WOOT! Picked-up an XTC Classic for "cheap" last night!

[Red_Label]

Re: WOOT! Picked-up an XTC Classic for "cheap" last night!

Result! Sounds like an ideal scenario to me bud. Nice one.

Might be getting more "ideal". LOL!

The guy who was going to buy my Shiva next week is waffling for various reasons. I offered to drop the price to $1400 shipped, but that's as far as I'm gonna go. Told the wife and she was cool with that, as she doesn't want me to give it away.

So if he doesn't do it, I'm probably gonna keep the Shiva and sell other gear to pay the wife back. Will likely sell my Traynor YCS100H head (that's been my backup since getting the Shiva), as well as the Tweaker I recently bought. Could return the 11R I just bought, but not ready to do that yet because if I can dial-in some great Bogner, Marshall, Fender -ish tones, I want to keep it for quiet pracitce and recording. I need to spend more time with it to see if that's gonna be possible to my satisfaction.

Anyways... I could find myself with an XTC as my main amp, Shiva as my backup (and oh what a backup it is!), and 11R for practice and recording. Whereas just a year ago, I will still dreaming of just having a "lowly" Shiva. LOL.

To those who've spent a decent amount of time with the XTC and Shiva -- will the XTC do everything the Shiva does (and then some obviously)? Or does the Shiva sit in its own niche and they can cover some different ground? I'm just trying to tell myself that it's okay to have both, because lately I've seriously been trying to get rid of all but a few quality items because I'm sick of overkill and I want to be less of a gear-whore and more of a HUSBAND to my wife.

 

[Red_Label]

Re: WOOT! Picked-up an XTC Classic for "cheap" last night!

*** UPDATE ***

I think the buyer is going to come through. Which is fine. But if he doesn't this time, I'm keeping the Shiva.

 

[Gearjoneser]

Re: WOOT! Picked-up an XTC Classic for "cheap" last night!

That looks like I'm being sarcastic but I'm seriously not. I just thought the picture was too cool to not post. This is actually a genius concept. I really hope that works.

The only part I overlooked is that you would possibly be able to switch between the preamps on the fly, but you'd still have to pull the guitar cable out of one and into another. :smack:

As for keeping the Shiva. I'd rather keep that than the Traynor, but the Traynor won't fetch as much money. No two amps sound exactly the same, but the XTC comes closer than anything else at duplicating the Shiva.

 

[Red_Label]

Re: WOOT! Picked-up an XTC Classic for "cheap" last night!

As for keeping the Shiva. I'd rather keep that than the Traynor, but the Traynor won't fetch as much money. No two amps sound exactly the same, but the XTC comes closer than anything else at duplicating the Shiva.

Cool man. Good to hear.

Yeah... I'd rather keep the Shiva than the Traynor too. But I will admit, there were days when I almost liked the OD on the Traynor more than the Shiva. I've got it biased hot and it really does a good job at the Marshall crunch and roar. It's advantage over the Shiva (besides having three channels, XLR-out, Class A 30 watt/Class AB 100 watt modes, scooped Mesa tones, etc) is that it's got a LOT more bottom-end. If the Shiva was lacking in anything, it's that even with the bass maxed-out, compared to the Traynor it had NO bottom end. I used to plug the Traynor into the Bogner 2X12 and the Shiva into the Marshall 4X12 to just try to even things up a little in that department. The Shiva definitely is a midrange beast! Anyways... the cleans on the Shiva were certainly always better than the Traynor. I used to think that the Traynor's cleans were good, but compared to the Shiva, Fender Twin, or H&K Triamp that I used to have they are pretty lackluster.

 

[That90'sGuy]

Re: WOOT! Picked-up an XTC Classic for "cheap" last night!

Red_Label, sounds like your tastes are a lot like mine. I had a H&K Duotone and Triamp at one point or another as well. Do yourself a favor, get a 4x12'' Bogner cabinet; you will not believe how good your XTC or Shiva will sound through one.

 

[Red_Label]

Re: WOOT! Picked-up an XTC Classic for "cheap" last night!

Red_Label, sounds like your tastes are a lot like mine. I had a H&K Duotone and Triamp at one point or another as well. Do yourself a favor, get a 4x12'' Bogner cabinet; you will not believe how good your XTC or Shiva will sound through one.

Yeah, I've definitely heard that before. I've got the Bogner OS2X12 and really dig it. My Marshall 1960A sounds really good as well -- it's got vintage G12H30s in it from a 1970s Sunn cab. It does the crunch thing VERY well -- whereas the Bogner cab is more about roaring (probably due to the newer V30s in it).

 

[Red_Label]

Re: WOOT! Picked-up an XTC Classic for "cheap" last night!

*** Latest Update ***

Went into the man cave this AM with the object of deciding what stays and what goes. I was thinking that the new Eleven Rack would probably be going back to Musician's Friend. Just hadn't made itself indespensable after spending several hours with it.

But this morning I ran it into my SS Rocktron Velocity 300 power amp, which powers a G12-T75 loaded 4X12 in stereo. NICE! Worked-up a great EVH brown sound ala "Mean Streats". Hmmm... maybe it stays! Even has a slight tube feel to it.

