New Rev Pre settings from Gary Steele

[Brad Sarno]

Gary Steele called me the other day to tell me to try out his new tone settings on his Revelation. When he described the settings my first reaction was that they were all wrong and made no sense. He played it over the phone for me, and as impossible as it is to truly hear anything over the phone, it really sounded pretty cool. So I went and tried it on mine, and it is very cool. Very different than what I normally do, but it works. It's very midrange rich and smooth on top, but still really works. I spent the whole night last night with these settings, roughly. It reminded me of a real smoothed out Jimmy Day kind of tone, sort of.

Gary, I probably have a few things different, but I think this is in the ballpark, so please chime in and let us know exactly what you had found. This worked for me, and I never would have gone this extreme if you hadn't suggested it.

Gain - 10!
Treble - 1.7
Mid - 5.5
Color - 2
Bass - 1.9

Brad

[Cory Dolinsky]

Those settings are really cool, definitely have a Jimmy Day, kind of and old school vibe. I just played for an hour with those settings switched back to my home base setting and i think i like Gary's better.

thanks Gary and Brad.

Where did you position your Vari-z and bright/ dark setting.

I left my b/d switch in the middle and put the Vari-z at about 11 o clock

Cory

[Gary Steele]

Cory,Its just a matter of taste. Do a lot of experimenting with them. I'm not the best player in the world but i love the killer tones. I'v spent a lot of time thru the years messing with my tone. Like Brad said it dont seem right by sight but it HONKS. I played At a big Jam Sunday and lots of people told me the tone was to die for. Now i'v gotta Practice, Practice, Practice. Brad i hope this means i sound just like Jimmy Day! I'm only kidding. Thanks Brad for the compliment. I just hope this will help lots of people that struggles with their sound. I may be wrong but i dont think bottom really means Bass. My bass is not up very far and my bottom seems to kick GRASS. I will respond more later.

Gary Steele.

[Gary Steele]

Brad with this MSA Millennium i kinda like my mids around a 1 to a 2 Its not much i know. You guys that try this listen to your mid off and then go up a little at a time.

Gary.

[Stephen Silver]

Gary

Tried your settings last night at the club where I play and futzed around with it for a set and then went back to my usually tone settings (which since using the Peavey Neo 1501 are a bit brighter than with the FSK speaker)

They sounded ok, but not as full as I like, nor as bright (I like a JD Maness sorta tone, a little on the bright side of things)

I'll try them again in another environment over the weekend.

Thanks for playing with these and letting us know a little about what you find pleasing.

Man, I love my Rev!!!!! But I will also mention that I had a gig in Las Vegas recently and we used backline gear, for me a stock Twin Reverb reissue. I took my Black Box with me and without it I couldn't have dealt with the tone, but the BB made everything alright. Brad is my electronics hero du jour!

SS

[Curt Langston]

Well, without trying them, it would seem that you would be dialing in a "honk" with the mids up and the bass and treble down.

I like my mids like I like my salt.

Just a dab!

[Brad Sarno]

Curt.

With the Fender style tonestack like we have here, you can't really boost mids practically. You can only make it less dipped. So even with Gary's settings or my variation of it, there' still a slight dipping of the mids below the bass and treble, but it's approaching flat compared to typical settings.

This setting is really not that honky, it's may be mid-rich and a bit bass-lean and treble-warm, but still quite musical and not really honking or barking in the mids in an offensive way at all.

Brad

[Tom Gorr]

This reminds me of the way I'd get a nice thick syrup from my Mesa Boogie Formula Pre. Treble at about 10:30, mids at 3:00, and bass at 11:00.

The empirical results were this: Need treble? dial the mids wayyy up. What seemed to happen is that boosting the mids forces the follow-oon tube stage into a bit of overdrive which brings the bite back, and certainly helps the instrument cut throuh the mix better than a big mid scoop. Honk = good focus in a band setting, but less desirable in the living room when you want balance.


Thoughts on this theory?

