VOX ToneLab Patch Exchange

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Marshall 1968-1972 Classic Rock Patch for LP Bridge Pickup
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Let's cut to the chase, then discuss afterwards. Set your amp to it's best "light bluesy overdrive sound" but with a tight non-flubby bass and possibly a moderate mid-hump. Amp Reverb on 2,3,4. Amp Presence on 0.0. Turn your bridge humbucker pickup vol and tone up to 8,9,10. If your humbucker is high output, tone must be 10. If you have a PAF style humbucker, you have more latitude with the pickup tone knob ('57 or'59 PAF, Burstbucker, ...). Tip: raise the bridge pickup height on the high E string side to be very close to the fretted string.

Pedal Model
-- Name : Treble Boost
-- Drive: 6.7
-- Level: 7.6
-- Tone : 4.5 (+/-)
Comment: adjust tone to get that "nasal-vocal" and/or "glassy-overdrive" sound

Amp Model
-- Name: UK 68 Plexi
-- Gain: 5.9
-- VR : 7.0
-- Treb: 7.1 (+/-)
-- Mid : 5.4
-- Bass: 2.1 (+/-)
Comment: Start the bass at 0.0 and increase until you get a "flubby" low end. Then decrease to "tighten up" the lows. Set your amp's bass between 9 and 12 o'clock (?). The treble of the amp model and the pedal model need to work together. This is so very key.

Presence
-- Value: 5.4
Comment: Try to enhance the glassy overdrive or buzzy overdrive sound. Use this as little as possible to add "flavor" to the patch, not as a master tone control. Start at 0.00, then increase in tenths and listen to how the patch resonates in harmonics. This could be anything for your rig. Also, if you have a very high output pickup (higher capacitance), that pickup actually attenuates high frequencies. Use the presence control to add some back in.

NR
-- Off
Comment: cheap NR is the exact opposite of "tactile tube feel". Use as a last option.

Cabinet Model
-- Off
Comment: use cab model if need be. Idunno.

REVERB
-- Name : Chamber 2
-- Time : 3.2
-- Hi Damp: 6.0 (+/-)
-- Lo Damp: 0.0
-- Pre DL : 0
-- Mix : 3.8
Comment: The reverb should slightly enhance the nasal, glassy, buzzy overdrive sound and make the sound a little like you are in a bigger room.

Compression
-- Comment: For a long time I put a compressor after the TLSE on a light to medium setting. This worked fine, but it became unnecessary once I got some tubes to naturally "compress". One problem with the TLSE is that to get certain Timbres of distortion you must set the amp model at moderate gain. But then you don’t quite have enough sustain, even though the distortion timbre is right on. Plus, you are likely using a pedal model. That's where an out-board compressor works best. That way you use the TLSE as a distortion generator, but not have to worry about dialing in sustain. Exploring the TLSE to find this patch highlights exactly the main design flaw of the TLSE. (1) the distortion pedals must be independent of compression, wah, univibe. (2) It is a lot easier to dial-in and emulate your favorite guitar sound if you have a post distortion eq.

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Gear Chain
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LP --> Bridge PUP --> TLSE --> preamp --> parametric --> power amp --> 12in speaker(s)

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Discussion
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The sound I'm shooting for can be heard on Cream's Crossroads, Duane Allman Live at Filmore East and many Zeppelin tunes like "Rock n Roll", The Ocean, Black Dog, etc. It is often described as vocal, nasal, honky(!), glassy with a little buzz in it. For blues fans think Freddie King, but with a little more oomph. For rock fans think of AC/DC with a little less oomph! It also is a nice place to start to get Angus, but you don't stop here. It is not the Black Sabbath derived scooped-mid sound of Metallica, Judas Priest etc. However, it is definitely a good place to start to go in the Slash direction. This combination of nasal, glassy and buzzy "concept" along with the CD of the reference song's passage kept me tweaking in the right direction.

I specifically used as a reference Duane Allman's naked guitar solo from Filmore East's "You Don't Love Me" jam. The guitar is alone on the track a few times and really gives your ears a chance to hear the pure tone. This is also my main lead slide patch (E tuning).

By the terms vocal, nasal and honkee, I mean this. When you play a single bluesy-shaky note on the high E string you want to hear the syllable "EE" or "EE-ih". But when you play a bluesy-shaky note on the D string you want to hear the syllable "OW". If you hear both of those, then you are home.

By the term glassy, and this is tough to put into any words, it means that there are some complex harmonics that distort each other creating a ragged high pitched buzzy edge that you hear as the fundamental of the note dies out.

I have come to think of the TLSE as having 2 independent distortion engines. Add in the amp you are playing thru, and that makes for 3 distortion engines. If you often use a favored booster or OD pedal, then there's 4 distortion sources. Thinking this way, we need to craft a patch by using each distortion source to contribute what it can, without spoiling what the other distortion sources are contributing.

A major problem for a classic Marshall sound is that to get the right mid boost you will want to turn up the bass knobs. But then when you play just low notes, the low notes (83-110hz) will be all flubby and indistinct. It's like a wack-O-mole game. Fix the mids to get the nasal sound and then you break the lows. This was process I used to tweak and explore:

(0) set amplifier and pickup. [Test for “EE” and “OW” notes continuously.]

(1) Set the Amp models gain and VR first.
(2) Set the Treble Boost drive and level.
(3) Set the amp bass to non-flubby.
(4) Set the amp mid to "nasal".
(5) Set the amp treble to glassy and nasal.
(6) Set the Treble Boost tone to glassy and nasal.
(7) compare guitar sound to reference song
[repeat many times]

(8) Set Reverb
(9) Set Presence. Less is more.

One reason I'm not keen on sharing TLSE patch files (*.TLP) is that my patches sound different every time I change guitars, amps, pickups, speakers, etc. There's no way these settings will sound the same on your rig as mine, since this patch sounds 10 different ways on my own equipment. However, having mixed and matched gear 20 different ways, this patch always gets me in the classic rock JTM 45 / Plexi ballpark. It sounds heavenly through an overdriving Marshall. Really good.

The final answer: after struggling for like 2 years on this patch, with decent success along the road, I acquired a Marshall 2266 head. This patch sounds super great thru that. But ultimately I was not satisfied with my ability to easily dial in various recognizable tones. The answer is to put a 3 band parametric EQ into the Marshall effects loop. (1) I scoop out energy at 83-110hz. This fixes any flubby bass. And for this patch I boost at 800-900hz.