Just posted my review of the Herbert on Harmony Central

  • Thread starter Thread starter Rob Tahan
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similar products = a 5watt amp, a 20watt amp, and a bass drum head? :lol: :LOL:
 
Nice review Rob!

I´m not sure but i think if they played them only for a few minutes, maybe they played him with the wrong cab?!
My Marshall cab is a very good cab, but not good enough for Herbie, as you can see in my thread.
 
First thing I have to say is that it doesn't cut through the mix. When playing alone it's sounds pretty much fine, but in a band situation you're only left with a thin sounding amp.
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:lol: :LOL: Some of the reviews over there are killing me.
 
I think some poor folks try to justify themself for not being able to afford such a killer amp, so they bash it.

Or they have no clue how to EQ the damn thing, or play firewood guitars.

TBH the first time I played herbie, channel 2+ and 3 I had the EQ set on flat, And I was already more than impressed :yes:
 
stefvorcide":336n26tx said:
I think some poor folks try to justify themself for not being able to afford such a killer amp, so they bash it.

Or they have no clue how to EQ the damn thing, or play firewood guitars.

TBH the first time I played herbie, channel 2+ and 3 I had the EQ set on flat, And I was already more than impressed :yes:
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I totally agree they must have sour grapes. when i got my herbert i had everything at noon and it rocked
 
I have a more favorable opinion of my VH4 than the HC reviewer who said the Herbert didn't cut in the mix, but I will say that I can relate to some of the points that person made, so I don't dismiss such people so quickly.

IMHO, Diezels have a characteristic sound, no matter the gain level. I also find that except for the clean channel placing a boost or OD in front gets you more gain, but really doesn't change the character of the tone at all. I like that tone, but for someone who expects a little more variety, I can see disappointment and a "one trick pony" criticism.

As for the "doesn't cut" issue, I think any high gain amp can act that way. Too much gain, things get compressed, you lose all the attack of the notes, and you've got mush. After a year with my VH4, I think the amp becomes compressed very quickly, and I have been having trouble getting a sound that preserves the note attack while also providing enough sustain. Either it doesn't cut well enough, or it doesn't sustain well enough. I've been thinking of running my Marshall DSL in parallel, set for a light crunch so that it will provide the attack I want, while the VH4 gives that smooth sustain.
 
Hi freefall,

I can tell you from my personal experience having my Herbert next to a Rectifier, which supposedly cuts through very well according to many, I could not only cut through, but I had a LOT more definition & fullness. All I could hear from the Rectifier was the hi-mid spark actually.
With VH4 things are a little more complicated at times. I found that I would need to go master as high as 2-3:00 with v30/75 combination pushed to get enough bite to cut through. Running a Marshall with the VH4 is a great idea, if you can afford moving that kind of rig around. All that said, if you are getting your rig miked, you shouldn't have any problem cutting through with a VH4. It's actually a perfect amp to be miked.
 
I had a similar experience with a Mesa Roadster... a few months ago I decided to pick one up to see if it would cut any better. Although it sounded good alone, I had the same issues with getting it to cut, and I wound up returning the amp and going back to my VH4. I only had it 30 days, which might not have been enough time with it.

Running the VH4's master at 2-3:00 would be way too loud for the medium size venues where we play, even with a HotPlate. We keep everything on stage relatively low (master around 9-10:00) so the sound guy can control the mix. I agree though that the VH4 seems to cut better when its louder.

As for the Marshall, I take that to shows anyway as a backup, so hooking it up (via the VH4's Thru) isn't too much extra work; I can run the amps into the two sides of my 1960A cab, so at least I won't need a second cabinet.

There was a thread around a year ago where a number of guys talked about using two heads like that. I wonder if this is done commonly to get better cut/attack.
 
its harmony central...usually no further explanation needed.

the bad thing is that some people still check it as a "reliable" source for reviews, and then there pops up this bullshit about "bad reliability" or something..i mean what the fuck? a tube dies and therefor they rate a bad reliability? well done... :doh: and yeah, i guess a review based on a 5 minutes experience in a small shop or something is.....hm, well that speaks for itself.

and then you always got the "I SPENT 4000,- DOLLARZ AND STILL DONT SOUND LIKE JAMES HETFIELD!!!11!!"- kids.
 
...."on that Black Album record".....just to add to the James Hetfield theme :)

I am astonished by the level of misinformation and ignorance floating around last years. I still have records from our school band, like 20 years ago, done on a "Unitra" tape deck (1/4" normal consumer tape/built in mini condenser mic) with old Vermona (and other local solid state) amps with shitty guitars and stomp boxes that still sound good to me. So it is always on how you do it and how you approach it.

Diezel amps are almost impossible to make to sound bad - I just can't find a way of doing this (and I am quite creative). Each sound that emanates from this beautiful creature of craft is usable.
 
haha, exactly!

you know - everytime i see something like this on HCAF or something - i have this picture in my mind, of some 16 year old , cranking gain + bass + midcut to 100%, turning down the mids, hooking it up to the Behringer Cab, hitting a chord, rambling about how shitty the sound is, get immeditely to the computer, logging in on HCAF (profile shows a 35 year old pro-musician, pretending to play for over 40 years now) "i've owned the first Marshall Plexi ever made, and every amp from Soldano to Bogner and the diezel is real crap".
 
:thumbsup: :D :lol: :LOL:
On another forum the other day someone was complaining how he couldn't find the tech specs, sheets, drawings of a product on the manufacturer's web site (that is one man company, so obviously doesn't have a lot of time to maintain the site each and every day) and questioning "the existence of the product itself, is it for real"? That's much of the today's mentality - if it is not on the web then it does not exist. I am not against it ("Information systems" person in my day job and doing this since primary school - BBSs, 3600 bps modems, etc), but how easy is to pickup the phone and ask a human being in person (which calls he gladly accepts and highly welcomes on the very same web site)? That is beyond me....

Praise the master, though - waiting for spring to pour some temporary money in my account. Calling those temporary, since I have to have this VH4. It will be mine :D :gethim:
 
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