Power Soak stored with presets

Just got my new Grandmeister. Is there a way to turn off the fact that the power soak settings are stored with presets? Seems weird to me as power soak is so related to Master Volume which isn't stored. Scared the hell out of me when I was running in 1W mode at home and tried switching to one of the presets and suddenly had my face peeled off at 36W. I can't find it in the manual unless I'm looking in the wrong place. Thanks experts!

Dave

Unfortunately, no. I agree it would be great to have that option, to put the powersoak in 'global' mode.

Hi Dave. Welcome to the world of wonderful MIDI control! When you say "stored with the presets" I assume you're using the FSM432 or the GM36 control app, so you have 128 stored voices available in memory. With some other controller it may be a different number of voices but the principle here should be useful. If that is so the answer is remarkably simple.

Mentally split your memory allocation into a number of blocks. You have 32 banks of 4 voices, (1-32, each with A, B, C, D). Set up your voices for gigging on say banks 1-8, this gives you 32 distinct voices. In truth, most people don't use that many. These will have the power soak set to 18W or 36W as you need. Then store each of those voices again, in exactly the same pattern, with the power soak at 1W into banks 9-16 for bedroom use. Then repeat with 5W into 17 - 24 for lounge use when the rest of the family is out.

Make sure you have exactly the same pattern of voices in each set of banks. By that I mean 1A -> 9A -> 17A; 2B -> 10B -> 18B; 4C -> 12C -> 20C; etc. Just add 8 onto the bank number and keep the voice letter the same. That way, when you get used to the changes so you can flip from one voice to another by instinct, the foot taps are the same no matter which set you are using. That means, even when you are playing at home, you are training your memory for playing with the band.

Of course you may decide that you need 10 banks for each power setting to use 40 voices, 1-10, 11-20, 21-30. Or you may only need 2 sets of 16 banks for 64 voices, 1-16 and 17-32. Just stick to the principle and make it work for you. Unless of course you need more than 64 individual settings?

Thanks guys, I guess I can see why people might want it stored but seems a bit of a pain. Not sure I have your mental acuity Bordonbert. Stomp box mode is looking pretty appealing. I still have 26 days to take it back. Convince me not to!

Cheers.

Dave

Are you using the FSM432 or another midi controller Dave?

You say it seems a bit of a pain but everyone feels like that when they first started with MIDI control. I had my first dip with a Vox Valvetronix and its dedicated foot controller and it took a little while to see the value. Once you have used it you very quickly become a convert I promise you. And the GM36 is even better. I don't really see how you think you can can better the idea of totally resetting the whole amp and effects (minus the power soak) with just a single stomp!

And another trick to the power soak is to get used to using the Volume control. This is designed to balance up the levels of your various voices against each other and IS stored with each voice. And there is the option of setting up 2 switches to the FSM432 to switch on things like the Boost or Fx Loop on the fly. It's absolutely awesome, but you have to have a little patience and work on understanding it.

Or you could just adjust everything manually as you play as any other run of the mill amp would do?

Yeah I got the FSM. Had my first band practice with it and used stomp box mode, which worked fine for me. Honestly I tend to be a bit more of an "in the moment" kind of guy so having 4 presets and turning the FX on and off was pretty appealing and actually plenty of options rather than scrolling through banks. My other amp is a Boogie Mark V which has 3 dedicated channels and no FX. It's fantastic, I love it, but I'm not as young as I used to be and my back doesn't like it so much anymore! Every time I pick up the GM I do a little happy sigh! I was worried that the 36W wouldn't compete with the other guitarists 150W(!) Triple Rectifier but it was plenty of power. Barely had the master past 9 o'clock.

My first impressions of the GM is that it doesn't have quite the open alive sound that the Mark V has but both amps are quite bright and direct. The Marks gain tends to react quite strongly to guitar volume on all it's channels whereas the gain level on the GM seems pretty consistent when I dial the volume back. Not necessarily bad just different. The Solo boost feature on the Mark is really handy as it's a Master Volume boost so your tone stays consistent unlike the boost on the GM which is a gain boost. I guess I could replicate the Solo boost with an expression pedal attached to the FSM but having read other posts that suggest it could be a bit tricky. I love having the on board FX on the GM as I hate having multiple pedals around. Also the resonance control can make things sound HUGE, especially on the Ultra channel. In fact in full heavy metal mode I would say the GM is heavier sounding than the Mark surprisingly. The Eq's are weird on both amps and actually work in a similar interactive passive way. The reverb on the GM sounds like ass. It's tinny as hell. First thing I turned off. Noise gate works a treat.

So that's where I'm at now. At almost 2Gs I need to really love it so I'm still weighing the pros and cons. If I do take it back it will be on day 29 and I've already decided I'll keep both amps if i do!

Thanks for your all your advice.

Dave

One of the things you learn is to set it up so that Master gets up around 1:00+, 3:00 is better imo. It doesn't really start to sing on the top 3 channels until you do that. That's where the power soak comes into play. You can up the Master to drive the power amp and compensate by dropping the power soak to keep the volume about the same. It really comes alive and sings then. Works a treat once you get used to it.

I would also say the GM is so versatile and sensitive that you have to get your speaker and valve choices right as there is a lot of variation in tone available from both, particularly speakers. You say they are both bright amps, well with stock valves and the wrong speakers you can say that in spades about the GM. I found V12s sliced my ears and eyebrows off. It couldn't be tamed and I hated it. That said, we have metal guys here who swear by that combo.

You're right about the tone controls, we all reckon they are a bit strange. They seem to work in a 12:00 neutral then lift and cut fashion rather than just a tonestack 5:00 neutral then cut one. The more you get things like valve choices sorted the more the tone controls then seem to respond. Of course they're never going to have a huge range, but things like the guitar pickup selector and tone controls seem to come alive with the GM and make up for it. The presence and resonance are wonderful at trimming the ends though.

I wouldn't swap it for my co-guitarist's all valve Marshall for any money, the GM is so much more versatile and can do anything his does and so much more. And I don't need that hulking great pedal board he lugs around which is always going wrong at the worst time! Hope you persevere with it, it really is worth it.

Had a couple of different jams now and am starting to get it really dialed in. Think I've decided to keep it! Had a shoot out with my Mark V last night and it fared very well. Have been keeping the foot pedal in stomp box mode. That works best for me. I was wondering if anybody had tried a clean boost in the fx loop? Looking for something like the Solo mode on the Mark V which is just a master volume boost. Also curious about trying other midi foot boards. The FSM is pretty expensive.

Thanks for all the advice.