Re: New Cab and Speaker mixing Day
Home today due to the weather, so time to waffle on about nothing important
The h30 is breaking in nicely. Over the weekend I put all 3 of my amps and my pedals to the test.
The micro terror, while fun, shows its pedal like nature. It sounds bigger of course, but the cab is emphasizing its synthetic nature. Especially if you keep the preamp low and jack the volume. It just doesn't have that in your face push like a real tube amp. It sounds distant and lackluster. The mp3 input was indispensable for breaking in the speakers however, so kudos there
The Tubemeister 18. I don't think anything can make me happy with this amp anymore. I have been using it as a power amp lately and slaving my Bogner Blue into it. Like the micro terror, things sound bigger, but now the amps character is intensified and I like it even less. Plugged straight into the front of the amp as normal, the clean channel is more brilliant and hi-fi. The crunch channel sounds even more tight/modern but with a nastier edge. Not my thing. If I was playing old school thrash, maybe I would like it better. I tried the Blue in front of the clean channel,but the improved clarity thins it out and makes sound like a high gain vox, with lots of twang you cannot dial out. Ick.
The Class5 however, has responded in a completely opposite manner. It still has a bit of that low end mud, but the high end harsh has tamed a lot and the amp is more musical through the entire range of the volume control. It's tighter, more complex, and is starting to sound more like it's big brethren. At first I was using the EP Boost to add a little push, but after some tweaking, the amp sounds better all by its lonesome. It's kind of got that mid 70s Schenker live tone, or Physical Graffiti comes to mind. In this case, the amp was saved from the chopping block, and now I am thinking about sending it off for some mods to get it just right instead of another amp since my high end amp budget was killed due to a car accident.
Anyhow, very happy. Great sounding cab (birch ply, no mdf here) for a reasonable price.