John Help!!!! Need help on CAE

[Tetsuo]

I am thinking of going rack again... Do you hve any clips of your rack. I am going 2150 again but I am trying to deide on the Pre. Also I know the clean is good but how is the bluesy edge of breaking up tone?

[Cleveland Metal]

Re: John Help!!!! Need help on CAE

As much as I've been meaning to get a nice display of what the CAE can do, I'm just a lazy bastage that never gets around to it, or isn't happy with the bits and pieces I have gotten... I need to get that CAD E-100 mic back from my buddy and do a nice cross section of stuff.

The clean channel is of best I've heard, from a twin reverbish sound to a warmer blackface princeton sound. At the highest gain, it gets a nice edge and breakup that is pretty outstanding.

The second channel, is considered a rythm channel I guess. It picks up a bit past where the 1st channel leaves off. More marshall-esque, (MKII and 800-ish) with a nice ability to go from clean to a overdriven bluesy thang to a "Foriegner/Bad Company" sort of classic rock distortion.

In stock plug in and play form, the third channel is even more than Marshally and gets a classic Steely Dan/Jeff Baxter or Lukather fuzzy at about 1 oclock or more gain.

Myself though, on channel 3, I run EMGs and an EMG PA-2 onboard preamp, and the channel just smokes for rock and heavy metal. Running gain at 9-10 oclock it gets a nice lively (heavier than)VH I vibe with great attack and controllability.

At 10-1pm it gets a heavier low chug reminiscent of MESA stuff. I can get a nice Metallica "Sad but True" chug and I'm quite satisfied with it. I never use that gain above 2 oclock as it get too loose for good attack on the low end, MESA guys might like that though.

At low living room volumes, I like a parametric to boost lows and edge, but at stage levels, I unplug the EQ and run just preamp.

I'll see about clips, I really need them. I'm such a slacker at that stuff.

[Tetsuo]

Re: John Help!!!! Need help on CAE

Thanks John I am leaning towards this preamp heavily... I loved the triple I had but it had enough gain and perfect crunch it was lacking in the bottom end though. The CAE has a good bottom end for a heavy rythm... If it gets a good sad but true chug I would assume so what voicing do you use on your VHT?

[El Bastardo]

Re: John Help!!!! Need help on CAE

I'm actually planning on building a similar rig.
I have recently bought an old CAE 3+ (still with the John Suhr and Robert Bradshaw signatures inside) which I plan to hook up with my VHT 2150.
And for spicing I plan to add one of my TC 1128's.
I have no idea what else I will put in the rack, but I'm really looking forward to hooking up this setup. (too bad I have no time in the next couple of weeks to do it)

Leon..

[Cleveland Metal]

Re: John Help!!!! Need help on CAE

Sounds like a very cool rig. Hehe...

Interested in selling "one" of the 1128s?

[El Bastardo]

Re: John Help!!!! Need help on CAE

Originally posted by Cleveland Metal:
Sounds like a very cool rig. Hehe...

Interested in selling "one" of the 1128s?

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Haha, nope, sorry. I have two and updated them with the new displays. I'm using one with my Bogner XTC and plan to use the other one with the 3+. And if I run into another one somewhere, I buy that one too. These babies work miracles on your amp!!!

Leon..

[Tetsuo]

Re: John Help!!!! Need help on CAE

Leon when you do post a review it might help the decision on my end I think I am getting steered away.

The Engl is quite a lot of coin but it seems real nice. John how do you like the Uber as far as Plug and play?

[Cleveland Metal]

Re: John Help!!!! Need help on CAE

I use the modern voicing on the VHT I believe it is called. Brighter and more upfront.

Like I mentioned with the CAE, you need a really heavy pickup to get that low chug out out of it. I'd bet the Triple would get it too with the right tweaking.

I plug in straight to the CAE3+se with a basic pickup and it was flubby and fuzzy at high gain and not chunky enough at the low end, more flubby I'd say.

I really didn't like the CAE out of the box that much, actually, I was pretty dissapointed and had buyers remorse. It was just not heavy enough. I could however sense the character and tone it had, and I played a lot with it. I really have to milk it a lot using different tubes and the EMG81/EMG PA-2 combination. With out that stuff, I'd still be iffy about that preamp for my heavier uses.

I highly advocate checking out the newer ENGL preamp for plug and play happiness. It's a big outlay, but the likelyhood of truly getting the holy grail is much more likely. It may even still be in my future. We'll see. I've lost a lot of interest in playing clubs and going anywhere with the music stuff, and just pay in the basement for the most part and am pretty happy equipmentwise for now.

[El Bastardo]

Re: John Help!!!! Need help on CAE

I'm putting it all together at the end of this week or early next week. I'll let you know what the woody factor is [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

[Cleveland Metal]

Re: John Help!!!! Need help on CAE

The Uber is a plug and play unit for one style it seems. It is pretty much a brutal unit, it does the chugging heavy brutal sound VERY well. But, that's what it does best and other stuff with that amp is a compromise. My CAE is a tad less brutal (maybe) but is heads above it on all other levels.

The new ENGL MIDI rack preamp, 580 I believe, is pretty awesome. If it generally sounds ANYTHING like the Powerball, Savage, Blackmore, SE, it's the preamp to buy IMO.

[Tetsuo]

Re: John Help!!!! Need help on CAE

I guess the next question would be... Should I just get a Powerball? I don't ahve to go to the rack the CAE just always interested me....

[El Bastardo]

Re: John Help!!!! Need help on CAE

I heard a lot of the ENGL heads and also the 580. I must say that the heads (savage, sse, special edition, rbm) sound a lot better than the 580.
If I were to buy ENGL (probably later this year, hehe, GAS eh?) it would be a head and NOT the 580.
The ENGL heads are awesome, I still like my Bogner XTC better, but damn, they're close!!!

Leon..

[Tetsuo]

Re: John Help!!!! Need help on CAE

Good to know on that.... Engl is so resonable in the pricing to aside from the SE