Initial thoughts on the Prophesy II

Holy crapolla is this thing DEEEEEP!

I was semi thinking it would be kinda like the Line 6 stuff I have used in the past..not even close

If I were going solely by the presets, I really only think the Rusty Cooley grouping is worth using. HATE the Mustaine presets, which was a bit of a letdown...and the vast majority of the other presets were things I would never use (though some of them were interesting)


Right now, I am running it in the effects loop of my JVM.


Using some of the Rusty presets as starting points, I then dove into the pre, post and global EQ sections...Holy Moly can you shape the tone with these 3 sections! I have to admit that I have a lot to learn about how to use them effectively, but in a very short time, I found that I could get the mid frequencies to be more Mesaish or more Marshallish by makign a few adjustments. Pretty cool. My mind was spinning when I discovered this.

You can set the point at which the mids, bass and treble are centered (pre, post and global!!!) then adjust from there. Now I just need to learn where Marshalls ans Mesa's are really centered and see what I can do from there.

Given the fact most of the presets are not of interest to me, I plan to start a library of presets based on my favorite tones (after I really get an understanding of how those multiple EQ levels work ...which is going to take some time).



No opinion on the effects yet other than there are quite a few of them to fiddle with. THe chorus and delay sound pretty damn good on the clean channel.

The flexibility of the EQ on this thing is mind boggling to me.


Oh yeah... when I get tones dialed in that I like, the overall tone of the unit is much warmer than I was expecting. Pretty damn nice.


Well... that was a lot to discover playing with it for all of 1/2 hour

Awesome!

what speakers are you running?

yeah man, i played one a few weeks ago at sam ash, and it sounded pretty hot.

i have a Rocktron chameleon, and the presets on it are pretty shitty too (as is the manual). They're units for guys who like to tweak, but you can get some decent sounds out of them. I think the voodoo valves and chameleons are steals for what they're going for these days, and i bet the prophesy is a great unit as well.

let us know how it turns out

In your original thread, that's why I said my only complaint is that it's almost too tweakable!

MUCH more complex than just about anything I've ever messed with. Good stuff though, I like the FX in it pretty well.

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Marshall Freak":dc699 said:

In your original thread, that's why I said my only complaint is that it's almost too tweakable!

MUCH more complex than just about anything I've ever messed with. Good stuff though, I like the FX in it pretty well.

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Amazing complex compared to anything I have ever messed with.


FWIW, I think the manual is pretty damn good.



Off to mess with it some more

There is alot to mess with alright
ive made 19 patch's so far with My Digitech 2101
some Patchs were great like the Eric Johnson Tone's in it

But Ive Pretty Much covered all My tone's From Scratch
19 finished 79 to go

I am absolutely blown away by this thing. Can't believe I have never tried one before.

The 4 levels of EQ (standard, pre, post and room) are INCREDIBLE. Running it through the effects loop of my JVM sounds killer. Can't wait to get a dedicated power amp to run with it.



Tell you how much I like it...I am more than seriously considering buying another one as back up, getting a Power amp and selling the JVM.


I have been chasing my tail trying to find a couple amps that would get me all the Mesa and Marshall type tones I like without owning half a music store.

Thought I might be able to get there with the Line 6 gear (which I like very much), but never really could. Right now I have 3 patches set up that hit high gain Marshall, high gain Mark series and I am almost there for a Randall/Dimeish tone. The parametric EQ in this thing is POWERFUL...and I am just learnign how to use it....but the fact that you can set the center range and tweak from there for lows, mids and treble allows virtually endless tweakability.

The clean is also right up there with the JC120 IMHO. I have read that some folks geet noise on clean, but even with EMG's, I am not getting anything. With just a bit of chorus and delay (which are super easy to tweak), it sounds awsome.

I have always been intimidated by lots of tweakability and midi in general, btu after reading the manual and flipping through the pages on the unit, it is pretty intuitive. Now I just need to learn how to hook up the midimate properly I thought you could just use the midi cable for power and connectivity, but it doesn't work unless I use the wallwart as well. Maybe I need a different cable or something


The only thing I don't like about it is it doesn't take my boost very well. The manual says you can set up the pre EQ as a boost, but I haven't had much luck with it yet. I need to understand the frequencies available a bit better.

i dont know about the prophesy
but i can run a low tube watt amp into the effects loop of my 2101
it sounds even better

But isnt that the same for all effects loops ?
i take it too the limit
and it has not let me Down yet
i even run the Peavey Rockmaster into it
and use the efects of the 2101

just a thought
maybe you or me should post this in a differnt thread
and see what everyone say's

and its Loud as Hell

rocktron has great customer service. my chameleon crapped out.. they were very responsive, fixed the unit in no time

Played this thing again last night and am still loving the hell out o fit.

