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Post by southmusic70 on Feb 24, 2014 11:51:36 GMT -7
I posed this question yesterday in the Maz 38 section, but haven't gotten any responses. There may be those among you who have an opinion on this and can help me.
You can see that I have 4 Z amps, including a Rati v2 '06 head that I bought off of BST within the last couple of years. I'm not really in the market for another Z, but I was in another city this weekend, and a guy had a 2012 Maz 38NR head that was priced pretty attractively. I will very likely head there at some point in the near future, take my Rati, a couple of guitars, one of my boards and a speaker cab or two and A/B the two heads, but before I do that, I wanted to ask those of you who know both of these amps what I should expect sort of a comparison/contrast of the two amps.
FYI, the guitars will be Guild BluesBird (S.D. 59ers) and a Fender Tele (S.D. HotTele neck, lil59er bridge) and the speakers will be Mesa 1x12 openback cab w/ C90 and a 2x12 cab with Vin30s. Effects will be Wampler Compressor, Boss BluesDriver w/Keeley mods, Fulltone Plimsoul, AnalogMan MiniChorus, EHX Small Stone phaser, MXR CarbonCopy delay, Malekko reverb and Keeley Katna boost (set clean); I leave a touch of compression and reverb on all of the time, and use everything else sparingly. It would be mainly for use in a 4 horns/three rhythm/singer band that I lead and do most of the writing for, sort of Tower of Power/Brecker Brothers/Blood, Sweat & Tears kind of thing.
Any help will be appreciated.
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Post by southmusic70 on Feb 26, 2014 9:19:03 GMT -7
Thanks, guys.
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Post by Jacques Belanger on Feb 26, 2014 18:40:04 GMT -7
Well, I've got a Rati 2x10 combo and LOVE it. I actually had the urge to maybe trade for a Maz 38 or 18, because they had "more knobs", but when I tried a Maz 38 AND a Maz 18 and was "surprisingly" disappointed. There is a "fullness" to the Mazerati that I have yet to hear in any others. The 38 was "shrill" in comparison.
so I've still got the Mazerati and have ZERO interest in a 38 anymore.
that's my experience.
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Post by southmusic70 on Feb 26, 2014 20:32:14 GMT -7
Thanks, Jacques.
I knew I could count on you to help me.
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Post by Jaguarguy (Mike) on Feb 27, 2014 18:40:26 GMT -7
Two very different amps here! Hard to compare them but here goes. To my ears, the Rati is cleaner and stays cleaner throughout the volume range. Kind of a one trick pony if you don't use pedals. You have to have it quite loud to get some hair on it! You need pedals to get it to really overdrive - luckily it takes pedals extremely well (as do most Zs). Fast and easy to dial in a tone I like - hey it's only two knobs:) . Doesn't seem as loud to me as MAZ 38.
Maz 38 is definitely more versatile without using pedals. To my ears the 38 sound seems more complex - seems to almost swirl around. Definitely takes more,time to dial in the sound you are looking for due to full EQ section, cut and the master volume. In addition hi/LO inputs add more complexity to the dialing in the amp. You can dial in overdrive at lower volumes. Good,cleans but not quite as jangly sounding as Rati. A lot more tones available from the 38. Also takes pedals very well.
let me know if you have any specific questions that I might be able to answer. Hope this helps a little!
p.s. I played through 1x12 G12 65
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Post by southmusic70 on Feb 27, 2014 20:34:13 GMT -7
Thanks.
You and Jacques saved me a trip.
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