Another Maz 38 love letter, 18 Mk.II vs. 38 Mk.II compared
May 9, 2020 0:28:29 GMT -7
doctorice, z4me, and 4 more like this
Post by aguynamedben (Ben) on May 9, 2020 0:28:29 GMT -7
Cross posting my Maz 38 love letter below, from Amp Questions/Troubleshooting. It's my first Dr. Z amp... the Maz 38 NR Mk.II... and it's just blowing my mind!!!
I'm no expert but for a short time I have BOTH the Maz 18 NR Mk.II and the Maz 38 NR Mk.II, and I found the description on the Dr. Z site pretty spot on:
* Overall same sound to me
* Definitely more headroom on the 38. If you like light-medium overdrive pedals, or having 3-4 gain stages with overdrive pedals, I think the 38 gives you the space to use a few more shades of color on your pedalboard in terms of gain staging.
* More headroom on the 38 = less compression, unless you want it to, then you can get it to compress.
* Definitely a good amount more low end on the Maz 38. I think this is the biggest difference between the 18 and 38. After playing the 18 for several days, the 38 seemed almost TOO bassy, but it's easily tamed. I think I run the bass at 9/10 o clock on the 38, when I was running it at 12 o clock on the 18. Once I got it in my head it's fine to run the bass knob down there, it all made sense. The low end is great to have on tap though when you want a super clean sound, however.
* Didn't play with the half power switch much yet to A/B.
I really like tremolo AFTER reverb so I'll probably end up running my Carl Martin Headroom (a truly absurd pedal, link) and JHS Kodiak tremolo (which is a great pedal BTW) in the loop. Or maybe get a Strymon Flint, if I decide to stick with a 1 amp setup instead of wet/dry (I think the tremolo on the Flint is digital, so potentail latency/phase issues!)
–Ben
---
An update on this, just for fun...
I didn't easily find any Stangray 1x12s out there and really wanted a combo in order to save space, so I started looking at Maz's. Going on zpilot and Mark's feedback (different flavors, EL84 makes good "dry" amp with a Vibroverb, etc.)
I found a guy who'd bought BOTH a Maz 18 NR Mk.II AND a Maz 38 NR Mk.II to compare them (you know, as one does, haha). He ended up liking the 38, but decided he wanted a 38 head, so he sold me BOTH the 18 and the 38 combos in a decent package deal.
The 18 arrived first, and it was amazing. The master volume on the Mk.II really is that great, and with the 18 I can easily play in my apartment in San Francisco with whatever gain sound I want, turned down via the Master, without my Fryette Power Station 2, and it sounds stellar.
Then the 38 arrived, and it was exactly what I was looking for. I've only owned 5/15/20 watt amps before, so the clean headroom in the 38 is blowing my mind. The clean sounds with a low wind Tele neck pickup are so good, and there's more leeway to get fancy with pedals, i.e. 3-4 very nuanced, progressive low/medium gain stages. I think I'm realizing how much I like the clean 1/3 of the spectrum.
Both Maz's also blew my mind in a category I wasn't really asking for: versatility. Because I'm in the city, I'm always using a Fryette Power Station 2 anyways, so I was fine with 3 knob, non-master volume, highly opinionated amps. But the Maz can achieve so many different sounds it's teaching me that I don't really need a ton of other amps. With a just a Tele and and Les Paul I can get so many different sounds from the Maz. The EQ lift, EQ controls, and Cut are so rad for small studio use. You could record an entire lifetime worth of albums with just a Tele, Les Paul, Maz, tape delay, and flanger and nobody would ever think "ahh this is the same sound over and over again!" That's an awesome asset when you've very limited on physical space!
With the 38 I'm still using the Fryette Power Station 2 to get very full clean sounds, with the Master on the amp up high and the Volume at 9-11 o clock. Sounds excellent. I need to keep the Fryette anyway to go into headphones/IRs at night.
