Pedals: testing Mesa Boogie Grid Slammer and Flux Drive at home

Introduction

In my previous entry, I've explained that I was in a Store to intensively check three Mesa Boogie pedals and, that I went home with two of them: Grid Slammer and Flux Drive.

Being my amp a Fender Hot Rod III Deville and, being tested those pedal with a fair Fender Bassman reissue, I just wanted to confirm today that those pedals would work as good with my Deville.


Close to the end of my tone quest

Lots of pedals sleep on my shelves and, I am crazy trying to decide my final pedalboard to sell everything there. Mesa Boogie pedals deliver everything I've always wanted in drive tones and, this time I'm 100% sure.

I was playing at home today, with some backing tracks and, felt really inspired with the sound of my rig. Even my arm's hairs where reacting to my own playing and, this means a lot to me.

Taking into account that I will get some extra payment at the end of this month, I was unable to wait. I had to order the two other Mesa Boogie's pedals: the Tone Burster and the Throttle (which I've already tested in the store). Still not clear about the Tone Burster, since I didn't tested it in the store but, reading its description, it could be a good-to-have, to give a more vintage color to the rest of the rig, when needed.

I'm waiting also my David Allen's Bazooka overdrive and, maybe only one of those or, maybe both will survive on my pedalboard.

But, to me, the tail of the pedalboard is very clear: Mesa Boogie's pedals for drive, Strymon Mobius for modulation effects and Strymon El Capistan for Tape Echo delays.

On pedalboard's head, just the Wampler Decibel+ is a keeper.
I am still looking for a wah that can work really fine with the "fixed" pedals and, the Dunlop Bonamassa definitively doesn't does the job. It has a very narrow sweep and, doesn't seem to interact efficiently with the rest of my pedalboard.

Other pedal that I want to swap is the TC Electronics Polytune, since I am suspecting that is a Tone sucker and, that the True Bypass isn't that true. I want to throw there a Peterson strobo box.

I am considering to unload the Dry Bell Machine Vibe, since the Mobius can do very decent Vibe tones (among a ton of other great modulation effects).

Also, I will check if the compressor (Wampler Ego) works fine with the new pedalboard.

The only I have clear today is that Mesa Boogie's pedals where made for me and I was made for those pedals. And, that they work flawless with my two Strymon and the Decibel+ and, those are my pedalboard's foundational pedals.

Once I've got the four Mesa Boogie pedals at home and, I am familiarized with them, I will do a video review.

I want to death to sell the rest of my pedals, once the pedalboard is well established. But, even without the vibe, compressor, wah and the remaining MB's pedals, I have enough tone to enjoy playing, something that didn't happened to me for a long time. I am considering also to sell the rest of my amps, since I'm really happy with the tones I can get out of the retubed Deville.

One more day in guitarists heaven - intensive pedal, pickups and amp testing

Introduction

It seems that we, guitarists, are always in the market for a more exciting gain pedal, a better overdrive, a better distortion, a better fuzz, a better compressor...
In early days there was really few choices so, the search could end really fast.

Nowadays, among the very well established pedal companies, there is an explosion of boutique pedal makers and, everybody seems to sell the ultimate gain unit, to discover that most of them are just tweaking a bit very well known pedals, being the Tube Screamer the king of the modified pedals.

This is not good or bad, as it seems that every pedal has a legion of followers and buyers and, since tone is a very particular matter, what works for ones will not necessarily work for others. We are all ok, we are all happy.

Well, I was really happy with two Jetter pedals: the Gold 45/100 and the Jetdrive and, until now, none of the pedals I already own was able to dethrone those two kings of my tone. I did my tests with all my gain pedals and, this includes most of Weehbo's, Wampler's, Mad Professor's, Fulltone's, among many other boutique pedals.

Jetters were my to-go pedals but, still not fully satisfied. An awesome tone but, not exactly MY tone. Some day, I've seen that Mesa Boogie was releasing a line of pedals. I'm not a huge fan of MB amps, since they all have very complex front-end designs and, I am more in the line of having a clean and fair channel to build my tone over with some good pedals. Anyway, I was curious about those and watched and heard some Youtube videos. I thought they sounded really good but, you know, I needed to test them with the rest of my gear, to be sure they will perfectly interact with my "definitively keeper" pedals.

So, I went with my couple of fellow friends to Auvisa store, to check those pedals.


Mesa Boogie pedals time

As always, I've selected a Fender Bassman reissue to run my tests, since I consider it a fair amp, that reveals everything about any gear, the good and the bad. Tweaked the controls to get the foundational clean tone and, started to check Mesa Boogie pedals.

I've decided to insert 3 MB pedals in my pedalboard. First one was the GridSlammer, second the Flux Drive and, third the Throttle. In principle, I wasn't interested on their Booster, since this function is already well covered by my Wampler Decibel+ (buffer and booster).

So, the pedalboard was formed by the following pedals:

• TC Electronics Polytune (which I am still suspecting is a tone sucker)
• Dunlop Joe Bonamassa's Wah (which disapointed me)
• Wampler EGO Compressor
• Dry Bell Vibe Machine
• Wampler Decibel+
• Mesa Boogie GridSlammer
• Mesa Boogie Flux Drive
• Mesa Boogie Throttle
• Strymon Mobius
• Strymon El Capistan

I've started with MY clean tone, that is, with the Decibel+ correcting signal level and, the El Capistan for a nice Tape Echo delay. Then, first pedal tested was the GridSlammer.

Transparency is which would better describe the tone of the GridSlammer. Is a really good overdrive that pushes the tubes with ease. Sound is crystalline clear, with a British crunch flavor and, sets you in SRV tones and alike.

I said transparency is the key word for this pedal, because it just enhances the natural tone of your guitar and amp. With the tone control at 12:00 (middle position), the pedal straight cuts the mix. The guitar sound was perfectly distinguishable in its right presence range of frequencies. This pedal loves to push the other two MB pedals, also.

Then, it was the turn for the Flux Drive. Once again, the Flux Drive with its tone controls at 12:00, was straight cutting the mix. Not so transparent as the GridSlammer, the Flux Drive is more oriented to get medium distortion sounds in the ballpark of the old MB Mark amp series. 

