NAD: First tube amp

Oceano

Oceano

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It is a Crate Palomino V32. I totally got it last week, but only just now got everything in working order and put new tubes in. Let me tell you, this thing sounds pretty great regardless of how much I paid. I walked out the door with it for $270. For those of you that don't know this amp is a 2-channel amp with reverb, and a 9db mid-boost type thing and a presence button. It's powered by 4 EL84s and 3 12ax7 tubes, and has an effects loop and 8ohm speaker out. She's an ugly mother though. I'm not really into the whole "vintage" cream and gold thing. It looks too much like a cheesy cadillac.

Here she is (sorry for the backwards assed pic):
 
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Re: NAD: First tube amp

The Clean channel is quite Voxy to me, very chimey and jangly. Really the overdrive channel is too, but you can dial it out to a certain extent. Its not one of my favorite sounds ever, but it definitely more than gets the job done. The OD channel has a great range. You can dial it in to be more like a clean boost for leads all the way to older heavy metal like Iron Maiden and Judas Priest. It does a really nice Eric Clapton from the John Mayall and the Bluesbreaker album impersonation. Very sweet sort of sound (not sweet playing by me though lol)

I'm not a huge fan of the sound of EL84s though. They are just not thick enough for what I need most of the time, but unfortunately most tube amps in my price range were all gonna be EL84 either 15 watts or 30. I think maybe a speaker swap in the future might solve some of this as the Stock Seventy-80 is kinda bright. I did hit this sucker with a stock DS-1 with a little bit of OD on the drive channel and I got some sick modern metal tones like LoG out of this thing, so maybe a good OD or Distortion pedal might get me where I want to go. Either way I'm pretty stoked about this thing!!

EDIT: I forgot to mention the Reverb leaves something to be desired, but I just use a little bit of it to add some room. Besides, effects loop means I can get a reverb pedal later (not that I would).
 
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Re: NAD: First tube amp

Thank God that thing sounds like it's better than the crate V33-212. Maybe the one I played was broken or needed new tubes but it sounding like someone farting in a locker room.
Nice. Welcome to tube tone. Crates aren't the best but their tube amps aren't the worst thing in the world either.
So have you cranked the master yet?
 
Re: NAD: First tube amp

FuseG4 said:
Thank God that thing sounds like it's better than the crate V33-212. Maybe the one I played was broken or needed new tubes but it sounding like someone farting in a locker room.
Nice. Welcome to tube tone. Crates aren't the best but their tube amps aren't the worst thing in the world either.
So have you cranked the master yet?
Click to expand...

This is one of the Older Made in USA Palominos. Its not in anyway related to the new crappy Made in Vietnam V-series, thankfully. I have gotten it to about 3 or 4 which is about where I can get without killing small children playing in the street. One of the great things about this amp is that it still sounds pretty good with relatively low volume, and even better once I get a better OD pedal lol.
 
Re: NAD: First tube amp

yeah, sometime you're gonna get a chance to lower tha gain to like 3 or 4 and then crank the master to like 8, and then you'll sh*t. El84s get crazy when you juice em. The preamp gain sound totally different at low to mid volumes vs. high volumes.
I'm glad it sounds good at low volumes, too.
 
Re: NAD: First tube amp

Well I play mostly more modern stuff with it so I sort of need the preamp distortion. Its not super loud to do what you're saying though, so maybe I'll try it tmw. I did it with one of the V16s and it was super nice sounding.
 
Re: NAD: First tube amp

Like, with a little preamp distortion, the power amp distortion is like the same thing as using a lot of preamp but clearer and with more cut, and less harsh all around.
El84s have a lot of crunch.
 
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