OK, so I played it both at home and at practice space levels! Damn this thing is LOUD!!!
First impressions: looks and feels great and damn HEAVY, peeking through the grille I see the same HUGE transformers the other Diezels have and all the other details are the same too. (Oh yea, no tuner out
) So just from looking at it alone you can tell this is definitely not a cheap amp but very, very solid quality and I am really wondering even more how they do it at that price when compared to their other amps...? Seriously, how? Anyone?
Now, how does it sound! For whatever a written description is worth here especially after such a short time, you should know my ears are pointing to the vh4 as my "north"; ran both through a bogner 2x12 with v30s. (don't tell papa...
)
Ch1: Cleans are more lively/chime-y/"glassy" so I guess much closer to Schmidt/Hagen, no icepicks but very punchy and very transparent with great overtones when you turn the gain up a little, you know just a bit of "glass" and subtle "purr"; the mid cut adds a nice touch here too! It really has a LOT of attack and punch and "clack" when you hit the strings!
Overall cleans are really great, very beautiful and different from the vh4, much less "hifi" and more like what most people would probably see as beautiful (if not "romantic") cleans!
Then you turn the gain up more and you get the absolutely nicest low-gain/overdrive sound, keeps the attack-punch with much more "purrrrr" just at the right frequencies! This is seriously good and of course you can go right back to clean with your guitar volume, I think I just made my low-gain overdrive pedals obsolete.
Ch2 is very Diezel-mega-crunch-y with a unique, new character. Goes from low gain to evil in-your-face-chugga and is quite aggressive there but with lots of "meat", a very healthy tone and palm-mutes just make the ground shake... as much lows as you could ever want or need; also fast and punchy and cleans up really well - as in summoning-the-demons-from-hell back to some crunch and overdrive and pretty much down to clean-ish Jazz if your guitar and pickups allow for that. I expect you can use this as your one-channel-silver-bullet!
You know how some amps get kinda ugly thin and fizzy when you turn your guitar volume down far enough? Not the dmoll! You really get good tones across the whole range of your guitar volume pot!!! Time to seriously think about investing in good pots with treble-bleed-caps!
Ch3 is thicker/meatier, much more mid-focused; you instantly hear this when switching from 2 to 3. I think this really makes sense since 2 and 3 share an EQ and the more mids will help you stand out more for solos for example, so yea, Ch3 is a lead channel but you can also play thick riffs and chords. Engaging the midcut here is also great and makes for an interesting option.
Most importantly first impression verdict: coming from the vh4, this is not a "lunchbox-vh4" but quite a different and new beast, Diezel through and through and feels more modern in tone but it also offers fantastic, gorgeous cleans and overdrive. Like Schmidt/Hagen cleans and "purrring" overdrive with all the mega-crunch and modern high-gain you could want and somewhat less harsh in-your-face Hagen-treble.
I would say overall it feels brighter with more "sizzle" and "purr" on top, the overall character is definitely audible in the Messe videos on youtube! Very honest and open and the eq on the dmoll is very sensitive, so this is definitely a versatile amp and you can do a lot with the eq, your guitar's tone and volume and your fingers/picks. Each individual channel really is very versatile, I don't think you will miss anything. Very "healthy" tones everywhere.
Overall the vh4 feels like more growl (lower-mids?) and dmoll is more aggressive, has comparatively more sizzle in your face but the good kind of "sizzle", it's not too much and not harsh. I guess that's where the "modern" comes from.
Playing the dmoll also feels different from the vh4; I would say the vh4 is much more controlled and analytical, the dmoll has more of the Herbert feeling, more "it plays itself", somewhere between the two.
OK let me wrap this wall of text up for you.
tl;dr: Look, these lines all sound like I am trying to sell you a used car or something... When it comes down to it, much like the Joker, I am a man of simple tastes and instead of gasoline it's Diezel on my list... I don't want 1 million knobs and silly switches on my amp, they make me feel stupid for not knowing when to use them since usually they all don't do much anyway. I want a few great channels that match each other well enough in volume without taking days to dial the damn thing in. I want simple, reliable loops without 5 volume pots per loop. Really, you can call me ignorant if you want, but I just want to plug in and have fun playing after a shitty day. I feed the amp good pickups and from there I want to be able to use the guitar's volume and tone and my fingers to do the rest... so I can focus on noodling anything from jazz and blues and rock to metal. The dmoll delivers that in a versatile, handy package and when comparing the EU prices to the competition in that range here, this really is a no-brainer. If you like the Diezel tone then do yourself a favor, get one! In the long run this is cheaper than upgrading 2 or 3 times and you will have a lot of fun playing it and I am sure you won't miss anything.
lol