I have to confirm this by reading the user's manual but, I had the sensation that tone controls were active, instead of passive and, any slight touch had a clear impact in tone. Middle position (which is a detent-stop position) worked flawless with my rig.

Probably, the Flux Drive is deceptively the more anodyne pedal of those three but, once you push it with the GridSlammer stacked before, you are in Hard Rock's heaven. Once I've switched on both pedals in a row, I wasn't able to stop playing.

Since results were so exciting, I've decided to complete the test using backing tracks. I've asked Auvisa's responsible (Rafa) to prepare me some PA system to run my MP3 backing tracks, to check how the pedals will work in real application. Rafa came back with a Yamaha StagePass 200 PA system (just a single speaker) and, the show begun.

Started the test playing over "Smoke on the Water" and, the compulsive dancing of a chinese little girl in front the room's window confirmed that the tone was perfect. While childs are natural, mature people seemed suddenly highly interested on the anodyne content of the shelves that were in front of the window. That confirmed me again that the sound was good enough.

Time to check the GridSlammer alone, while playing "Cocaine". Awesome tone, also.

Time to check first the GridSlammer alone and then, pushing the distortion levels with the Flux Drive, while playing "Old Love" and "Since I've been Loving You".

I had a man entering inside the room and, alternatively looking to the amp, pedals, my guitar and my fingers, while I was performing "Since I've been Loving You" and a "Blues in G". He gave me his "thumb up" before leaving the room. My friends told me that he was a very well known blues-man of this area.

I was funny thinking that maybe people thought that I was there demoing or promoting a particular product, instead of being a mediocre player carefully testing some pedals in a store.
Well, those were just people's reaction that just confirmed what my ears said: these pedals are a perfect marriage for my gear and personal style!!!.

Both pedals had a fair sound representation, with total definition note to note, even in unharmonic chords. They both sounded very open, without killing the attack, while delivering a nice sustain that made solos really easy to perform.

Tested those two from 11:30 to 13:30h and, went satisfied to lunch with my fellow friends.
We were discussing about the sound and, we all agreed they were perfectly fitting my gear and style.

We took a long while to lunch, drink, small talk and laugh then, we went back to the store, around 18:00h.
After our ears were cleaned and not biased, I did a quick test again with a few more backing tracks and, satisfied with the sound, I've decided to check the Throttle.

The Throttle is a Recto-in-a-box. Er... not... let me to reword this... is THE Recto-in-a-box pedal. Not a surprise, being MB the father of Rectifier amps.

While I also love that dense wall of sound of the red channel of a recto, this is not the sound that I will use the most of time but, I wanted to give a chance to this pedal. The "Mids cut" knob is somewhat the Contour control you usually find in MB amps and, completely re-equalizes the tone stack going from clear and bumped-mids settings to dark and deep with recessed mids.

So, it clearly covers lot of ground in High Gain distortion. I liked it more with the Mids-cut control around 7:00 (practically off). Tone, once more was left in the middle position.

Wow, wow, wow, wow!.
With this setting, I was achieving a very polished high gain distortion that clearly cut the mix, with that tasty controllable feedback on sound tails. This setting remembered me more to the sound of a Peavey 5150 or a Diezel Einstein but, you could achieve anything just rotating the Mids-cut control.

Even better, you could even switch on the three pedals and the sound remains well defined and, every single note is clearly recognized!!!.

Decision was clear: I want all them!. Let see how much they cost and, let see how many can I get today.
I've decided to end my pedals tests and, go to check some acoustic guitars, before the store closed.

As I left the guitar, my fellow friend asked me: "Can I..?". "Sure, bro, rock on!".
I left my friend preparing himself  and, went to test some acoustic guitars.

I had two deceptions in this pedalboard: the Bonamassa's wah and the Badgerplex Trilogy.

Bonamassa's wah lacked some sweep range, which made the EQ very narrowed.

The Badgerplex Trilogy is just a tone sucker. It was recommended to me in a forum, selling it as a way better sounding pedal than the good Xotic EP Booster and, since I've sold my EP Booster (and regretted every day), I've decide to try it.

Well, while the Xotic EP Booster just enhances your sound in a way that nobody is able to describe. The Trilogy kills your tone in a way that I can clearly describe.
The Trilogy rolls off high end frequencies, slightly compresses the attack and, kills the natural sustain of your sound. Instead of giving just an enhanced louder sound, it tends to easily force your tubes to break, which wasn't the goal for this kind of pedal.

Definitively, both were a waste of money.


Acoustic Guitars time

I was really interested on to test a couple of Martin's, the D28HD and D35HD but, they had the D28 and the D45, only.

I have to say that I was highly disappointed with both Martins, that sounded very dull in basses and string-to-string unbalanced. My other fellow friend (the luthier) was selecting more other guitars that seemed to have a good look. Tested lots of models of well known US brands, except for Gibson acoustics (the store doesn't work with Gibson anymore). I was highly disappointed with all them, including Martin, Taylor and, other brands.

The  only guitar that sounded with piano like basses, an open voice and a nice balance string-to-string, was a model by Alhambra. We were both surprised. Alhambra is a well known Spanish company that had a good name building Spanish and flamenco guitars but, I didn't know they were in the acoustic market, also.

My friend explained me that the key for tone is the way the air is being conducted inside the body and, this is something Spanish makers were mastered several centuries ago. So, not surprise that a Flamenco Guitar maker could apply its knowledge to build a great acoustic guitar.

Well, I cannot go so deep in luthier' stuff but, I had to agree that the Alhambra was the best sounding acoustic guitar of the around 25 guitars we've tested, hands down.

By the way, while I was testing the acoustics, I was clearly hearing my other friend performing "Hey Joe" and "Whola Lotta Love" and, I thougth: "Man, this is like to be hearing Hendrix and Page in a festival. Yes, I want those pedals to death".


Amp and David Allen's Dover pickups time

We've already tested the brand new Deluxe Stratocaster of my friend, loaded with David Allen Dovers pickups set and, the wiring design I did specially for my friend and those pickups but, from that early time, my amp was improved with a retubing kit from Watford Valves for this Fender Hot Rod III Deville amp.

