Post by benttop (Steve) on Dec 1, 2007 20:28:10 GMT -7
I have a friend who has a load of Z amps, and he's got a bud who is dabbling in amp design. He's manufactured by hand about a dozen amps so far, and he's still in the experimental stages, trying this, trying that, etc. They remembered that I have a cab with two Blues and another cab with two Golds, so they invited me over to one of their try-it sessions.
When I got there, they had about seven of this guys amps set up, with a number of different cabs made by Avatar, Dr. Z, and custom made. I brought my Dr. Z 2x12 with Blues, and my THD 2x12 with Golds, and I brought the Mazerati GT.
This guy's amps are trying to be like a Marshall/Trainwreck/Matchless kind of thang, but with multiple channels, loops, reverb, and lots of knobs and a bazillion switches. We played through about all the combinations of cabs and amps there before I even unzipped my StudioSlips cover on the GT. The surprise was that the Golds didn't sound very good at all with his amps. He was surprised, but I was amazed because I've really liked them so far. But his amps have a different kind of distortion that just didn't sound that great with the Golds. His amps sounded best with V30s all the way.
Eventually someone suggested we have a look at the GT, so I unzipped it and plugged it straight in to the Golds. I had my Strat there, so I set the humbucker and put the volume on the GT at about noon. I wanted them to get to experience it in real time....
I played about three power chords and both guys were walking AWAY from me very quickly. So I hauled out the Airbrake and set it at about four clicks down, and we got busy comparing things.
The Mazerati really held its own. Sounded fabulous through the Golds, as I had expected, and have already experienced here at home. We got back to realistic volume settings (about 9:30-10:00 just as Phil said in an eariler thread) and I showed them how it cleans up with the guitar volume, then just rages with the guitar up. And running the neck pup I was getting very VERY nice tones. My bud mentioned afterward how impressed he was.
Overall everyone got to play the GT and everyone liked it. And I got to play it through a Z-Best as well as a 1x12 Avatar with V30. It sounded great through all of that stuff, but we all agreed it sounded best through the Golds. ;D
When I got there, they had about seven of this guys amps set up, with a number of different cabs made by Avatar, Dr. Z, and custom made. I brought my Dr. Z 2x12 with Blues, and my THD 2x12 with Golds, and I brought the Mazerati GT.
This guy's amps are trying to be like a Marshall/Trainwreck/Matchless kind of thang, but with multiple channels, loops, reverb, and lots of knobs and a bazillion switches. We played through about all the combinations of cabs and amps there before I even unzipped my StudioSlips cover on the GT. The surprise was that the Golds didn't sound very good at all with his amps. He was surprised, but I was amazed because I've really liked them so far. But his amps have a different kind of distortion that just didn't sound that great with the Golds. His amps sounded best with V30s all the way.
Eventually someone suggested we have a look at the GT, so I unzipped it and plugged it straight in to the Golds. I had my Strat there, so I set the humbucker and put the volume on the GT at about noon. I wanted them to get to experience it in real time....
I played about three power chords and both guys were walking AWAY from me very quickly. So I hauled out the Airbrake and set it at about four clicks down, and we got busy comparing things.
The Mazerati really held its own. Sounded fabulous through the Golds, as I had expected, and have already experienced here at home. We got back to realistic volume settings (about 9:30-10:00 just as Phil said in an eariler thread) and I showed them how it cleans up with the guitar volume, then just rages with the guitar up. And running the neck pup I was getting very VERY nice tones. My bud mentioned afterward how impressed he was.
Overall everyone got to play the GT and everyone liked it. And I got to play it through a Z-Best as well as a 1x12 Avatar with V30. It sounded great through all of that stuff, but we all agreed it sounded best through the Golds. ;D