Entire amp collection micd with 57 plus recto shootout

  • Thread starter Thread starter Bram576
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braintheory said:
Yeah the iic++ sounded like it could maybe be dialed in better. You had other clips where it sounded really good. I didn’t care as much for the 2 GZ’s, SK or UU in these clips. They came off bland and a little filtered vs others, which matches what I felt in person with them
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I’ll definitely redo those few amps make them a little more suitable. Got some work to do for sure! Just want to make it easier for people to make purchases like myself out there.
 
stealth
hell razor
certain portions of recto shootout
uber ultra
 
@Bram576

Dude, what an awesome project. Thanks so much for taking the time to compare all these amps. For me, I'm totally addicted to the zing of the Wizards so those sound best to me. Honorable Mentions go to Stealth Red and Uber Ultra, and since you mentioned it, I'm curious about a re-shoot of the IIC+.

All the amps sound good in their own way though.

Between the Wizards, the Hell Razor was slightly clearer but the boosted MTL was a bit smoother and had bigger lows so I almost prefer it which I was not expecting. Clips like this get me wondering off-the-wall stuff like "what if the Hell Razor was configured with a Contour control instead of Depth, and the Contour was turned down just enough to scoop some mids and tame just a hair of that extra sizzle on top. But would the lack of a Depth control kill the low end or would the Contour generate enough lows on its own?" and that kind of thing.
 
Bram576 said:
Well most of them. Buddy came over and we put a 57 to each one through my Mesa cab. A lot of fun. Recording trimmed down was about a half hour. My ears are ringing. I figured I’d post the raw audio for you guys to check. Also went down the 2 channel vs 3 channel recto rabbit hole while we were at it. I trimmed up that specific part going through various boosts and unboosted (where the difference stood out the most.

Switched back and forth with C standard tuned guitar and E standard.

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/mss8...test.wav?rlkey=3rimbbixt6zy9pplmfjcsz0am&dl=0

Herbert 0:00-1:07
Ground zero recto 1:07-2:00
Evh stealth 100 2:00-3:02
Mark IIc++ 3:08-5:44
Ground Zero MOAB 5:50-7:12
Skeleton Key 7:14-8:38
Mi Beta 8:38-10:15
Hell Razor 10:20-11:50
MTL 11:50-15:20 (this was my buddy’s favorite amp of the day) (13:32 initially 808c start the dirty tree here which I think isn’t a good choice for this, we wanted to compare though switch back to 808 at 14;06)
Recto shootout 3 channel vs 2 channel rev e we used 3 different boosts first 33, dirty tree, then Aessahaettr 15:21-23:57
23:57 Uber Ultra

Here’s the recto portion only here

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/im4q...tout.wav?rlkey=5qfvx6hc7uedew3gl1b71mcwt&dl=0

These are mono tracks. Not stereo so think about that before commenting something about that. There is no eq or processing here AT ALL.

Definitely some amps I’m still learning whereas I feel plugging into my recto I know exactly how I like it. I’ll add I think I finally figured out how to dial my MTL to where it’s my favorite in the wizard line.

Favorites today… tough one. Rectos, mtl
, MOAB probably. But so tough to decide. All are killer in their own ways.
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Mesa Mark wins.
 
MTL
Mi Beta
Certain Parts of Recto Shootout (can’t tell what’s dual/triple recto, boosted, etc????)
IIC++
Uber Ultra
Aessahaettr

Given the price differences in this list I’m throughly impressed with the Rectos and Uber ultra here. The Uber just was not as clean of a gain compared to the IIC++.

I didn’t care for any of the modded amps surprisingly. The only one that really stood out was the skeleton key with I think a boost.
 
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TheGreatGreen said:
@Bram576

Dude, what an awesome project. Thanks so much for taking the time to compare all these amps. For me, I'm totally addicted to the zing of the Wizards so those sound best to me. Honorable Mentions go to Stealth Red and Uber Ultra, and since you mentioned it, I'm curious about a re-shoot of the IIC+.

All the amps sound good in their own way though.

Between the Wizards, the Hell Razor was slightly clearer but the boosted MTL was a bit smoother and had bigger lows so I almost prefer it which I was not expecting. Clips like this get me wondering off-the-wall stuff like "what if the Hell Razor was configured with a Contour control instead of Depth, and the Contour was turned down just enough to scoop some mids and tame just a hair of that extra sizzle on top. But would the lack of a Depth control kill the low end or would the Contour generate enough lows on its own?" and that kind of thing.
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It was interesting, straight in I definitely prefer the hell razor over the mtl, not even close. But once the MTL was boosted things got interesting. Found myself gravitating toward it. The big low end with the clarity. Felt like just a regular 808 was the best boost for it, a TC style was too much. The hell razor I almost wish had the sweep control on it.

I really dig the stealth red man. Didn’t expect to like it as much as I did. I think my dislike on previous tones with it is everyone runs the mids so fuckin high, with v30s winds up just being too much for me. Scooped a little bit with the resonance cranked though holy fuck.
 
glpg80 said:
MTL
Mi Beta
Certain Parts of Recto Shootout (can’t tell what’s dual/triple recto, boosted, etc????)
IIC++
Uber Ultra
Aessahaettr

Given the price differences in this list I’m throughly impressed with the Rectos and Uber ultra here. The Uber just was not as clean of a gain compared to the IIC++.

I didn’t care for any of the modded amps surprisingly. The only one that really stood out was the skeleton key with I think a boost.
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The Ubers and rectos really hang with the best of them man. I maxed out the depth and density on the Uber, but truthfully I think it puts out even more lows than the old Ubers. Even though the manual says do that to match the old Uber. I’ll tone it back and retrack there.

The mono was straight in there.
 