Since my  #1 strat (also loaded with David Allen's pickups) is on hands of my friend luthier (Alex Tirado, look for that man!), for a complete refretting work and a nut substitution (remove the LRS nut and put a bone nut there), I was crazy to test how the enhanced amp would sound with those Dovers.

While my other friend was playing (Robert Tirado), I was tweaking the controls of its pedals, to adapt the EQ to the amp. Once established, the show begun.

Robert was along any kind of style you can imagine, playing from country to shredding. Backing tracks of Dire Straits, Pink Floyd, Zeppelin, Clapton, Prince... anything...

We selected sounds to check every of the 10 pickups combinations of his axe, getting great strato tones and good tele and lp alike tones.

It was a PERFECT marriage. Same as if you'd found the right wine for the right food, same as to play a LP in a old Marshall. We were shocked with the sound. It was professional studio quality.

Alex and I agreed: "Man, you need to buy exactly this amp and re-tube it with exactly this kit. You owe it!".

David Allen's Dovers are, in my honest opinion, the best strato set I've ever tested up to now (I am waiting an Echoes set). Dovers are just PERFECTION. They get anything and deliver with ease.
We tried combinations like a virtual LP Neck, Bridge and Middle positions (combining in series pickups) and, virtual Tele middle positions (both single coils and a virtual humbucker and a single coil).
They covered every style with ease, from sweet silky bells to rough but perfectly defined hi gain sounds.

If you still are in doubts whether to get a David Allen' set or, specially which one to get, I would say, try those Dovers first.

The only I regret is not being so smart to record his performance, because the sound was killer. But, we will do, for sure. This should be heard and spread to the whole World.


Side thoughts

While my friend was playing, achieving such an inspirational tone, I thought that when your gear has the right marriage, the only that you can do is just to create and enjoy. There is no need to think on... this doesn't sound, what's wrong?. Your mind isn't hijacked by negative thoughts and, you just play and enjoy and, if you enjoy, you transmit your feelings to the audience.

The Rock's dinosaurs had that kind of gear. They had the best tubes ever made, they had the pickups that current makers are trying to reproduce. They had the pedal effects that current makers are trying to reproduce or enhance. They had the gear so, they just focused on to enjoy it and be creative.

Watford's retubing kit included a NOS Philips 6L6 matched pair of tubes and, this is a clear enhancement over the stock Groove Tubes. The killer sounding Dovers in a relatively cheap amp retubed with great tubes made a huge difference.

I recall that my Fender Princeton Reverb reissue costed me exactly 1000 Euros, stock. I had to enhance it with a Weber speaker and, new tubes. For slightly less than 1000 Euros, I bought the Hot Rod III Deville and retubed it with a great Watford's kit. This amp has some cheap details, as the power cord in white (while the rest of amp is black) directly soldered to the PCB but, for that price you get a killer machine.

Another thing that surprised me is that I was a Marshall's and EL34s guy, to lately discover that I love Fender's and 6L6s !!!. It's crazy how our "pre-conceptions" go against our real needs.

It doesn't matter which style fits you, the most important thing is to find the right marriage, the one where all the components of your rig complete the full puzzle of your sound. And, it doesn't matter if you achieve it with the cheapest gear on the world (which usually doesn't happen). Forums create trends and overhypen (in both sides, as good or bad) certain products, most of times people that even didn't tried them in person.

To go to the store with your complete rig (if they doesn't have your components) to test a new component that should fit your rig is a great idea. Sometimes, to test a certain device alone gives us good sensations but, when it has to be inserted in your sound chain, the drawbacks suddenly explode in your face.

Amps: Watford Valves, yes Sir.

Introduction

This is just a short note related to my recent experience with Watford Valves.

I have a drawer full of spare tubes, that correspond to all the tubes I was purchasing trying to bring some life to my amps. Most of my purchases were made to the Tube Amp Doctor (T.A.D.) but, once I've started to be disappointed with their tubes, I went to other European tube dealers, to get even worst results.

I knew about Watford Valves and, I knew they had a strong name but, the expensive exchange rate Euro / Pound, were keeping me out of their online store. This and the fact that the five times I tried to get some guidance from them ended in nothing. Nobody seems to answer you back. This is still my main concern related to Watford Valves. Nobody seems to care about emails.

But, since Watford has some re-tubing kits, specific for some brand and model of amps and, I was in the need to re-tube a couple of amps (Vox Night Train and Fender Hot Rod III Deville) and, my spare stock contained just those tubes I had rejected, I've decided to give a try to one of those kits.

Already mentioned in a previous blog entry, I've successfully re-tubed my Fender Hot Rod III Deville with one of Watford's re-tubing kits and, as soon as those tubes were at home, I did my own tests, with the help of the Orange Divo VT-1000 tester and, I was gratefully surprised with all them being really close to specifications.

Because of that, I wanted to check again  with a couple more amps: the Vox Night Train (complete re-tubing) and the Marshall 1923C 85th Anniversary Combo (just pre-amp tubes, because power tubes are already SED Winged-C EL34s).


Retubing the Vox Night Train

As I did with the tubes for the Deville, I've tested the new tubes as soon as they came from Watford and, before installing them in both amps.

The kit I've used for the Night Train is the kit that's being sold for a Vox AC15, since they have exactly same tube topology and, very similar overall character.

Watford relabels all the tubes that are passing their exhaustive Drive Test with the Harma name.
TAD relabels also the tube that passed their own tests with the TAD name but, I have the impression that TAD tubes have a tolerance range higher than Harma tubes and, therefore, they don't bring the same life to the amp.

The kit for the Vox AC15 comes with a couple of Harma ECC83-RET (retro) pre-amp tubes and a couple of Harma EL84-RET (retro) tubes. Watford doesn't identifies which brand/model is re-labeling but, I had the impression that all them where Mullard reissue (Red Sensor).
Since I had a Mullard 12AX7 in Night Train's preamp and a couple of Mullard EL84 in power amp, comparing my tubes with tubes from Watford, gave me the impression that they were all Mullard reissue.

