I will be glad to post my findings, but remember that we all hear things differently, so your results may vary. I will try to be honest and give the type of description I would want to read about.
To begin with, the amp is low standing height-wise, but deep, front-to-back, and built in true Diezel form, like a Mercedes. And it is very heavy! My guess is the trannies.
Channel switching on the amp is done via 3 of 4 spring-loaded mini toggles which do not have a 2 position setting. You simply touch one and the channel changes and the mini toggles come back to their original position. The other mini toggle turns the reverb on and off. Channel switching, using either the toggles on the head, or the included footswitch, are quiet and immediate.
The reverb is as lush and high quality as any I have used either on an outboard effect, or built into an amp. In the lower settings it starts off soundling as a room reverb. As the dial is turned up more, it takes on a hall reverb tone, then a cathedral type sound, with lots of air, just as blowing smoke eventually becomes invisible, the sound of the reverb acts the same way. At full up, it has a Fendery type dwell to it, but not as splashy sounding as a Fender has. It is there, but far more usable and more refined sounding, less out-of-control sounding, less noisy.
Channel one has a lot of flexibility. The bass from zero to about 10 o'clock comes from nothing at all to a normal balanced sounding bass. At about 12 o'clock, the bass starts to sound as though the "deep" dial on other Diezel amps has been turned up a bit. The bass starts moving the speaker and I can feel the wind a bit on my ankles as the bass gets more intense. This is all with usable frequencies. Nothing is wasted here or on any other dial. At 3 o'clock, you know you are getting thumped by the bass, but it sounds deeper, not muddy at all and not the least bit "blatty". It remains tight, focused and correct. It just gets deeper and more prominent.
The middle control can get you a Fendery tone when rolled back all the way and as it is turned up to about 10 o'clock, brings the guitar, (I am using an XOX Handle with 2 DiMarzio PAF Pro pickups) into an even response balance between the bass, mids and treble. Above that, the mids get more in-your-face and the amp sounds more like you are placing your face closer to the speaker. It lets you know it is there, staring back at your face. For 30 watts, you are definitley getting your 30 watts worth with this amp! You guys know, typical great dial versatility as on all other Diezel amps.
The treble has a terrific sweep as well, and I set mine to about 2 o'clock to balance out the bass, mids, and treble fairly evenly sounding to my ears. Above 2 o'clock it sounded to me as though a bright switch was engaged, as the treble became more enhanced, but not harsh, or shrill. There is no presence control on this amp, but you don't need one. By changing to say, a Fender type guitar, the amp will take on more of a Fender amp feel, tone and vibe to it. So, changing the guitar will help get you closer to a given tone you want from the amp. The amp responds beautifully to any guitar used with it, in typical Diezel fashion.
I got from channel one, a jazzy, full, archtop type of tone, all the way to a solid-body, thinner sounding tone. Tele players should love this amp! The EQ controls will really give a wide sweep of different tones and enhance a guitar to make the most of it.
On all channels, the feel of this amp is not as tight as the VH4, different from the slight give of the Herbert, and a tad more "vintagey" sounding then the Einstein, but not true all out 1950-through 1972 vintage. It has a chameleon-type ability to it and the feeling is what I called "natural feeling" It is not saggy, not spongy, not tight, not loose, but as Goldie Locks said when tasting the baby bear's porridge..."just right"
. That's the only way I can describe it. Sorry everyone.
Channel two takes on a Fendery, slighty saturated tone in the early gain position of that dial, with lower mid settings. Just a wee bit o' hair so to speak. As I brought up the gain, the saturation became stronger, but retained clarity and transparency all the way up the dial, even though it became typically Diezel ferrocious as more gain was applied. In the 11 to 1 o'clock-ish area of the channel two gain dial, I started getting saturation similar to a Vox AC-30 and Marshall JTM-45 depending on where I had the EQ set. Less mids gave me more Vox-like tones, and more mids brought out the Marshall vibe.
Please don't get me wrong here. I am not stating that this amp gave me an exact or emulated sound of these named amps, or any other amp, but it brought on that feeling from playing and hearing it. How you set your EQ and gain will offer different variations on a theme that reminded me of these other amps, as I played and tweaked the dials. You may hear different sounds that remind you of different amps, since we all hear things differently.
The reverb will drive you nuts here when added judiciously. You will feel that you don't need any other outboard toys for tone enhancement. It became hypnotic to sit there and play with the dials, as Terry mentioned in his description, posted on the Diezel site.
Using only my front pickup, I got clarity and sustain with edge that felt pleasing and defined, and with the reverb turned up just enough, I felt almost dizzy, much like one has vertigo, sitting in front of the speaker and just noodling around. The tones were 3-D sounding. As I turned up the blend control on my guitar to add the lead pickup equally to the neck pickup, the sweet, dweety tones were amazing and clear, not at all harsh, but really inspiring to play. The saturation was definitely there too! The guitar reacted very well with how hard or soft I picked. It also responded extremely well when I backed off my guitar's volume control, cleaning up beautifully. I was able to get a clear, sweet, saturated, singing, dripping tone similar to a blues player, or basic rock player. The amp had sustain, and crunch, but sounded deep, saturated, and transparent all at the same time. Adjusting the mids changed the way the amp came forward into the foreground, but it never took away the feeling the amp was giving me. I did not over-set to extremes on the dials, any tones I wanted. These were all within the middle ranges of the dials. But when I did turned the dials to full or off to hear the result, all the tones given up by the Schmidt were still easily useable.