Awesome shootout man! Thanks for taking the time to make this! Loving how the stealth records 🤘
 
Bram576 said:
It was interesting, straight in I definitely prefer the hell razor over the mtl, not even close. But once the MTL was boosted things got interesting. Found myself gravitating toward it. The big low end with the clarity. Felt like just a regular 808 was the best boost for it, a TC style was too much. The hell razor I almost wish had the sweep control on it.

I really dig the stealth red man. Didn’t expect to like it as much as I did. I think my dislike on previous tones with it is everyone runs the mids so fuckin high, with v30s winds up just being too much for me. Scooped a little bit with the resonance cranked though holy fuck.
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Yeah the Stealth is a great amp. Scooping the mids really is where it's at with those amps too. Everybody seems ashamed of scooping generally and a lot of the time they're right but 5150's are similar to Mesa Marks in that they're naturally so mid-heavy that dialing the mids back is just what it takes to get a balanced sound out of them. Even EVH himself dialed the mids on his 5150's down to like 2 or 3.

I'm with you about the Hell Razor too. To me it seems like almost the perfect super high gainer out of the box in that it gets closer than just about anything to what I personally would want to hear, but it just needs some way to tame the super zingy highs. The MCII MkII has those zingy highs too but the Contour control dials them back perfectly and balances it out. BUT if you were to order a HR that way, you'd lose the Depth knob. Not sure if the trade would be worth it.

BTW these tiny nitpicks could be solved in 2 seconds with a simple post-EQ, and I know you're making these demos to showcase the honest tones from these amps which is awesome. I'm just thinking out loud at this point.

At any rate I was thinking of putting an order in for a Hell Razor sometime soon but damn now I'm wondering if the MTL wouldn't get me closer to what I'm looking for, haha. Can't go wrong with either one though.
 
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TheGreatGreen said:
Yeah the Stealth is a great amp. Scooping the mids really is where it's at with those amps too. Everybody seems ashamed of scooping generally but 5150's are similar to Mesa Marks in that they're naturally so mid-heavy that dialing the mids back is just what it takes to get a balanced sound out of them. Even EVH himself dialed the mids on his down to like 2 or 3.

I'm with you about the Hell Razor too. To me it seems like almost the perfect super high gainer out of the box in that it gets closer than just about anything to what I personally would want to hear, but it just needs some way to tame the super zingy highs. The MCII MkII has those zingy highs too but the Contour control dials them back perfectly and balances it out. BUT if you were to order a HR that way, you'd lose the Depth knob. Not sure if the trade would be worth it.

BTW these tiny nitpicks could be solved in 2 seconds with a simple post-EQ, and I know you're making these demos to showcase the honest tones from these amps which is awesome. I'm just thinking out loud at this point.

At any rate I was thinking of putting an order in for a Hell Razor sometime soon but damn now I'm wondering if the MTL wouldn't get me closer to what I'm looking for, haha. Can't go wrong with either one though.
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I don’t find the highs as zingy really on mine, but it might partly be since mine is the KT88 version and to your post before, I can dial it quite scooped if I wanted to, but prefer not to. The MTL I had didn’t from what I remember have more lows, but maybe more low mids if that’s what you meant. The Hell Razor could be dialed in to have a lot more low mids with that middle gain knobs boosted and turned up a lot, but also usually prefer not to do that for what I like, but the flexibility to do so is there

For me it’s a much better amp than the MTL or MC I had and basically does what I wanted to them to do where they just didn’t go far enough. It’s like they gave it a nice steroid injection with the HR and we hear it’s lovely roid rage lol. It is though one of those amps that needs dialing in and can sound bad if not. I found some non-conventional settings lately that I’ve been loving. It’s one of my top 3 or 4 now with possibly even my favorite feel of what I’ve had because it has that rock solid feel like other wizards, but a lot more liquidy, yet also a lot tighter and faster in response. Plate voltage of 680 also when I measured. I will say the MC is imo better for classic rock or alternative rock styles with less gain, but otherwise I didn’t enjoy the MC or MTL I had as much
 
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braintheory said:
I don’t find the highs as zingy really on mine, but it might partly be since mine is the KT88 version and to your post before, I can dial it quite scooped if I wanted to, but prefer not to. The MTL I had didn’t from what I remember have more lows, but maybe more low mids if that’s what you meant. The Hell Razor could be dialed in to have a lot more low mids with that middle gain knobs boosted and turned up a lot, but also usually prefer not to do that for what I like, but the flexibility to do so is there

For me it’s a much better amp than the MTL or MC I had and basically does what I wanted to them to do where they just didn’t go far enough. It’s like they gave it a nice steroid injection with the HR and we hear it’s lovely roid rage lol. It is though one of those amps that needs dialing in and can sound bad if not. I found some non-conventional settings lately that I’ve been loving. It’s one of my top 3 or 4 now with possibly even my favorite feel of what I’ve had because it has that rock solid feel like other wizards, but a lot more liquidy, yet also a lot tighter and faster in response. Plate voltage of 680 also when I measured. I will say the MC is imo better for classic rock or alternative rock styles with less gain, but otherwise I didn’t enjoy the MC or MTL I had as much
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Yeah, to me I think the highs are fairly similar but just come out more on the hell razor because the MTL has more low mids naturally.

Where I have the MTL at this point I run the sweep a bit higher, then scoop it. Which I think works super well. The hell razor without the sweep scoops it just in a slightly different place. I guess all preference there…. Really liking the mtl now though and I was about to off it lol.

I’ll add the MTL boosted for me is the only way to go. Won’t do it straight in like the hell razor. Hell razor straight in is just so damn beastly.
 
SBlue said:
Man, thank you so much for taking the time to do that!
Shootouts like this one are always fun to listen to!
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It was a blast to do! Haven’t cranked amps at volume for that long of a period of time in a while.
 
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