Wizard Amp Models

  • Thread starter Thread starter journeyman73
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mhenson42 said:
Yes. It is basically an MTL but the power amp is voiced like an MC2 and the depth knob is changed to a contour control (since it's a power amp control and that's what the MC2 has). So what I'm saying is tell him to leave it as a depth control. You can either have a contour or a depth, not both.
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I'd leave the contour personally if going hybrid. To have the depth in place of the contour, you might as well just get an MTL IMHO. The contour is what allows it to cross walk between MTL/MCII. But that's just my 2 FWIW based on how I heard it when I owned them.

I still felt like the hybrid was missing some of that MCII upper mid grind hence my offing it for another MCII.
 
JR-OZ said:
So my question to you is do I lose the contour knob? Because I use it now and love it
Can’t be keep both ?
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I would not lose the contour knob if you're partial to it's effect. I ditched my MCII hoping the Hybrid would give me the best of both MTL/MCII. It was close at achieving that, but my ears missed that upper mid grind of the MCII and that was with the contour knob on my Hybrid. Others feel it gets close enough to MCII grind, but my ears led me to sell the Hybrid after one month and I went back to the MCII. All personal opinion of course and all ears are different.

I now double boost the MCII when I want MTL level saturation and use an ISP sub in the chain to achieve the low end depth of the MTL. So essentially I have a Hybrid but that is more MCII than MTL where as the real Hybrid is the opposite to me....a bit more MTL than MCII.
 
Huh, I had no idea you could have Rick swap the contour for depth in a Hybrid.

I just ordered a Hybrid EL34 100 watt on Monday precisely because I wanted a MTL but with some of the upper mid richness of an MCII.

FWIW I was debating EL34 or KT88 and spoke to Rick about it. He said tonally they’re very similar, biggest difference is just output power. That doesn’t exactly jive with my experience or what I know of these tubes, but that’s straight from the horse’s mouth.

My little MC25 sounds fantastic for death metal, can’t wait to hear how this beast sounds.
 
JR-OZ said:
So question for you guys
I have a Mcii that Rick did for me. I love it. He met my specifications at that time.

If I want to keep the crunch and grind in the mids keep the harmonic over tones

But I want more clear big bottom end booty

And more air (not treble)

Note im boosting with an Apex custom Maxon

Which model do I get next ?
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I would also recommend trying a Suhr Koko Boost in the front end, the MCII loves that and the Keeley Katana V1 as well...
 
Rybosome said:
Huh, I had no idea you could have Rick swap the contour for depth in a Hybrid.

I just ordered a Hybrid EL34 100 watt on Monday precisely because I wanted a MTL but with some of the upper mid richness of an MCII.

FWIW I was debating EL34 or KT88 and spoke to Rick about it. He said tonally they’re very similar, biggest difference is just output power. That doesn’t exactly jive with my experience or what I know of these tubes, but that’s straight from the horse’s mouth.

My little MC25 sounds fantastic for death metal, can’t wait to hear how this beast sounds.
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What made you go with the el34s?
 
Rybosome said:
Huh, I had no idea you could have Rick swap the contour for depth in a Hybrid.

I just ordered a Hybrid EL34 100 watt on Monday precisely because I wanted a MTL but with some of the upper mid richness of an MCII.

FWIW I was debating EL34 or KT88 and spoke to Rick about it. He said tonally they’re very similar, biggest difference is just output power. That doesn’t exactly jive with my experience or what I know of these tubes, but that’s straight from the horse’s mouth.

My little MC25 sounds fantastic for death metal, can’t wait to hear how this beast sounds.
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The MC25 has such a great tone. I actually liked the mids and overall voicing more than any of the 100w Wizards I've owned. It just lacked in the girth and headroom department compared to the big boys. That said, it still smoked many 50w and some 100w non-Wizards amps in the balls department. Such an awesome awesome powerful little amp. Just pure gold in terms of tone.

If you like the MC25 for DM, you'll shit when you get the 100w.
 
* velcro-fly * said:
I would also recommend trying a Suhr Koko Boost in the front end, the MCII loves that and the Keeley Katana V1 as well...
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The MCII devours almost any boost. I've run 8-10 different boosts in front of 3 different MCIIs and it's like they just become a part of the circuit. My favorites so far in front of that amp are the Duncan 805 and Mesa Goldmine.
 
journeyman73 said:
What made you go with the el34s?
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It was a tough call. Basically came down to 2 things:

1) I got the hybrid rather than the MTL because I wanted some MCII upper mids, so it made sense to pick the tube that would play into that

2) Other than my MC25 I haven’t played other models. I felt that getting a non standard model plus a non standard tube (with all the circuit changes that comes with) would be too exotic for my first high powered model

I still want to experience that KT88 goodness so maybe down the road I’ll get an MCII KT-150.

MetalHeadMike said:
If you like the MC25 for DM, you'll shit when you get the 100w.
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Thanks for the heads up, I’ll throw down a tarp!

EDIT: btw for anybody thinking about it, production times are pretty low right now. I was quoted 3 - 6 weeks, which would be fast under normal circumstances.
 
I am getting really tempted to try a Hybrid…

It’s either going to be a perfect, best of both worlds…

Or it’s going to be neither fish nor fowl and leave me wanting it more one way or the other!
 
journeyman73 said:
I am getting really tempted to try a Hybrid…

It’s either going to be a perfect, best of both worlds…

Or it’s going to be neither fish nor fowl and leave me wanting it more one way or the other!
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I was right there...had to try it. Took me a year of thinking about it to pull the trigger. It's bad ass no doubt. I just still prefer that insanely open organic grind the MCII gets.
 
mhenson42 said:
I'd say a KT-150 Hybrid and have him keep the depth knob instead of adding the contour knob.
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sorry if you brought this up and I missed it - but did you ever have/try an EL34 Hybrid and a KT88 Hybrid?
 
journeyman73 said:
sorry if you brought this up and I missed it - but did you ever have/try an EL34 Hybrid and a KT88 Hybrid?
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I own a el34 Hybrid 100w. Never tried a KT88 Hybrid. I do have a KT88 MTL and had a KT88 MC2. I sold the KT88 MC2 as I preferred el34s in that amp - when I had both at the same time.
 
mhenson42 said:
I own a el34 Hybrid 100w. Never tried a KT88 Hybrid. I do have a KT88 MTL and had a KT88 MC2. I sold the KT88 MC2 as I preferred el34s in that amp - when I had both at the same time.
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any speculation on what a KT88 Hybrid might be like, based on other experiences?
 
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