This is not an issue, because those were exactly the tubes I've chosen time ago for that amp. But, since I remember how they sounded after re-tubing the Night Train, this would be a fire test to see if the relabeled Harma tubes could work the same or better.

Wow!.
I remember that my Night Train was sounding really good (before some tube worn) but, man, now it sounds really stellar.

The Orange Divo doesn't tells me all the history. The readings for the pre-amp tubes where the same I usually get for Mullard reissue 12AX7 tubes: one triode reads 10, the other 11. The readings for both EL84 were 10, while I'm getting readings of 10 (most of times) and 11 for Mullard EL84 reissue tubes.

So, in principle, I was throwing there same tubes, with same readings. So, how that kit from Watford can sound better?.
My suspect is that the difference can be related to other variables and, very specially, to transconductance.

I made a short test, with guitar and some backing tracks and, I was fully satisfied with the sound of the Night Train. Indeed, one more score!.


Retubing the Marshall 1923C 85th Anniversary Combo

I've chosen a Classic / Hi Gain kit for this amp, because I want an early breakup, to be able to cook the tubes at lower volumes.

This time the Harma ECC83-Ret tubes seemed to me JJ ECC83S tubes but, readings where a digit over my usual readings with TAD 12AX7-Cz (JJ ECC83S) tubes. While TAD tubes usually read 8 / 9 (triode A / triode B), Harma tubes read 9 / 10 (V1 and V3), 8 / 10 (V2) and, the balanced one 10 / 11 (PI).

This is the second balance tube from Watford and, both have unbalanced triodes but, both have at least one reading 10 (on specs) and, the unbalanced is just a digit more or less.

Long time ago, I did a lot of swaps to this Marshall, and my conclusion was that there is no other tube that works better in this particular amp than the JJ ECC83S. My suspect is that those ECC83-Ret are effectively JJ ECC83S tubes. If the history repeats, as with the Deville and the Night Train, my favourite amp will come back to life very soon.

I have to re-bias the EL34 to Marshall' specs (45mv). Then, I will be able to evaluate the real impact of those pre-amp tubes, which I hope to test by tomorrow.


Conclusion

It seems that Watford Valves do the best tests on tubes, at least in Europe.
I've wasted a lot of money before, trying to get more affordable tubes, which leaded me to unsatisfactory results and a ton of spare tubes that I will probably have to throw to the trash can.

They won a new customer, indeed. But, I would suggest to Watford to have someone taking care of the email, because not everybody can make an international call that could cost even more than a single tube.

Pedals: Jetter Gear Gold 45/100 and Jetdrive

Introduction

Gain pedals probably are the type of pedals that more often rotate in a guitarist's pedalboard and, I am not an exception.
From time to time, it seems that a new breed of pedals enhances the sound of your current gain pedals and, you want to check those.

I've owned / tested so many Overdrives and Distortion boxes that I can barely remember all them but, I went from the cheapest Boss and MXR units to boutique pedals from Xotic, Fulltone, Hermida Audio, MI Audio, Wampler, Weehbo, Mad Professor (hand wired), Butler Audio, etc.

But, why?.
The main issue is that I can not run my amps in their best spot. Tube amps are awesome tone machines and, sure, if you can krank your amp, the best distortion you could always find is the one coming from your amp.

So, to be able to krank your amp, you need to downsize your rig and then to go for a lower powered amp but, this has its drawbacks also. The lower the power of the amp, the less clean headroom and the more difficult to represent the whole range of frequencies and, very specially, the low end.
Also, there is a minimum of power that you will need if you need to rehearsal with a band and, if you need to play small gigs.

Also, even that your amp's distortion can be amazing, you often need a variate palette of distortions to cover different tasks. Well, there are multi-channeled multi-mode amps, with lots of switches and other goodies that make them really versatile and handy. But, usually, an amp sounds with a better singing voice the simpler its circuit design is and, the versatility of any amp can compromise the overall sound. It's difficult to have an amp that can cover everything and every style with spades. Usually the sound is being compromised to obtain useful tones in every mode but, not a killer or perfect tone in all them.

Anyway, what is every single guitarist after is his/her own business and relates to his/her individual quest for his/her tone.

I'm currently interested in an amp with good cleans that could be a great platform to sculpt my sound with my preferred pedals. I also need an amp with certain headroom, to be used with a band or for small gigs. That leaded me to the Fender Hot Rod III 212 Deville, which not being a top-notch amp is good enough for my current needs.

But, being an amp with a power of 65W and, with a couple of Celestion speakers of 12", it can go loud very soon and, at low volume level it lacks something and, that's when some particular pedals, as boosters or overdrives have a good opportunity to shine.


Re-tubing my amp

After few tests with some of my spare tubes, I've decided to try a complete re-tubing set from Watford Valves, that worked really nice, enhancing the stock voice of the amp, which was just correct (with Groove Tubes).

Watford's kit included a JAN/Philips 6L6 pair that sounds perfect in this amp. Pre-amp tubes are Harma STR and, they seemed to me relabeled JJ ECC83S Gold Pin but carefully tested and picked up, with correct specifications.

Still thinking on to swap the correct but anodyne Celestions with some Harma speakers but, tubes set the amp in a very good condition.


Re-building my pedalboard

You know, every new incoming pedal often shakes your pedalboard and, you are in the need to re-check everything again, to find the best way your pedals can inter-actuate.

I've found that my Area 51 wah wasn't working fine with my rest of pedals and, therefore, I wanted to check a Cry Baby this time. While I was weighting which want to choose, I thought... well... there is the Bonamassa's one and, that guy really rocks; if it works for him, it should work for me; reasonably affordable, why don't to try it?.

I've tested the Bonamassa's wah alone and delivered good tones but, I had still not opportunity to check the pedal together with the rest of pedals of my pedalboard. This will come later.
One of the questions I need to clarify is if I need to run such a pedal in Buffered or True Bypass mode.

I've started to build the pedalboard from scratch.
Firstly, tweaking the amp with the guitar direct to amp then, being increasing the pedalboard chain, pedal by pedal.

