NV 112 Gain Settings Question

[Barry Hyman]

I just got a Nashville 112 today. Sounds great (stock, without any modifications), but one question:

Peavey makes it look (in the instructions) as if the best pre-gain for E9 Pedal Steel is just below 5, and they say the master gain should be higher than the pre-gain to avoid clipping. The problem is that this is terrifically loud, even when barely touching the volume pedal -- much MUCH louder than I ever practice, and significantly louder than I ever play in public! (I'll be doing an outdoor gig Saturday for several hundred people, but if I played that loud they would shoot me!)

So my question is this: If I set the pre-gain lower, will it degrade my tone?

I tried setting both the pre-gain and the master gain lower and it sounded okay, but not quite as fat. I also tried setting the master lower than the pre-gain, and did not hear any clipping.

(I am running a Williams S-12 with a George L E-66 humbucking pickup into a Hilton vp and then into the high gain input. My default vp position is depressed about one-fourth or one-third of the way.)

Thanks, guys. My understanding of the electronics is that tone is best when the pre-gain is set at the optimal level. But what good is tone if you blow out your ears?

[Dick Sexton]

Great question, Barry, I'll be following this post closely.

I have two NV112's, one modded and one not. On the unmodded amp, I use and seldom have to change my Gain settings from 2 on the Pre and 3.5 on the Post. (Admittedly we play mostly small venues) These setting are easy on the ears in practice and I've not had a problem playing out. I do have some High Freq hearing loss that make my ears super sensitive to loud stage volume.

My amp setting are: Using an E66, 500KOhm pot pedal into High Gain input. Delay into Pre EQ Patch.
Pre Gain....2
Lows........+10.5
Mids.........-6
Shift...........8 of the 800
Highs........-3
Presence...-2
Reverb.......3.5
Post Gain....3.5

Hope you receive a bunch of responses...

[Ray McCarthy]

Or you could try plugging into the other (low gain) input.

[Jack Stoner]

The level settings are completely optional. Just as noted, the pre should be lower than the post.

[David Collins]

For whatever it's worth:

Against all advice, I set my pre at about 31/2 to 4.
I set the master gain at 2 or less, depending on venue.
(I usually go direct to main board for "House" volume, use amp speaker for monitor)

Been doing this for over 3 years with my 112. Hasn't seemed to hurt it one bit.

[Barry Hyman]

All the mixers and effects and recording devices I have used over the years (many) need the pre-gain (or its equivalent) set at the optimum level in order to get the best tone. That's why I ask. I value the opinions of musicians a lot, and the amp sounds good to me with several different settings, but I am hoping that one of you electronics experts who actually knows the scientific answer will respond. Thanks...

Of course it also has a lot to do with the output of the volume pedal too...

[Steve English]

With many amps, the "pre" volume allows the pre amp to be over driven resulting in distortion that the "post" will amplify.

With the steel guitar amps, I don't think they're designed that way. I'm not completely knowledgeable on the specifics of the signal flow and voltages, but typically the post volume should be run low in recording scenarios (to reduce noise) and up in live scenarios for adequate gain.

I generally run my pre and post levels at the same settings, ie: pre @ 3, post @3.

Maybe some of the electronic guys can explain the way the steel amps gain stages are structured.

I'm not certain that this is an "attenuation" setting that is used to match gain structures as on a mixing board, as Barry related to........I've not found that to be the case.

[Jack Stoner]

there as many theories as noses. Being an electronics tech and former amp tech, when you have an amp with both a pre and post gain you want the post higher than the pre for a clean signal.

For recording it's the same but you don't want the level so high that there is "white" noise.

There is another feature with the 112 and 1000 that you can set the post to zero if you are using the amp as a preamp only or if you are using the XLR output and don't want the speaker sound

[Jonathan Cullifer]

Barry:

The NV112 preamp is just like any other channel strip. I never touch my pre gain once I have it set for the gain of a particular guitar. I set the post low and the pre high enough that it never clips. Then I adjust the post for the room. This produces the best S/N ratio through the preamp with no clipping.

The pre gain and post gain are two independent controls, so I'm not sure where the idea that they are correlated came from. It's no different than a master volume tube amp. The drive control is analogous an input gain control and the master volume is essentially an output gain control.

[Barry Hyman]

I am getting a great sound out of it now with the pre gain on 3, the bass on +3, the mids on -6 at about 750 Hz, the treble on +3, the presence on +9, the reverb on 3, and the post gain on 3. If I play a big outdoor gig I might turn up the gains, but these settings sound good for everything else. (This is a little less bass and more treble than the instructions suggest for E9th, but my steel has a wood body and a wood neck, and I don't use any picks, so my sound is naturally a little less trebly than what most people get with a mica body and metal picks. Sounds good to me -- I love it. Or maybe it's just because my ears can't hear high frequencies as well as they used to?) But I am not so happy with it as a guitar amp...

Question: Do you really have to break them in? I played a six hour gig a couple of days after I bought it, and it probably has been used about 75 hours in the last few weeks. But I never had it running continuously for 48 hours. Is that really necessary, or is it an urban myth?