experience/feedback with Diamond Amps, anyone?

[Misanthrope[ALWT]]

I've been curious about them for the longest time (with considerable interest in the Nitrox head), and due to their slightly "boutique-ish" nature, i've never gotten the chance to test one out.. anyone with considerable experience, please give some feedback on anything concerning them (incl. versatility, tone capabilities/range, etc.). keep in mind i play in Drop B and C Standard tunings, in a very "wet" sounding Melodic Death/Thrash Metal style, so i'm sort of weighing a lot on how it handles everything that sort of entitles, if you know what i mean.. thanks!

[Twitch]

Theyre the ones who make the SpecOps right? Been curious about them too.

[6string40]

I haven't tried one...in fact, I never had heard of them until I saw this video. Once it gets to Misha, you can see how it handles the lower tunings for both high gain and then cleans at the end.

[Misanthrope[ALWT]]

yes, they make the nitrox, spec ops, phantom, del fuego (or something like that), and the others i'm not entirely sure about.

and thanks for the vid man, i hadn't seen this one yet.. as coincidence would have it, i've been pretty interested in misha's (and the rest of periphery, for that matter) tone but yeah, this was pretty helpful in hearing how the amp would handle some good healthy playing around on the B string so thanks.

So including this video, from what i've gathered on the internet so far, the nitrox is pretty articulate, and provides a healthy amount of wetness where necessary with rhythm tones; however, i have yet to see what it can do with quick interplay between those rhythms and really saturated leads, which are really important, considering that my band has a LOT of back-and-forth-edness with leads (think Schuldiner/LaRoque). So i'm still in a slight conundrum :/

[zeegler]

I've been interested int them for a while, especially the Nitrox. I've liked the clips of heard immensely, and think that it would be VERY suitable for any type of high gain tight riffing, melodic death, etc.

[Misanthrope[ALWT]]

I've been interested int them for a while, especially the Nitrox. I've liked the clips of heard immensely, and think that it would be VERY suitable for any type of high gain tight riffing, melodic death, etc.

my thinking exactly, i'm just still sketchy about a soloing tone, because i still want something very liquid-y when i need it to be. and i'm not very interested in big fancy effects loops (or anything more than a tuner, tube screamer, and maybe a crybaby, for that matter), so it'd be awesome to have that at my fingertips straight from a head..

[Trem]

I was really interested in the spec ops awhile back but all the information i could gather i was hearing only so-so things about Diamond Amps as far as the tone and reliability, but again there was not too much info about them but just seemed more negative than positive kinda from my recollection. For the price at the time i decided against it.

[Frigo89]

based on the clip thats posted...

no thanks, they made that thing sounds like complete crap

[Misanthrope[ALWT]]

yeah after watching the other videos from that series, i can't trust it too much.. they couldn't do justice to a dual recto, diezel VH4, or a rockerverb 100, so it's basically just like all the other youtube demo videos.. can't do justice to anything because a) the quality is inevitably not good enough, and b) you can't play with the amp by watching a video.

so that brings us back to where we were... does anyone have personal experience?

[Trem]

Well, if you haven't found or read this yet, thread tied to the vid that was posted, doesn't sound too good from anyone who's played it.

http://www.sevenstring.org/forum/gear-equipment/137530-13-high-gain-amp-shootout-premier-guitar.html

Interesting to note that it sounds the same (like shit) with either bulb or the other guy playing thru it with either duncans or dimarzios - i'd keep walking.
Too bad the features seem sweet on them and the looks are great, yet seems the sound is not worth a dime.

[Misanthrope[ALWT]]

hmmm... bummer..

i guess i'll have to just forget about it. shit..

i think what i really need is a GOOD guitar shop in socal that will let me go in and just demo all their amps

[Trem]

Well i haven't lived there since 87 but there were a lot of good guitar shops back then, lol, you live in Riverside and can't find a good shop??

[Misanthrope[ALWT]]

the only good shop i know of near me is Wild West guitars (which kicks a heap of ass by the way) but i've played all their stuff.. that's it. but by all means, enlighten me!

oh and if it makes any nevermind, i don't have a car.. so.. there isn't too much "exploring" i can do

[Trem]

Ah. yeah that does make it hard - One thing i would suggest is, well i don't know exactly your needs, but i would shoot for something in the range of 1200 or less, there are PLENTY of killer choices of amps in that price range.
Imo you don't need to spend 2k for a killer hard working great sounding amp. If your going to tho, might as well get an axefx, lol, you'll have a ton of amps right there to at least try out. But any tried and true Peavey, Recto, ect is a good choice. If i bought a 2k range head (now) it would probably be a used Slo100. Maybe also look at Engl's Fireball or Powerball. But you know a 5150 has been brutes for decades now and they are really cheap. Ah, see you already have a Peavey, haven't heard the Valveking but i bet it doesn't suck either.

[6string40]

At this point, if I were you, I'd probably just grab a 5150 or 6505. You know they'll do the trick until you can demo some other stuff down the road. I was just looking for a more modern metal amp as well...I was going to grab either a 6505 or a Rec, but I got a great deal on a used Framus Cobra.