My new amp!!!

[randyvanmalmsteen]

Re: My new amp!!!

Originally posted by jgcable:
What a difference rewiring my cabinets made. I think that is the sole reason that some players claim the Flextone HD can't cut through the mix. I wired my 2 1/2 stacks in true stereo (2x 8 ohm jacks per cabinet) and I run the 4 cables back to the Flextone HD. My speakers are 4 ohm speakers so I wired each pair in each bainet in series going to 1 jack per pair. It is set for true stereo 150w per side too. Forget about it. It is all the power any mortal could ever hope to need under any circumstance. What a great amp.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">jgcable,it sounds like you really love this new amp(coming from a all tube carvin rack setup),let me ask you what style(s) do you play ?

[ November 22, 2003, 09:38 AM: Message edited by: randyvanmalmsteen ]

[jgcable]

Re: My new amp!!!

I play mainly 80's style metal and neo-classical. I do really love Disturbed, Godsmack and alot of other new bands so I do alot of that stuff too. I can't find a single flaw with the HD so far. The cleans have tons of headroom and the gain channels are just outstanding. Here is the problem though.. What am I going to do with my Morley PWA, my Ibanez FL-9 Flanger and my Boss TU-2 pedal tuner!! I don't need anything anymore except the longboard, a guitar cable and a guitar. It takes 5 minutes to set up. [img]graemlins/headbang.gif[/img]

[randyvanmalmsteen]

Re: My new amp!!!

Originally posted by jgcable:
I play mainly 80's style metal and neo-classical. I do really love Disturbed, Godsmack and alot of other new bands so I do alot of that stuff too. I can't find a single flaw with the HD so far. The cleans have tons of headroom and the gain channels are just outstanding. Here is the problem though.. What am I going to do with my Morley PWA, my Ibanez FL-9 Flanger and my Boss TU-2 pedal tuner!! I don't need anything anymore except the longboard, a guitar cable and a guitar. It takes 5 minutes to set up. [img]graemlins/headbang.gif[/img]

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">GODSMACK is great! one of the only newer metal bands i even like!
[img]graemlins/headbang.gif[/img]
he gets a heavy tone [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[jgcable]

Re: My new amp!!!

Godsmack certainly has great heavy tone. My favorite of the newer bands is Disturbed. Mudvayne also gets a great guitar sound.

[randyvanmalmsteen]

Re: My new amp!!!

Originally posted by jgcable:
Godsmack certainly has great heavy tone. My favorite of the newer bands is Disturbed. Mudvayne also gets a great guitar sound.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">yeah disturbed in also happening [img]images/icons/cool.gif[/img]

[lerxstcat]

Re: My new amp!!!

Well, Pete's not a digital guy; he builds tube power amps, so I'd say he went into Vetta-hood with skepticism. If they won him over, that's a good sign for them.

If you are wed to tubes unto death, that's fine. To say you have a better ear than the rest of us (especially Pete)
is a bit arrogant though. It might just
as well be said that the difference is all in your head, than saying others can't hear it. You WANT to hear it, because your wallet and ego are invested in hearing it, so you DO hear a difference. That's a hypothetical statement, for the sake of argument, but you get my point.

Is there a difference in tube vs. solidstate? Yes. Is the flexibility of
the Line 6 stuff and their increasing sound quality making them a more and more valid alternative to tube amps? ALso yes.

[hammer84]

Re: My new amp!!!

Ugh... Silly digital guys... Maybe when the sampling rate gets to 96 it will sound better, but I can't take them now. They have their good points. But, there is a special things about tuibes they'll never quite nail. If you don't hear it, that just because YOU don't hear it, haha...

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I don't buy it !!

So many tracks are recorded with Modeling stuff now days. After you record it to hard disk !!, add effects, squash it, eq it, and master it. IT is no longer in the same form IT was when it came out of the amp anyway.

Guitar players are the biggest bunch of egomaniacs around. No one wants to give away their secrets of tone. Most players don't want to say they got that tome with a computer amp. They want to say it was a rare Marshall that was made with parts from an old german u-boat found on the ocean floor and the amp mod was done by monks in a secret high mountain hidaway with tubes from Spunik I.

Maybe some day I'll tell you how I really feel [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

[Dreamland_Rebel]

Re: My new amp!!!

there is a difference in sound between tube and line six, as well as 44.1 and 96k mhz. not everyone can hear the defference. most people are tone def anyway, and don't realize it. and then some people hear frequencies instead of sound. these are the one that produce the albums that sound fanominal. these people can hear the diffence between 44.1 and 96k. they can also hear the diffence between a perfect c and an out of tune c.

but these days almost all studio work is pro-tools based and the albums coming out have lost that "HiFi" sound to them. so recording with modeling gear is more economical and since that HiFi sound is gone anyway, who cares as long as it sounds decent.

its funny how albums like pink floyd's "the wall" were recorded in the 70's sound far superior in every nuonce to what is coming out today. but the world is run by money and digital is saving the recording cost of eveybody so much that no one seems to care that the sound quality is going down.
[img]graemlins/rant.gif[/img]

[Dreamland_Rebel]

Re: My new amp!!!

oh yeah,

i record with the pod too. its just easier.

i wish i could afford mic'ed rigs and 2" tape. but thats not going to happen.

...too bad

[hammer84]

Re: My new amp!!!

