Reconsidering the Wizard Hell Razor

braintheory said:
I’ll tell all when it comes. It not a well known brand, but the one I have currently of this maker has been my favorite guitar I’ve had so far
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Wait, not even a Marchione? Are we talking those rubber covered ones? Can’t wait to see 🤘🏻
 
The first HR release was somewhat prototype ish but was still killer. Preamp tubes being what they are, can go south and impact the tone of any amp - the HR being no different. I had a 100w EL34, killer version, had a 40w that was even better but a lot more noise which Rick then resolved with a new revision. It’s less noisy as the sacrifice of a tad less gain, but the amp has so much rain it’s not really an issue. The new version can do with or without a boost and sounds crushing either way. Lots of dough but you’d be hard pressed to find a better modern high gain amp that’s not sterile or uninspiring to play.
 
I have to be honest I’m skeptical any modern tube can live reliably at 680V in regular gig rotations. I’d be worried about popping glass and fuses with hard band practice use even at home. I get a large plate voltage can open things up a bit but that doesn’t leave any room for shit electrical sources from bars or unreliable power.

Are all of his models at that plate voltage or is the 6L6 lower? I’d rather have the 6L6 model myself.
 
glpg80 said:
I have to be honest I’m skeptical any modern tube can live reliably at 680V in regular gig rotations. I’d be worried about popping glass and fuses with hard band practice use even at home. I get a large plate voltage can open things up a bit but that doesn’t leave any room for shit electrical sources from bars or unreliable power.

Are all of his models at that plate voltage or is the 6L6 lower? I’d rather have the 6L6 model myself.
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I’m running a 100w 6L Hell Razor 😎
 
braintheory said:
I have a Hell Razor KT150 and it’s in my top 4 favorite high gain amps. I’m not sure how the earliest versions compare. It is though, more than most, one of those amps that needs to be dialed in well and can sound bad if you don’t. There can be a fine line with dialing it in. My settings I’ve settled on are a bit unconventional, but sound amazing
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Mine is super early and you played that!
 
glpg80 said:
I have to be honest I’m skeptical any modern tube can live reliably at 680V in regular gig rotations. I’d be worried about popping glass and fuses with hard band practice use even at home. I get a large plate voltage can open things up a bit but that doesn’t leave any room for shit electrical sources from bars or unreliable power.

Are all of his models at that plate voltage or is the 6L6 lower? I’d rather have the 6L6 model myself.
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I think it’s just his KT versions, but I’d guess his amps in general probably have high plate voltages (maybe someone here with other versions can chime in). My Megalith Beta also has a 680 PV, the ‘80’s Marshall Model 2000 is 700, and the Schroeder Dozer was in the 700’s too. I haven’t had any problems and had the Beta for almost 5 years now, playing it very loud with no issues at all. Rick told me the guitarist from Judas Priest uses the KT version Wizards fwiw and the guitarist from Modest Mouse used to use a Schroeder Dozer
 
TheGreatGreen said:
I've heard the original Hell Razors got quite a bit of feedback for how to improve them from users to Rick, and that the latest revision is much closer to what they ideally should be.

Most people who have bought them recently seem to love them. Lot of "it's a top 5 all time amp for me" type comments I've seen from multiple people with more recent ones.
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For what its worth, Mine was the one of the first made (ordered before it was announced) and its wowed everyone who comes and tries it
 
braintheory said:
I’d take poly over oil. Nitro is not my favorite anymore either. Shellac is the best. I should get in a few days this new build coming with a shellac finish with many other unique features on it. Ideally I wish those great vintage guitars also had shellac and a string through bridge for those Gibson’s
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I'm just gonna chime in on this and say that shellac finishes, if done right, are really really nice.

My pink tele with the porter vintage pickups sounds like you're literally hearing the wood; especially clean

I did the shellac really thin, though
 
DanTravis62 said:
I'm just gonna chime in on this and say that shellac finishes, if done right, are really really nice.

My pink tele with the porter vintage pickups sounds like you're literally hearing the wood; especially clean

I did the shellac really thin, though
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Agreed. This one I have now is also thin, but the Marchione’s also use shellac finish with thin nitro on top (unfortunately), but both guitars still have this very wet, harmonically rich sound I haven’t had yet in any nitro or poly finished guitar. They say nitro lets the wood breathe more, but this seems better for that. If guitars were really built with tone as the priority I’d think they’d all use shellac like how it’s done on classical guitars or violins. If it weren’t for the value, in a perfect world I’d have the ‘57 LP Jr also refinsihed to shellac and a string through bridge

The Marchione’s have some compression to their sound in a good way, but this guitar I have with just thin shellac like you said sounds really open and woody, more pronounced when clean
 
Yehuda said:
Mine is super early and you played that!
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We never AB’ed but mine seems like it has the same overall type of sound. I think the ones guys are talking about here are earlier than your’s, but not sure where the cut off is. I think mine is from only a few months after your’s
 
braintheory said:
We never AB’ed but mine seems like it has the same overall type of sound. I think the ones guys are talking about here are earlier than your’s, but not sure where the cut off is. I think mine is from only a few months after your’s
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mine was one of the first 5 non prototype ones- I believe the production ones @RedB4Black and @WizardSouth-JP got were from the same time
 
Yehuda said:
mine was one of the first 5 non prototype ones- I believe the production ones @RedB4Black and @WizardSouth-JP got were from the same time
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Ah ok for some reason I thought when I tried it (November 2023) you had gotten it pretty recently at the time
 
Yehuda said:
I think the in the room thump is very tough to capture while micced, and when i can, the highs arent done justice-it has insane note clarity and punch at once
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Are we talking iso booths, large studio room, bedroom sized room? What mics? Any experimenting with room mic placement? Also IME too many hard surfaces lining or cladding the walls results in a bright, more shrill sound. I personally haven't had great experiences with small iso booths either.
 
VonBonfire said:
Are we talking iso booths, large studio room, bedroom sized room? What mics? Any experimenting with room mic placement? Also IME too many hard surfaces lining or cladding the walls results in a bright, more shrill sound. I personally haven't had great experiences with small iso booths either.
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I have a bedroom that’s my music room, and no professional knowledge, and my house has shit acoustics and electrical wiring haha- I’ll never have any professional quality recordings lol- I put a sm7b on one speaker, sm57 on the other, and hard pan them



If it was my job I’d care more, but it’s something I do when I’m high and bored after work lmao
 
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