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I do not have the SPX900, I have an SPX-50D which is a cheaper variant.
In general the Yamaha digital distortion is pretty raspy. However,
there are some ways to get around this:
1. The SPX-50 has three bands of EQ when setting up the distortion,
bass, treble and a sweepable midrange; I assume the 900 has something
similar. Try turning down the treble and boosting the midrange,
experiment with different settings of the mid frequency to find a
"warm" part of the spectrum.
2. When you set up the wet/dry mix levels, don't run the distorion at
100%, set it to maybe 80%, so that you will mix in some of the
unprocessed guitar sound as well. I find this warms up the sound quite
a bit.
3. The SPX-50D has an effects loop that can be programmed in as part of
an effect program. You can plug an outboard distortion box into the
loop and have it called up as if it were internal to the unit. I don't
know if the 900 has this feature. Of course, you're now totally
bypassing the onboard distorion in favor of your favorite fuzz box.
I doubt you will ever get it to sound very much like a tube amp (if
that's your intention). It reminds me of early seventies fuzz boxes
like the Big Muff and Distortion +.
Brian
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| I have a REX-50 (also a variant). The Distortion sounds horrible
on Strats & anything with Humbucking pickups, but sounds great with
my P90 soapbar pickups (on a 1964 Gibson SG). No amount of tweeking
of the parameters seems to help the tone. Thin and empty is what
the distortion sounds like to me. The Reverb, however, is very good
with an outboard distortion box (unlike the Alesis MicroVerb that
I had for a very short time - it rolled off all of the high harmonics
as if it was trying to get rid of the distortion & return the sound
back to it's original state, ie. no edge what-so-ever). I don't know
what they designed this distortion feature to work with; it certainly
wasn't with the more common guitar designs in mind.
Jens
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