Hey Rebel
I agree with you. It is all the punks that tune down to C and bang on their guitars and rave about tubes that bug me [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img] We are on the same page. Who gives a rats ass if itis a vintage tube whatever if your going to pro tool it to death !! The old saying is true, crap in crap out. But you sure can turn something good into crap just as easy. That is why when my wife has country music on it bugs me. The vocals are so comped and pasted they have all the life sucked out of them.

I agree with you 110% about the Pink Flyod comment. I usually use Dark Side of the Moon in my examples [img]images/icons/shocked.gif[/img]

[Cleveland Metal]

Re: My new amp!!!

If you are wed to tubes unto death, that's fine. To say you have a better ear than the rest of us (especially Pete)
is a bit arrogant though. It might just
as well be said that the difference is all in your head, than saying others can't hear it. You WANT to hear it, because your wallet and ego are invested in hearing it, so you DO hear a difference.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">First off, I have owned amp modelling stuff and ditched it. It has its points, and is more flexible than my rig, but still sounds somewhat off to me and has digital artifacts. It's getting better everyday though.

Second off, it's not like Pete is some tone god. He makes tube amps, and they're decent sounding. His idea of good tone is far from mine. Shit, Amp demigods Bradshaw and Suhrs idea of tone is different than mine.

And saying "I want to hear it" because I've invested in it is the silliest thing I've heard you say. Look at what a Vetta costs, and tell me that. Duh...

For that matter, "my ego" is whatever sounds good to me, show me any amp that does what I want, DSP or whatever, I'd own it. I don't need VHT or CAE nametags, As a matter of fact, I dislike Bob Bradshaw and wish I didn't like his amps, haha. I don't even need Jackson or ESP nametags on my guitars, shit, my main axe is $215 Charvel. My ego???

I have chased tone for years and this is what "I" like. I've watched and analyzed lotsa pro guitar gods live for 25+ years and found what I like.

I'm quite poor, poverty level actually, and have saved and sacrificed to get what I want. If I though the DSP was was the sound I wanted, I'd certainly own that. Much less to maintain and lighter too!

Hey, Some guys like real butter, some guys like margarine. I like butter. There is a difference.

[jgcable]

Re: My new amp!!!

Originally posted by Dreamland_Rebel:
oh yeah,

i record with the pod too. its just easier.

i wish i could afford mic'ed rigs and 2" tape. but thats not going to happen.

...too bad

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Well said Reb.. [img]graemlins/headbang.gif[/img]
I have had many a great amp both tube and ss. After 27 years of tearing up, pushing to the limit, blowing up and modding everything from Hiwatts to Ampegs to Sunns to Marshalls to Mesa's to Soldano's etc... I think I am qualified to say that I can "hear" the difference between tubes and ss. With the breakthroughs in technology that ss modeling amps have achieved I just can't justify myself not having one. Hey, if an amp endorsement deal came along I would take it but it ain't so I am perfectly happy with my HD and its models of Marshall, Uber, Mesa, Soldano, Fender, Vox, Hiwatt, etc...

[Enochiankey]

Re: My new amp!!!

Great diversity and opinions on both sides so here is my 2 1/2 cents
i love the sound of a tube amp honestly i don't know why it sounds good to me nor do i care.
I only care that i get the tone that i like.
I have played SS many times and many different brands how ever when the smoke clears i always end up with a 100 watt Marshall usually it is a 2203, however right now it is a 2210 it sounds good on 3 and yes it sounds great on 6. Is it better than SS tone? To my ears yes to someone elses ears maybe not but thats ok because
I play what I like and Love what i play.
The point is listen to advice keep what you need and chuck the rest because when all is said and done your the one who must be pleased by what you hear. Unless all that you want to do is please everyone else at your own expense.
by the way i play 80's style music.
just my 2 1/2 cents

[redmanjj]

Re: My new amp!!!

I play live with a rack system (MP-2, Marshall EL-84), but I record with a POD 2.0. Getting the setup to record with my rack is a pain, and playing live with the POD sounds like a$$.

This seems like a good compromise to me.

How much did you want for the Carvin preamp?

[Twisteramps]

Re: My new amp!!!

Wow, lotsa passion here regarding our choices. My 2 cents:

Everyone has different tastes. CM likes his stuff, I like mine. Is my amp better than his? For me, *yes*. Is his amp better than mine? For him, *yes*.

We all look for different things out of gear. I've owned guitars that I hated (too thin, too fat sounding, etc) that someone else played and it just fit them better. So be it. If we all had the same idea of a good tone, then there would pretty much just be the same amp at each price point - not a lot of variety. A friend of mine preferred his Marshall TSL over the VHT I had for metal. I think he's nuts. He thinks I'm nuts. We're both probably right. [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

I'm trying to break from the habit of saying that something sucks just because it doesn't work for me. About the only real criticism I level at amps anymore are ones that I know there are problems with reliability-wise, because that isn't based as much on opinion as tone is.

ANY amp you can express yourself with is valid. I'm still building tube amps (working on a 50 watt prototype, an 18 watt parallel SE, an a 6 watt head all at once) and I love em. But for me, a Vetta makes much more sense than anything else right now. I was getting a killer tone out of the 6 watt amp the other day... thing sounded like a little dumble/komet amp [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

Enjoy what you have, but try not to bash what others have and enjoy, ya know?

Pete