Wish I had checked out a Prophesy I years ago!

Sounds like a VERY cool unit. I really don't need to start gassin for something else now.

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psychodave":903e4 said:

Does it sound compressed like the Line6 stuff? Is there a mid-range bias to it (again, line 6)? How about head room? How does it react to you turning down the guitars volume...does it go to shit or does it sould like you are running a tube head? I am really interested in hearing more.

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It sounds nothing like Line 6 gear IMHO. MUCH more tube like (and keep in mind, I am using the effects loop of the JVM at the moment....I am guessing it will sound even better when I get the VHT 2/50/2 I just bought).

Not compressed at all, though you can make it compress. The midrange can be adjusted to center wherever you want with the different levels of parametric EQ. To be honest, I am still learning this part, but I have learned enough to know I can approximate both Marshall and Mesa type midranges using the parametrics. I am not dead on yet, but I am 100% sure it is because of my inexperience, not the EQ's. I am basically guessing as I go along because I have never used anything like the 4 levels of EQ available in this unit.


Headroom is great HOWEVER, there are 2 key knobs. the input control and the output control. Set either too high and you will get a bit of fizz in the clean sounds. This confused me at first, but now makes perfect sense. these knobs can be used to compensate for how hot or not your pickups are. I am using EMG's, so if I have the input knob (how strong the signal IN to the unit is) set too high, I get noise.


I have not experimented with my guitar volume yet...need to do that, but given the tube like feel I am getting, my bet is it will be much better than line 6. Not positive yet though. I have read a few reviews saying it does this very well, but I never believe anything until I try it myself or someone whose opinion I trust has tried it


I have run this thing at whisper volume and gig volume and it sounds great at all levels. You do, of course need to adjust EQ depending on the volume.


The ADSR technology is another thing that blows me away. Stands for Attack/Delay/Sustain/Release. There is a whole lot of technical crap in the manual about what it is, but I can tell you what it does...It makes the whole shebang feel like a high quality tube amp.

everytime my band goes through charlotte, nc, we stop at the sam ash there, and invariably try out 5-10 guitars. almost every time i try them out on their prophesy rig, in their amp room. its easy to get a high gain amp setting right off. i thing i was using the brit high gain, or something like that, and it more than enough for deathmetal type tones. for heavier stuff, it sounded better than the marshall dsl, sitting next to it.
to be fair, i didn't actually try any mid gain, classic rock tones, or rolling back my volume knob to clean it up either.
i just though it was funny that, in a room full of amps, thats the one i always use.

That doesn't surprise me now that I have had a chance to get to know the unit.

I just bought a second as backup.


I am a definite convert.

These things kick all kinds of ass. I am having more fun playing this than I have any amp I have owned. When I find something I would like to change (as I ALWAYS do), I just change it.

Wow, you seem to REALLY dig this thing. I actually want one just from reading this thread! How much are they?

I thought about these before too....probably should. My tonal wants change so often, that I really need something that does Marshall and Mesa tones really well.....

Although, the Randall is still kicking my ass.

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mctallica1":945da said:

I just bought a second as backup

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J.B.":5626e said:

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I still don't trust computers and in essence that is what it is , even though it has a tube int eh preamp.


But it gets me what I want in a BIG way. I think you are gonna see me preaching the Prophesy II gospel for some time to come.


One of the great outcomes of me being an amp whore for so long is that I really know what I like and what I don't like. Even though I am just scratching the surface of what this thing can offer, I can see that it allows me to change tones to meet my wants on an ongoing basis.

I can't wait til I really know how to use this damn thing

With the Rocktron stuff I've owned, (Prophesy, Piranha, intellifex) in order to power the midimate pedal, you have to either plug a wall wart into the midi mate, or use a 7 pin midi cable, and plug the wall wart into the back of the preamp. If you look on the back by the midi in/out/through jacks, you'll see a power jack for a wall wart right beside them. That's for powering the midi pedal.