Which Amp Should I Sell? Opinions Wanted!

hellzington

hellzington

Well-known member
Ahoy fellow RT-ers! I've accumulated too many amps and am looking to unload one or two. I made a video comparing them all. Would be very curious what y'all think. My style in general is hard rock, alt metal, and classic rock. Let me know your thoughts!

 
From that video I would sell the Deliverance (sounded too hollow and sterile to me) and white VH4 (also came off sterile to me) and probably sell the mark iii++ since you have a iic+. I like the red channel of the XTC in your video

Maybe a few other amps in the latter part of your sig may also be stuff to consider moving, not sure
 
braintheory said:
From that video I would sell the Deliverance (sounded too hollow and sterile to me) and white VH4 (also came off sterile to me) and probably sell the mark iii++ since you have a iic+. I like the red channel of the XTC in your video

Maybe a few other amps in the latter part of your sig may also be stuff to consider moving, not sure
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I have to agree. I didn't think the Deliverance sounded that great when compared to the other amps. I do like the white VH4, though. It has a lot of wonderful harmonic content. Upon hearing the video now, I would increase the midrange on Chs 2 & 3 and lower the bass on Ch 2.

The XTC sounds good on the boosted modes. The red channel with no boost sounds good. I didn't care for the blue channel without the boost, though. Sounded pretty thin and sterile especially compared to something like a Friedman.
 
Bye bye VHT bye bye Bogner.

Honestly I would sell all of those but the Marshall and just buy a second one. Or a Wizard MC. Take my opinions with a grain of salt cause I know jack shit about metal tone. I was just following my ears.
 
Yehuda said:
Having played a Blueface and a 2023 vh4, they are completely different amps- which is unfortunate because the one that’s actually available is the one that I hate haha
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Yeah it seems there's four general "eras" for VH4s:
  1. 1996 - 2002 - Blueface spec-based, less gain, far darker, Ch 2 very different
  2. 2003 - 2006 - Gainier, more saturated and "browner" with an improved Ch 2
  3. 2007 - 2017ish - "Fizz resistor" added, far brighter with more gain, extremely compressed, a lot of negative feedback
  4. 2018 - Present - Leaner and meaner, less fizzy but still bright, very compressed, records extremely well
 
hellzington said:
Yeah it seems there's four general "eras" for VH4s:
  1. 1996 - 2002 - Blueface spec-based, less gain, far darker, Ch 2 very different
  2. 2003 - 2006 - Gainier, more saturated and "browner" with an improved Ch 2
  3. 2007 - 2017ish - "Fizz resistor" added, far brighter with more gain, extremely compressed, a lot of negative feedback
  4. 2018 - Present - Leaner and meaner, less fizzy but still bright, very compressed, records extremely well
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It’s wild that vh4, mark series, and 2 channel rectos generally got worse over time- I don’t get how that ended up Happening
 
VonBonfire said:
Bye bye VHT bye bye Bogner.

Honestly I would sell all of those but the Marshall and just buy a second one. Or a Wizard MC. Take my opinions with a grain of salt cause I know jack shit about metal tone. I was just following my ears.
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No worries man, this is exactly the type of feedback I'm looking for.

Yeah the Marshall is just classic and timeless. It will never go out of style. Like I said in the on-screen text, that JMP plus a few pedals is probably all anyone ever really needs.

I have owned an MTL clone but never played a MC. I love the thump and attack of Wizards but they are very hard to play. The VHT suffers from the same issue. Cool amp, wicked tone, not the easiest to play. I should throw a really hard compressor in front of it and see what it sounds like.
 
Yehuda said:
It’s wild that vh4, mark series, and 2 channel rectos generally got worse over time- I don’t get how that ended up Happening
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To be clear, I agree with you, but manufacturers were trying to meet the demands people had at that time.

@MARK2C told me that the reason the "fizz resistor" was added to the VH4 in 2007 is because players were asking for a more "metal" VH4 that was brighter and more aggressive than the previous models. So Peter came up with that clever fix to make the amps brighter and gainier. At the time, people liked it. Now everyone hates it.

