Holy Schnikes!!! NAD!!! Peters BodyHammer!!

[Oblivion DC]

I've been selling stuff and saving any money I could for a lotta months and I finally had enough to get James Peters to make me an amp! It took nine weeks from start to finish and James was great to deal with. I finally got a few days to put it through its paces and I am blown away. Even with the stock preamp tubes it was sounding better than any amp I'd ever had before, but after I popped in some nos glass I'd picked up last year my jaw hit the floor! I don't have a lot of time clocked on it just yet but I'm entirely pleased with the sound of the rhythm channel. I've barely scratched the surface of the clean channel (it's pretty nice), and have not touched the lead channel at all so there's still a whole lot to go over before I'm done.

James Peters! Well done sir! Thank you for your vision and excellent execution!!

EDIT: iPhone video clip-->

 

[Gsxrbusa]

Wait, James has a new design out??? WTF, nobody told me.


Show some pics bro.

 

[Gsxrbusa]

Oh, and HNAD!!!! That's awesome!

 

[Oblivion DC]

Wait, James has a new design out??? WTF, nobody told me.


Show some pics bro.

Pics tonight after I put my kids to bed! The wife is out of town and I'm in full Mr Mom mode!

 

[Gsxrbusa]

Wait, James has a new design out??? WTF, nobody told me.


Show some pics bro.

Pics tonight after I put my kids to bed! The wife is out of town and I'm in full Mr Mom mode!

This is killing me. What design is this based around? Or is it something completely new? Tell me more sir, tell me more!

 

[Oblivion DC]

Wait, James has a new design out??? WTF, nobody told me.


Show some pics bro.

Pics tonight after I put my kids to bed! The wife is out of town and I'm in full Mr Mom mode!

This is killing me. What design is this based around? Or is it something completely new? Tell me more sir, tell me more!

So I got the three channel design and let me paste in what James emailed to me regarding the sound:

<snip>people keep asking what my "most brutal" high gain amp is, and some of them have already heard the FSM. The FSM is quite good at that sort of thing, but I know I'm holding back if that's what's to be considered my "most brutal" high gain design. I've heard other amps which are clearly more aggressive, even if I didn't like their tone...but I knew I could probably go further into "brutal territory" to match that. I was initially hesitant to push my designs any further since I thought they would lose aspects which made them so unique and appealing. I decided to try modifying the channel architecture as well as circuitry in the poweramp and power supply to squeeze some more "brutality" out of it without "ruining the tone". If I took an approach which targeted various areas of the amp (not just the preamp or certain parts of it), I figured the balance could be kept similar for the aspects which people love in my amps. I wouldn't change any one thing too much, but instead the change would be an overall increase in gain and aggression in several aspects to smaller degrees for each aspect. This led me to the new modern high gain design which is called "Body Hammer" (someone on Rig Talk suggested the name, based on a Fear Factory song, since the design can do FF sounds quite well). The design is like a "more brutal FSM" in a general sense since the DNA sounds very similar to the FSM (including similar feel), but it is now what more people would expect from a design in this realm in terms of aggression. Turning the gain down, it can sound fairly close to what people expected from the FSM. Since no one was buying the FSM for its lowest gain sounds, I figure it's not a bad idea to replace the FSM with the Body Hammer.

 

[Gsxrbusa]

Wait, James has a new design out??? WTF, nobody told me.


Show some pics bro.

Pics tonight after I put my kids to bed! The wife is out of town and I'm in full Mr Mom mode!

This is killing me. What design is this based around? Or is it something completely new? Tell me more sir, tell me more!

So I got the three channel design and let me paste in what James emailed to me regarding the sound:

<snip>people keep asking what my "most brutal" high gain amp is, and some of them have already heard the FSM. The FSM is quite good at that sort of thing, but I know I'm holding back if that's what's to be considered my "most brutal" high gain design. I've heard other amps which are clearly more aggressive, even if I didn't like their tone...but I knew I could probably go further into "brutal territory" to match that. I was initially hesitant to push my designs any further since I thought they would lose aspects which made them so unique and appealing. I decided to try modifying the channel architecture as well as circuitry in the poweramp and power supply to squeeze some more "brutality" out of it without "ruining the tone". If I took an approach which targeted various areas of the amp (not just the preamp or certain parts of it), I figured the balance could be kept similar for the aspects which people love in my amps. I wouldn't change any one thing too much, but instead the change would be an overall increase in gain and aggression in several aspects to smaller degrees for each aspect. This led me to the new modern high gain design which is called "Body Hammer" (someone on Rig Talk suggested the name, based on a Fear Factory song, since the design can do FF sounds quite well). The design is like a "more brutal FSM" in a general sense since the DNA sounds very similar to the FSM (including similar feel), but it is now what more people would expect from a design in this realm in terms of aggression. Turning the gain down, it can sound fairly close to what people expected from the FSM. Since no one was buying the FSM for its lowest gain sounds, I figure it's not a bad idea to replace the FSM with the Body Hammer.

