Can someone tell me...

[Hey_bert_whtcha_doin_bert]

...exactly what the preamp volume does to the sound of the channel? In reference to pro and cons of having it high or low. I noticed it tighten up my sound a little and cleared it up a little bit too. While I know I should just trust my ears I wanna be sure how it works in relation to everything to be sure if I want to keep it that way or tweak it more. I want to know if what I'm hearing is from having the channel volume up higher or the amp just being louder in general, or a relationship to preamp tube gain to power tube gain (which I'm sure is what it is, but I don't get whats going on).

Answers ,

-Nick

 

[Hey_bert_whtcha_doin_bert]

I noticed it tighten up my sound a little and cleared it up a little bit too.

...being higher, sorry.

-Nick

P.S. Answers

 

[John Ewing]

I own a VH4 and a friend has a Herbert and on both we just turn the channel vols all the way up and forget about them. We then use the gain to get the tone we want. Although this doesn't work for any other amp, it seems to be the way to work the Diezels. It only took a normal time of tweeking to get the correct output volumns to match but as you said, when you turn the vols up, everything just seemed to get better so I went with it. For my sound I don't like the compression so much so with the channel vol up and the gain at lower settings it just seems to be...... just bad assier!
john

 

[Hey_bert_whtcha_doin_bert]

Wow, all the way up, really, I would think that would be hard on the pre tubes, would it be?

-Nick

 

[John Ewing]

Not at all. At least in my experience. I've had it a little over a year and rocked it hard and never had an issue with a preamp tube or anything negative at all. The louder I get it the better it sounds. The Herbert seems to react a little different but still the same thing applies. Especially channel three. Turn the vol up and the gain at about 10:00 or 11:00 and rock out. Very smooth, dark, lightly compressed, and powerful. When I first got my amp I treated it more like a regular amp and then I got aggressive with the knobs and things got really cool. I actually run the EQ wide open on channels 1 and 2. Sounds extreme I know but it really sounds great with the VH4. Like I said the EQing is different with the Herbert but I quess what I'm saying is that you know these amps are not like the run of the mill amps so think out of the box just like I'm assuming Peter did when he designed them.
john