[Gary Steele]

I ran across this again and thought i would add a little. My Pf 89 was killer at church last sunday night. Iv played a lot with my friend
LARRY WILSON he is a country gospel recording artist he told me my tone couldnt get any better i was using my my Benado steel dream. I get tone to die for when i keep my delay and reverb down far as possible.just a bit fat makes me sound like Hughey,LOL. And amp setting dont even think about the numbers onthe knobs. Use your ear only. When you can get Brad Sarnos attn after all he has seen and heard. Im excided. I never quit trying.iv got 2 SD 10 Infinitys im almost in heaven when i hear these.its a good feeling having
Friends tell you you never have bad tone. I love sharing and wish more people would do this. I dont have a problem with other people sounding good.i would love to go to a big jam in nashville or somewhere and show the world how i hear and think. So everyone please share little things. Iv learned how to tune by ear also. You just tune it by what you want to hear when you are actually playing. Im not a John Hughey but my tone and tuning iv got down pretty decent. There are many people that have this knack, its not just me.it seems like most people on these tv shows have nice tone. Whats really sad most people iv met are so set in their ways they have to much pride to play your steel or ask for any help. The old saying you can lead a horse to the water. Harold Fogle offered to teach me years ago before he went to Nashville. Sometimes we miss it when help is right there in our face. THANKS FOR READING. I GIVE GOD CREDIT FOR HELPING ME WITH THIS. I am a people person always offered to help.
GOD BLESS. THE BIBLE SAYS WHEN YOU GIVE IT SHALL BE GIVEN. I WAS SO HAPPY WHEN BRAD LIKED THEM SETTINGS I CAME UP WITH. P.S. ASK JOHNNY KING ABOUT THE INFINITY I TUNED BY EAR AT HIS HOUSE ONE TIME BACK IN 2024. ALL EAR NO HARMONICS. JUST TUNED IT LIKE I WANTED TO HEAR IT WHEN PLAYING. I CAN DO THIS BUT IT TAKES A LITTLE TIME BECAUSE I NORMALLY GO TO THE TUNER BECAUSE ITS QUICKER. PETERSON TOLD ME IF I WOULD SEND IT IN THEY WOULD PUT IT ON THE TUNERS. HE SAID 2 OF HIS PRO PLAYER FRIENDS PLAYED IT 2 DAYS LATER AND REALLY LIKED IT. IF I CAN LEARN TO PLAY AS GOOD AS I CAN SET MY AMP AND TUNE THEY MAY CALL ME JOHN THE 2ND. LOL
HOPE YOU ENJOYED THIS POST.

[Gary Steele]

I added to this a little today. Its may of 2025. Johnny king reminded me to bump this up. Let us know if this helped anyone...

[Dennis Detweiler]

The Rev is a complicated tone stack. You have to keep in mind that the Treble control is also the Shift control for the Mid Frequency selection. I'm currently not at home, but I have the Shift/Treble control frequencies written down at home. This information was posted by Brad a few years ago. Also, the Gain control also cuts the Presence as you turn the Gain clockwise. As I remember, the Mid, Color and Bass controls stand alone?

[Dennis Detweiler]

This is the mid shift values by way of the treble control:
Treble setting at:
2 = 860hz
3 = 790hz
4 = 720hz
5 = 650hz
Range 2 through 5 should get you your preferred mid setting. Then compensate an ideal treble setting with Vari-Z, Gain and Color? I've experimented with various settings and the key to mid is the Treble control. I end up a little on either side of 3 and cut the mid with mid control. Then fine tune the treble with the Vari-Z, Gain and Color controls. I found it to be a complicated beast to dial in. Just don't give up on it. Various 12AX7 tubes make a difference also. Old RCA's or new JJ12AX7MG fit my ear the best.

[Tommy Boswell]

Thanks for resurrecting this very old thread. I tried it, including the 10! gain. Sounds quite good at home, and I plan to use it next time I play out.

I've always thought the Revelation is the best preamp on the planet!

[Gary Steele]

Tommy im glad so many people liked these settings. I always have tried to think out of the box. When I called Brad that time I never really dreamed I found these master setting. My little walters are sounding like this to. I seem to be able to dial in a good setting on any decent system. Its not looking at knobs it's listening.