jbro
Full Member
Posts: 123
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Post by jbro on Jun 2, 2006 14:56:08 GMT -7
Hey guys (...and gals?)
I was on here a few months back asking for advice about which amp to get. To make a long story short, after going through a ton of high end tube amps over the years, including 3 Z's (Rt66, Maz18 w/ and w/o verb), at some point my back got the best of me and I ended up selling everything and gigging almost solely on an Acoustic Image - great little amp, but after a while the tube bug bit me again. I was considering a Delta 88, but then I did a few dates with a borrowed Mazerati and it was love at first sight. I just went to Ultrasound in NY a while ago, expecting to find something I liked even more than the Z. But after playing through almost everything there.. Dumble, Trainwreck, Bruno, etc, the Mazerati is what stood out in my ears - that should say something.
So, after hunting for a Mazerati head and turning up nothing (Z stopped/suspended production of this amp in April), I ended up grabbing a 1x12" combo.. probably one of the last remaining unused Mazeratis around. Black tolex/salt+pepper grill, Celestion G12H30 - should be nice! ;D
It's on its way now, with an expected delivery date of 6/6/06 (gee.. that's comforting). Wish me luck - I'll post again and make some clips when it shows up!
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Post by benttop (Steve) on Jun 2, 2006 15:55:31 GMT -7
Congrats! I had a Mazerati for a short while myself, and I get what you hear that you like. ;D
Welcome to the world of tone!
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Post by richeray on Jun 3, 2006 5:28:30 GMT -7
Congrat's from me as well! Welcome to the rati' club.
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Post by bukowski on Jun 3, 2006 7:13:00 GMT -7
enjoy ,the rati ,I usually use a zbest with mine but I have a avatar 1x12 with and celestion h30 coming next week (recently took a few spills with the zbest loading in ouch) )I love the cleans on the rati thick and chewy !
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Post by JASON (aka jgleaton) on Jun 3, 2006 10:38:38 GMT -7
OK You 'RATI loving guy's I got a question fer ya... I LOVE my GHIA and I've heard the question asked a million times, "is the Rati like a higher powered Ghia?".... I've played several "RATI"s at a store but I haven't had a chance to play one with a band or live or anything so I don't think I can REALLY answer that question for myself even after playing it ( because it was only in the store)... from what I heard it really didn't sound like it was a double GHIA, but that it was a little different.... BUT I could be wrong... So i'm asking that question again for YOU guy's who play/ GIG the RATI if it's that GHIA thing going but louder.... maybe the tubes swap/ speaker swap can get it closer to a louder GHIA.... I think I'd LOVE a louder GHIA, cause mine works well if I'm the only guitar player and even with our heavy hitting drummer if I have a good boost for solo's the GHIA still works great but it's goin FULL TILT to ge there competing with the OTHER guitar player... I love my STINGRAY but I think I'd love that CHEWY THICKER sound you guy's talk about to go with it that I don't quite get from my MAZ SR or RX... but I hear with the GHIA. The more I play the GHIA the MORE I LOVE IT, I thought about just getting a second GHIA and running 2 of em ( head with one of my 2x12 cabs to go with my 2x10 Ghia combo)... maybe thats the ticket... heck I just love all of em and my biggest problem is WHICH ones to use... but I like the many different variations for different flavors.... or maybe you guys with both RATI AND STINGRAY experience, can tell me that the RAY can get so close to that ( maybe with an ef 86 swap like the GEC aruntangs talkin about) that I can already get what I'm looking for in the RATI out of my RAY?? anyway... Thanks for letting me think out loud here guy's, ZGAS never ends... it just mutates Jason
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jbro
Full Member
Posts: 123
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Post by jbro on Jun 3, 2006 12:09:18 GMT -7
It's my understanding that the Mazerati "started out" as a louder Ghia, but at some point Z changed a few things and made it its own creature.
I've never gigged with a Ghia, but a friend of mine owns one so I've played through it quite a few times in his studio. From my experience with the Mazerati so far (6 gigs in medium sized bars/clubs), they really seem like different beasts.
I found the Ghia to start giving up the goods MUCH earlier... and I never really got that thick, creamy Ghia overdrive out of the Mazerati at a useable level - I'm not even sure if it does that at all. It did do exactly what I was looking for, though - had great dynamic response and punch, tight low end, and put some hair on the notes (while keeping great chord tone defintion) that easily cleaned up with the guitar's volume knob. The behavior and feel of this amp reminds me a lot of a 50 watt Marshall Jubillee I used to have, but the sound is definately more refined and leans a little more toward the vox end of the spectrum.
To my ears the Ghia seems a bit more compressed overall, and I'm not sure I would get enough punch out of it to use in a live band setting (though I've never tried). The "clean" sound of both amps seems pretty similar to me, but after that they get different fast.. Maybe two Ghias would do exactly what you're looking for. What a killer stereo rig that would be!
