Post by F1sh on May 24, 2005 21:42:24 GMT -7
I'll start by saying, I suck at reviewing things.
Moving right along. I bought this amp basically because it was mint, almost new, and $200 less than buying a new one, I figured I couldn't lose, even if I had to resell. So i get it and take it to work. I work at a guitar custom/repair shop. there's an old marshall 900 cab as well as a newer duel rectifier 2x12. The amp didn't like the marshall 4x12 much, and didn't like the boogie much better. so far, the amps "ok" but I was thinking sell.
I bring it home, plug into my mid 80s yamaha pine 2x12 sealed cab with eminence legend v12s. Instant improvement. The head liked this cab alot. I'm still now sold on the amp, especially when I plug my pedal board in. Without adjusting any of my setting set for my 68 deluxe reverb or 68 gemini gv-22, it's caca, not to mention I havn't really got a "clean" sound I love yet.
So I read up a bit on what others have to say, and the bottom line is, don't pigeonhole the amp with the settings you use on your other amps. This was the best advice I could have got. I start playing with the controls ALOT. treble dimed, bass off, vol @ 9, vise versa, so on, so forth. Finally, I'm geting someplace and really starting to dig this monster.
So, next lesson, HEADROOM... this has LOTS of it. So, I start thinkin Dave Gilmour, since he likes the big Hiwatt boxes with all that headroom. With my other amps, I used thim more as boosts with a bit of grit, than actually OD/Distortion boxes. So I think about it, and with all this headroom, what do you do?!?! Thats right boys and girls, you turn up the gain. BOOM, this amp is starting to get on my good side, bigtime.
Quick FX rundown. Pedalworx custom compounder (mcsqueeze/mcboost in one box) TBP loop w/DOD octaplus in it, barber DDSS, EMMA Reezafratzitz, keeley mod TR-2, SIB Mr Echo, old MXR phase 45. So now i'm lovin the amp with my humbucker guitar, an epiphone dot studio, and my strats. My tele is still to be dialed in perfect, but it is sounding great. I know it can be better though. But the amp still has a bit of odd honkieness to it.
Next, tubes. I don't have any ef86 laying around, so I start by swapping the 12ax7. It comes stock with a sovtek 12ax7lps, which I believe is their best 12ax7. I swap in various new, semi used, and used old stock from RCA to Amperex, and so on. I settle on a GT 12ax7 to my suprise, just a standard run of the mill one. next, I have a brand new set of EH el34s layin here I bought for a marshall jcm900, thinking they would help(no hope for those amps). I pop those in, and there it was, done, tone tone tone. I think the GT EL34LS have a bit too much extra umph for what I like. The EH really smoothed it out with the GT 12ax7. I finally plugged it into my old peavey 4x12 with 85w celestion g12k-85s and the heavens opened up and all that nuts. God-like tone.
So now i'm very happy with it, It's a keeper unless I find a mazarati cheap.
Here's the key points list for this amp.
1. TWEAK TWEAK TWEAK!! the controls are on the front for a reason.
2. HEADROOM - make adjustments in pedals to compensate/fit the amp.
3. TUBES - everyone has different likes, tubes help make subtle changes.
4. CABINETS/SPEAKERS - try it through everything.
5. This pig is LOUD! get earplugs =D
That concludes my nutsty review of a great amp. Nice to know there are still some good things made here in this nutshole state!
edit: forgot to mention... this mofo has TONS of bottom. The tone controls are amazing.
Moving right along. I bought this amp basically because it was mint, almost new, and $200 less than buying a new one, I figured I couldn't lose, even if I had to resell. So i get it and take it to work. I work at a guitar custom/repair shop. there's an old marshall 900 cab as well as a newer duel rectifier 2x12. The amp didn't like the marshall 4x12 much, and didn't like the boogie much better. so far, the amps "ok" but I was thinking sell.
I bring it home, plug into my mid 80s yamaha pine 2x12 sealed cab with eminence legend v12s. Instant improvement. The head liked this cab alot. I'm still now sold on the amp, especially when I plug my pedal board in. Without adjusting any of my setting set for my 68 deluxe reverb or 68 gemini gv-22, it's caca, not to mention I havn't really got a "clean" sound I love yet.
So I read up a bit on what others have to say, and the bottom line is, don't pigeonhole the amp with the settings you use on your other amps. This was the best advice I could have got. I start playing with the controls ALOT. treble dimed, bass off, vol @ 9, vise versa, so on, so forth. Finally, I'm geting someplace and really starting to dig this monster.
So, next lesson, HEADROOM... this has LOTS of it. So, I start thinkin Dave Gilmour, since he likes the big Hiwatt boxes with all that headroom. With my other amps, I used thim more as boosts with a bit of grit, than actually OD/Distortion boxes. So I think about it, and with all this headroom, what do you do?!?! Thats right boys and girls, you turn up the gain. BOOM, this amp is starting to get on my good side, bigtime.
Quick FX rundown. Pedalworx custom compounder (mcsqueeze/mcboost in one box) TBP loop w/DOD octaplus in it, barber DDSS, EMMA Reezafratzitz, keeley mod TR-2, SIB Mr Echo, old MXR phase 45. So now i'm lovin the amp with my humbucker guitar, an epiphone dot studio, and my strats. My tele is still to be dialed in perfect, but it is sounding great. I know it can be better though. But the amp still has a bit of odd honkieness to it.
Next, tubes. I don't have any ef86 laying around, so I start by swapping the 12ax7. It comes stock with a sovtek 12ax7lps, which I believe is their best 12ax7. I swap in various new, semi used, and used old stock from RCA to Amperex, and so on. I settle on a GT 12ax7 to my suprise, just a standard run of the mill one. next, I have a brand new set of EH el34s layin here I bought for a marshall jcm900, thinking they would help(no hope for those amps). I pop those in, and there it was, done, tone tone tone. I think the GT EL34LS have a bit too much extra umph for what I like. The EH really smoothed it out with the GT 12ax7. I finally plugged it into my old peavey 4x12 with 85w celestion g12k-85s and the heavens opened up and all that nuts. God-like tone.
So now i'm very happy with it, It's a keeper unless I find a mazarati cheap.
Here's the key points list for this amp.
1. TWEAK TWEAK TWEAK!! the controls are on the front for a reason.
2. HEADROOM - make adjustments in pedals to compensate/fit the amp.
3. TUBES - everyone has different likes, tubes help make subtle changes.
4. CABINETS/SPEAKERS - try it through everything.
5. This pig is LOUD! get earplugs =D
That concludes my nutsty review of a great amp. Nice to know there are still some good things made here in this nutshole state!
edit: forgot to mention... this mofo has TONS of bottom. The tone controls are amazing.