FuseG4
Our Neighbor Totoro
Got the night train and the cab w/ the greenback today. Using my epiphone les paul.
The bright mode is really where it's at. The clean sound is very much the british chimey voxish clean I wanted, and is useable at surprisingly loud volumes. Both the pentode and triode mode have yielded good results, the triode mode isn't as dull as the blackheart bh5's. And, after not having a mid knob for a while on the SCXD, having one on the NT is like it's own little blessing. I can't believe how touch sensitive this amp is. Even on the thick mode, but especially in bright mode, you can pick lightly and it's smooth, but you hit it and BAM. The SCXD is pretty ridiculously compressed in comparison.
The thick mode is nuts. I had to be careful with the gain, there's a lot more in there than I thought. past roughly 1:30 on the dial, there's a little jump in volume and past that it gets a bit fizzy. Lowering the gain and raising the master is FAR better in this case, as you just whale on it and the right amount of grind kicks in by itself. I don't feel like I need a ton of gain with this amp, any music I used to play with a lot more gain, now I can play with less and it sounds way better. The speaker is great. I've become intimately familiar with only a few speakers but this one's gonna stay, and it kicks butt. It's got more growl than any speaker I've ever played, but at the same time it doesn't wuss out on the clarity when it's doin it's thang.
I tried one OD pedal out with it so far, a Digitech ToneDriver. In the bright mode with a clean sound, I can set the pedal's gain on about half and kick it in for some nice, smooth drive. The thick mode doesn't wanna handle it the same way, even with relatively low gain on the amp, the OD pedal makes it pretty muddy, noisy, and the bass is too much for it, especially on the neck pickup. That doesn't matter, I don't need more gain on the thick mode at all. Not the best OD pedal to rate something with, but anyways...
Comes with sovtek el84's and 12AX7WAs. I tried swapping in a JJ ECC83S for the preamp and it sounded like crap. Harsh, and dark. Some weird kinda fat, grinding distortion with a boomy on the low end. Hadn't used that tube in while, maybe it's shot. Switched it back out. The sovtek is pretty smooth. I put an EH 12ax7 in the PI slot and thought it sounded good. I'd like to experiment with the EL84's sometime but so far I like what I hear and so I'm not gonna just run out and drop for new ones.
I've been playing for about 2.5 hours with the chrome part of the amp head removed so it's just a loaded chassis with rubber feet. Looks pretty badass, like a homemade amp.
Overall, the only thing I don't like is the fizz on the highest gain settings. But, I didn't buy the amp for that. i'd say 70% to 85% of the gain is purely useable and in triode mode it's a little darker and you can get away with a bit more. When i think about it though, what amps don't start getting kinda funky when you dime the preamp? not that many amps in this price range or wattage, IMO.
The bright mode is really where it's at. The clean sound is very much the british chimey voxish clean I wanted, and is useable at surprisingly loud volumes. Both the pentode and triode mode have yielded good results, the triode mode isn't as dull as the blackheart bh5's. And, after not having a mid knob for a while on the SCXD, having one on the NT is like it's own little blessing. I can't believe how touch sensitive this amp is. Even on the thick mode, but especially in bright mode, you can pick lightly and it's smooth, but you hit it and BAM. The SCXD is pretty ridiculously compressed in comparison.
The thick mode is nuts. I had to be careful with the gain, there's a lot more in there than I thought. past roughly 1:30 on the dial, there's a little jump in volume and past that it gets a bit fizzy. Lowering the gain and raising the master is FAR better in this case, as you just whale on it and the right amount of grind kicks in by itself. I don't feel like I need a ton of gain with this amp, any music I used to play with a lot more gain, now I can play with less and it sounds way better. The speaker is great. I've become intimately familiar with only a few speakers but this one's gonna stay, and it kicks butt. It's got more growl than any speaker I've ever played, but at the same time it doesn't wuss out on the clarity when it's doin it's thang.
I tried one OD pedal out with it so far, a Digitech ToneDriver. In the bright mode with a clean sound, I can set the pedal's gain on about half and kick it in for some nice, smooth drive. The thick mode doesn't wanna handle it the same way, even with relatively low gain on the amp, the OD pedal makes it pretty muddy, noisy, and the bass is too much for it, especially on the neck pickup. That doesn't matter, I don't need more gain on the thick mode at all. Not the best OD pedal to rate something with, but anyways...
Comes with sovtek el84's and 12AX7WAs. I tried swapping in a JJ ECC83S for the preamp and it sounded like crap. Harsh, and dark. Some weird kinda fat, grinding distortion with a boomy on the low end. Hadn't used that tube in while, maybe it's shot. Switched it back out. The sovtek is pretty smooth. I put an EH 12ax7 in the PI slot and thought it sounded good. I'd like to experiment with the EL84's sometime but so far I like what I hear and so I'm not gonna just run out and drop for new ones.
I've been playing for about 2.5 hours with the chrome part of the amp head removed so it's just a loaded chassis with rubber feet. Looks pretty badass, like a homemade amp.
Overall, the only thing I don't like is the fizz on the highest gain settings. But, I didn't buy the amp for that. i'd say 70% to 85% of the gain is purely useable and in triode mode it's a little darker and you can get away with a bit more. When i think about it though, what amps don't start getting kinda funky when you dime the preamp? not that many amps in this price range or wattage, IMO.