So I played around with dialing-in a good Twin Reverb clean on my Traynor YCS100H, because I'd let the clean channel get to sounding dark and flat somehow. Ended-up nailing it pretty much. And the two OD channels on that amp can get great Marshall roar and Mesa scooped metal if need be. So it stays as my gig backup head.

Next it was to the Shiva. Still a chance that the buyer will back-out, so I figured I'd make sure I didn't want to keep it. Sounds just like always. Great! Nice cleans. Don't have a Twin sound, but it's got its own thing going that's pretty good. And the OD channel always roars. But a very midrange beast it is. Doesn't have the bottom end of the Twin for the cleans, nor the bottom end of the Traynor for the OD. Just lives in the midrange. Which is great for gigging with a band, but not so fun at home.

So a texted a few friends regarding my decision to go ahead and send the Shiva down the road, as well as my Tweaker -- since I don't need it now that I'm happy with the Eleven Rack. One of them (who I sold my Marshall 1960A cab to last year) still doesn't have a head for that cab. But he's got my Twin that I sold him last month. Asks me if I want my twin back, for the Tweaker instead. I'm like, "yeah -- I've been missing it actually". So he brings my Twin back and I give him the Tweaker.

Plug in the Twin and get it warmed-up. Just like I remember it... love that spanky sparkle! So I power-up the Eleven Rack and do my best at creating a Twin patch. Pretty much nail it. NICE! Really digging the 11R now!

Can't wait to get my XTC Classic now. That will complete my "set". Just don't see me needing another amp after that. Got everything covered there. If the deal with selling the Shiva falls through, I'll just hang onto it until the market is back up a bit. The buddy who traded my twin back to me still owes me $800, so I've got the money I borrowed from the wife covered with that (and he's good for it). So who knows... could still end-up keeping the Shiva yet.

Whew!

 

[speed2dirt]

Re: WOOT! Picked-up an XTC Classic for "cheap" last night!

Next it was to the Shiva... But a very midrange beast it is. Doesn't have the bottom end of the Twin for the cleans, nor the bottom end of the Traynor for the OD. Just lives in the midrange. Which is great for gigging with a band, but not so fun at home.

Parametric EQ will fix this. If you keep the Shiva, you owe it to yourself to put an EQ in the mix and see if you can tweak your dislikes out of the amp. By the way, good luck on our upcoming decisions!

 

[Red_Label]

Re: WOOT! Picked-up an XTC Classic for "cheap" last night!

Parametric EQ will fix this. If you keep the Shiva, you owe it to yourself to put an EQ in the mix and see if you can tweak your dislikes out of the amp. By the way, good luck on our upcoming decisions!

Will keep that in-mind. And I do like the Shiva, I just also like a bit more bottom end than it seems to deliver -- even when run through my 4X12.

 

[Johtosotku]

Re: WOOT! Picked-up an XTC Classic for "cheap" last night!

Nice score! Be sure to appreciate her thoroughly.

The amp thing sounds good too!

 

[Hot _Grits]

Re: WOOT! Picked-up an XTC Classic for "cheap" last night!

Sounds like a great deal on a fantastic amp. My experience is with the 101B, and I don't have any time on the classic, but I'm sure it's killer. In fact I'd probably like the classic more.

If you're finding the Shiva overdrive a bit too midrangey then the XTC should fit your needs better. I've never really liked the EL34 Shiva's overdrive voicing, but love it's clean channel. But I love the XTC's many overdrive sounds. And to be fair, the clean is not bad at all. GJ has some tips for getting the best out of the XTC clean.

And 11R is a killer tool. My favorite of all the modelers out right now. And that includes the AXE-FX. If you can, run it into some good studio monitors.

Enjoy!

 

[Red_Label]

Re: WOOT! Picked-up an XTC Classic for "cheap" last night!

I definitely have to figure-out a high-quality monitoring setup to try the 11R with, cause I really dig it now -- but the G12-75Ts that I'm running it though now seem to color the sound with that scooped tone no matter what I do. I'm sure that high quality transparent monitors would be amazing.

As far as the amp situation, the guy who was looking at my Shiva is having all sorts of sudden financial woes. Wants to put-down a $100 deposit for me to hold it. I told him to just take care of himself and his family at this point (it's the holidays fer cryin' out loud) and get back to me when and if he's able to buy the amp. In the meantime, I'll be enjoying BOTH Bogners and that will give me a chance to really get to know the differences and be able to decide what stays and what goes. Who knows... maybe neither will go. If I do decide to send one or more amps packing, I'll wait a month or two until tax return time and hope that the seller's market is back up some then.

 

[PVFan]

Re: WOOT! Picked-up an XTC Classic for "cheap" last night!

when are you actually gonna get the amp? jeez.

 

[Diego]

Re: WOOT! Picked-up an XTC Classic for "cheap" last night!

Having to choose between an 11R, a Shiva and a Ecstacy Classic, with a chance of keeping all three of them.

The kind of dilemma I'd love to have in my life.

 

[Red_Label]

Re: WOOT! Picked-up an XTC Classic for "cheap" last night!

when are you actually gonna get the amp? jeez.

