steze
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Post by steze on Jan 25, 2009 16:47:15 GMT -7
There's a store that's selling a 1x12 combo Mazerati for $999. I'm kind of interested in this amp, but haven't plugged into it yet. I was told that several people came in to look at it, looked at the back and said "no thanks, it's a series one." What does that mean?
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Post by edoetsch on Jan 25, 2009 17:14:28 GMT -7
I would guess it's not a GT. Though there may have been an original Mazerati which is just a Ghia with more power. then some improvements were made. There is this in the original description: drzamps.com/mazerati.html
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steze
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Post by steze on Jan 25, 2009 17:36:00 GMT -7
edoetsch, No it's not a GT. By the way, this is my first post. I currently do not own any Z amps, but I've been looking at this one for a while, as it's been in the store for over a year with no takers. I plugged into another Mazerati that was on sale there. It had a small head and matching 1x12 bottom in blonde. I plugged in for literally about a minute (the store gets a little antsy about cranking for too long), but in that time I could tell I'd really like the amp. I also love the simplicity of the two knob setup. I suspect that like you mentioned, the whole "series 1" thing has to do with changes that must have been made to the Mazerati at some point that improved the amp. The "series 1" amps must be before these changes were made. I plan to try the amp regardless, but if anyone here has played through the "old version" Mazerati and the "new version" I'd be curious to hear their comments. If I like the amp, I'm considering selling my Mesa Blue Angel to justify the purchase and free up funds. Thanks.
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Post by edoetsch on Jan 25, 2009 19:44:01 GMT -7
Sorry, I was saying,
they might mean "version 1 because version 2 is a GT". However I don't think this is the case.
My guess is that it is a great sounding amp as I can't imagine a Z not being good. Reading the website for the original mazerati, it sounds like the work done was to actually make the amp cleaner.
So my guess would be that the earliest Mazerati's are dirtier than the 2nd generMazerati. The GT is probably way more gain still though.
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Post by tweedpro on Jan 25, 2009 21:55:40 GMT -7
Mazerati pre 2004 are said to sound a little dirtier than the later models. I have a later model and have played an earlier one and honestly I might rather have the earlier model.
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steze
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Post by steze on Jan 25, 2009 22:37:06 GMT -7
Tweedpro, I think your blonde Maz was the one I tried. The one I'm talking about is the black one at Players Guitars that's been there forever. (I'm a friend of a guy named Anthony, we've seen you play a few times with Strait Southern. Is this you?). If so, I tried your blonde Maz when you had it in Players Guitars on consignment. Thought it sounded great, and may have picked it up, but it looks like it sold. Have you tried the black 1x12 combo they have there? Do you think it sounds as good as the blonde one you had?
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Post by brad737 on Jan 26, 2009 11:29:42 GMT -7
Gents, Pre-2003 Mazeratis were basically a Carmen Ghia with double the power. After 2003, the Mazerati circuit was tweaked quite a bit. The later Mazeratis are considered to be more of a "country" style amp versus the earlier ones.
The Mazerati GT is a totally different amp than the Mazerati. If the sales guy was implying the GT is a series 2, take what he says with a grain of salt.
Hope this helps, Brad
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steze
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Post by steze on Jan 26, 2009 12:52:58 GMT -7
Gents, Pre-2003 Mazeratis were basically a Carmen Ghia with double the power. After 2003, the Mazerati circuit was tweaked quite a bit. The later Mazeratis are considered to be more of a "country" style amp versus the earlier ones. The Mazerati GT is a totally different amp than the Mazerati. If the sales guy was implying the GT is a series 2, take what he says with a grain of salt. Hope this helps, Brad Brad, that was helpful. It sounds like the Maz they're selling is the one that's more like a Carmen Ghia. Personally I'm not so sure that's a bad thing. I've never tried the Ghia, but many seem to love it. By the way, they're asking $999 for the Maz. I'll just have to check it out. Thanks all, for your comments. I'm new to this forum, so if I ended up getting a "Z" I'll probably be back more often.
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Post by jiseman on Jan 26, 2009 18:22:47 GMT -7
I sold my Blue Angel for the specific purpose of financing a Mazerati purchase.
As Brad points out, supposedly the series 2 is more of a "country" amp. I think what this means is 1) more headroom and 2) a tighter low end.
That said, I play rock (ala Radiohead) and I love the series 2 I have. I think the tighter low end is only noticeable in a "bad way" for rock when you're riffing down on the low E string - Which is fine with me since I'm not much for that anyway. Outside of this it's a great way to have a unique sound amongst all the Triple Rectifiers and JCM's every other band we play with has.
I like the extra headroom as I play at some pretty menacing volumes and this allows me to clean up nicely while staying with the volume of the band. I have Groove Tube 4's in it so a tube swap could probably get me some more headroom if I needed it even. I stack my OD's if I really need to get dirty.
