S&S Frequently Asked Questions

Smooth & Slim
Frequently Asked Questions

This section contains answers to some of the questions we've received about the Smooth & Slim (S&S). If you have a question which you believe has neither been addressed here nor in the Smooth & Slim User's Manual, please send us some email and we'll see to it that it gets posted within a few days -- hopefully with an answer to go along with the question. If you'd like to see what others have to say about their own experiences with the S&S, read their reviews at Harmony Central's Effects Database.

S&S and the Amps out There
Question: Can you tell me which amps the S&S is intended to work well with?

Answer: We have successfully tried the S&S box with some MESA/Boogies, Fenders, Marshalls, Riveras and Groove Tubes Soul-O 75s. What do all of these amps have in common? They are tube amps, and have similar input impedances, two things which were paramount in the design of S&S; also, they all just happen to sound good with the S&S! If, for example, you plug a S&S into a solid state amp, which has a significantly different input impedance and signal path, expect the unexpected. Also note that vintage or blackface reissue Fender user's should plug into "input 1" of their amps. Input 2 has a 3 dB gain reduction and a different input impedance (68K to be exact) and will react differently to the presence of the S&S. Also remember that the S&S is intended to plug between the last effect on your pedalboard and your amp.

S&S Sound
Question: How would you describe the sound of the S&S?

Answer: I think it's best to differentiate between the various amps that we've tried the S&S with, that way we can convey more specific information to those who may be interested.

S&S and MESA/Boogies
In the case of MESA/Boogies, I have to make a distinction between the Mark I and its successors. The Mark I needs a S&S to reach its fullest potential because of it's inherent flabby bottom end and darkness - at the same time, it is my favorite Boogie. Later Boogie models feature pre and post distortion tone controls, provided you have a graphic EQ, and several pull knobs that allow for much more tone tweaking, which may be enough to get the right sound for you. For example, the "Pull Shift" function on the bass knob of Mark IICs and IIIs works early on in the signal chain and therefore can reduce the flab when pushed in; the "Pull Deep" on the Master Volume control, on the other hand, works further down the signal path, so you can pull that out and not get as much flab while increasing the bottom end. Then there's the old trick of using the graphic EQ to get a good overall equalization, while using the tone stack to get the right amount of gain without undesired flab and shrillness. This approach works pretty well, although it's probably not 100% perfect because the graphic EQ doesn't sound as warm as the amp's natural tone. Personally, I haven't felt the need to use S&S on my Boogie IIC+; however, I'm totally biased because I just happen to love my IIC+, so your mileage may vary with Mark IIs and IIIs.

A mandatory note on Boogies: the more I tinkered with them, the more I realized the genius of Randy Smith and his team... Their designs may have stemmed from Fender amps, but Randy threw in a lot of little tricks here and there to dress up the sound so beautifully. Hats off to MESA/Boogie!

S&S and Fenders
Fender amps greatly benefit from S&S, all of them -- and I am quite aware that this is a bold statement to make. In the case of the old Deluxe Reverb, Twin, Super, Concert, etc., all of which are essentially the same preamp with different power sections, the S&S allows for a more sustainy sound. Does that happen through some sort of magic? Of course not; given that the Mark I is essentially a Fender with an extra gain stage, and no additional EQing, it's little wonder the effect on Fender amps is similar to that on the Mark I. The sound afforded by the S&S is really vintage, much more focused, comparable to the Fender sound of the 70s in the L.A. studios -- although the S&S is not based on the Paul Rivera modification to the Fender amps of Larry Carlton, Lee Ritenour, Jay Graydon, Robben Ford, etc. The sound is simply great, think of "clean" Larry Carlton on Michael Franks' records and you can get an idea. Of course, as you turn the volume up (no Master on those amps), overdrive is achieved, but without the a trace of flab and shrillness, the way it should have been to begin with. The S&S kills the buzzy transients on those amps, which makes it for a much "lazier" sound, just the way I like it.

