumper my 4 hole plexi. Mixing the channel levels gets me everything I need, though they are usually even. I rarely get to blow at full chat though and so pedals provide the gain. No problem here.

+1 I've always jumpered my old marshalls, in fact an old guy showed me a natty little thing using a delay stomp putting it in between the channel hop, it gave a really open transparent sound to the amp distortion from channel one then I'd bring in the volume on channel 2 which would bring in the delay effect (I think that was how I did it twas a long time back!) gave a great classic rock concert sound without the delay colouring all your guitar signal, probably sound pants now with the modern day effects loops in amps.

[ICBM]

probably sound pants now with the modern day effects loops in amps.

No, on the contrary, this is a great way to run effects. You get the true, direct guitar-to-amp sound on the bright channel, and a duller-sounding (because the channel is) effected signal that stays more in the background - almost like a wet/dry set-up or parallel mixing. It also has the effect of making bright-sounding digital delays more 'analogue-like'.

That is, if you want to hear the direct guitar signal clearly. If you want the whole signal more obviously effected, it's not so good and a loop is better.