At what point does an amp become too tight and modern?

H

harddriver

Well-known member
I know this all depends on personal taste so I will illustrate my favorite tight but not too tight sound that I like. The original Ground Zero Detonator three gain stage was my favorite but he pulled the clips down of that amp since he went to four gain stage design.


 
When the pick attack is 5 x the amplitude of the lower supporting frequencies, making those transients sound like a sledgehammer against an empty metal garbage can
 
I’ve tried almost everything at this point (including some Ground Zero’s) besides a real Trainwreck and IME the issue has really never actually been that an amp is too tight or fast. I think many guys just are really awful at describing sound and confuse it with something else that bothers them. They usually really mean things like the amp feels too unforgiving, stiff, dry, brittle, sterile, clanky, things like that, but many of the tightest/fastest amps I’ve played don’t actually have those issues like say the Fryette stuff (which are far from actually being the tightest, fastest amps I’ve played). For example the Dino’s I’ve played are even tighter and faster than any of the 8 Hermansson’s I’ve tried, yet without clank, hollowness, harsh highs, sounding modern or other stuff like that some complain about. Similar story with my Mako Dorado and Wizard Hell Razor being some of the tighter, faster amps I’ve had/played. I think this is why guys love these amps so much. They’re super tight, fast and articulate without many of the trade offs many think these types of amps usually have
 
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Hmm. For me, the hellion is the tightest amp i have ever played. The voicing isnt the voicing for me personally or it is too tight for me. I dont know which. The moab is beautiful voicing and tight. The hellion could play clinical metal better than ss imo.
 
My 8 string into my unmodded 78 2203 booster with a ts9 is so tight it’s unusable
 
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