I've started with the tuner, the TC Polytune, which is theoretically true bypass but, I really suspect it's sucking the tone a bit, thinning it and making it brigther. But, until I can throw there a best pedal, as a Peterson's one, this is the best place for this pedal, since switching it off, the whole rig mutes.

After the tuner (that should be true bypass), the Wah is the natural election to lead the chain and, therefore, I've thrown there the Bonamassa's wah, in their stock setting (which I guess is buffered but, the internal dip switch has no sign that can help you, neither the user's manual. I've decided that once the rest of the pedalboard is ok, I will go back to the wah to check both modes and see how it impacts to the rest of the chain.

Next pedal, the compressor. The Wampler EGO compressor is the one I'm using for a long while.

Next pedal, just before my overdrives is where I like vintage vibes so, my Dry Bell Machine Vibe was placed there.

Then, I've tried the two Jetter pedals I love, the Gold 45/100 and the Jetdrive. While I had these pedals sorted with the Jetdrive stacked into the Gold, results weren't satisfactory at all.
This time, I've decided to swap the order of both pedals, stacking the Gold before the Jetdrive and... that was a great idea.

But, what I've noticed is that there was a drop in tone as soon as I've inserted the Jetdrive.
It seemed that the chain was safe with the five first pedals (tuner, wah, compressor, vibe and first overdrive) but, as soon as I've added the sixth, the tone started to suffer.
I've decided to insert the Wampler Decibel+ before those two overdrives, just to recover the signal level and guitar tone.

I've also discovered that the Vibe had a lot of impact over the overdrives, depending on its mode.
The Original mode (unbuffered output) worked better than the Bright mode (buffered output), as soon as I was able to recover the tone sucking with the Decibel placed just between the Vibe and the two overdrives.

Following those two Jetter's overdrives, I've checked several boxes that I wanted to cover the hi-gain distortion but, liked none. They all sounded or weak or undefined (compared to the Jetters).
None of the Jetter's distortions liked me: Red Square, Dharma; both seemed to me having less gain range than the Jetdrive itself.
Searching for a more liquid and bold distortion, I've checked also the Suhr Riot Reloaded and the Weehbo Bastard. None delivered what I am after.
I am thinking on to test the new Mesa Boogie's boxes, which sound as good candidates.
I've already tried Bogner's boxes and, probably the Red is a good candidate but, too big for my pedalboard room.

Anyway, I've decided to don't stack a higher distortion pedal after the two Jetter's overdrives until I have a firm candidate. So, my chain was ended with the all-in-one modulation effect, the Strymon Möbius and, my echo tape emulation, the Strymon El Capistan.


Jetter Gear Gold 45/100 and Jetdrive

These two are the two best overdrive pedals that I've tested up today and, the only two Jetter Gear's pedals I can highly recommend to anyone.

The Gold 45/100 is after nailing the tone of the early Marshall JTM45 and, I don't care how close it is to the real thing but, I really care (as always) is how useful it's for my needs.

There are several overdrive boxes that bring you that "Plexi" tone, somewhat close to the original Bassman tone (which the JTM was originally based on), which usually translates into a clean but warm sound, with a delicious break-up when picking hard.
Lots of good pedals are covering this soft-warm overdrive tone, as the Mad Professor Sweet Honey (delicious), the Wampler Tweed 57 or Plexi Drive or the Weehbo Plexdrive or Plexface.

None of the Wampler's had a really "clean warm" tone. They had a clear break-up that was there from the very beginning, as if the volume of the amp was always kranked, with more or less gain.

The Plexdrive had a lot of "clean warm" range and very few of "broke up" range, except if you switched on the boost section, which added a lot of floor noise (as the boost in Wampler's pedals).

Probably, the more balanced one was the Sweet Honey but, the kranked tone was a tad undefined to my taste.

I would say that the Gold 45/100 is closer to the good tone of the Weehbo, with an enhanced gain range closer to the Sweet Honey. As it happens with Weehbo pedals, one thing that defines Jetter Gear pedals is that they stand very defined even when at full gain but, differently from Weehbo pedals, the gain range seems greater in Jetter Gear overdrives (while their distortions lack gain!).

What I love of the Gold 45/100 is that, placed as the first gain stage in my pedalboard, it converts my amp into an old-school tube rectified amp so, my Hot Rod III Deville goes closer to an old Bassman, with that nice warm but sparkling clean. Rest of distortions stacked after, get an old-school tone that instantaneously remember the great bands of the '70s, when the Hard Rock was founded.

The Jetdrive is an awesome dual overdrive, with tons of gain on hands.
Playing with the Volume and Gain controls of each individual overdrive channel you can get lots of overdrive nuances, until you get the ones that better suit your needs. Tone control is highly responsive and, small touches have a direct impact in the sound.

The Green channel sounds to me with a crunchy attitude and, with an EQ probably bumped in mid-highs frequencies. The sound isn't compressed but, very open and in your face. Maybe, a British crunchy low to middle gain overdrive, more modern than vintage.

The Blue channel sounds to me more silky but slightly compressed, the EQ seems more even or with recessed mids. It has more gain available than the green channel but, surprisingly stays clean. Maybe a more American low to middle gain overdrive and, probably more vintage than modern (compared to the Green channel).

Stacking both pedals, you achieve tons of gain, enough to get the singing but liquid solos of a Peavey 5150 and, that remain so defined as in that amp. Sure, you cannot cover high gain metal distortion tones and, the pedal doesn't goes that hard in low end but, the tone is closer to the "brown sound" or the liquid tones that were available in the '80s - '90s.

The Gold stacked before any of the two channels of the Jetdrive or, before both channels stacked, adds warm and definition to the sound, taming down some high end.
Those two pedals together, give you 6 different nuances of overdrive/distortion, always very dynamic, responsive and organic. They sound more like an amp than like a pedal (as in the case of Weehbo's).

I wouldn't say that my pedalboard is already finish but, those two Jetter's are two clear keepers, right now. And, very interesting, I'm running those at standard 9V, since they are clear enough.


