2018 VH4 CH3 vs CH4

[strungout82]

Hello
I have bought a 2018 VH4 head and have one question about ch3 and ch4. It apperears that on this particular VH4 the difference in gain between these distorted channels is quite small. There is obvious difference in voicing (ch3 is slightly darker and ch4 has slightly more mids) but when I set the gain the same on both channels the difference in gain is minimal. I retubed the preamp and poweramp but it behaves the same. It is normal for these new revisions of VH4? I had a 2008 VH4 few years ago and the ch4 had more gain in comparison to ch3 to the point it was absurd and unusable past 12 o'clock. Dont get me wrong, I love my new VH4. The voicing and clarity of the ch4 is amazing and I can get more than enough gain from it even without the boost (gain on 2 o'clock is max for me). But still I want to know if this is normal or the amp was modded (in a good way).

Petr

 

[Vin Diezel]

I think mine is from 15 or 16 and the 4th channel has insane gain. I only use it with single coils with gain on 12 o'clock.
Only Peter himself knows for sure.

 

[Philhouse]

I'd never gotten on with my Ch4 until I dialled back the gain knob to about 9~10 o'clock. It was always way too saturated and wasn't my cup of tea, as you said the amount of gain was absurd when the knobs were set similar to Ch3. Mine is a 2010 build.

I swapped out the ch4 tube to something that worked perfect for me (can't recall right now, could be a Yugo EI). I think it was only a basic cheap old one, point is, it helped a lot finding the right tube for that spot and I finally gelled with it. The rest of my channel 4 knobs are at about 3 o'clock and the Bass is wound back to 10 o'clock. I'm basically pulling the gain/saturation and bass way back and hitting the power section with a higher volume and treble/mid freq's

Perhaps the latest iteration VH4 Ch4 is tuned more like Hagen's Ch4? It's Ch4 is just great on all settings. I dunno.

Phil.

 

[Dark Helmet]

CH4 on my 2014 is very gainy CH3 on mine is nothing special. Makes me wonder if something there is some off value in there or something. Have talked to Peter Stapfer many times at NAMM and here and there on FB, just haven't been able to get anywhere with the results for CH3.