Oh damn! Thanks for the info. That sounds pretty awesome. Can't wait to hear clips.

For reference what was the last amp you owned? Or did you just keep and add to the stable?

 

[JamesPeters]

James Peters! Well done sir! Thank you for your vision and excellent execution!!

Thank you very much!

The next amp that has the Body Hammer lead/rhythm channels will be the new 15th Anniversary Series format. It should be done Monday, then I'll be uploading pics of it to the website (and redoing the website in general, adding the pickups, etc.)

 

[WizardSouth-JP]

 

[guitarobert]

Great! Can't wait to hear clips. FF's tone has always been on the radar, especially anything inspired by Demanufacture.

Funny, I usually use the FSM channel with the gain barely cracked. Maybe I should be talking with James about getting a different channel that's targeted at lower gain.

 

[JamesPeters]

Funny, I usually use the FSM channel with the gain barely cracked. Maybe I should be talking with James about getting a different channel that's targeted at lower gain.

Ha ha!

Well I'm also making the Firejack channel design, which is based around the Gryphon...the original version (before it got changed to become a bit more modern/aggressive), but with some of the later advantages (the specific edge switch design for one), and with new modifications to the rest of the amp circuit. This will make it "more vintage" than the Gryphon had become over the years, but just as aggressive in a different way (that the original version wasn't).

 

[wIsEbLooD]

ff amp? need pics.

 

[Oblivion DC]

Wait, James has a new design out??? WTF, nobody told me.


Show some pics bro.

Pics tonight after I put my kids to bed! The wife is out of town and I'm in full Mr Mom mode!

This is killing me. What design is this based around? Or is it something completely new? Tell me more sir, tell me more!

So I got the three channel design and let me paste in what James emailed to me regarding the sound:

<snip>people keep asking what my "most brutal" high gain amp is, and some of them have already heard the FSM. The FSM is quite good at that sort of thing, but I know I'm holding back if that's what's to be considered my "most brutal" high gain design. I've heard other amps which are clearly more aggressive, even if I didn't like their tone...but I knew I could probably go further into "brutal territory" to match that. I was initially hesitant to push my designs any further since I thought they would lose aspects which made them so unique and appealing. I decided to try modifying the channel architecture as well as circuitry in the poweramp and power supply to squeeze some more "brutality" out of it without "ruining the tone". If I took an approach which targeted various areas of the amp (not just the preamp or certain parts of it), I figured the balance could be kept similar for the aspects which people love in my amps. I wouldn't change any one thing too much, but instead the change would be an overall increase in gain and aggression in several aspects to smaller degrees for each aspect. This led me to the new modern high gain design which is called "Body Hammer" (someone on Rig Talk suggested the name, based on a Fear Factory song, since the design can do FF sounds quite well). The design is like a "more brutal FSM" in a general sense since the DNA sounds very similar to the FSM (including similar feel), but it is now what more people would expect from a design in this realm in terms of aggression. Turning the gain down, it can sound fairly close to what people expected from the FSM. Since no one was buying the FSM for its lowest gain sounds, I figure it's not a bad idea to replace the FSM with the Body Hammer.

Oh damn! Thanks for the info. That sounds pretty awesome. Can't wait to hear clips.

For reference what was the last amp you owned? Or did you just keep and add to the stable?

I'll give you a quick rundown and I've sold off all of them for one reason or another.

JCM 800 2204
Laney AOR
Boogie Mark 3
Triaxis
Rectifier 3 chan
Peavey 5150
Splawn Nitro
Peavey 5150 II
Framus Cobra
EVH 5153 Stealth

The Body Hammer smokes them all...

 

[crankyrayhanky]

Pics & clips or it's Bulgera Hammer

 

[Oblivion DC]

Pics & clips or it's Bulgera Hammer

Here's a couple of quick pics. Clips sometime tomorrow.

 

[braintheory]

Wait, James has a new design out??? WTF, nobody told me.


Show some pics bro.

Pics tonight after I put my kids to bed! The wife is out of town and I'm in full Mr Mom mode!

This is killing me. What design is this based around? Or is it something completely new? Tell me more sir, tell me more!