One Video

I made some video, while tweaking the pedals and, while testing them with some backing tracks to see how they help me with real performances.

First part of the video includes two improvisations over two free downloadable backing tracks. The first one was named "Blues in G" (If memory doesn't fail) and, the second one is based in "Old Love" by Eric Clapton. Pure improvisation, while testing the pedals, switched by hand.

The second part includes the building-on process of the foundational tone to which I add the the two Jetter's pedals. The foundational tone is built with the Wampler Decibel+ buffer/booster (to recover the signal level and tone lost after the Vibe) and the Strymon El Capistan (to add the Delay and better fit the guitar into the mix of the backing tracks).

Since my #1 guitar is on hands of my fellow friend Luthier (Alex Tirado, search that man if you are in Mataro or Barcelona areas!), I've used my PRS 513 Rosewood, since it can covers single coil, vintage and modern humbucker sounds so, I could get some compromised settings to be useful with the three types of pickups.

But, I've ended just checking singles and mid output humbuckers, in the building-on part. For the two improvisations, single coil modes were used, only.

Room' sound (and video) was recorded directly with a Zoom Q3HD device.
Sound wasn't processed in Pro Tools or any other kind of DAW.
In the Video Editor, I've just used IK Multimedia Classic Compressor (to bring back the sound level, dimmed by the low-sensitivity setting of the Q3HD) and the Brickwall Limiter (to avoid clipping). Nothing else used, no effect added.

Amps: Fender Hot Rod III 212 Deville - testing tubes - Part 1

Introduction

After installing the re-tubing set from Watford, the amp came to good life, warmer, punchier and with rich harmonics but, I wondered if I can go further, fine tuning the sound.

Those NOS JAN/Philips 6L6WGB are great tubes, indeed. And those Harma 12AX7-STR (I bet this is a take of the JJ ECC83S Golden-pin) are delivering good sound with spades. But, I feel some crunchy mids that I am suspecting coming from the PI tube.

Even that this set works awesome, I am just curious to see the impact of changing every individual pre-amp tube.


Test: Swapping PI (V3) tube

Being the Harma 12AX7-STR a nice tube for this position, it has a short plate and, I usually prefer there long plate tubes or, the awesome JAN/Philips 5751 (with a great transconductancy and really hard to break up).

Well, I reviewed my spare depot and, didn't found a valid long plate tube, as the Sovtek 12AX7-LPS or the JJ ECC803S. Well, I had a LPS but, with very low ratings (7 / 8, triode A, triode B).
I could test a Mullard reissue there but, maybe the spiky mids and crunchy distortion can be a bad election for this amp. So, with so few options, I went to reuse my last JAN/Philips 5751.

Clearly, that blurry mids that I've hear were removed and, the overall sound was brighter and more defined.
I've tested also the hi-gain settings (Drive Channel / More Drive) and, it was awesome, with fast response to your picking technic so, fast riffs where really easy to perform, because of the immediateness of the amp.

But the 5751 works the best, the more you raise the volume of the amp, sounding a tad bonny and trebbly at low volumes. With the amp really hot, results are enough  to demolish your walls. What a beast!.

Also, the reverb was tamed down, and most of the ice picky reverb sounds were removed. JJ ECC83S tube is picking hard in mid-highs.

This little test, showed me that there is some room for improvements there, just swapping the PI tube.
I need to source some even-EQ'd tubes with large plate and good transconductancy and nice output to try there. Maybe the JJ ECC803S or the Ruby 12AX7-M or the Sovtek 12AX7-LPS (but, this one last very few in combos).

The second test was to thrown there a Mullard 12AX7 reissue, even that I knew is a bright tube, I wanted to check the effect of the change.
Well, more or less same results than with the 5751, maybe slightly more power and, overall, the tone was brighter and harsher, very specially with single coils.

Noe of those tubes has same reverb strength as the original GT but, it made the Reverb to sound really harsh.

It seems that the Harma 12AX7-STR, this time balanced, will be the best option.


Test: Sorting tubes by gain, ascending

While I prefer the V1 with higher gain to get an overall early distortion. I thought that maybe a way to remove that slightly blurred mids (due to the Phase Inverter, as demoed my previous test) could be to arrange the tubes from lower to higher gain, being the PI the tube with higher gain. Maybe, in that way I could have some headroom when cascading a tube into the other.

Wow!. Results are just Perfect. Nothing more, nothing less.
That sounds to great amp, right now.

I stop swapping tubes. Those Harma 12AX7-STR paired with those JAN/Philips 6L6WGB are awesome for this amp.
The high distortion sounds more defined, with less fizz and strange overtones.

Well, I think that Watford Valves has earn a new customer, indeed!.
Great work!.


Video Demo

to come...

Amps: Fender Hot Rod III 212 Deville

Introduction

I was in the market for an amp with a great clean channel that could take every pedal with ease and, that could be used at studio and gig levels. For dorm levels, or you end with a good solid state amp or, some amp modeler (digital) or with some kind of dummy load to reduce the overall loudness.

But, I haven't really planed to get one, right now.

What happened is that I went with my fellow friend to a big store, to help him to select his new brand Strato. I wanted to have the opportunity to test some amps, just to discard some models and narrowing the search but, I hadn't any real willing of buying an amp that time.

Well, I've plugged my guitar to several, including some unaffordable or unpractical ones (as the Bassman 4x10 or some Victoria amps). Suddenly, I've remembered to watch some videos about Fender's Hot Rod series and, was really curious to test one.
Between the Deluxe and the Deville, my election was to test the Deville, because of its higher power (60W), which should give me more clean headroom.

Hell!. As soon as I plugged my guitar and pedalboard to that amp, I loved it.
Well, we were 4 friends in the room. Everybody liked it and, pushed me to buy it!.
I had the credit available so... what the heck... I did it!.


The amp

It seems to be the most selled amp in the world and a total score for Fender but, is that good?.

The amp works with three pre-amp tubes (12AX7 / ECC83 types) and a couple of power tubes (6L6).
Rectifier is solid state.

It has two channels (well, just one more stacked triode in the second tube), two inputs (higher and lower impedance), a mode switch (normal, bright) and a gain switch (gain, more gain).

