West Coast Ampfest 2010

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racerevlon

racerevlon

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So... me, MightyWarlock, and one other guy whose RT handle escapes me right now got together Sunday and did an "Ampfest."

We did a bunch of recording of clips into Logic so we could compare the tones.

MW was using an Ibanez Prestige SZ with a Duncan Distortion in the bridge and I used a Neal Moser MMi-T with a Dimarzio Crunch Lab in the bridge.

Amps on tap were:

Mesa Boogie Pre-500 Rectifier
Diezel Herbert
Marshall JCM800KK
Rivera S-120
Diezel VH4
Jet City JCA100H
Marshall Vintage Modern 2266
Splawn QuickRod
Hughes & Kettner Trilogy
Epiphone Valve Junior Head (The Jawdropper)--Modded VJ--run dimed first then with Maxon OD in front.

Here are the clips, generously provided by MW:

--> Maxon OD kicks in at 1:05 -- Recorded into V30's only





















-- Recorded into V30's only--no 4-ohm option on the VM
-- Recorded into V30's only--no 4-ohm option on the VM
-- Recorded into V30's only--no 4-ohm option on the VM

MW is playing the more modern sounding clip and I'm playing the more 80's-style hair metal clip. Of interesting note was how awesome the VH4 and Herbert sounded together when run in parallel via the VH4 input "thru" tap.

Speaker cabs used were an 8-ohm mono Marshall 1960B with Celestion G12K-100's mic'd with a Shure SM57 and a Sennheiser 427, and a Mesa 4 x 12 with Celestion Vintage 30's mic'd with a Shure SM57 and a Sennheiser e906. All recorded into Logic via an M-Audio FireWire interface.

Vids of what I could capture with my little digital recorders will be up on YouTube shortly. MW may be able to post some higher-quality video at a later date.

All in all we had a blast and got to play around with a bunch of different amps, some of which I never would have had the opportunity to play had we not got together.

Big ups to MW for hosting the event and doing all the sound clip recording and mixing!

Cheers,
 
I'll add my take on this...

So picture the following amps in a room together...and record them the following ways...

Diezel Herbert
Diezel VH4
Hughes & Kettner Trilogy
Mesa Mark V
Mesa Dual Rectifier (a Pre-500)
Marshall Vintage Modern
Marshall JCM800KK (Kerry King Signature)
Spawn Quickrod
Jet City JCA100
Rivera S-100
Epiphone Valve Jr.
Diezel Herbert AND Mesa Dual Rectifier
Diezel Herbert AND Diezel VH4

Now.
Take 2 different guitar players, and have them play their style through each amp (basically 2 different songs, for each amp).

Record each amp, and even some video as well. (video to come. eventually).

Put it all together, and what do you have?

Our Own Little Ampfest!

one correction,
the marshall was an MF400B with K100's.
Mic'd with MD421-II that I just purchased here on Rig Talk.
and a SM57

Mesa cab is a Rectifier Traditional with V30's
Mic'd with e906 and SM57

All audio recorded in logic following fearedse's YouTube tutorial, Which I followed exactly as the video... Including his compression and eq settings...so all tracks have the exact same settings...
found here:


Now you will notice the Mark V is missing from the recordings listed above.
I guess since we both have Mark V's, we just simply forgot to add it to the mix.

However, I have done this a couple of other times by myself, and if you go here...to the following links/threads, you can hear the other recordings I have done with my Amp Testings...
http://www.rig-talk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=72339

and
http://www.rig-talk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=72391


My discoveries...Thoughts...whatever...
I was very impressed with the HK Trilogy. It appears to cop the good Marshall type tone, as well as a good Mesa type tone, all together in one amp. Very hard to put the finger on the tone, but just seems like they are both in there. and very loud!
Also the imported soldano designed Jet City was pretty impressive as well. Makes me want to go try out an SLO again. have never have one cranked, so that would be cool.

Funny thing is, I liked his VH4, and he liked my Herbert. Makes me want to trade it but yet, i still wonder about both amps. we may just have to "borrow" each others amps for awhile to test drive them. I'm actually a little gunshy about trading away these overly expensive amps for some reason.

I don't think he was impressed with the Marshall JCM800KK, but I still like it. When Dialed IN, it sounds good to me, and records very well.

I also liked the Spawn Quickrod. And we didn't even get to go through all the modes! pretty nifty Marshall over the top tones.

In a way I am glad we saved the Recto I own for last. no matter what amp I play though, if i finish with that one, I always find it absolutely tonefully impressive and crushing, unlike regular recto's, which are just buzzy and crushing.
 
C'mon... admit it... you and RB were both like, "You gotta be f-ing kidding me" when we did the 5-watt Valve Junior through the 4 x 12... :rock:
 
Update--our third participant was "rabies" from Boogie Board--not sure what his handle here is.

Cheers,
 
i am always rabies (skinny puppy is badass, no?). it was fun and thx for inviting me, Rich. Some pizza would have been nice! lol

maybe next time I'll actually participate instead of just drinking Natural Ice!

anyways, there was no Bogner representation or Laney, Peavey, VHT, etc. Maybe next time.

I thought the Marshall VM with KT66 was very impressive but I'm a Marshall (EL34) kind-of-guy.

the Diezels were pretty sick for the rhythm parts (chugga, chugga) but they ain't worth that much money, trust me.

Anyways, all in all, it was good fun...
 
oh and btw, I am "officially" very, very jealous that Rich (MW) actually has a 30X30 room to jam in.

that is as badass as it gets!
 
Here's the videos from the crappy digital cam--I'm sure MW's camera did better but he'll have TONS of vid to import.

MW on the Trilogy Ultra Channel:



Race on the Trilogy Ultra Channel:



Race on the Jet City JCA100H Overdrive Channel:

 
Did you guys boost the VM? If not you should have. Thats the only way to play that amp IMO.
 
Nope--no boost on the VM--just straight in, Detail at about 9 o'clock, body at about 2 o'clock and Master Volume at about noon. EQ was all set pretty flat with all settings around 1 o'clock and presence a little lower.

Cheers,
 
I wish i had my ADA MP-1 3TM hooked up when we did this.

I just hooked it up the the EL34 100/100 and was just loving the tone out that thing!
 
Seems to my ears as if the splawn clips have the biggest girth and widest spectrum of guitar in them....
 
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