Any THD Uni or Bivalve owners?

[JfromHouston]

I'm getting rid of my 5150 and going for a more classic rock sounding amp to complement my DSL. From what I have read the uni's and bi's sound kick ass. Any positive or negative comments on the amps?


:feedback:


J

 

[mrid]

Great amps. Zero complaints (FWIW).

 

[JfromHouston]

Can I pull plexi or super lead tones from it? Harder/heavier classic rock sounds is what I am chasing.

Thanks!


Jason

 

[Gearjoneser]

Puckboy has a new Univalve.

I like them. I wish I had a Bivalve, since I'd love to have that much tube versatility in a 50W amp. Swappable tubes with a fixed bias, that's always hot, sounds like a fun amp!

Or get an AC-30 or Fender combo.

 

[mrid]

Can I pull plexi or super lead tones from it? Harder/heavier classic rock sounds is what I am chasing.

Thanks!


Jason

Yes, they can even get into JCM 800 territory.

 

[Gearjoneser]

Find a Dr. Z amp for a good price. Those have some juicy tone.

 

[chcjunior]

The Bivalve was fun since you could play mad scientist with the tubes. However.....in retrospect I wasn't that fond of the tone.
The cleans were pretty good.....but just couldn't handle anything hard or heavy without being shrill (at least to my ears).

My friend has a univalve which to my ears has a distinct sound different from the Bivalve. Its only drawback is that it doesn't have enough clean headroom to gig with.

 

[JfromHouston]

CHC... Is there anything you can compare the tone of the cranked UV to? I have read in a few posts that others feel the BV is a bright amp, and it seems like you feel the same way. Was the UV bright as well?

I may just wait for the stilletto to come out but I want a toy for the mean time. Im selling off a bunch of stuff to clear out my room (and gather the money for the stilleto) and the money is driving me insane :smash:


J

 

[PUCKBOY99]

HHHHMMMM, let's see. I've got a UniValve, have had it for approx 1 month & having been sick myself or the kids being sick, I haven't had a huge opportunity to play around with it, especially full bore.

From what I can tell though, with the right tube combo, you can pretty much get any tone you want out of it. I have only tried a handful so far, but when I last played I had a Sovtek EL34 w/2 Mesa 12AX7As & it was 15w of BAD A$$ saturated tone! (They have built in HotPlates!)

Thanks to a few fellas on the Forum, I'm starting to get a good tube collection...just ordered a few Visseaux's from a guy in Canada...I'll continue my search for that elusive tone that I hear only in my head!

Anyone interested, check out the only other Forum I stop by...

www.univalve.net

They have a Buy/Sell/Trade section & there are Uni's & Bi's all the time, with the occasional Flexi !!!!

 

[chcjunior]

The Univalve is a little bright as well but is definitely more manageable. When pushed hard, I think it is reminiscient of the JCM 800. It won't give monster gain, but it's distortion is definitely warm and mellow.

Have you considered the new THD Flexi? I took this one for a test drive last weekend and was happy with it. It's got the master volume/volume set up so you have more control over the gain. That's another drawback to me personally with the Univalve and Bivalve........the fact that you could only control the gain via your volume knob on the guitar. That works for some and that's fine...but just isn't my thing.

The Flexi is definitely reminiscient of the Plexi....hence its creative name.

 

[JfromHouston]

Hey thanks guys....


I have been reading up on the flexi and it does sound nice. At $1400 thats a major purchase that must be test driven first. I think a shop down the street carries THD so I will give it a try this weekend.

 

[Big Al Z]

I'll back chcjunior - no headroom on a univalve. Had one and got rid of it. Looking at a Groove Tubes Single right now. More volume and can also experiment with tubes. Anyone have any experience with those ??

 

[Steve_R]

I did a pro recording session with a univlave. The whole time, I wished that I had my JCM800 for more midrange grind. In the end, the producer got a great punchy sound but I didn't feel it or hear it when we were recording.

I don't know what kind of speakers I was playing through so I am sure that was a variable.

I was really impressed with the clean sound and I thought it was a little plexi-ish.