What's that one amp you bought repeatedly trying to love it, but couldn't?

  • Thread starter Thread starter napalmdeath
  • Start date Start date
angelspade said:
I love my Diezels...But I could not get the D-Moll to respond the way I wanted it to.
Click to expand...
Diezels seem to be very picky with what you feed them. I use a baritone ESP E-II with EMG 81/60. I didn't have as much luck with the VH4 as some do. The bottom was always tubby and undefined for me. Boosting helped but took a lot of the character from it. Healthy volume helped a lot also but it wasn't always an option. The D-Moll is more of a dedicated metal amp, where as IMO the VH4 is a hard rock amp at it's core. I have a couple phone recordings I did with the D-Moll where it was tight, chunky, and percussive in a way I couldn't get with the VH4. Saying that, I've definitely watched videos where people absolutely rip on their VH4's, so it likely could have been my guitar and tuning. But the Herbert/D-Moll was specifically designed for low tuned metal according to a video I saw with the Peters, so that's probably it in a nutshell. Horses for courses.
 
Last edited:
braintheory said:
None yet for me. SLO’s are more on the loose side, but I find with the right tubes, speakers and pickups I can tighten it up more than what most may be used to. Of course the right boost too for tightness
Click to expand...
napalmdeath said:
I couldn't with an SD-1, and several others. And my Creamback 65's are pretty tight. I don't know.. There may be some boosts I overlooked. I wish I had my VFE Dragon when I owned one. That pedal gets super tight with the LPF & HPF filters.
Click to expand...

SLOs can get plenty tight with the correct boost and speakers, as Sam said.

I don't think the problem is your cabs either, those friedman 1x12s sound quite good.

Generally with SLOs (take with a grain of salt because i've only played the old ones) i got them plenty tight with variations of 808s and TC Pres. I'm sure the Dragon would do great - the thing about SLOs is though, they get harder to tighten up the higher you run the gain.
 
jasonP said:
Bought more than my fair share of 2 and 3 channel rectifiers and could not figure out how to get them to work for me. Wanted to in the worst way as a lot of my favorite guitarist/bands were using them. I wasn't into boosting many years ago, I think that would have helped a lot for the low end how loose/flubby they tend to sound but still find they just have an upper presence buzz that sounds a little anemic when listening back.
Click to expand...
Rectos would be in that camp for me, as well as Diezels in general.

My first recto I bought new in 1999, a Rev G. I think the Mesa sound and response in my head was more like a Mark series....and a Recto is the opposite of that! Lol! Now, at the time (and for quite a number of years after), I was of the opinion that you should not have to boost/eq a high end amp to make it do what you want.

When I was gigging, I boosted my Rec and ran an eq in the loop and it sounded pretty awesome....but I had that fixation on not loving the Core tone of the amp. Owned a few over the years, but nowdays I think I may appreciate the Rectos for what they are and the strengths they bring.

I have also owned a bunch of Diezels over the years and have kind of a love/hate with the VH4.
 
I'm in that Dual Recto club. I've bought and sold my Dual Rec Rev G 3 times now. Same amp. It's kindof funny, every time I've sold it was to someone I knew. Would hear it live and fall back in love with it. When whoever I sold it to would look at moving on I'd take it back. I really do think it's all about the volume and being in a mix. Stand alone in my basement I don't crank it all too often and it's just kindof meh. I'm not letting it go this time though.
 
VH4 and MTL are 2 amps I wanted to love but couldn't get them there for me.

Rectos were also falling short until I discovered volume... game changer
 
jasonP said:
Bought more than my fair share of 2 and 3 channel rectifiers and could not figure out how to get them to work for me. Wanted to in the worst way as a lot of my favorite guitarist/bands were using them. I wasn't into boosting many years ago, I think that would have helped a lot for the low end how loose/flubby they tend to sound but still find they just have an upper presence buzz that sounds a little anemic when listening back.
Click to expand...
Yep I did the same. I had a single and a dual and even bought one while driving thru Iowa on a trip. I was like "Slipknot shops here!" and grabbed a Rectifier and just never bonded with it.
 
Laney AOR. I’ve owned two, and had two more for extended visits. Close, but no cigar.
 
WizardAmpIphoneClip said:
Any tube Marshall. Jmp/Jcm/Dsl.
Floppy low end. Eq does nothing. (For fast, technical metal that is)
Click to expand...
giphy (1).gif
 
5153s. Any and all. I've had 2 50w 6L6s, and both Stealth big boys. Just can't do it. They sound good, lots of features but I just don't like the 'squish' or sag they have, for some reason. Like it's faked or contrived. Hard to explain.

But, the Iconic is a different story....I'll be grabbing an EL34 version at some point.
 
VHT UL and Marshall JVM 410. They were both so close, but just not there.
 
Soundstorm said:
This. I've heard few amps tighter and more thrash friendly than a boosted JCM800.
Click to expand...
Anything on an album is eq'd to death literally. Maybe good for cock rock or Peter Frampton standing right in front of it.
Marshall corrected that with the Valvestate. Those crush. Whoever invented that contour knob should get a hummer
 
WizardAmpIphoneClip said:
Anything on an album is eq'd to death literally. Maybe good for cock rock or Peter Frampton standing right in front of it.
Marshall corrected that with the Valvestate. Those crush. Whoever invented that contour knob should get a hummer
Click to expand...
Nah man I've been playing and attending metal shows for 30 years. I've heard more boosted JCM800s live than I care to count, not to mention having played and owned a few myself. It is *THE* 80's thrash tone if that's what someone is after.
 
For me it’s the Bogner Shiva amps including the 20th. I’ve owned my share too. 3 standard Shivas and two 20th Anniversary’s. I want to like them but there’s a weird mid thing going that I don’t get along with and the attack is too slow.
 
WizardAmpIphoneClip said:
Anything on an album is eq'd to death literally. Maybe good for cock rock or Peter Frampton standing right in front of it.
Marshall corrected that with the Valvestate. Those crush. Whoever invented that contour knob should get a hummer
Click to expand...
Sorry, but I think that is 100% not true.
 
Racerxrated said:
5153s. Any and all. I've had 2 50w 6L6s, and both Stealth big boys. Just can't do it. They sound good, lots of features but I just don't like the 'squish' or sag they have, for some reason. Like it's faked or contrived. Hard to explain.

But, the Iconic is a different story....I'll be grabbing an EL34 version at some point.
Click to expand...
That is an amp that I won't try multiple times, because for the key reason you stated, just will not work with my playing. At all.

They absolutely sound great. And I have a couple friends who rip on them. But that 'squish' is just an overcompressed smear to me and if you have any attack in your pick hand, I find the notes just smoosh and don't punch.
 
VHTStark said:
That is an amp that I won't try multiple times, because for the key reason you stated, just will not work with my playing. At all.

They absolutely sound great. And I have a couple friends who rip on them. But that 'squish' is just an overcompressed smear to me and if you have any attack in your pick hand, I find the notes just smoosh and don't punch.
Click to expand...
YES!! That is EXACTLY the way to describe it. Thank you....I've had such a hard time putting my finger on what it is that I just don't like about them, and yes they do sound really good...I still had to try the EL34 big boy just because..but the same result.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top