So I got the three channel design and let me paste in what James emailed to me regarding the sound:

<snip>people keep asking what my "most brutal" high gain amp is, and some of them have already heard the FSM. The FSM is quite good at that sort of thing, but I know I'm holding back if that's what's to be considered my "most brutal" high gain design. I've heard other amps which are clearly more aggressive, even if I didn't like their tone...but I knew I could probably go further into "brutal territory" to match that. I was initially hesitant to push my designs any further since I thought they would lose aspects which made them so unique and appealing. I decided to try modifying the channel architecture as well as circuitry in the poweramp and power supply to squeeze some more "brutality" out of it without "ruining the tone". If I took an approach which targeted various areas of the amp (not just the preamp or certain parts of it), I figured the balance could be kept similar for the aspects which people love in my amps. I wouldn't change any one thing too much, but instead the change would be an overall increase in gain and aggression in several aspects to smaller degrees for each aspect. This led me to the new modern high gain design which is called "Body Hammer" (someone on Rig Talk suggested the name, based on a Fear Factory song, since the design can do FF sounds quite well). The design is like a "more brutal FSM" in a general sense since the DNA sounds very similar to the FSM (including similar feel), but it is now what more people would expect from a design in this realm in terms of aggression. Turning the gain down, it can sound fairly close to what people expected from the FSM. Since no one was buying the FSM for its lowest gain sounds, I figure it's not a bad idea to replace the FSM with the Body Hammer.

Hi James,
I’m curious, what do you feel you are comprising in tone by making things more aggressive or raw, since I’ve heard you mention that a few times now? Also, out of curiosity, which amps do you find more aggressive than yours and what do you dislike about their tone? I never thought of there being a trade off in amp being more aggressive, so I’m interested in what you think about that. Obviously, there are trade offs with things like more gain or compression, but I never thought of a more aggressive voicing (not to be confused with more gain or heaviness) as causing that. What about the tone do you feel they’re “ruining” as you say? It’s possible that I actually totally agree with you, but it’s hard to know without being more specific or mentioning certain amps. That being said, I’m very intrigued by the Bodyhammer and Firejack, especially since the FSM and Gryphon were my favorite models of yours and a more aggressive version sounds great.

For what it’s worth, I find my Mesa/Boogie Mark IIC+ and Atomica modded Marshall SLP to be the most aggressive amps I’ve tried overall (they’re both similarly aggressive but in different ways) and don’t find any compromises or trade offs with them for being aggressive sounding amps. The IIC+ still has some of the best cleans and liquidy lead tones I’ve ever tried. I find the older Boogies and Marshalls to be the most raw sounding amps out there.

 

[Bob Savage]

the new 15th Anniversary Series format.

Well that flew by... very cool that you're still building amps.

Are you planning a Hack Series? Never know when I might need an amp.

 

[rottingcorpse]

I am curious about the aggressive question too,James. You are always so generous with your insights. Thanks for sharing them.

And to Oblivion DC, what's the other channel on your new amp? Halo,body hammer and what?

(Secretly obsessing now...I got the FSM to have the most aggro Peters head. Now I have to scheme my way into the new one)

 

[godgrinder]

Personally I usually find that more brutality means a less musical harmonic content. But if the design is too focused on clear harmonic content it becomes too "polite" sounding. I think James got the right balance between the two.

 

[Oblivion DC]

I am curious about the aggressive question too,James. You are always so generous with your insights. Thanks for sharing them.

And to Oblivion DC, what's the other channel on your new amp? Halo,body hammer and what?

(Secretly obsessing now...I got the FSM to have the most aggro Peters head. Now I have to scheme my way into the new one)

The way James worked the channel design for my amp (three channel high gain) is we decided on what the rhythm channel would be (BodyHammer) and then the lead channel would be a slight variation on the rhythm channel design. The third channel would be the clean. Because of some design changes James made to the rhythm channel, the clean channel is not quite the super clean Halo style anymore but it still manages to be pretty clear.

From his email:
People all seem to want the same relative differences: thicker mids, a bit softer attack (but not too soft because they don't want it muddy and sometimes might want to use it as an alternate/fatter rhythm channel), and the same amount of gain (assuming of course we're talking about my high gain channels, since they all have lots of gain).
<snip>

So on the highgain side of the house the rhythm channel options will be the BodyHammer or the Firejack channel and the Lead channel would be a variant of whichever rhythm channel you preferred.
BodyHammer is the modern/Brootz style and the Firejack is a more vintage high gain style based off of an older Gryphon design but applying the current crunch/edge features, and involving slight mods to the poweramp/power supply.