Diezel VH4 vs VH4S Opinions?

[sean106ESP]

Hi Guys I love my VH4. I use it with a boogie 4x12 and run a retrosonic chorus in channel 1 for cleans, delay thru the FX loop of channel 4 and a tuner also through fx loop in channel 1. I love how each channel has its on loop.

Anyway here is my delima. i am really lookig for a ture stereo choru tone. My retrosonic has a stereo out. So I was wondering if anyone with a VH4S can chime in on how they over all like the amp and utilize the amp. I admit some posted they dont sound as good as the VH4 for dirty tones, but wanted some opions or clips of you all that actually have one.

Here is my gear and amp set up:
All is there accept I sold the eclipse, the viper is on EBAY and I just got 2 ESP JH-3's and a Purple/Pink Alexi sig

http://seanmckenna.server101.com/2007-Gear.htm

Thanks everybody!

 

[Sixstring]

Sean,

Hers my .02 ... For obvious reasons the VH4 is going to have more head room especially in the clean CH if your running EL34's, but if your wanting to go stereo, for simplistic reasons the VH4s is the perfect choice. But in all honesty if you don't have 2 cabs you can somewhat separate you won't hear much difference. If you play it through a stereo 412 there is just not enough speaker separation for the sound field to develop. It may sound good close in and will sound better than a mono head with an effect but further out it will just sound like a mono head with an effect through it. I have a VHT 212 fat bottom that I modded for stereo opperation and I didn't like it very much. I use 2 212 Boogie recto cabs for small giggs and put the cabs 3 to 4 feet apart and it sounds huge. I don't run any of my effects in stereo including chorus. I run wet/dry this way only 50% of my tone is altered by an effect in the loop. But if you want a wild ping pong delay or some Eventide effect that totaly takes over your sound then you don't have much choice but to run in stereo, Just run your effects in the parallel loop's, which I have done and it sounds fine. I can't think of anything else that would be of any interest but I'm sure that others will chime in with somthing I didn't mention. In all Peter has done an outstanding job of designing these amps IMO and has thought just about everything that you would ever need as a guitar player as far as amplifiers go.

 

[sean106ESP]

Hey thanks for the reply

Yeah if I was going to sell the VH4 to get a VH4S I would get a second 4x12 to get that stereo tone I am looking for. My concern is just, does the VH4S have the same exact bite on channel 3 and 4 of the VH4? I really love the OD on those channels and dont want to sacrifice my dirty tone just to have a stereo feature.

Really want I want to avoid is having to get a Roland JC120 (which is the tone I going for) and to AB them. I would to just have simply the head 2 cabs and the midi board. Thanks again!

 

[Sixstring]

No Problem ....

CH wise I belive the VH4 and the VH4s CH's 1-4 are identical but with half the power the VH4s will have power amp saturation a tad earlyer depending on where the master is set, which may be a good thing but again your clean will suffer somewhat. You could change out tubes and go for a 6L6, good clean and brakup or even KT88's but forget about early tube saturation plus the 88's tend to be a litle on the sterile side but headroom for days and that's good news for the clean . With the Roland 120 and it's solid state power sections I dought you will ever get that exact clean but it might be close with the above mentioned tubes and it's definatly going to be a lot warmer.

Sixstring

 

[sean106ESP]

Thanks again man, so mine came with EL34's I take it? I never looked back there Also does the amp need to be biased to swap out for 6L6's? So I guess the gist of it all is that with 6L6's I may getter a closer clean tone with my retro sonic pedal in the FX loop, and my dirties would change dramatically? I am home player so I dont blast it that loud anyway.

 

[sean106ESP]

Also here is a sound clip of what she sounds like. I use a audix I5 into a Lexicon Lambda into my PC useing Cubase LE. it is just a quick sample of one my songs. The clean chorus IMO does sound slammin, but as you can tell I am hetfield fan boy and just love the clean live tone Hetfields gets with his Roland. I just dont want to have another amp and A/B switches etc. I hate pedals and like just having the pedals in each channel and use my GC to control my pacthes. Have a listen

http://seanydiesel.com/Lambda/cleantest-again2.mp3

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[Sixstring]

Sean,
I think you have Hetfields clean spot on. Now as far as the tubes that you have in your head now I don't know if they came with EL34's or not, it's fairly easy to tell though just take a peek and if they are tall and somewhat skinny probably EL34's. I was using them as an example as most people like them for the harmonic content. If there are EL34's already loaded and you want to change to a 6l6 or somthing else then yes you will need to re-bias the amp. The 6l6 won't change your distortion drastically but they will improve your headroom somewhat and that is good for the clean, meanning it wont brakup as soon but I was refering to a VH4s head where you have 2 50 watt power sections (EL 34's).
Your VH4 even if it has EL34's (100 Watts) in it now will have a tad more head room than the VH4s head with the same tubes. So if you move to a VH4s head I would think about loading 6L6 or KT 88's in the power section if you are more concerned with the clean. Just keep in mind that the 88's will make the amp feel stiff and unforgiving and most people don't like that at all. You can also play around with the Preamp tubes as well and it's a lot cheeper. I belive their is a thread on the board about loading 6L6 tubes in a VH4. All in all I would say it sounds pritty close and if all your looking to do is go stereo for the big chorus sound then the VH4s with 6l6 tubes is your answer.

Sixstring

 

[sean106ESP]

hey thanks man again, you have been very helpful. Yeah she has EL34's. I am going to look into the VH4S down the road. right now financially I gotta wait. But I was hoping people posted some reviews, vids. or clips of their VHs's

I have a bunch of vids on youtube I made for the ESP board to test out my new guitars and I used the VH4 on all of them. look up the user sean106alcon

Thanks again!

 

[Sixstring]

Not a problem,
I looked for the same thing when I was in the market a few months back, I found your vid's the only one I found for a VH4s was this guy www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1Zb7t1IxzU. but it's nothing that really tours the amp it's just him playing.
And forget about going some place to demo because no one has one in stock so that's out of the question. I haven't had a chance to do any vid's but I have plans to I just need to get around to it. As far as reviews have you looked at Harmony Central ...? I think their are 26 that have reviewed it and all are pritty high marks I think 9.9 for sound and over all a 9.6.

 

[sean106ESP]

wow that is pretty good review wise. Yeah so I will see down the road when I have more money, I may sell this one and get the VH4s and a second cab for that true stereo thick sound. The retrosonic has two outputs one for mono amps and one for stereo amps. So that should work great.

I may hit you hit for some help setting it up as I am a novice at amps. I just like to plug in and play. I spend more of my time searching for different guitars then a ton of amps. I know others have like 4 heads and multiple cabs, but I found my true tone home and that is the VH4, so if the VH4S is the VH4 but stereo and can give me JC120 thick Hetfield chorus (fanboy again ) then I will be finally totally content. I love the dirties on channel 3 and 4 so no issues there, just looking for the stereo sweet chorus tone and not have to have two amp heads to A/b

Thanks again man!

 

[Sixstring]

Sean,
Their is one last option you might want to look at and that's to get a Peavey classic 50/50 power amp and use it for your other side. They are relatively inexpensive and give you 100 watts bridged EL 84 tube tone. Ebay around $275 - $375 range. I have one for my wet side on my Lee Jackson XLS 1000 and it works great.