Controls are: Volume (for clean channel), Treble, Middle, Bass, Reverb and Presence.
For the gain channel, the Volume is being deactivated and the Gain pot takes its place. The overall volume of this channel is handled later with the Master control.

Channel and gain levels are switchable with an external pedal switch (two switches).

It has a post-preamp output and a pre-power input so, you can even chain several of those  or, you can use those as the FX loop (whitout level control).

This is one of the few Fenders I see having a Bypass switch, what is very well welcome. Also, one of the few Fenders that comes with a trim pot for cathode-method biasing and a clear testing pin for your probes.

On the dark side, the amp has the jacks for plug alternative cabs inside, instead of on top or back. The power cord is directly soldered to the PCB and its white, while the whole amp is black!!!. So, you cannot unplug that hanging white cord from the amp.
The tube sockets are floating, just supported by the solders to the PCB, which makes me feel that I am gonna break the PCB if pushing the tubes really hard. As in most Fender's combos, the tubes hang down so, you will probably have to tilt the amp to see the sockets, when replacing tubes.

Well, I know price is a compromise but, can those important things be part of price compromise, really?. Even VHT, with unbeatable prices, gets rid of this things!.

Overall, the amp has a typical Fender look and, seem well built (except for those mentioned design details).


The sound

Stock, the amp sounds really good but, as soon as you drive it a bit more, with the help of a clean booster or alike, you quickly see that the sound can be enhanced.

Without any pushing pedal, it sounds nice but, like lacking some mojo. Too much defined, even aseptic. More hi-fi than musical.

The drive channel farts a bit and, sounds like a IC / transistor / diodes are doing the dirty work, instead of cooked tubes. But, well, I wasn't interested on the drive channel anyway. For that, I have my good pedals.

As usual, I've removed the tubes and, tested them with the Orange Divo VT-1000 tube tester, to check which tubes came stock and which values were used.

All tubes were Groove-Tubes. Not surprise, since GT belongs to Fender, as well.

The three pre-amp tubes were SV-12AX7-R, so Sovtek 12AX7 tubes, which are very EQ even and silky but, lack tridimensionality and character.

The power tubes were, at the end, a couple of EH 5881 tubes.

Measured their matching values, I've found following figures:

V1: 7 / 8
V2: 8 / 8
V3: 7 / 8
Power: 9 / 10

Being each value the corresponding to each triode (for pre-amp tubes) or the value of each tube (for power tubes). The degree that each tube (or triode) satisfies standard specifications is being give by such a number, being 10 the reference value.

That means that, if a 12AX7 tube should have a gain of 100 (10 for each triode), V1 had a gain of 7  for triode 1 and 8 for triode 2 therefore, under specifications. Power tubes were right well on specs values.

Speakers are Celestion G12P-80. Not great speakers but, very even EQ'd and, often used for modeling-amps, which need a very broad frequential representation, to mime several amps with very different EQ characteristics. Not being specialized speakers, they can serve as a good clean platform to build your sound with the help of pedals so, I am not in the need of swap them, by now.


Tube Swapping

I was understanding that I should get more tone from this amp, just swapping stock tubes.
This is my first 6L6 amp so, I had to investigate a while about 6L6 tubes and, recommendations.
As always, NOS tubes seem to be the reference but, the Winged-C 6L6 (of the real Svetlana factory, in St. Petersburg) seemed to be the natural election, followed by some TAD 6L6WGB.

So, I did my research and, this time, I wanted to try Watford Valves, for this set of tubes.
Watford Valves had a re-tube kit ready for this amp, with NOS 6L6 tubes and, three of their re-branded tubes (Harma ECC83-STR).
Watford Valves is, probably, the tube dealer with the best name but, I had never ordered to them, because of the Pound / Euro ratio, VAT, etc. But, there is always a first time.

While I was waiting for such a set, I wanted to try some pre-amp tubes and, thrown there a Mullard Reissue in V1, a Svetlana (Red Sensor) 12AX7 in V2 and a Tung-Sol in the PI (since I had no better option).
Results were awful. What a way to destroy the sound of that amp!.

Overall loudness did fall about 2 numbers in the volume dial and, the sound was bonny, hollow and excessively crunchy. Not a good set of tubes to be paired with those 6L6 tubes.
So, since I had that re-tubing set on the way, I've decided to wait for it and, to continue my tests later.

As soon as the Watford tubes came, I prepared the Orange Divo VT-1000 tube tester and, checked every tube. That was a very great surprise. While most of tubes coming from TAD are rated around 8/9, the set from Watford was very consistent and, very close to specifications. These were the values:

Harma ECC83-STR - tube 1 - 9 / 10
Harma ECC83-STR - tube 2 - 10 / 11
Harma ECC84-STR - tube 3 - 10 / 10

NOS JAN/Philips 6L6WGB - 9 / 10

I've decided to put tube 2 in V1, because it had the two triodes with more gain, to push the input stage.
I've decided to put tube 3 in PI, because it had the more balanced triodes.
And, tube 1 was placed in V2.

Next decision was how to BIAS the amp. Fortunately, the Hot Rod III Deville has a (big blue) trim pot to bias the power tubes, this and my TAD Bias Master system, made it very comfortable.

The factory biasing sounded a tad cool and, I wanted to get a little more harmonic content so, I've searched everywhere and, found (as always) highly contradictory information.
Fender recommends 30 mV by tube but, if you use Weber Bias Calculator, it seems that 6L6 tubes can go up to 40 mV at 70% of max. disipation power.
Eurotubes was biasing to 40 mV by tube.
A mate was really happy with his amp biased to 32.5 mV by tube and, added that his tubes last years and years because of it.

I made my own calculations, taking into account the highly variable voltage ratio read in my mains, and decided to go with 38 mV by tube.

Switched on the amp and plugged the guitar. Overall, the sound was warmer and darker than with original Sovtek tubes but, in a good way. But, the sound seemed to me a bit cooked and, breaking really early. The power delivered was brutal and, most of the objects on the bins around started to fall down.
Tested the guitar direct to amp, both channels, every mode.
I've ended taking the decision to move down the biasing value and, I wanted to try those 32.5 mV that seemed to satisfy that guy.

