Some observations (and questions) after gigging with the Maz
Aug 28, 2015 9:08:01 GMT -7
JASON (aka jgleaton) likes this
Post by zeno on Aug 28, 2015 9:08:01 GMT -7
Gigged a four hour set last night with a Maz 18jr. NR for the first time. Small club setting with about 75-80 happy people. With a VERY quick sound check , my settings were Vol-noon, Bass-10 o'clock, treb-11o'clock, mids@ 2o'clock (or so), master@ noon. Kind of a punchy, hairy, clean(ish) tone where I could ride the guitar's vol. knob to clean up for rhythm & step on a K.O.T. for boosting & smoothing out leads.
MAZ was on the carpeted stage floor tilted back about 45 degrees against the back wall. Airbrake @ one click & playing a Les Paul with P-90's.
Anyway, 1st song & I'm too LOUD! I reach back & do one more click on the AirBrake. Much better. Next song is straight ahead rock & roll , I hit some open chords and the sound is GLORIOUS ! Step on the King of Tone to boost leads & the tone saturates perfectly (Did I say the MAZ takes pedals well?).
Throughout the night I felt a bit like a lion tamer with the MAZ. It's so damn touch responsive that I will have to work with it more to fully realize what it's capable of. My difficulty was a highly varied set list , going from rock to blues was easy, but going from blues to jazz influenced (clean) chord progressions was difficult to dial -in. If I rolled back the guitar volume it got too clean, bright & sparkley.
At the end of the night I got a lot of compliments on my tone & overall I'm very pleased with the MAZ . I was originally worried about clean headroom , but it can be piano-like clean (& loud) for all but the largest venues. BUT....This is not an amp like a Deluxe Reverb where you set your clean tone volume & juice everything up with pedals as needed. This is an amp you can easily plug straight into & play all night just riding your guitar's vol & tone controls. However, I've got some experimenting & learning to do before I reach that point!
ALSO, by design , this is a bright amp! I think that if I had brought my Tele I would have had a difficult time taming the highs??
So, I'm wondering... for those who have a highly variable set list, what is your strategy for setting the tone for the MAZ? Are you reaching back & fiddling with the vol & master, cut, etc. between songs? or do you have a "set it and forget it" strategy for playing an entire night?
MAZ was on the carpeted stage floor tilted back about 45 degrees against the back wall. Airbrake @ one click & playing a Les Paul with P-90's.
Anyway, 1st song & I'm too LOUD! I reach back & do one more click on the AirBrake. Much better. Next song is straight ahead rock & roll , I hit some open chords and the sound is GLORIOUS ! Step on the King of Tone to boost leads & the tone saturates perfectly (Did I say the MAZ takes pedals well?).
Throughout the night I felt a bit like a lion tamer with the MAZ. It's so damn touch responsive that I will have to work with it more to fully realize what it's capable of. My difficulty was a highly varied set list , going from rock to blues was easy, but going from blues to jazz influenced (clean) chord progressions was difficult to dial -in. If I rolled back the guitar volume it got too clean, bright & sparkley.
At the end of the night I got a lot of compliments on my tone & overall I'm very pleased with the MAZ . I was originally worried about clean headroom , but it can be piano-like clean (& loud) for all but the largest venues. BUT....This is not an amp like a Deluxe Reverb where you set your clean tone volume & juice everything up with pedals as needed. This is an amp you can easily plug straight into & play all night just riding your guitar's vol & tone controls. However, I've got some experimenting & learning to do before I reach that point!
ALSO, by design , this is a bright amp! I think that if I had brought my Tele I would have had a difficult time taming the highs??
So, I'm wondering... for those who have a highly variable set list, what is your strategy for setting the tone for the MAZ? Are you reaching back & fiddling with the vol & master, cut, etc. between songs? or do you have a "set it and forget it" strategy for playing an entire night?