AMT M1 vs M2 vs P1 vs JCM900 SL-X

NecroPolo

NecroPolo

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During tracking, a little while ago I did my A/B(CD) test to check myself if it is just my biased love for these little pedals that make me think they sound much like the real thing - or they really do. For the closest measurement, it's the same power amp / cab / mic / riffs reamped, only the preamps change.

 
Re: AMT M1 vs M2 vs P1 vs JCM900 SL-X

Yeah, those are basically interchangeable to my ears. There's a tiny bit more brightness in the M2, and maybe the P1 is ever-so-slightly lower gain, but other than that, I'd be very hard pressed to tell the difference.
 
Re: AMT M1 vs M2 vs P1 vs JCM900 SL-X

Do they sound that close when you perform direct live through them?

I’m wondering how much reamping levels the dynamics and makes them sound similar.
 
Re: AMT M1 vs M2 vs P1 vs JCM900 SL-X

misterwhizzy said:
Yeah, those are basically interchangeable to my ears. There's a tiny bit more brightness in the M2, and maybe the P1 is ever-so-slightly lower gain, but other than that, I'd be very hard pressed to tell the difference.
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Uniform sound wasn't forced, I just put the pedals in the pot with the setting they had the day before. The similarity surprised me, to be honest. I guess, I try to seek a certain sound regardless the unit.


beaubrummels said:
Do they sound that close when you perform direct live through them?

I’m wondering how much reamping levels the dynamics and makes them sound similar.
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I A/B-d the reamp signal and the juice coming from the real guitar and tried to match them as much as possible so it is neither pushed nor attenuated, they were as close as ears could tell.

Their cab sim out into a DI box is quite functional, sounds like an amp close mic'd in one working position. Of course, because of tube dynamics it is not the same as standing before a tube rig played at the volume. But if you put a mic before the same amp and check the signal that goes into the mixing desk, it is surprisingly close. So if someone is got used to rely on wedge monitor / in-ear mix rather than standing directly before the amp, it is very hard to tell the difference onstage in a band environment.

I made a video a while ago where only the Marshall is mic'd, all the rest go DI. You can hear the difference here.

 
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Re: AMT M1 vs M2 vs P1 vs JCM900 SL-X

Liked the jcm & m1 in the first clip. Second clip i liked the m1 only. I had read sometime back that those legend series from AMT use the preamp circuit of the amps except the tubes are subbed with ss components, those are really good sounding pieces of kit.
 
Re: AMT M1 vs M2 vs P1 vs JCM900 SL-X

Hank- said:
Liked the jcm & m1 in the first clip. Second clip i liked the m1 only. I had read sometime back that those legend series from AMT use the preamp circuit of the amps except the tubes are subbed with ss components, those are really good sounding pieces of kit.
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I have no idea about the circuitry inside, what you read may be completely possible. When I met to Sergei Marichev, a class act and the head of AMT in Frankfurt Musik Messe a couple of years ago, he told me he started the biz back in the '70s listening to records smuggled in from the west to the east. Local musicians asked if he can build stuff that sounds like things on the records. Without even knowing the actual gear in some cases, he made synths, amps and all sorts of pedals. He had to use his ears and engineering skills / imagination only as there were no schematics, not even original gear around to check what's inside. Let alone certain components in the old Russia, he used what was around. So, on the way he invented an ample of things / solutions, his way. It led the way to the present of his guitar gear company.
 
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Re: AMT M1 vs M2 vs P1 vs JCM900 SL-X

Great vid, I agree the M1 is a clone for the sound, the other 2 are very close.
I had 1 of those Russian beauties for awhile, definitely a different beast than all the rest of the pedal world.
 
Re: AMT M1 vs M2 vs P1 vs JCM900 SL-X

Yup. Between them, they are all very similar. I agree the P1 has slightly less gain. The M2 a little bit of sparkle on top. Overall, very convincing. I've been toying with the idea of a M2, PowerStage 170 (or similar) power amp, and a 1x12 cab for a silly simple lightweight and portable rig.
 
Re: AMT M1 vs M2 vs P1 vs JCM900 SL-X

@ 80's_Metal: I agree. There is something with the response of these tiny boxes that is quite spot-on, especially if someone is from the lifelong tube amp player department.

@ ErikH: I toured from 2010 to 2018 with a similar setup (EXH 44Magnum, but the PS170 is a better choice). Never a breakdown, change of tone (tube heads can be pretty sensitive of in-house power = different sound from gig to gig), or any sort of hiccup and there were dosens of gigs per year. I can only recommend to build such a portable, super reliable rig. On the P1, the gain was set very low, much lower than I usually set it but that's how it was the day before. The M series were turned to max, the P1 barely opened.