Some newer Fenders, though different beasts all together, also sound much better with the S&S. Carlos and I sneaked one of our boxes into Guitar Center Hollywood and tried the S&S with many amps there - actually Guitar Center was kind enough to allow us to go for the test drive, and we're glad to have a good personal relation with those guys. Noteworthy was the case of a black Hot Rod amp, which in my opinion sound absolutely amusical in overdrive mode. We tried the amp without the S&S and to me, it was simply unplayable. Plugging into the S&S box tamed the top harshness quite a bit and nuked the buzzy bottom, and attracted one of the salesmen to where we were - this is a true story, not just a made up tale. He asked if the box was supposed to increase sustain, because it sounded so good and mellow. Yes, the Hot Rod was night and day thanks to the S&S, but I'll make no bones and say that I still think those are not the Fenders to get, whether you have a S&S or not. Fender makes some great sounding amps that I know I would be personally much happier with than their Hot Rod series.

S&S and "Marshalls"
By "Marshalls" here I mean the brand name amps, as well as some of the Marshall-related amps: Soul-O 75, and to a certain degree Riveras as well (their lead channel is "Marshall-esque"). I had a chance to check out these amps thoroughly, and for the most part, the effect is very good. The problem with some of the post-distortion tone stack style amps is that the bass control works very rapidly: either on or off, mostly, and the S&S helped to make the range achievable more uniform. On the other hand, we tried a reissue Plexi with Carlos and what can I say, a good cord is the best companion for that amp, it smoked with a Strat without anything in-between. I've had similar results with JMT 45s and Bluesbreaker combos, those amps smoke the way they are and I can't think of anything that could make that sound even better.

R- and M- series Riveras are, according to my taste, harsh sounding in overdrive mode, and the S&S works extremely well there. I'd say the S&S is a must for those amps to get the sounds I like from them, but I should add I believe those are not the Riveras I would buy since the newer Jay Graydon signature models are much sweeter sounding. I did try the S&S with a Rivera Jake combo, my favorite Rivera of all, and the sound becomes much sweeter in the "Fender" channel, which otherwise has a somewhat harsh overdrive. The "Marshall" channel sounds very good stock on those amps, as is, so the S&S wouldn't probably add anything there.

Well, that's pretty much it in a nutshell. Summarizing, the S&S is for those who like "pretty" overdrive sounds, those who will try different tubes to mellow out the sound of an amp. The S&S was conceived based upon the sound of "American amps," and it seems to work extremely well with all of them. What's my take on current tube production and amps? The industry is somewhat living in the past; the older amps just "happened to sound good." With the components available in the early days, people built amplifiers that were great. What's happened now, in my opinion, is that we have components with different characteristics, but the big amp manufacturers continue to build amps based on the old designs. Are today's tubes lousy sounding? Not to me, the just sound different, and I dare say that with some design changes, current production amps outfitted with Russian and maybe also Chinese tubes could sound as good as 30-year-old Fenders with Sylvanias. Somehow I wonder why that hasn't been done though. The S&S offers an alternative for those who don't want to experiment and have their amps modified, a process which is costly and not trivially reversible, and who don't want to have to go through tons of tubes until they find that elusive tone.

S&S and Your Amp Settings
Question: When you activate the S&S box, do you just change the amp's volume control, or do you also change the tone controls?

Answer: Actually, I change both. As I hinted somewhere in the Owner's Manual, the idea is that you set the S&S and then start to tweak your amp until it sounds the way you want it to sound. You'll find that your previously favorite settings will need some readjustment to accommodate the presence of the S&S in the signal path -- typically, you will want to turn up the volume and bass controls. I can assure you though, that once you have discovered your new favorite settings, they will make you amp sound better that the previous ones, without the S&S, did.

