Normally I use my Music Man 212 HD 130 amp for clean guitar sounds, but the other day I was tinkering around with the Les Paul jamming to Brothers in Arms. The Music Man has a solid state pre-amp section which is not ideal for distorted sounds. Yet, I was surprised to get some really nice, fat and warm sounds out of this combination.
Knopfler uses Marshall cabinets which allow a very deep bass sound, but I was pleased with the rich bass response from the Music Man, not bad for an open back combo amp.
I feel that it is important for that Brothers in Arms tone to play really softly and gently, don’t bash the strings or tear them. This way you get a great dynamic range.
And before I forget to mention: I rolled back the tone control on the guitar to 2.5 !
Unfortunately the sound on my youtube videos is not as good as it is before uploading a video. I don’t know what exactly it is, seems like a built-in denoiser or something, which produces a wobbling sound and other artefacts. Any help how to eliminate this is really welcome.
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2 thoughts on “Soundcheck Brothers in Arms – the Music Man 212 HD 130 for distortion”
I have been experimenting with a EMC Pickups/SPC boost,Boss DS-1 and a Music Man amp. Although the Music Man has gain it is not really classic type of thick or buzzy distortion although the gain is very authentic for 70’s rock ala clapton – I love it, but the Boss DS-1 I find superb for Dire Straits high gain songs (found on OES tour) even Ride Across the River comes alive. I have a post soon on the subject once I have chance to record some samples of my EMGs with the Music Man amp.
You are dead on Ingo about soft touch creating more dynamics, bit like the way Mark plays BIA these days less high gain sound more slight overdrive and subtle licks. Thanks!
The noise artifacts on the uploaded video (and wobbling sound) is probably due to the lossy compression YouTube etc use. “Compression” as in leaving stuff out, rather than compression as in compression stomp pedal. It’s to make the video smaller in size and therefore stream and download quicker. There’s not a lot you can do about it, I’m afraid.
Thanks for the Brothers in Arms tone tips- much appreciated and nice work.