@ CaptainWhizz: Nice video, revealing the functionality of this setup. Guess what, it is exactly the same mini rig that I toured with in the last 8 years. I switched to a more compact FRFR solution just last year. Here only the amp stage is different with same hands / guitar / cab / stage / PA gear / mics / engineer:

 
Re: AMT M1 vs M2 vs P1 vs JCM900 SL-X

Cheers for doing them. I ended up getting a B1 and P1 used. They're great, and give so many more options without shelling out for different heads.
 
Re: AMT M1 vs M2 vs P1 vs JCM900 SL-X

I understand how easy and convient it is to use a guitar amp plugin but I prefer to put my money on something I can use both to play live and will get recorded very easily. The output of those preamps can be easily recorded as line level into a Scarlett 2i2 for example, then in your DAW put a free IR loader with some impulse response file and there you are. My only question about the M1 would be How well does it clean up when using a strat and roll the volume back? I do have the AMT SS-20 and the crunch channel is great for that, I can go from clean to mild overdrive to crunch and some lead just by turning the volume knob.
 
Re: AMT M1 vs M2 vs P1 vs JCM900 SL-X

IMENATOR said:
My only question about the M1 would be How well does it clean up when using a strat and roll the volume back?
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I wish I could give a proper answer but I have never had a Strat. The closest thing I have is a Squier '51 that has coil split option and single neck pickup, still has a different nature from a Strat. I use the neck p-up twice a year to check if it still works and the bridge split coil once a leap-year. That is far from some objective reference I'm afraid.

Anyway, considering humbuckers, the M1 feels to me pretty much like a JCM800 / 900 when the volume is rolled back. I always used single-channel amps and my clean(er) option was the rolled back volume pot. I could not notice any drastical difference / functionality from the real thing.
 
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Re: AMT M1 vs M2 vs P1 vs JCM900 SL-X

Yeah, this has me seriously reconsidering everything, but what would I spend all my tube-rolling time and money on? Practice? That would ruin everything.
 
Re: AMT M1 vs M2 vs P1 vs JCM900 SL-X

Having owned an SL-X myself, it's pretty scary how close the pedals get, especially like the M2 (first clip at least).
To my ears, just a very slight hint of bite, growl and openness missing from the M1/M2 pedals, which would definitely go unnoticed in a live- or practice situation anyway.
Rig sounds great, especially considering size, cost and ease of transportation compared to a tube rig (which you would most likely run pedals through anyway).

Really makes one think why even bother with tube amps.
 
Re: AMT M1 vs M2 vs P1 vs JCM900 SL-X

misterwhizzy said:
Yeah, this has me seriously reconsidering everything, but what would I spend all my tube-rolling time and money on? Practice? That would ruin everything.
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Practice would definitely ruin everything :) I'm not joking. I attended 2 years of jazz college a couple of years ago because of a music teaching license. The daily dose of practising needed to get all the theory hubble-bubble into motor skills without honestly enjoying it made me hate it so much that I had to decide if I finish the school and quit music forever gettin' sick of it or I quit the school and slowly re-train myself to be the instinct-driven player I was before. I decided the later and never regretted it.

On tube heads, they absolutely make sense. What would I do without them on reamping sessions? I can't show the clients a $100 pedal that "okay dude I ran your signal through this little one..." :) During audio production folks listen with their eyes. If their eyes see the big amp they will hear the big amp (and not the little pedal lurking around somewhere in the signal chain... er... you know)

JesusCrisp said:
Having owned an SL-X myself, it's pretty scary how close the pedals get, especially like the M2 (first clip at least).
To my ears, just a very slight hint of bite, growl and openness missing from the M1/M2 pedals, which would definitely go unnoticed in a live- or practice situation anyway.
Rig sounds great, especially considering size, cost and ease of transportation compared to a tube rig (which you would most likely run pedals through anyway).

Really makes one think why even bother with tube amps.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the good words. You're right, the dynamics feel to be a little processed, a litte like playing a mic'd rig in the studio listening through monitor speakers rather than standing before an amp that flaps the pants.

You're spot on about the transportation. That's why I started to use AMT gear. My spine gave up after an ample of heavy lifting around 2010. I used double half-stacks every show since the mid-90s and despite that we had stage hands, at the end of the day I ended up moving the hill alone at home. This and polyarthritis made my spine one day saying: no. So I needed a superlight solution to be able to continue playing onstage. I used these preamps with an EHX pocket power amp and a light cab for years (absolutely roadworthy) and lately I just go directly to the PA / FRFR like this:

 
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Re: AMT M1 vs M2 vs P1 vs JCM900 SL-X

Aceman said:
I'll take the SL-X all day every day!
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I would, I would! My spine just wouldn't.

Sometimes I get that old dawg onstage when I have help moving it out of its den with its battered 4x12" Laney Greenback cab. Mostly it serves its studio time now'days.
 
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