Same with Mark series amps. Mesa was trying to make a 3-Channel Mark because that's what players were asking for. Dual Rectos are no different. People wanted a 3 Channel Recto that was brighter and gainier, so Mesa made it.

I think people just wanted less raw, more production-friendly amps in the 2000s. So manufacturers responded. In retrospect, these weren't great choices. But it sold a lot of amps, haha.
 
hellzington said:
No worries man, this is exactly the type of feedback I'm looking for.

Yeah the Marshall is just classic and timeless. It will never go out of style. Like I said in the on-screen text, that JMP plus a few pedals is probably all anyone ever really needs.

I have owned an MTL clone but never played a MC. I love the thump and attack of Wizards but they are very hard to play. The VHT suffers from the same issue. Cool amp, wicked tone, not the easiest to play. I should throw a really hard compressor in front of it and see what it sounds like.
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Can you tell me more why the VHT and Wizards is hard to play? Are they very revealing of errors in technique or something?
 
VonBonfire said:
Can you tell me more why the VHT and Wizards is hard to play? Are they very revealing of errors in technique or something?
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Sure. These amps are very uncompressed, so they respond more widely to your pick attack and technique. In other words, how hard you hit them is how hard they respond. (Versus a Boogie or Diezel that explodes as soon as you touch the string.) This is why they're often referred to as "stiff" or "dry." Good news is because of this you can get a lot of different tones with just your playing style and volume and tone controls. They also "thump" and have a huge, beefy attack when you dig in aggressively. They "punch you in the chest" people like to say. Hope that helps!
 
hellzington said:
To be clear, I agree with you, but manufacturers were trying to meet the demands people had at that time.

@MARK2C told me that the reason the "fizz resistor" was added to the VH4 in 2007 is because players were asking for a more "metal" VH4 that was brighter and more aggressive than the previous models. So Peter came up with that clever fix to make the amps brighter and gainier. At the time, people liked it. Now everyone hates it.

Same with Mark series amps. Mesa was trying to make a 3-Channel Mark because that's what players were asking for. Dual Rectos are no different. People wanted a 3 Channel Recto that was brighter and gainier, so Mesa made it.

I think people just wanted less raw, more production-friendly amps in the 2000s. So manufacturers responded. In retrospect, these weren't great choices. But it sold a lot of amps, haha.
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Agree 100%. We complain about how modern amps are too filtered and neutered....but that is what a ton of players were asking for: Rectos with way tighter low end and no fizz, Marshall's with more gain and less abrasive upper mids. Everyone wanted the amps to sound recorded right out of the box and in doing so, it took away the mojo that made those amps unique in the first place.
 
hellzington said:
Sure. These amps are very uncompressed, so they respond more widely to your pick attack and technique. In other words, how hard you hit them is how hard they respond. (Versus a Boogie or Diezel that explodes as soon as you touch the string.) This is why they're often referred to as "stiff" or "dry." Good news is because of this you can get a lot of different tones with just your playing style and volume and tone controls. They also "thump" and have a huge, beefy attack when you dig in aggressively. They "punch you in the chest" people like to say. Hope that helps!
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Ok well then def take what i said with a bigger grain of salt. I been using Twins for about ten years now and have two of them for gigging. I like to play loudly and Twins are also very revealing of player error. Especially loaded with higher efficiency speakers. I've grown so used to it that when I play a tube rectified lower watt amp I feel like I'm playing a shitty sponge with no detail and not enough power for lower register licks to get over the top of a powerhouse band. I play blues but the principle is kinda the same. Greater risk of revealing my errors, but greater personal reward when I can keep my technique clean. Thanks for your time helzington.
 
VHTStark said:
Agree 100%. We complain about how modern amps are too filtered and neutered....but that is what a ton of players were asking for: Rectos with way tighter low end and no fizz, Marshall's with more gain and less abrasive upper mids. Everyone wanted the amps to sound recorded right out of the box and in doing so, it took away the mojo that made those amps unique in the first place.
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This is exactly how Dave Friedman made a million dollars. He gave players what they wanted: the sound of a recorded/produced Marshall in the room. Dave is also pretty wise in that he knows most players don't really want new tones (despite what they say); they want old-school tones with modern touches, tweaks, and mods.
 
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