Post by gotmojo on Oct 21, 2010 10:48:50 GMT -7
At the risk of increasing the addiction withdrawal symptoms of those still awaiting arrival of their own Z Wrecks, I thought I'd put down some 1st impressions. Sorry. For those not overcome with withdrawal symptoms I only hope it to be fun reading, certainly not a rub it in your face thang. If you are extremely emotional about your gear, don't read this.
1st off, I still sound like a sucky guitar player, but a sucky player with good tone. It's a special amp, but so are the Remedy and Stang Ray, and so is whatever your favorite Z amp is.
This amp can do it all. I can gig with it and cover every type of tune from clean to dirty except maybe not metal, with which I have no experience. But for Twang and classic rock I'll be happy with this amp. And as we've all read, clean to nazzy, it's there. Can't remember who said it here in the forum (please inform me so I can reference you, if I can remember!) but I love the concept of "the edge of hair, that's where I live". This amp does that in spades, and for me, I live just over the edge of hair, this amp does that in spades too, and you get it to clean up with your guitar's volume knob with ease. The tone and the volume knobs are quite interactive and are quite handy at getting some variable tones. If you find the tone you like and then turn up the volume a bit, you'll likely have to adjust the tone knobs a skosh, I'm finding volume increase requires bass decrease. Also, as in the Galaxie, if you dime the bass knob, there is a significant cut in mids, and you can play with this by gingerly adding mids back in by dialing the bass back a bit - if 5 oclock is dimed bass, then the mids start to return at about 4 o'clock. Up in this range of bass setting is where I can get the Wreck to sound most like the Stang Ray. Also the treble control affects the mids and at about 1 o'clock turning up treble starts to cut mids a bit. So fine treble adjustments between 1 and 3 o'clock can be used to tweak your mids to just where you like 'em. I found this mids finding technique to be the key to finding my sweet spot. The cut knob is subtle from 11 o'clock to 5 o'clock, but can be used to take the edge off the high strings a bit, below 11 o'clock takes a lot off. Need more experience with this. Same with the comfort and speed switch - there's something happening there but I was futzin' wif da tone knobs too much to pay it much mind thus far.
Did all of this on my old parts Tele and I A-B'ed it with my Stang Ray and Remedy. Plugged in a '59 RI LP with Lollar pickups: best sounding humbucker amp I own, liked it better than the Remedy for the LP! Rick 12 string: best 12 string amp I've played through yet. And I thought I'd never see an amp sound better than the Stang Ray for 12 string!
As others have said, superb touch sensitivity, great sound at any volume. With it set at just over the edge of hair, I take solos at all different guitar volume levels, only nutting it to go for max, but backed off solos sound superb and so you can choose the nazz you want for any particular song without visiting the amp for adjustment, all choices can be had from your guitar volume - my personal favorite!!!!
I like it.
OK, I love it. Is a great pairing with the Remedy, which really gets a distinctly different sound. Between these two, I could probably let go of all my other gear and still be exceedingly happy and satisfied and never lack for a tone for the remaining years of life.
Ommmmm.
jj
no offense meant to anyone for anything said in this post.
1st off, I still sound like a sucky guitar player, but a sucky player with good tone. It's a special amp, but so are the Remedy and Stang Ray, and so is whatever your favorite Z amp is.
This amp can do it all. I can gig with it and cover every type of tune from clean to dirty except maybe not metal, with which I have no experience. But for Twang and classic rock I'll be happy with this amp. And as we've all read, clean to nazzy, it's there. Can't remember who said it here in the forum (please inform me so I can reference you, if I can remember!) but I love the concept of "the edge of hair, that's where I live". This amp does that in spades, and for me, I live just over the edge of hair, this amp does that in spades too, and you get it to clean up with your guitar's volume knob with ease. The tone and the volume knobs are quite interactive and are quite handy at getting some variable tones. If you find the tone you like and then turn up the volume a bit, you'll likely have to adjust the tone knobs a skosh, I'm finding volume increase requires bass decrease. Also, as in the Galaxie, if you dime the bass knob, there is a significant cut in mids, and you can play with this by gingerly adding mids back in by dialing the bass back a bit - if 5 oclock is dimed bass, then the mids start to return at about 4 o'clock. Up in this range of bass setting is where I can get the Wreck to sound most like the Stang Ray. Also the treble control affects the mids and at about 1 o'clock turning up treble starts to cut mids a bit. So fine treble adjustments between 1 and 3 o'clock can be used to tweak your mids to just where you like 'em. I found this mids finding technique to be the key to finding my sweet spot. The cut knob is subtle from 11 o'clock to 5 o'clock, but can be used to take the edge off the high strings a bit, below 11 o'clock takes a lot off. Need more experience with this. Same with the comfort and speed switch - there's something happening there but I was futzin' wif da tone knobs too much to pay it much mind thus far.
Did all of this on my old parts Tele and I A-B'ed it with my Stang Ray and Remedy. Plugged in a '59 RI LP with Lollar pickups: best sounding humbucker amp I own, liked it better than the Remedy for the LP! Rick 12 string: best 12 string amp I've played through yet. And I thought I'd never see an amp sound better than the Stang Ray for 12 string!
As others have said, superb touch sensitivity, great sound at any volume. With it set at just over the edge of hair, I take solos at all different guitar volume levels, only nutting it to go for max, but backed off solos sound superb and so you can choose the nazz you want for any particular song without visiting the amp for adjustment, all choices can be had from your guitar volume - my personal favorite!!!!
I like it.
OK, I love it. Is a great pairing with the Remedy, which really gets a distinctly different sound. Between these two, I could probably let go of all my other gear and still be exceedingly happy and satisfied and never lack for a tone for the remaining years of life.
Ommmmm.
jj
no offense meant to anyone for anything said in this post.