Anyways, thanks for the feedback all of you gave here. The Maz 38 is a long-term keeper. I'll keep my eyes peeled for a Stang Ray or one of those mini Anniversary Carmen Ghias down the road for fun, but the Maz 38 will be my go-to daily driver for sure!
–Ben
I'm no expert but for a short time I have BOTH the Maz 18 NR Mk.II and the Maz 38 NR Mk.II, and I found the description on the Dr. Z site pretty spot on:
* Overall same sound to me
* Definitely more headroom on the 38. If you like light-medium overdrive pedals, or having 3-4 gain stages with overdrive pedals, I think the 38 gives you the space to use a few more shades of color on your pedalboard in terms of gain staging.
* More headroom on the 38 = less compression, unless you want it to, then you can get it to compress.
* Definitely a good amount more low end on the Maz 38. I think this is the biggest difference between the 18 and 38. After playing the 18 for several days, the 38 seemed almost TOO bassy, but it's easily tamed. I think I run the bass at 9/10 o clock on the 38, when I was running it at 12 o clock on the 18. Once I got it in my head it's fine to run the bass knob down there, it all made sense. The low end is great to have on tap though when you want a super clean sound, however.
* Didn't play with the half power switch much yet to A/B.
I really like tremolo AFTER reverb so I'll probably end up running my Carl Martin Headroom (a truly absurd pedal, link) and JHS Kodiak tremolo (which is a great pedal BTW) in the loop. Or maybe get a Strymon Flint, if I decide to stick with a 1 amp setup instead of wet/dry (I think the tremolo on the Flint is digital, so potentail latency/phase issues!)
–Ben
---
An update on this, just for fun...
I didn't easily find any Stangray 1x12s out there and really wanted a combo in order to save space, so I started looking at Maz's. Going on zpilot and Mark's feedback (different flavors, EL84 makes good "dry" amp with a Vibroverb, etc.)
I found a guy who'd bought BOTH a Maz 18 NR Mk.II AND a Maz 38 NR Mk.II to compare them (you know, as one does, haha). He ended up liking the 38, but decided he wanted a 38 head, so he sold me BOTH the 18 and the 38 combos in a decent package deal.
The 18 arrived first, and it was amazing. The master volume on the Mk.II really is that great, and with the 18 I can easily play in my apartment in San Francisco with whatever gain sound I want, turned down via the Master, without my Fryette Power Station 2, and it sounds stellar.
Then the 38 arrived, and it was exactly what I was looking for. I've only owned 5/15/20 watt amps before, so the clean headroom in the 38 is blowing my mind. The clean sounds with a low wind Tele neck pickup are so good, and there's more leeway to get fancy with pedals, i.e. 3-4 very nuanced, progressive low/medium gain stages. I think I'm realizing how much I like the clean 1/3 of the spectrum.
Both Maz's also blew my mind in a category I wasn't really asking for: versatility. Because I'm in the city, I'm always using a Fryette Power Station 2 anyways, so I was fine with 3 knob, non-master volume, highly opinionated amps. But the Maz can achieve so many different sounds it's teaching me that I don't really need a ton of other amps. With a just a Tele and and Les Paul I can get so many different sounds from the Maz. The EQ lift, EQ controls, and Cut are so rad for small studio use. You could record an entire lifetime worth of albums with just a Tele, Les Paul, Maz, tape delay, and flanger and nobody would ever think "ahh this is the same sound over and over again!" That's an awesome asset when you've very limited on physical space!
With the 38 I'm still using the Fryette Power Station 2 to get very full clean sounds, with the Master on the amp up high and the Volume at 9-11 o clock. Sounds excellent. I need to keep the Fryette anyway to go into headphones/IRs at night.
Anyways, thanks for the feedback all of you gave here. The Maz 38 is a long-term keeper. I'll keep my eyes peeled for a Stang Ray or one of those mini Anniversary Carmen Ghias down the road for fun, but the Maz 38 will be my go-to daily driver for sure!
–Ben