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Post by cheycaster on Oct 12, 2005 18:54:51 GMT -7
Yo, I have two maz Juniors, one with verb and one with out. Both 2x10 versions. My question is I need to play the amp up where it breaths since I'm self taught and rely on the amps responce and not musical knowlege etc. I have a ton of OD and distortion pedals yaddi yaddi yadda, I'm thinking about getting an air brake and know they might sound better with some amps more than others but I'm asking if they really work with the maz juniors. I had a hot plate that I did not like but I also used it with another amp before I was addicted to the one and only Z tone. Does anyone have any personal experiance with this set up?? Thanks!! Cheycaster
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Post by friendlyranger on Oct 12, 2005 23:43:52 GMT -7
The MAZ Junior sounds fantastic with an attenuator and boost pedal. I use a Hot Plate with mine and it works great as long as I don't attenuate too much. I can still get some great tones at -12db. The first time I played some open tuning slide on my Tele using a Keeley comp as a boost into the Maz wide open with -8db attenuation...well, there are no words for it! After hearing it this way, I've had trouble liking overdrive pedals. I don't have any experience with the Air Brake but I imagine you would get similar results.
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Post by greenmachine on Oct 14, 2005 8:28:12 GMT -7
I borrowed an airbrake from a friend that has a maz38 and used it some with the Maz18 I have. Personally I didn't like it all that much but that's just my taste I guess. I prefer a good OD pedal to help colour my tone and help me shape it the way I like it. With a louder amp I could see the airbrake as more useful but the my junior doesn't sound as good with it.
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Post by charlienc on Oct 14, 2005 14:42:47 GMT -7
it sounds great to me. i'm with friendlyranger in that i find the amps overdrive makes pedals sound pretty cheap.
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Post by GuitarZ on Oct 15, 2005 7:06:13 GMT -7
The Air Brake works great with the Maz Jr. I had been using a Clean Boost pedal to overdrive the amp previously. Once I picked up the Air Brake and cranked the master up to 2 o'clock, it was like I had a whole new amp. I'm a rock & blues player and the ability to push the power amp section provided more width and crunch to the sound. You get that power amp saturation and articulation that you don't get from preamp overdrive.
Just realize that it works great going from a quiet rehearsal to the club, but it won't give this to you in the bedroom. Once you touch the bedroom level control, it starts to adjust the tone.
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Post by humphreyaudio on Oct 15, 2005 8:09:30 GMT -7
The Z Air Brake works great with the Maz. Attenuation can be misunderstood. There are basically two ways to use an Air Brake, so lets don't overlook either one. One way is if you want your drive tone from the amp. You crank the pre gain to wherever you like the crunch best, set the master on '10' to feed the power amp tubes all you can hit them with, and then use the air brake to calm the overall volume to sane levels. The other way is the way I happen to use mine. I have a 210 NR, and I run it on '10' with the pre gain at 12:00 all the time. I use a 12AU7 in V1 to step the gain down quite a bit so the amp sounds loud and clean. For pedals I use a compressor and three different drive pedals, one for harder drive which also cleans up with my guitars volume being backed off, one is voiced as a specialty drive, (Sounds like a frozen wah,) and one is my low drive for mild tube overdrive sounds. I perform mods to my own pedals so I am getting what I need from them without compromising the natural tone of the Maz. I simply use the Air Brake to reduce the overall volumes in situations where The amp is too loud. A tube amps gets it's bests tone when there's a lot of voltage running through it. Think of it as a water hose where you've taken out all the kinks and curves and it's in a straight line with as little resistance to the flow as possible. If you cut back the pressure at the valve, that transfers to what comes out the end. If you kink it, same thing. If you leave it on full and put a hand operated sprayer on the end of it, you have all the water pressure where you need it, and the sprayer it your attenuator. Hope that makes sense. Find ways to CRANK those tube amps as hard as you can, even if you play clean. Learn to swap out pre amp tubes to get the desired tone of the amp at the highest level possible, then use your Air brake as a volume control. The feel and color are unequaled equalled like this. Mark A. Humphrey Moderator of RIGTIPS for guitar, bass, and live sound. www.yahoogroups.com/group/rigtips
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Post by cheycaster on Oct 25, 2005 11:53:54 GMT -7
Thanks!!!! I think I'm somewhere in the middle of all these responces. I just need to get an Z brake and try it for myself. I guess I'm getting older by the day, now my pedal board seems to weigh as much as my 130 LB. mesa rack set up did!!! LOL.....just an Air brake.........Hmmmmmmmmmmm
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