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Post by klontart on Oct 8, 2019 10:30:32 GMT -7
This is my discovery and review of the Dr. Z Nova amp that I recently got. I’ll do it in parts over the next days/weeks as I get to know the amp, go for different sounds, and use it with different guitars. Feel free to interrupt, comment, ask questions, suggest things to try.
Background
Hate to do the bragging thing, but it helps to establish some background. I record my music in a home studio using a number of good amps and guitars. The amp models I’ve used so far are Vox AC15/AC30, Mesa TA30 and Mark V, Marshall 2525 and 1959HW, Friedman Runt and DS40, Bogner Telos, Jackson Atlantic 4.0, Supro Black Magick. Pretty sure I forgot one or two. My guitars currently are from Fender, Panucci, Gretsch, Nash, Rickenbacker and Rivolta. I’m recording the amp heads into a Two Notes Torpedo Studio and UA OX, into an Apogee Symphony AD.
So what did I get?
I got the Dr. Z Nova head yesterday. My first Dr. Z amp. It has two 5881 power tubes, black knobs, a rectifier tube, 32 Watts, and two ‘channels’. It’s based on a low-power tweed twin I understand. It’s definitely a tweed amp. It’s also my first tweed style amp.
EDIT: With help from Doctorice I have some extra info: The Nova is a significant update of the original Dr Z Galaxie amp, discontinued a some years ago. The changes are significant enough to give the amp a new name.
So how does it sound?
Brilliant and pretty vintage. This thing is twangy, ballsy, gooey, dirty, fuzzy and fat, and all at the same time if you want that. Very touch sensitive, dig in and go from clean(-ish) to aggressive.
I see it as a tweed deluxe on steroids. You get more clean headroom, a more powerful sound, and a strong bass that doesn’t flub out.
I love the tone of the ‘clean’ channel (more on that below), it’s so darn beautiful. Not the chimey blackface thing, but instead the tweedy twangy thing, but with the grace of a twin, while still chewy. A perfect balance.
I also adore the amount of filth this thing can produce. Dig in and you’re treated with an overdose of rich vintage distortion and fuzzy harmonics that adds instant drama/urgency to even the dullest of riffs. Then hold back on the pick attack and you’re back in subtle edgy clean land. So much fun.
What about the clean channel?
Well, sure, it does clean sounds too. But this channel alone is really a full vintage tweed amp. Keep the Volume low enough and you'll get various shades of lovely clean. Turn it up and you'll get this beautiful organic breakup. Push it even more and you'll land in fuzz territory. And that's without the Overdrive channel engaged.
With my '59 LP reissue on bridge pup, with bass and treble on the amp at noon, the sound starts to break up around 9 o'clock on Volume. With my '52 tele reissue breakup starts around 10 o'clock. With my JM Jag (with very low output pups) I get breakup around 11 o'clock. All of these guitars can push the Nova into serious (vintage) overdrive, no booster needed, and still without the Overdrive channel engaged.
[next post]
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Post by Chilly Gibbons (Todd T.) on Oct 8, 2019 11:08:54 GMT -7
This will be my next amp! Thanks for the great review!
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Post by Jaguarguy (Mike) on Oct 8, 2019 11:10:21 GMT -7
Thanks for your impressions - it is a very versatile amp, particularly if you don't have a whole stable of amps to draw on.
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Post by klontart on Oct 8, 2019 11:20:07 GMT -7
Thanks for your impressions - it is a very versatile amp, particularly if you don't have a whole stable of amps to draw on. It's definitely a very versatile amp, lots of sounds in there. The added Overdrive channel certainly helps, too. I never had all those amps together, thank god. I have 5 heads now, and it's already overwhelming.
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Post by premiumplus (Dave) on Oct 8, 2019 11:39:06 GMT -7
Very cool review, thanks for your insight. Unless I missed it, you don't say what cab or speaker you're pairing it with. Curious minds want to know! Mine (it's a combo) sounds great with the stock G12H30 but for fun I put a Vintage 30 in there last month. It sounds great too. I usually don't like the V30 that well but in this case that upper midrange honk works well with the Nova. And I'm toying with both 1x12 and 2x12 open back cabs loaded with greenbacks, but I've gotta watch it with the 1x12. Don't want to smoke my 20 watt greenie before it gets broken in! What are you running? Is it closed back or open?
