Re: Budda amps
Hey Twilight, how does the Studio2 compare to the Superdrive tonewise? I didn't know Budda's were hard rock amps. I guess I always put them in the realm of Vox for being loud, dynamic, and very guitar knob sensitive. What hard rock band would you compare the tone to?
I was unaware that I played hard rock.
The SuperDrive is more comparable to the Club18 or Club30.
The Studio 2 was designed to be a single amp studio solution regardless of your style. It has gobs of front end gain and volume, but very little headroom, so while a dead clean tone is possible, either you have to keep the volume low or use your volume control.
My workaround to this is twofold --
a) I swapped out the V1 for an ECC832. This retains the timbre of Jeff's voicing but cuts the gain way down so I have a wider sweet spot and can use whatever pedals I like for gain and boost
b) I usually play the amp full on and use a Heavy Electronics Descend to clean things up
Tonally, the S2 is a cross between a Budda and an Orange to my ears. The EQ range is subtle but very musical and firmly fixed around a midrange push.
Besides all this the S2 has an fx loop w separate volume and a recording out with its own volume. Both of these are post-power stage so you can slave a larger amp if needed and still get the full tonality of the amp.
Last but not least there is a switch on the back that increases or decreases the input sensitivity slightly called the Clean/Mean switch.
So it's definitely possible to get anything from clean to mild crunch to hard rock distortion with this amp.
The only real downside for most people will be the price, as it costs the same as his other higher wattage offerings. This is not a 2W entry level mass market device, it's a full featured amp with the power section designed so you can wind it up without going (completely) deaf!
