Amp volume question

[Dave Martin]

Originally Posted by Ken Smith

If you are referring to master volume and gain volume I have learned that the Master MUST be higher than the Gain or the sound will be distorted. If Master is on 7, then put gain on 5. Raise the master before you raise the gain. Equal at the most between the two but keep the gain under the master volume for the most part for the cleanest sound.

Yes and no, Ken - your approach is correct if the desired sound is clean - and this isn'l always the case. Personally, I tend to run the master volume (on my SWR and Eden amps somewhere around 75% (and the imput level around 20% or 25% so that I can keep the sound as clean as possible. But for some gigs, I'll reverse that so that the input stage is at 75% or 80% and the master volume is at 20% or 25% so that the bass sound is pretty distorted but the actual stage volume is still under control. (I also either turn down or disable the tweeter that some idiot designer decided to add to most bass amps, but that's another discussion.)

Lesser amounts of distortion are achieved by balancing input and master volumes.