All the way up on channel two gain, and I was in dimed plexi or early JCM 800 territory. Yet the amp did not get cloudy or so saturated that the note clarity or transparency was lost. It just got more intense. Plenty of saturation on tap, with great sustain, thrust, feedback potential and umph, yet still the clarity of the note was audible, even though the saturation was raging. I loved it! If the dial could have gone up any more, the tones would have started to get cloudy sounding. Right where the gain dial ends, it was glorious!
Channel three has no EQ controls. If I set the gain and volume on channel two and channel three to be similar in type and volume level, when I switched to channel three, the amp got just slightly darker, but not in a bad way at all, and it took on a more definite Marshallesque vibe to it. Channel two, as I had it set up, was closer to a Vox vibe with the mids just around 11 o'clock. After switching channels, I knew it was not the same amp with just more gain available. The gain also increased slightly but still stayed transparent until it was higher then 2 o'clock on the channel three gain dial. Once up in that area, it was all Diezel and nothing else, and the saturation came pouring out in bountiful amounts.
(I, personally, will never need that much saturation as it offered above 2 o'clock on channel three's gain dial. I'm sure, however, that most of you reading this will just love it! You'll be saying to yourself..."Oh yeah! This is a Diezel alright!" Some of you may even feel that you need more gain then is available from this amp. This is understandable for the heavier players used to the bigger Diezel VH4, Herbert, or Einstein, but the Schmidt takes foot toys very well to add more gain and saturation if you desire that. I would never need all the gain that this amp has on tap, but that is just me.)* see note at bottom
Those of you who like to chugga-chugga might want to add a foot toy to enhance the effect, but it was still a brutal sounding 30 watts to my ears. Think Einstein, channel one, mode 3, DEFINITELY! This amp has incredible versatility. It can be sweet and meek, or stand up and get right in your face, as if looking for a fight. You will be amazed at how much sustain, versatility, and of course, full on Diezel rage comes out of this 30 watt amp.
The amp has, on the back panel, the ability to tap into a loop for the entire amp in either series, or parallel, AND two other loops set up specifically to use channels 1 and 2, or 2 and 3 for those wishing to insert specific foot toys or effects into just those channels directly. The footswitch has the ability to turn on and off the loops as well.
Now, to let you know what speaker I was using, I got the 2x12 with Tone Tubby ceramic speakers, but had not opened that carton up, as it would have been too much in my small living area. So, I used a small Marshall model 1912 1x12 cab with a 150 watt, 8 ohm Celestion in it with a closed back and ported up front. This was the only 1x12 I have, and the amp still sounded unbelievable through it! When I get the chance and the room to use the Diezel hempcone 2x12, I can only guess how amazing it will sound.
With a 4x12 or two, this thing should be beautiful to hear in a club, where a 100 watt amp is just painful and so much overkill in many live playing situations. I'm sure that with just a 2x12, I can get more then enough power to make this amp rock hard and plenty loud. Remember, that the reason this amp was designed was to get more tone from tubes at a lower volume with great flexibility. If you are one of those people who use a VH4 or Herbert, as I used too, and still need that ultra fucking loudness, huge bass thump, and brutality for your music, you may look at the Schmidt as a warm-up amp used in the dressing room before going on stage, but it is still a brutal amp for only 30 watts, loud and mean when asked to be, ladies and gentlemen . Don't think that this amp cannot deliver the goods! It is just a different type of amp, not to be compared to any other amp Diezel makes. It is just as good as the other Diezels, but lower in wattage for it's intended purpose.
You can still bring the neighbors knocking, or calling the police for you to quiet down at home...easily.
But the amp can go almost anywhere, keep up with loud drummers when using larger cabs, and sound great at lower volumes. It will be great in recording situations, small to medium size clubs, and even large clubs, if you mic up on big stages, or use the Diezel compensated out, which is really terrific sounding.
I have gotten excited about every Diezel amp I received from the VH4 back in 2002, through the Herbert and Einstein, and now the Schmidt. Every amp has a use and place, and this amp will definitely fit into more playing situations and get more use then the larger Diezels for my needs at this time. Your situations may require the larger amps. When I was younger, I had to have the larger 100 watt plus amps, but as many of you know already, most commercial clubs where people go to dance and listen to commercial bands, want it quieter, stages with P.A. systems are more refined, and require amps to have less power and less volume. So ultimately, this amp will definitely be used quite a lot by me.
Peter should be seriously congradulated for his design of this amp and of course, for it's superb abilities. It truly delivers in every way on every channel.
Once again, it gives up Peter's (the "Master's) voice" in spades!
I hope this is detailed enough. I really tried to be honest, give explanations that were meaningful and offered some sort of idea how I perceived using this amp in my initial testing. Having been playing Diezel amps for about eight years, and having owned them all to this point, I feel that I can grasp the way the amp will work for me in my live and studio situations faster then playing it for a month before giving a review as if it was only my first Diezel experience.
And, it is Alizée approved!...REALLY!
Stephen
*Note: It was rightfully pointed out to me that this amp cannot get the type, power, or amount of saturation to compare it to the larger Diezel lineup, which is absolutely true. I did not make myself clear enough on this point, so this review was altered to express that fact in clearer terms on 1/06/10, and again on 1/07/10.
However, for those comparing this amp to another amp of similar wattage, I believe you will find the saturation, power, tonal flexibility, and other features placed into this amp to be truly amazing, and useful for just about anything you need from an amp.
