The "Other" way...

[petemoore]

  It seems there are various approaches, at least two that I can riddle:
A:  Start at the speaker, choose something with a nice tone.
B:  Skip to pre-input, initiate change in the middle of the signal chain.

 

[boogietube]

Half the time I don't understand....the other half...I have to decipher and then research....
You're one of a kind, Petemoore

[Quackzed]

Unacceptable option C: Leave it.

[DougH]

Option D: Spend more time practicing your guitar, less time futzing with the amp.

[ghostsauce]

Option E: Spend the rest of your life building stompboxes to find that perfect tone, and hopefully never finding it cause your new hobby is so darn fun.

[petemoore]

Option D: Spend more time practicing your guitar, less time futzing with the amp.
 Absolutely, quit futzing with tone, play!...but if the speaker/cabinet is in serious need of upgrade, the futsing can become ''Futilitus Infinitae".
 Before designing the worlds greatest new 9v futzbox distorter, it behouves the designer to get a speaker/cabinet that'll do 'tone'.
 Skip to suitable power supply: put an Overture on it, there's the high performance amplifier. Or put a mosfet amp: 2x35w, new cost about 1/2 what a good eminence 12'' speaker does. Use tubes, or something...amplification isn't terribly troublesome these days [IME/O], power supply still is though.
 Now compare the enclosed air volume type cabinet, behind the higher performance guitar type speaker, with the amp that does clean/wide frequency range [has the ability]..to the open back mini-cab with the stock-greyback speaker with the old SS technology.
 Try a little bit of futzing now [just a little bit, set the timer].
 If you don't notice that all the futzing with the little 'rattlebox' amplifier doesn't now seem futilitus infinitae...go back to the little openbox amp and chastise me for suggesting it isn't the tone-gettingest, easiest to dial in mini-high-power-combo-amplifier ever.
 Playing around with signals in the efx chain to try to get a certain tone through a speaker that is stubbornly refusing to do 'it', is 'Futilitae Infinitae'.
 .

[petemoore]

Spend the rest of your life building stompboxes to find that perfect tone, and hopefully never finding it cause your new hobby is so darn fun.
  I believe I had a life like that.
  I lived to sound like some dudes [guitarsounds].
  I now jokingly refer to my mentors as "guitar-hacks, like me".
  I cloned and re-incarnated, found all these super tones, the tables turned in my perception: it used to be that I would want to have tone like 'his', now the tone I have forever is something I think he'd like to have been able to try out !
  So...then, tones-re-incarnated, and beyond...
  It is back to playing ! All the distorter stuff and rythm section hacking is pretty well trained in there, now it's all the hard to actually play things that have fostered new interest in learning...how to play guitar again.
  I have four nylon re-inforced nails which require intense daily training sessions to coordinate their activities, some of which has been referred to 'Django-ey', I lost the flatpick and can't find it! [sometimes..four hammers @right hand for striking strings really opens things up, it's all very challenging again.
  The focus required for SB and amp building is a braintrapper for me, other peoples interests [telephone! ..telephone ! !] when I'm focusing on a circuit just trips my dominoes. It's like I have this person I know who plays guitar, insisting that at the moment of deepest circuit focus, the framed content of interest [to the exclusion of almost all other thought] is a circuit when it should be fretboard, keyboard or vocal cord/diaphram usage.
  The addiction is strong, even knowing these things such as:
  The guitar player in me has gained the ability to periodically forget about the stompbox builder.
  The Wollensak 2x15watt tube amp system beckoned to be rebuilt even though the 2x35w Mosfet fills this bill [portable stereo electric guitar play] with plenty of finesse. Why does this paradox beckon me? Why do I create paradoxes for myself like this ?
  Anyone want to buy >8 tube amplifiers or fuzzboxes ?
  I have quite a few different kinds of speakers and cabinets I'm hanging on to for some reason, it takes longer for me to get these the way I like them, they aren't readily 'available'...my "already too generous with the woodshop" friend, the wood availability, space to put them helped me decide I have enough cabinets.

[petemoore]

  I used to be a crankster big amp dude.
  Best advice for listener friendly tone I can give is "Don't try to push it, don't push it".
  I must be in the wrong thread again.

[Quackzed]

the maze like properties of circuits and layouts should have served as a warning!!! see the cute little maze of traces? you will walk in with wide eyes and ears , with a vague idea about making your wtf-4 distortorama box less farty, and with a little learning you will succeed! but beware the heady mixture of solder fumes and good tone! for though the maze looks little and cute, it is deep and it is vast!
so beware!!!,all ye who enter here, or you too will find yourself trapped in the maze.