The thing I miss about the Blue Angel is its clean tone though. You could really get a lot of different types of clean through that amp. Even humbuckers could get pretty chimey sounding. With the Mazerati you're only getting one type of clean tone really, although I like it. It seems like I read this a lot, but I agree that it is somewhat (although not entirely) Vox-like in it's cleans. Maybe Vox meets hi-watt. Hard to explain.
Anyway, my two cents as a rock player and former Blue Angel owner. Those cleans were nice... but the Mazerati has made me forget about the BA entirely. I always considered the BA a responsive amp to your picking.... but it's not even close to the Mazerati in this category.
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steze
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Post by steze on Jan 26, 2009 19:33:45 GMT -7
I sold my Blue Angel for the specific purpose of financing a Mazerati purchase.Anyway, my two cents as a rock player and former Blue Angel owner. Those cleans were nice... but the Mazerati has made me forget about the BA entirely. I always considered the BA a responsive amp to your picking.... but it's not even close to the Mazerati in this category. Thanks for the comments about the Blue Angel and the Mazerati. I do like the Blue Angel, it has some good sounds and a great reverb, but it would probably be the amp that would have to go if I decide to go with the Mazerati, so it's interesting to hear from someone who made the same switch.
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Post by bluzsteel on Jan 27, 2009 5:58:42 GMT -7
I have one of the later transition models 2005 .Im not sure I would call it a country amp . although it was designed to replace Brad Paisley's old Vox AC-30 which we all know gets a lot of different tones from classic rock to blues ,jazz and country. true ...not a high gain amp but I will tell you it can get pretty hairy and real loud. lots depend on the speaker choice. if you want to hear mine go to You tube and search Dave Millsap. all the videos are with the Mazerati
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Post by edoetsch on Jan 27, 2009 6:44:18 GMT -7
I think we might be making this more complicated than necessary....
Try the amp and if you like it, buy it!
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Post by foxx on Jan 27, 2009 7:06:38 GMT -7
My 04 Mazerati is great with pedals, and without. Nice rock amp with OD's in front. Great cleans if you just plug in.
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Post by brad737 on Jan 27, 2009 8:17:31 GMT -7
I don't think you can go wrong with either version. I've only played the later version, and it was very cool. And how could a double-powered Carmen Ghia sound bad? It couldn't..it would sound great, just a little more clean headroom than a Ghia. What kind of speaker does the Mazerati have? If they've had that 112 combo in stock for over a year, they probably really need to sell it. If it's in decent shape with a decent speaker, I'd offer them $750, and come up to $800. Just point blank ask them how many more years they're going to keep it in stock before they really want to sell it.
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steze
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Post by steze on Jan 27, 2009 11:46:07 GMT -7
I don't think you can go wrong with either version. I've only played the later version, and it was very cool. And how could a double-powered Carmen Ghia sound bad? It couldn't..it would sound great, just a little more clean headroom than a Ghia. What kind of speaker does the Mazerati have? If they've had that 112 combo in stock for over a year, they probably really need to sell it. If it's in decent shape with a decent speaker, I'd offer them $750, and come up to $800. Just point blank ask them how many more years they're going to keep it in stock before they really want to sell it. I'm pretty sure it's got the stock Celestion in it, a Vintage 30 I believe. The guy who has it on consignment supposedly doesn't really need the money and I'm pretty sure it's been there for almost 2 years now. He was asking $1300 for most of that time, went down to $1100 about six months ago and now went down to $999 very recently. I plan to stop in and try it. If I'm blown away by it, then I'll consider moving something else to get it.
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Post by tweedpro on Feb 3, 2009 22:03:32 GMT -7
I still have the blond Mazerati. I changed my mind. I really like the older combo that's there. I prefer the open back and it has a 16 ohm celestion instead of an 8 ohm. I personally think that the combo is a good deal. I just have been wanting to get a couple of different heads to go with different cabs instead of having combos otherwise I probably would have bought it and got rid of the blond head/cab.
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Post by cementedman on Feb 5, 2009 18:50:13 GMT -7
i owned a blond year 2000 model. you could dime it and get a real nice david gilmour tone, not that i like him, but it has a hi-watt tone at a reasonable volume. yes, dirty. if that is your thing, they are great amps. i regret selling mine.. i would pay 1000 grand for it( a combo, not head only) in a new york minute.
