[el cabong]

Originally Posted by bravesfan007

Do you have an exact ETA?

And your addresss........

[metropolis4]

Haha, it should be here Tuesday!

[Ax]

WELLZ?

[metropolis4]

It finally came today (We're on a UPS training route and they always seem to mess things up and run a day or two late) Unfortunately I had to work late and then I had a church staff meeting so I only got to play a little bit...

I'm a bit torn right now, but I don't want to really make a judgement until I can play it out a bit more. There are some things I really like, and there are a few things I don't.
It is a very high quality tone. Tons and tons of clarity and note definition. I can hear every note in a complex chord with overdrive much better than on my AC30. It's got a very quick attack and is very punchy and percussive. It's an awesome amp for funk/R&B type stuff. The low end will bring tears to a grown man's eyes. It's HUGE and complex and super tight. I really like the way it takes pedals too.
It's tight feel and fast response make it seem well suited to fast lines and percussive rhythm playing. It seems to handle these a bit better than subtle and spacial playing.

The things I'm not so sure about yet are the way the amp overdrives, and it's frequency response. it's got a bit more papery sounding overdrive than I'm used to. More like my Bad Cat than the AC30, or Matchless. It doesn't seem quite as responsive to pick attack and volume changes as I would expect. I got the feeling it's sweet spot is in a bit higher volumes, which will be difficult when I'm in settings where I need to limit volume.

The frequency response and lower compression throw me a bit too. Not bad, but just very different than what I am used to with the AC30. Some things I play seem to come out easier than on the AC30, but some things played in certain ranges seem to take a bit more effort and don't sustain the way I expect them to.

I think my issues with the overdrive and the frequency response are just because I'm so used to my AC30. Neither is bad in any way judged on it's own, it's just not what I'm used to. I'll have to take some more time adjusting to the feel of this amp.

The interesting thing I've noticed so far is that it responds to pedals so well, and loves my FD2 so much, that I may go back to using a clean amp and pedals for OD/distortion again. I haven't done that in a long time, but it sounds really good on this amp.

Another thing is that the amp has so much harmonic complexity there are times when I don't think I'll need an OD pedal when I may have used one before. It's hard to describe, but very cool to play on. I sat for a long time just playing John Mayer and SRV licks on a strat direct to the amp. It was hard to pull myself away, or to play anything else

Oh yeah, I'm not a big reverb or tremolo user, but both are amazing on this amp! The reverb sounds like the Fender blackface reverb we all know so well, only bigger, deeper, smoother and more complex. The tremolo is excellent too, very deep and rich.

I'll post more (and some pics; maybe recordings) as I get to play with it a bit more. I feel like I make it sound like a so-so amp. It's really not, I've just been using an AC30 for so long it's hard for me to adjust to hearing and feeling something different. it's really an amazing amp!

[metropolis4]

Here's a few quick pics!