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Post by JASON (aka jgleaton) on Jun 3, 2006 20:10:11 GMT -7
Thanks jbro, Have some Karma.... what you described is exactly what I heard when playing both... If the Mazarati's I played EVER got to the thickness or drive that to GHIA does I couldn't get there with it and cranked em pretty loud... was pretty, clean with some hair… but not quite like the GHIA… I have heard that some EARLY Mazarati's were closer to a DOUBLE GHIA... that would be very cool... course... 2 GHIA's would be cooler! Jason
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Post by 6strang (aka Paul) on Jun 4, 2006 8:19:50 GMT -7
Everytime I play my Mazerati I have to smile. Clean, tight, punchy and loud when needed. It takes pedals so well and is overall the best amp I have ever owned. Welcome to the club and best of luck with the new amp. 6strang
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Post by kidmagic on Jun 5, 2006 9:14:22 GMT -7
Wow - I hadn't realized that production was suspended. I wonder why.. hmm.. Well not that I had any intention of selling mine anyway, but this seals it. I WILL NEVER SELL MY MAZERTI. I LOVE this amp. Never played a Ghia, but it probably doesn't have the clean headroom I like. I set my rati up differently depending the guitar/pups - but usually back to a similiar sound. It's a studio/gigging amp, not a bedroom or house amp. I run it with just a bit of hair, and use pedals for OD and fuzz sounds - no airbrake. Unbelievable amp. And after several months of testing and tweaking it's sits in first place over the more recently acquired Z28.
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jbro
Full Member
Posts: 123
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Post by jbro on Jun 6, 2006 12:54:39 GMT -7
Well, it made it here today, despite UPS's best efforts to destroy it.. here's a pic with my main axe. Progress report and sound clips to come. Just out of curiosity, is anyone else with a Mazerati combo experiencing BAD tube vibration when playing? None of them are microphonic so it doesn't come through the speaker, but all the power tubes are rattling like crazy (and it's pretty loud). I guess that's to be expected with an EL84 combo though.
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Post by billyguitar on Jun 6, 2006 13:28:42 GMT -7
No tube rattles from my Maz 38 combo. Buy a new quad of EL84s and keep these for backups. I didn't catch if this was a new amp or not. If it's not new you might really benefit from new tubes. Oh, I just saw that this is a new amp. Maybe it's not the tubes but the chassis screws or something else.
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jbro
Full Member
Posts: 123
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Post by jbro on Jun 6, 2006 13:58:21 GMT -7
New amp, new tubes.. it's the spring clamps on the power tubes that are rattling. If I grab them, it stops. Just double checked to make sure they were all installed properly.. everything seems good but still rattling up a storm. I remember this from my Peavey Classic 30 ages ago. I thought EL84 combos were notorious for this because of the way the power tubes are clamped in. If anyone knows a way around this.. feel free to jump in.
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Post by foxx on Jun 6, 2006 15:08:16 GMT -7
Hey jbro, I have had my Mazerati 1X12 combo for a year and a half, both sets of power tubes(el84) that I have used in my amp have rattled. Suggestions: Keep the open back of the amp away from walls, that seems to make it worse. New tubes, new amp, new speaker, these will all break in and the amp will seem softer. Do check the chassis screws on top of the combo. There are two very informative threads in the tube section of this forum on tube rattle and tube retainers. There is hope.
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jbro
Full Member
Posts: 123
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Post by jbro on Jun 6, 2006 17:03:05 GMT -7
Thanks for the tip-off about those threads, foxx - I didn't even know there WAS a "Tubes" forum here! ;D
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Post by foxx on Jun 7, 2006 12:17:36 GMT -7
Your welcome.
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Post by myles on Jun 9, 2006 8:57:07 GMT -7
From my point of view the Mazerati is one of the Doc's most amazing amps. To me it is a different animal than the Carmen Ghia. It has a different tone stack arrangement and employs a feedback loop so it has a lot of clean headroom if desired. The Mazerati also has a split bias which allows one to run two different duets rather than a matched quad and this can be cool.
If you want the amp to take on more of the Carmen Ghia's agressivness at low levels just pop a 12AX7 in V2 where a 5751 normally resides.
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Post by UnclePat on Jun 12, 2006 12:58:55 GMT -7
Count me firmly in the 'Rati club too. I don't get to use it to it's cranked fine self very often (but I will this Thursday evening for an outdoor event...yeehaa!) but it's pure heaven through my two 1x12 cabs. Congrats on the score!
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Post by propellr on Jun 12, 2006 16:14:02 GMT -7
Well, it made it here today, despite UPS's best efforts to destroy it.. They DO try, don't they? Nice guitar, there!
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wilzgt
Full Member
I plumb for Z-Tone !
Posts: 151
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Post by wilzgt on Aug 9, 2006 16:17:39 GMT -7
I owned a Ghia once, so I've played out with both the Ghia and the Mazerati with the same 1x12 Z cabinet. The biggest difference for me was the "Bass for days" punch I got with the Mazerati and the general thick sound of it. I agree with Myles, the Mazerati is not so much a more powerful Ghia. I do really enjoy cranking the amp even though it's been a few times that I could. If you have some outdoor gigs, you'll love it!
EL84 amps rattle sometimes especially after travelling with it, so what I do is pull them out and reset them and of course check the spring. This took care of the problem.
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Post by dzghia on Aug 9, 2006 19:58:33 GMT -7
I am so glad I got my red head Rati when I did. I love this amp. When I heard serveral months back that Z was suspending the production I began my search. Found one unopened in the box at Humbuckermusic and grabbed it immediately. Well....after I got the okay from my wife that is. I've been using a HBE Power Screamer with a 2-12 cab loaded with a Tonker and a Texas Heat. This set up so far with my tele is working great. This amp will NEVER leave my possession.
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