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Post by klontart on Oct 8, 2019 12:09:45 GMT -7
Very cool review, thanks for your insight. Unless I missed it, you don't say what cab or speaker you're pairing it with. Curious minds want to know! Mine (it's a combo) sounds great with the stock G12H30 but for fun I put a Vintage 30 in there last month. It sounds great too. I usually don't like the V30 that well but in this case that upper midrange honk works well with the Nova. And I'm toying with both 1x12 and 2x12 open back cabs loaded with greenbacks, but I've gotta watch it with the 1x12. Don't want to smoke my 20 watt greenie before it gets broken in! What are you running? Is it closed back or open? Good questions! I'm no longer using traditional cabs and mics (it's just too damn loud) and switched to speaker attenuator/simulator gear. While I'm no fan of digital amps (can't stand them), the digital speaker simulators work just fine for me. Especially the Universal Audio OX box is a great product imo. The other one I use is the Two Notes Torpedo Studio, their flagship box, also pretty good, but I prefer the OX now. I've been using an emulated Marshall closed back 4x12 cab with 25 Watt greenbacks. Pretty full range for a guitar cab, impressive sturdy lows and bright highs. Works great for LP and Tele. This cab demonstrates the impressive and well defined lows of the Nova. For my Jazzmaster and Jag I prefer a somewhat less bright cabinet though and I'm mostly using an emulated VoxAC30 2x12 cab loaded with vintage silver alnico's. The added mid boost and cut-off highs work great and add a lot of character, but I'd like some more lows in those. I use a lot of V30 on the Torpedo, mostly combined with a greenback, especially on Marshall style amps. But haven't tried that yet on the Nova. Hope this helps, Robert
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Post by doctorice on Oct 8, 2019 13:03:46 GMT -7
Very nice "chapter 1" of your review, Robert. Thanks and looking forward to the next installment. What's your next Z amp gonna be?
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Post by klontart on Oct 8, 2019 13:24:57 GMT -7
Very nice "chapter 1" of your review, Robert. Thanks and looking forward to the next installment. What's your next Z amp gonna be? Heh, yeah, will I be able to resist?
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Post by ME on Oct 8, 2019 13:39:26 GMT -7
Not likely! I’m not a major offender, I only have 1... I lave owned a Route 66, Mini Z, Antidote, MAZ 8, and currently a Remedy. Lusting after a Nova... hard to pull the trigger as my current rig is outstanding. I can get pretty much any tone I want with the gear I have, maybe not surf 🏄♂️! ME
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Post by klontart on Oct 8, 2019 13:54:55 GMT -7
Not likely! I’m not a major offender, I only have 1... I lave owned a Route 66, Mini Z, Antidote, MAZ 8, and currently a Remedy. Lusting after a Nova... hard to pull the trigger as my current rig is outstanding. I can get pretty much any tone I want with the gear I have, maybe not surf 🏄♂️! ME Just checked out the Remedy, pretty cool. If you're happy with your current gear, don't ditch it! But you didn't want to hear that of course. Robert
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Post by Deleted on Oct 9, 2019 6:34:33 GMT -7
Very well done review Robert. Welcome to the forum!
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Post by klontart on Oct 9, 2019 9:53:31 GMT -7
In today’s post I’d like to have a look at each of the knobs, how they work. I can already tell you that the EQ knobs work differently from anything I know. Maybe this is standard for many Dr. Z amps, maybe this is typical for the tweed circuit the Nova was inspired by. As this is my first Z, and my first tweed, I have no idea. I like it though.
EDIT: With help from Doctorice I have some additional info: The tone stack and its behaviour is pretty much straight out of the Galaxie (the amp the Nova is based on), and it is unique to the Nova/Galaxie, you won't find this for example on the Maz series of amps.
Over the coming weeks I will probably revisit this topic, once I’ve learned special tricks and settings.
MASTER
The (post-phase inverter) Master volume works really, really well. (I think the best I’ve heard so far.) I have the amp connected to an OX speaker attenuator/simulator, so I can set the master to any level, compensate volume in the OX and compare. For my work with the amp so far I have it set at 3 o’clock, almost wide open. But it sounds equally great at noon, and even when set at 9 o’clock it sounds pretty darn well. In all these settings the power amp grit is right there.
I’m not completely sure, since we’re dealing with level differences that trick the ear, but maybe the lows and highs get boosted ever so slightly when turning the master down to 9 o’clock and below. Which happens to be exactly what you want when playing a cabinet at very low levels.
I haven’t tried the Nova on a cabinet, and can’t really tell how loud it is at low Master settings, but based on this you may not need an additional attenuator to get it to bedroom levels. If you’ve found out, please let us know.
PRESENCE
Now this one is not the regular Marshall type Presence knob I’m used to, where turning it up adds more aggression to the high frequencies that are normally controlled by the Treble knob. On the Nova (and possibly other Z amps), Presence controls it’s own super-high frequency band, one that sits above the Treble band. So atm I approach it as the High-Treble knob, and use it in tandem with the Treble knob to control the highs in two different bands.
Turning Presence way up definitely adds aggression to that super high band of frequencies, but so does Treble for its frequencies (and spoiler: so does Bass).
