VHT Special 6 Ultra

Nagarajah725

Nagarajah725

New member
So I got one of these shortly after they came out. I admit the impulsive buy, but I was too anxious to get something after staying up looking for a small tube amp. It was either the blackstar ht-5 or the vht; lost the bid to the blackstar and ended up with buying a new Special 6 ultra with free shipping. I received it a week ago and spent the last few days toying with it and got some really nice sounds out of it.

Out of the box, everything appears where it needs to be and in good working order. Exterior looks nice and firm with the switches and knob on the controls intact. The footswitch cord is pretty long and shaped like a ringer bell instead it only weighs a few ounces. The thing with the footswitch is that the right angle connector doesn't have enough clearance on the back panel to move past the bottom but it's not really an issue. The controls are quite simple to use. There is the clean and the ultra channel (I haven't used the original Special 6 so I don't know if it has 2 channels or not). Ultra channel has its own gain knob. The volume knob has a pull boost which can be used in both channels. Using the clean channel with the boost on can make it sound more like the ultra channel. The regular clean channel sounds nice, and it can get chimey sounds if dialed correctly. I'm using a Washburn WI-66 Idol with a Custom 5 in the bridge. If you adjust the watts knob it adds more headroom response to the clean and distorted channel. It's best if the clean channel is used in low watt settings. The watts settings in relation to the volume knob also has an affect on pick attack and chord voicings. Otherwise I tend to not use the watts knob past noon setting or it might get too boomy. Anyway just first impressions after a little playing. More comments later.


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Re: VHT Special 6 Ultra

The special 6 line is built by VHT and different from the Fryette company. For a small tube amp, the build quality is definitely up there and for the price of 300 bucks the worst I done making a good mistake buying it.

The drive channel has ample amount of gain and bite. Mids become more prevalent with the volume knob and the Depth control feature. Dynamics are still intact even when watts are turned up. The volume boost is great for lead and puts a great deal of gain to the channel. Instant gratification when the volume is cranked up. The watts knob doesn't do much to tame the volume down but then again it doesn't actually have a built in attenuator. The speaker's good quality but I'm not anxious of switching it immediately as of now. There's a texture switch located just above the panel. What it does from what I can here is automatically adjust the EQ of the amp: the default middle position is on the flat side, the left position gives more mids, and the right position is more bassy from what I can hear. I tend to use them more in the ultra channel as you can tune it from hard rock to metal. And yes the ultra channel has more than enough gain to do 80's rock and metal.
 
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Re: VHT Special 6 Ultra

misterwhizzy said:
That's post-Fryette VHT. Not the same company at all. Not saying it's bad. It's just not at all like yours.
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Very true, but for that price and what's out there, its not a bad pickup. Although I am partial to the vox ac4.
 
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