Post by Christopher on Jan 10, 2015 11:13:37 GMT -7
My band had a bar gig last night and I took the MAZ 8 I have on the BST board with me to give her one last run before she sells (hopefully).
I want to say without a doubt this is a great amplifier. It has ample grind and rock inside. My band is a 5 pc with two guitars, bass, keys/acoustic and drums w pads/triggers. We only carried one of the two QSC 1/15 mains last night b/c the room is small. Mic'd up the 8 sounded good. I had earplugs in b/c the single main was flying behind me. The 12H30 I put in the 8 sounded really great and had a lot more beef than the Blue I took out.
The show went well but I had a hard time hearing the amp all night, even standing in front of the amp. The master was a 3 o'clock the whole night and I started with one click of BL on in case there were noise complaints from the bar. There was no "turn down" issue from them but everyone in the band said they needed to hear more of me. I took off the BL completely but I didn't want to bring my amp up in the mix too much b/c I figured being in front of the lone main with my amp behind me I was setting up a feedback scenario. I had the amp dialed in as clean as it could get. My nano had an EP, SL and polytune. I used them occasionally although the amp break up was more tasty to my ears than the stomps. Several times I used the EQ bypass for lead tones with great results. The amp sang when dialed up like that and the maple neck strat I played had some moments of shock and awe.
So now you're probably thinking- he's gonna keep it. Nope. I liked it and enjoyed playing it but like another class A amp I used to own I found myself wanting more headroom, clarity and most of all presence. The amp has a great break up and lead tones. The rhythm parts were very Stax sounding to me but since we don't have in ears and our drummer thinks his digital sounds need to be booming at all times I can not in good conscience keep this amp as a home studio practice tool. I wouldn't have had these issues with my Z28. I'm glad I got to play this in a full band setting and if I had millions of bucks to just throw around I'd hang on to this amp for the fun factor. You don't need pedals with it just some taste and style. However, I made a resolution to tidy things up financially this year and moving this amp will help in that goal.
I want to say without a doubt this is a great amplifier. It has ample grind and rock inside. My band is a 5 pc with two guitars, bass, keys/acoustic and drums w pads/triggers. We only carried one of the two QSC 1/15 mains last night b/c the room is small. Mic'd up the 8 sounded good. I had earplugs in b/c the single main was flying behind me. The 12H30 I put in the 8 sounded really great and had a lot more beef than the Blue I took out.
The show went well but I had a hard time hearing the amp all night, even standing in front of the amp. The master was a 3 o'clock the whole night and I started with one click of BL on in case there were noise complaints from the bar. There was no "turn down" issue from them but everyone in the band said they needed to hear more of me. I took off the BL completely but I didn't want to bring my amp up in the mix too much b/c I figured being in front of the lone main with my amp behind me I was setting up a feedback scenario. I had the amp dialed in as clean as it could get. My nano had an EP, SL and polytune. I used them occasionally although the amp break up was more tasty to my ears than the stomps. Several times I used the EQ bypass for lead tones with great results. The amp sang when dialed up like that and the maple neck strat I played had some moments of shock and awe.
So now you're probably thinking- he's gonna keep it. Nope. I liked it and enjoyed playing it but like another class A amp I used to own I found myself wanting more headroom, clarity and most of all presence. The amp has a great break up and lead tones. The rhythm parts were very Stax sounding to me but since we don't have in ears and our drummer thinks his digital sounds need to be booming at all times I can not in good conscience keep this amp as a home studio practice tool. I wouldn't have had these issues with my Z28. I'm glad I got to play this in a full band setting and if I had millions of bucks to just throw around I'd hang on to this amp for the fun factor. You don't need pedals with it just some taste and style. However, I made a resolution to tidy things up financially this year and moving this amp will help in that goal.