Presence, in order for it to work, needs Treble to be somewhat opened in my tests here. With Treble fully closed, Presence is gone too, but with Treble at around 9 o’clock or up, Presence starts to cut through.
While this approach of Presence is new to me, I like it and already use it. My Jag and JM single coils, for instance, are pretty bright and I can use Presence to tame that. I simply turn Presence all the way down, while my Treble knob stays put.
TREBLE
Okay, this one should be simple right? Treble controls the high frequencies. Turn it up far enough, even on a clean sound, and edgy overtones will show up in those frequencies, love that. Btw, Treble does not control the super high frequencies in my tests, that’s for Presence, discussed above.
Now something to note is that Treble also controls the high mids, significantly. That’s where the sound cuts through a mix, and where the more aggressive attack lives. Turning Treble down from about noon towards 7 o’clock will mellow your sound, and depending on the Bass knob setting, and the overal music you’re in, your sound may get lost in the mix, especially if it’s clean(-ish). The easy fix would be to turn up Treble to bring in more of the high mids (as well as highs of course). Alternatively you could lower the Bass and turn up the Volume.
Whatever you do, the Treble knob is way more than just ‘the highs’. It widely shapes your tone and allows for many subtle variations. I love tweaking it while doing clean-ish arpeggios high up on the tele to find the perfect tone with just the right amount of cut and 'air'.
BASS
Now the Bass knob imo is the star of the show, as it controls that massive monster lurking in the dungeon, waiting to get out. I’m playing the Nova through an emulated 4x12 Marshall cab with greenbacks and wow… there’s definitely no lack of bass in this amp.
The Bass knob is very, very powerful. Want more distortion? Turn up the bass. Want more compression? Turn up the bass! And of course you get bass too, heh.
Turning up the bass will eventually give you that lovely organic tweed style breakup in the lower frequencies, and if your turn it up even more it will get fuzzy. Separation is pretty good, where you can play the high strings edgy clean-ish while playing the bass strings will give you a fuzzy overdrive, if you want that. The trick is to go for just the right amount of bass to control the associated breakup, just the way you want it.
In a similar fashion, Bass will also control compression. The more bass, and the harder you dig in, the more compression, and you can use that creatively by hitting more or less of the lower strings with the amp dialed in just right. I get a kick out of this every time I try. It feels good.
Now if you don’t want the bass to breakup or fuzz out, or don’t want that obvious compression, no problem, simply turn the Bass knob down. All the way down you’ll get no bass at all, and you will probably want at least some of it to give your tone some flesh. Down there, you’ll get perfectly nice, well behaved tones with good headroom and steady behaviour. (Note though that this will always be a tube-rectified tweed.)
VOLUME
With Overdrive mode switched off, the Volume knob is identical to what you’d find on vintage non-master amps, controlling not only the output level (volume) but at some point also controlling distortion as the power amp gets more to chew on.
Now on most amps with a Master volume fitted, the amount of grit would be defined by both the Volume and Master knobs, but since the Nova has a post-phase inverter Master installed you can ignore that here. From a tone point of view, the master is effectively kinda wide open all the time.
So that leaves us with the Volume knob as the sole control for both volume and grit/gain (still assuming Overdrive mode is disabled). Using my Nash tele loaded with Lollar pups switched to bridge as a reference, with Treble and Bass around noon, obvious crunch shows up around 11 o’clock on the Volume knob. Below that there’s various shades of clean, above that all kinds of vintage breakup ranging from organic grit up to wild and filthy, just guitar straight in, no boost, no Overdrive mode.
For clean sounds I always look for the point on the Volume knob where the sound starts to crunch and dial back just enough. This is where the amp is already saturating and starts to compress, a great starting point for many clean/crunch sounds. Also remember that you can individually control crunch for the bass and (high-)treble range using the Bass, Treble and Presence knobs. If you want more clean headroom, simply dial Volume and/or EQ knobs back.
[previous post] [In the next post I will discuss the (pretty cool) Overdrive mode]
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Post by Chilly Gibbons (Todd T.) on Oct 9, 2019 13:06:46 GMT -7
Another nice review! Keep 'em coming!
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Post by premiumplus (Dave) on Oct 9, 2019 18:05:09 GMT -7
I love the interaction of the tone stack with the volume and OD controls. It's such a versatile beast.
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Post by klontart on Oct 14, 2019 10:23:45 GMT -7
Hey all, just a short update. 1. I love the amp. 2. I think it should come with a Tele included. 3. While I planned to work all weekend on the Overdrive feature, I friend came over who also loved the Nova, and we ended up trying out all sorts of guitars. Big surprise was the Rick 360 with their so called 'high gain' pups. While I guessed it could work, it turns out to be a killer combination. The Nova really accentuates that classic Rick sound in a very pleasant way. Later, Robert
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