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Post by brad737 on Feb 7, 2009 9:11:08 GMT -7
Let's see...1000 grand is 1000 x 1000, or One Meee-lion dollars! Sold! ;D
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Post by Don on Feb 8, 2009 19:29:05 GMT -7
There's a store that's selling a 1x12 combo Mazerati for $999. I'm kind of interested in this amp, but haven't plugged into it yet. I was told that several people came in to look at it, looked at the back and said "no thanks, it's a series one." What does that mean? I've never heard the term "Series One" Mazerati before, but I'm sure that term is being applied to the first generation of Mazeratis that were built. The first generation was essentially a "higher powered Carmen Ghia". In 2003, the transformer was upgraded by a factor of three. This increased the bandwidth of the amp, firmed up the low-end response, and gave the amp a perfect string to string balance which totally opened up the tone of the amp. The global negative feedback was increased for a touch more clean headroom. The Mazerati uses true Global Feedback, which is injected into the first preamp tube. Finally, the power supply filtering was increased to eliminate any hint of Ghost Notes, and to increase the dynamic response. Yes, this is the technical description of the 2nd generation Mazerati. But if you can, listen to each one and let your ears decide which one sounds better to you, and which one is more suitable to your style of music and playing.
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Post by deaconblues on Feb 23, 2009 10:29:09 GMT -7
I have GAS for both versions of the Mazerati. A "version one" head would be my first choice, but "version two" could work very nicely, as well.
I have owned a Blue Angel (head w/4x10 cabinet) and really liked that amp. Probably the only Mesa amp I do like. I'd own one again. I liked the "progressive linkage" idea, and running either of the two sets of tubes on their own. I always considered it Blackface Fender Deluxe meets Vox/Brit El 84 flavors. Versatile amp.
I played an early Mazerati 1x12 combo in a store for a few minutes several years ago. I knew then that I liked the sound of the amp, but the 1x12 combo weighed more than I wanted to handle. I've been on the lookout for a "version one" head ever since. Though, I've never been in quite the right place financially when one comes up for sale.
What's a decent price for a Mazerati head these days, and is there much difference in price between the two versions?
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Post by JesusLovesGreatTone on Mar 23, 2009 9:42:36 GMT -7
Well I just picked up a 2003 15th Anniversary Mazerati head. Is this the last year of the "series one" or the first year of the "series two"
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Post by Don on Sept 14, 2009 7:42:25 GMT -7
2003 was the first year of the introduction of the 2nd generation Mazerati. But keep in mind, there was a crossover point when the 1st gen models stopped and the 2nd gen models began. This wasn't necessarily done on January 1st of 2003. In fact, the 2nd gen model first showed up on the Dr Z website on December of 2002.
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Post by Tom the Guitar Guy on Sept 19, 2009 8:28:29 GMT -7
2003 was the first year of the introduction of the 2nd generation Mazerati. But keep in mind, there was a crossover point when the 1st gen models stopped and the 2nd gen models began. This wasn't necessarily done on January 1st of 2003. In fact, the 2nd gen model first showed up on the Dr Z website on December of 2002. And the first 2nd Generation was built for Brad Paisley from his 1st Generation one on 9/11/01 - according to the good Dr. himself. And it seems that the Doc went ahead and just recently rebuilt Brad a "new" 1st Generation Mazerati (such a lucky guy!) If anything, the Mazerati GT would be a Version 3 (3rd Generation).
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Post by John on Sept 26, 2009 9:39:00 GMT -7
I would love to A/B a Version 1 Mazerati against a Stangray.
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Post by Don on Sept 27, 2009 6:34:14 GMT -7
2003 was the first year of the introduction of the 2nd generation Mazerati. But keep in mind, there was a crossover point when the 1st gen models stopped and the 2nd gen models began. This wasn't necessarily done on January 1st of 2003. In fact, the 2nd gen model first showed up on the Dr Z website on December of 2002. And the first 2nd Generation was built for Brad Paisley from his 1st Generation one on 9/11/01 - according to the good Dr. himself. And it seems that the Doc went ahead and just recently rebuilt Brad a "new" 1st Generation Mazerati (such a lucky guy!) If anything, the Mazerati GT would be a Version 3 (3rd Generation).Ah, not really Tom. You can't consider the GT a 3rd generation Mazerati. The GT and the Mazerati series are not even close to being the same amp. I guess the name is a misnomer.
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Post by Tom the Guitar Guy on Sept 30, 2009 9:24:59 GMT -7
And the first 2nd Generation was built for Brad Paisley from his 1st Generation one on 9/11/01 - according to the good Dr. himself. And it seems that the Doc went ahead and just recently rebuilt Brad a "new" 1st Generation Mazerati (such a lucky guy!) If anything, the Mazerati GT would be a Version 3 (3rd Generation).Ah, not really Tom. You can't consider the GT a 3rd generation Mazerati. The GT and the Mazerati series are not even close to being the same amp. I guess the name is a misnomer. I stand corrected, sir! ;D ;D ;D ;D
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