Sarno Music Solutions!

[JonnyBoy]

Gotta Love it TJ... When I got my TRRI twin, I bought it from a country feller in central mississippi. I met him at the local gas station in the town, grabbed an extention cord, plugged it into the side of the building and tested the amp in the parking lot. I played china cat intro and knew it was OK! I felt like I was spreading GD vibe to where the dead couldnt during their reign. Got some funny looks...

What else can be said but that the SMS is the JG holy grail of tone. I found it pretty easy to dial in, but everyones mileage may vary.

[Quarterpounder]

Just got my Sarno SMS JG mods and a Earth Drive in the mail today! Sooner than I expected! I'll be busy playing this weekend, so I'll report back Monday. I made a mistake and agreed to stay late at work today..........arrrhhhhhhh!!!

Thanks, Brad!

[cripeowner]

In the quest for the "tone" there has been lots of discusion about the jerrys drive sound coming from the power section not the front end. I have a SMS mac 250 2-e120s like everybody else, but also battled the brightness and harshness we have all come to know and love. So since loud dbs are usually not possible I searched for a new piece of gear ( shocker). So I got the earth drive and love it. It doesn't color the tone what soever and I ran it on all the time in front of the pre. It sounded good rounded off the brights and gave a bit of dirt growl (you know what we are all after). I solved one problem but created another; slight compression and loss of head room. So I said what would happen if I put this after the pre and before the mac. Well I got my head room back and the dirt / growl to boot. It's a fine balance between the pad knob on the sms because you don't want to jam up the front end of the earth drive. So to make a long story short here are my settings guitar 60-75% volume sms between 9-10 oclock, sms pad knob 1:00 + - earth drive volume 75%-85% open or 3-4 oclock drive just under 9 oclock. Play around just keep in mind the goal is to push the mac not the pre or the front end of the ED.

[rugger]

So to make a long story short here are my settings guitar 60-75% volume sms between 9-10 oclock, sms pad knob 1:00 + - earth drive volume 75%-85% open or 3-4 oclock drive just under 9 oclock. Play around just keep in mind the goal is to push the mac not the pre or the front end of the ED.

Where's the volume on your Mac?

john in san diego

[Pete B.]

I used my Earth Drive for the first time at a Trio jam the other night.
Yeah I love that setting with the Volume cranked to about 90% and the Drive at like 10%, Tone at about 3 o'clock.
That could be a standard Clean Jerry tone right there.
I noticed I could also set it to sound exactly like Slash's intro on Sweet Child o' Mine.

[cripeowner]

volume on the mac noon ish bridged mono e120s 8ohms ea wired together 4 ohms

[eric]

Cripe, I noticed you said b/t the Pre and Mac. any electrical issues running that way? I'm no elec whiz , but wouldn't the signal coming from the SMS be smoking hot into the ED in a bad way? Even with the pad ? I always assumed pedal after pre would be a good way to fry something .. Unless you were running modulation in a loop.. Anyone?

[SarnoMusicSolutions]

Cripe, I noticed you said between the Pre and Mac. any electrical issues running that way? I'm no elec whiz , but wouldn't the signal coming from the SMS be smoking hot into the ED in a bad way? Even with the pad ? I always assumed pedal after pre would be a good way to fry something .. Anyone?

My first thoughts too... Except I wouldn't be afraid of frying anything, just afraid that the preamp would VERY easily overdrive the pedal that's expecting to see instrument level and causing unwanted distortion. If padding it down for the pedal and then compensating for the pedal's output by cranking its volume and also the level at the Mac, the noise may get brought up too much.

No rules. If it sounds cool, do it. Keep us posted.

B

[cripeowner]

It's no noisier then cranking the pad knob. The trick is to keep the level to the ED low between the guitar pad and pre gain then wide open out of the ED with no more then 2.5 3 . Would like to hear others experiences.

[TRG]

My rig order is: guitar (OBEL/Buffer)>Pedals (Earth Drive)>SMS/mac

The SMS rear pot is maxed with the gain about 10:30.

I have my mac (both sides) set to 10:00.

The Earth Drive vol is 11:30ish, drive about 10:00 and tone maxed (all the way to the right).

With this setup I have globs of headroom, no compression and just the right amount of growl. AND I also love that the ED doesn't color the tone at all...one of the great features of that pedal!

[mgbills]

Sorry to be thick TRG...

Is the ED between the guitar output & the SMS?

Guitar (OBeL) > ED > SMS > Mc
↓↑
Pedals (Mu, Oct, etc)

In other words out of the effects loop?

Thanks. Been thinking about a 2nd ED to replace my MXR Dist +
Peace
M

[TRG]

Sorry to be thick TRG...

Is the ED between the guitar output & the SMS?

Guitar (OBeL) > ED > SMS > Mc
↓↑
Pedals (Mu, Oct, etc)

In other words out of the effects loop?

Thanks. Been thinking about a 2nd ED to replace my MXR Dist +
Peace
M

No worries, I was just trying to call out the ED pedal to keep in context of the conversation. My ED is in the effects loop with my other pedals.

So Guitar > Pedals > SMS > MC

I have an MXR Dist + too and just wish it didn't color the tone the way it does. Maybe a second ED is the answer!

[ccw3432]

Are you all happy with the reverb on the SMS? I really like the Fender spring reverb and wondering how comparable the SMS reverb is.

[eric]

Extremely happy. IIRC, it's a custom algorithm based off a Lexicon Hall type verb. 24 bit . Perfectly subtle , yet somewhat sparkly when you get around 11:00. Great decay time...and when you accidentally nail your rig when it's on , you don't get that lovely spring slapping around making tons of awful noise.

[mgbills]

I dig the reverb. I think it's great.

Someday I might attempt to put a tank vertically in the rack, with 1 space dedicated to a custom tube-driven gain stage for it. On my list of projects for 2013.