Without going into too much detail, the S&S box will shift the signal's bass content. The thing is, those bass frequencies occur early on in the signal chain, and are thus subject to distortion as the overall amp gain is increased. Now, what happens when you distort those low frequencies is that you end up with harmonics all over the place, and these harmonics tend to sound ugly (flabby) and muddy up the sound because they overlap with other guitar fundamental tones. If you prevent excessive overdrive from occurring in the bottom end, your sound will be tighter, and much less sloppy. Without the S&S, with most amps, you can only add so much bass before the muddiness sets in; with the S&S, it's "kind-of-like" (note how I phrase this) you had 1 or 2 less stages of amplification for the bass frequencies only. Thus, your top end will be crisp, but the bottom tight and clean. Conclusion: experiment with new settings after you incorporate S&S to your rig.

S&S and Stompboxes
Question: How should I treat the S&S if it will be used in conjunction with stompboxes?

Answer: Many of you have asked about the use of S&S and stompboxes, are they a good match? Carlos has successfully used his S&S with a Tube Screamer, and he really uses that thing a lot to obtain his sound. I, on the other hand, mostly rely on my amps to achieve overdrive, so you would say I'm not much of a stompboxer myself. That being the case, I decided to conduct a test at home and describe the results here in order to answer your questions. My conclusion is that the effect of the S&S is pretty much the same, whether you use it use straight between the guitar and the amp or following a stompbox, so no flab and no shrillness, pedal or not.

The proper way to go about combining all of your effects is: plug guitar into your whole pedalboard, then go into the S&S, and finally into your amp. Set the amp with S&S in the appropriate settings, most commonly the left knob on SMOOTH and the right knob on NORMAL, and then when you turn on your pedal it should work out just fine. I happen to have my personal preferences as far as stompboxes go - mainly, I have a Marshall Bluesbreaker pedal that I use with a Strat -- but mostly, I play the amp straight 99% of the time -- so put my comments in proper perspective.

S&S and Sustain
Question: I currently have a Les Paul, a Strat and a Victoria amplifier - the best clean amp I've ever played! Now, what about that MESA/Boogie-like overdrive? Well, after owning some Boogies, the Mark III & IV lead tones began to be too much for me -- too saturated, too metallic -- and what I am looking for is a smooth sound and sustain, not crunchy and sustain or harsh and sustain. To be frank, the Mark I reissue is wonderful, but that amp has way too much power for me. My Marshall Bluesbreaker pedal gives my Victoria amp a great crunch rhythm on top of that gorgeous clean sound, so now I'm working on getting that "singing sustain" that we all dream of. I'm wondering if your pedal would do the trick for my lead tone, what do you think?

Answer: It seems to me that what you describe is: a great clean tone, a great crunch tone, and a great lead tone. Didn't Boogie set out to create an amp with those features in 1986? Although they built a great amp, the Mark III was not what they advertised (remember the "Fender + Marshall + Boogie" slogan?). The amp -- like its successor, the Mark IV -- has many built-in tonal compromises, and can in my opinion, afford two good sounds at a time, not three. I am afraid your situation wouldn't be much different if you added the S&S to your rig. The reason is, you could set the amp and S&S to give you a great clean sound, and then add the Marshall Bluesbreaker pedal to get that singing lead tone. Problem is, what happens to your mega crunch sound? It's gone, because the Smooth & Slim didn't get that name just because, it really does soften the harshness. Conversely, if you leave out the S&S, you can get a great clean sound from your amp and then step onto the Bluesbreaker for that raw edge. Now you're missing the creamy, singing lead tone.

My recommendation is that if you like the clean and crunch tones just the way they are, leave them alone. Try either another stompbox (unlikely to satisfy you I believe) or another amp for your lead tone - hey, how about getting another Mark I, with a S&S this time around? On the other hand, you may try a S&S and see what kind of clean and lead tones you get... If you happen to dig these sounds better, then concentrate on a real ugly sounding pedal for your crunch sound.

Trademarks
All terms mentioned in this section that are known to be trademarks are: Bluesbreaker, Boogie, Concert, Deluxe Reverb, Fender, Groove Tubes, Guitar Center, Hammond, Hot Rod, Jake, JMT 45, Les Paul, Mark IIC, Mark III, Mark IV, Marshal, MESA/Boogie, Rivera, Soul-O 75s, Strat, Super, Twin, Tube Screamer, Victoria.

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