What's this? A short, to-the-point, coherant post from you? NO WAY!


Yeah, supposedly the guy sent it out this afternoon or tomorrow morning. He's been busy at work according to him. Pretty freakin' lame though. I sent the guy $2200 on Thursday afternoon, after winning the auction Thursday at 12AM. So I was pretty disappointed when he sent me a message on Thursday night saying he "should have it shipped by Tues at the latest". And now I suspect that it won't go out until tomorrow, because when I sent him a message today he said that he's been busy and will have it out later this afternoon or in the morning. Well... it's evening and I've got no message from him.

He's 100% feedback and he gave me his cell number, so I don't have a reason yet to think that he's a scheister, but I'm growing more disenchanted with his ethic every day. Same thing happened when I bought my Shiva. The guy took like a week and a half to ship it. When I got it, it was packaged VERY well, so he did a good job. But dang... when someone sends you that much money quickly, the least you can do as a seller is get it out quick. I always ship the same day or the next... ALWAYS. Even if I have to take time off from work to do it.

If I get no message from him tomorrow morning saying it's been shipped, I'm going to start to lose my cool. I've been more than patient, but enough is enough. I'm trying not to do that, because I want it to be shipped before I give him a hard time so nothing happens to the amp before it's on its way.

 

[Red_Label]

Re: WOOT! Picked-up an XTC Classic for "cheap" last night!

Having to choose between an 11R, a Shiva and a Ecstacy Classic, with a chance of keeping all three of them.

The kind of dilemma I'd love to have in my life.

It's a good place to be man!

Add my recently reacquired mint Fender Twin Reissue, and my trusty "old" Traynor YCS100H head to that list.

Up until last year, I only had a pair of the Traynor heads. So most of my current list of amps has been acquired in the last year. Eight months to be more precise. After the current epic drama gets settled, I'm gonna take a break from amps coming and going for a while...


BTW... I'm growing more "in love" with the 11R every day. Because each day I take one or two of my favorite tones and do my best to duplicate them on the unit. Tonight, it was John Sykes' tone from "Blue Murder" and Paul Dean's tone on "Turn Me Loose" with Loverboy. Yesterday it was Mark Tremonti on Creed and AlterBridge tunes. And before that I worked hard at trying to nail the tone of my Fender Twin Reverb. I'm coming to the realization that if I only could have one rig and I had to cover many tones, the 11R or Axe-Fx with a good tube poweramp (VHT/other) would be THE way to go. VERY impressive technology in these rack boxes these days. Gettin' there for sure!

 

[Andrew Lamprecht]

Re: WOOT! Picked-up an XTC Classic for "cheap" last night!

Maybe the Shiva and XTC are just such awesome amps nobody wants to let them go and they need to spend a few more days with them... maybe?

 

[Red_Label]

Re: WOOT! Picked-up an XTC Classic for "cheap" last night!

*** UPDATE ***

WOW!!! Plugged into the XTC for the first time last night and it was just AWESOME. Not hard to figure-out why Reinhold named it the way he did. I even got some great cleans on it, that I may or may not like better than my Shiva's cleans. But the Blue and Red channels is where I spent most of the night. No matter what switches I used and tone settings, it sounded great. What a beast! I can see that I have a LOT of tweaking to do to really explore this thing and find my favorite tones (and "my sound'). But it'll be a very fun trip as I find my way there. Simply AWESOME! I played for a while stereo with my Shiva and that was even better! But even when I shut it back down and went back to the XTC, I didn't find myself "let down" the way I usually do when I go from a stereo rig back to a single one. I believe that I still have a buyer for the Shiva (later this week or next), so it's a good thing that the XTC is so great -- won't be quite as sad to see the Shiva go because I'm so high on the XTC.

 

[ken361]

Re: WOOT! Picked-up an XTC Classic for "cheap" last night!

Cool cant wait to try on my self! are still going to use the nova system with it and the EQ on it?

 

[Red_Label]

Re: WOOT! Picked-up an XTC Classic for "cheap" last night!

Cool cant wait to try on my self! are still going to use the nova system with it and the EQ on it?

I don't use the EQ function of the NS at all. But I've been running it in front of the Shiva. I tried the loop on the Shiva and just didn't care of it. But I've never been a loop guy -- always prefered to run my effects in front of the amp.

But I'm gonna REALLY give it a good try with the XTC. Because the drive channels on the XTC are so good, and have plenty of gain on tap, that I didn't even run my OCD last night (and I ALWAYS run my OCD). The OCD seems to accentuate to the Shiva's roar and yet, clean it up. But it seemed to take away from the XTC's natural awesome roar. So I'd like to put the Nova System in the loop, and just use my BBE wah pedal in front of the XTC.

But last night, I just played into the XTC with all effects bypassed and loved every minute of it. I could easily just gig with that amp alone and no effects and be plenty happy. I've not had too many amps that way. Even the Shiva is better if I add somethings sparingly. But the XTC just seems SO good, that most pedals/effects-in-general would take away from the sound. So I want to use the loop in a manner that just adds a hint of the effect and doesn't take away from the tone at all.