Various gain settings Headfirst Alta

cragginshrd

cragginshrd

Active member
For all of us who are Not chugga drop tune guys who want to actually hear string separation and upper mid chime type riffs. TYhisnk early def lep Ac Dc ect.
I have owned almost every amp under the sun all providing ample amounts of gain, however when it comes to lower gain settings the gain either gets thin, or just sounds like crap.

Over the weekend I was using my R9 with the headfirst alta at the higher gain settings and began to experiment with turning the gain down and wow the TONE! string separation and Kerrang type harmonics jumping out! Last night went out with my Anderson Lil angel super strat and the higher gain was glorious too!

This vid compares a few gains settings all with the modern and Brite cap1 modes engaged. In the vid I mistakenly said 'Vintage' mode'

 
The Atla is damn near a perfect amp. I miss mine terribly. I'm planning on ordering another one in the next couple months. I was hoping to be able to order one with my first bonus check of the year. Unfortunately it was less than half of last year's even though I got the highest review rating my company gives.

It was the first amp I've owned since I started playing guitar in 1989 that I used every channel almost equally. Just so many settings to choose from. A lot of amps have a sweet spot. The Atla is just one big sweet spot
 
thegame said:
I still can't get over how beautiful that sunburst Tom Anderson is.
Click to expand...
Thanks!
All Anderson play and sound great but to my eyes 80% of them are way too over the top looking to me. I saw this 'chevron fire burst' and actually paid extra to get what I wanted as it is very unique.
 
napalmdeath said:
All these features and my OCD would drive me batshit crazy. Sounds phenomenal, but I like simple.
Click to expand...

Hehehe,
I’m with you ND! 😉👍

The Kemper nearly drove me to utter insanity. Too much control and tweakable features. For the first couple moths of owning the Kemper, My wife kept asking me ‘what’s wrong with you, you seem on edge’.
Give me an old Marshall with 6 knobs.

Alta … the features are very easy to use and different enough that you use them all.

Vintage / Modern / Clipping are your main features. Set up your second master to use for clipping feature, Done!
The two Bright features are more for sculpting the EQ further.
Then, You can program the loop in or out of the signal.
It’s pretty simple, and all are extremely effective and very usable.

I had it figured out and programmed in 10 minutes. Also, you can use ANY or ALL features without ever touching or tweaking the EQ’s on any of the channels.

It’s a very well thought out Monster of an amp.
 
SQUAREHEAD said:
Hehehe,
I’m with you ND! 😉👍

The Kemper nearly drove me to utter insanity. Too much control and tweakable features. For the first couple moths of owning the Kemper, My wife kept asking me ‘what’s wrong with you, you seem on edge’.
Give me an old Marshall with 6 knobs.

Alta … the features are very easy to use and different enough that you use them all.

Vintage / Modern / Clipping are your main features. Set up your second master to use for clipping feature, Done!
The two Bright features are more for sculpting the EQ further.
Then, You can program the loop in or out of the signal.
It’s pretty simple, and all are extremely effective and very usable.

I had it figured out and programmed in 10 minutes. Also, you can use ANY or ALL features without ever touching or tweaking the EQ’s on any of the channels.

It’s a very well thought out Monster of an amp.
Click to expand...
Agreed, seems like a lot of buttons but it is very simple, tap what you like and save via midi
My go to is:
Modern and brite 1 for ch 1 and 2 and loop activated always. I run the system volume on the rear at 3/4
and the ch volumes between 9 and 10 o'clock

Jason suggested keeping the ch volumes closer to noon to send a stronger signal to the loop/effects then adjust accordingly at rear MV but that was was too much power tube clean signal and a little bright for me.

For my ch 3 solo tone I only have the Modern mode activated as I found the Brite 1 or 2 was too bright fro the extra gain stage. Still messing with gain levels but one thing that is amazing is the spectrum of useable gain. Most high gain amps cannot be dialed back to sound good or the channels are voiced so differently it sounds really wacked to switch between them.

The Alta as you know Keith has solved all of this. :m17:
 
My favorite setting on the Alta is response on zero and presence turned up meaning more NFB just like the og plexi circuits, if you guys haven't tried that yet please do, it unlocks some doors.
 
Techdeth said:
I want one
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Remember who told ya first😉👍


cragginshrd said:
Agreed, seems like a lot of buttons but it is very simple, tap what you like and save via midi
My go to is:
Modern and brite 1 for ch 1 and 2 and loop activated always. I run the system volume on the rear at 3/4
and the ch volumes between 9 and 10 o'clock

Jason suggested keeping the ch volumes closer to noon to send a stronger signal to the loop/effects then adjust accordingly at rear MV but that was was too much power tube clean signal and a little bright for me.

For my ch 3 solo tone I only have the Modern mode activated as I found the Brite 1 or 2 was too bright fro the extra gain stage. Still messing with gain levels but one thing that is amazing is the spectrum of useable gain. Most high gain amps cannot be dialed back to sound good or the channels are voiced so differently it sounds really wacked to switch between them.

The Alta as you know Keith has solved all of this. :m17:
Click to expand...

Yep,
That’s the problem I had with the Wizards.
I could get one channel cooking, then when I switched to the other, I needed to re-EQ the amp.

Now, most people who own Wizards probably never use the ‘rhythm channel’, so I realize I’m the odd exception. 😉

(I’m not knocking Wizards as they’re really great amps, just not for my needs)

The Bogner Ecstasy is another battle to get both blue and red channels sound ‘equally good’.
To get blue sounding beefy results in a ton of low end when switching to the red channel.
Set up the red channel to sound good and the blue channel loses all the meat and sounds anemic…
The Alta solves it all.
 
SQUAREHEAD said:
Remember who told ya first😉👍




Yep,
That’s the problem I had with the Wizards.
I could get one channel cooking, then when I switched to the other, I needed to re-EQ the amp.

Now, most people who own Wizards probably never use the ‘rhythm channel’, so I realize I’m the odd exception. 😉

(I’m not knocking Wizards as they’re really great amps, just not for my needs)

The Bogner Ecstasy is another battle to get both blue and red channels sound ‘equally good’.
To get blue sounding beefy results in a ton of low end when switching to the red channel.
Set up the red channel to sound good and the blue channel loses all the meat and sounds anemic…
The Alta solves it all.
Click to expand...
The XTC 50 watt solves it too. They're very close on blue and red, with adjustability.
 
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