Next day, I re-biased the tubes to 32.5 mV and, tried again.
Wow. The overall loudness was reduced but, the sound was less crunchy or cooked and, allowed me to set up the amp in a good sweet spot, to play clean and break the tubes by picking hard.
There is a warm pad bellow the sound, rich in harmonics and really tasteful.
I've enjoyed the test session a lot. It was like being plugged to a good old-school amp, a la Bassman or alike.

The Normal mode of the Clean channel sounded a bit dull and lifeless with factory tubes but, with this re-tubing, it sounded warm but beautiful. Really nice.
The Bright mode of the Clean channel sounded too much bright (even piercing) with factory tubes but, now it was easier to tame down the excessive high end.

The Gain channel sounded too dirty with Factory tubes. Now, it sounded more like a tube-distortion.

I can try to rotate those three tubes in the different positions. Maybe a higher output tube with a later break in PI will bring more clean headroom to the amp. And maybe, a lower output tube with a later break can help the pre-amp to stay cleaner. But, it's clear that British sounding tubes, as the Mullard reissue, the EH or the Svetlana aren't the best option for this amp, since they have a classic British crunch.

I have no clue which tubes are those Harma 12AX7-STR because, STR (Special Tube Request) means that the maker introduces some variations to make the tube to buyer' specifications (that is, Watford Valves' specifications) and, this usually mean you are ordering a Chinese tube. But, tube pins don't have that dull aspect that Chinese tubes usually have and, it's overall aspect resembles me to a JJ ECC83S (maybe with golden pins). The sound is also closer to a JJ, specially in the middle-high frequencies but, surprisingly darker than the Sovtek. I have to investigate it a bit more.

Maybe, now that I have the tubes biased and controls set up to my taste, I will try some tubes, in individual positions, to see what changes. Maybe, the TAD 7025-S highgrade in V1 could do something good. Will see. I would like to tame a bit the spike on mid-highs and, a cleaner Reverb recovery sound.

Will come back with my tests in a further entry in this blog.


Notes on Biasing this amp

Biasing this amp, don't forget to:

• Roll down every control, including the tone stack, presence, master and drive. Everything down.
• Switch the mode to Normal (not Bright).
• Set your biasing probes between the socked and the tube (safer than just a multimeter).
• Switch off the amp and, wait 5 mins.
• Switch off the bypass
• Bias to your target value
• Leave the amp like this for about 20 mins, to help the whole circuit to stabilize.
• Re-check your bias setting and, do latest adjustment.

To avoid to remove the amp's framework out of the combo, I've flipped the amp down, over its speakers' grill to better access tubes and that blue trim-pot for biasing.
By careful, there are a lot of components that can be accidentally touched and, have lethal voltages.

Evidence Audio: Pay once, enjoy your whole life

Introduction

You know, from time to time, you get some (nice) surprises, when you less weren't expecting it.
By a casual, I have answered back to a post (in Seymour Duncan's forum), where the Original Poster was asking "which is the best cable for you and why".

My answer was that "After testing a bunch of cables, from the cheapest Chinese to the expensive ones, I went to Mogami 2524 bulk cables" and that "While Vovox (Sonorus) and Evidence Audio (The Lyric HG) where in the top of the pyramid, Mogami's was just slighly under those in tone but, way lower in price" and that "while My Lyric HG broke, my Mogami's last still".

Well, you never know which eyes are reading you.
I've received a mail from Toni Marinello (Evidence Audio), same day, few hours later.


An Unique and Exemplar Customer Service

Toni's mail was short, barely a telegram but, with just what matters. He said he read in SD forum that my Lyric HG broke and, asked me if he could do something to help me.

My fault. I remember I read a nice interview to Toni Marinello in The Tone Quest digital fanzine, long time ago. I remember very clearly the key figures of such an interview but, I completely forgot the name of da man to be honest.

So, I was thinking that Toni was some kind of Customer Service Representative that was interested on washing Brand Image or, that maybe, Evidence Audio had a nice post-sale service, at the end.

In that scenario, my answer was something like: "hi Toni, thank you. Well, I don't know if you can do something for me. I bought the cable in that online store some time ago and, it broke just playing. You know, you move while you perform, and the cable breaks".

Typical, right?.
How many cables have broken due to the messes that occur while you move while playing?.
What do you do, then?.
You usually buy (or craft) one more and, maybe a new brand/model, with the secret expectation that, this time, it will last longer.

Ok. I have sent back my answer to Tony expecting to receive something like "We are very sorry. This is cable broken by a bad use, etc., etc.". But, what I received back was an answer llike "My cables are warranted for life. I've already talked to store X and I will make a replacement cable for you. The store will place soon an order for me and, I will include such a cable for you". I wanted to send me the Forte (more indicated for guitar to pedal board applications, because it's more flexible), instead of the Lyric HG.

I wrote back a mail saying how gratefully surprised me and thank you him for his interest and kind offer.
I've explained my experience with several of his products: Monorail (with George's L connectors), The Siren II, The Lyric HG and The Forte.

I've explained to him that I gave up trying to mount patch cables with Monorail using George's L connectors (as he suggested, originally), because it was a waste of time with very low success ratio.

Also, that I loved the Siren but, that it would be a nice thing if he was preparing some cables with an extreme with those metallic clamp connectors often seen in combo speakers. In that way I could upgrade my 3 combos.

And, also that being the Forte a great cable, in my honest opinion, it hasn't the same tone (or lack of tone, as per himself words) than the Lyric HG, that the Forte sounded warmer, not so EQ evenly sounding and slightly less defined and chiming as the Lyric HG. For this, I wanted him to send me a Lyric HG replacement that I would use for the run pedal board to amp or just for recording.

He answered me back that, even being a single-man company, he cares about all his customers the same and, he loves to do it that way. That he was glad to have to opportunity to update me with its upgrades and enhancements.

He understood my issues with Monorail / George's L connectors and, explained me that, after some time (I bet that based on customers feedback), he developed a perfect connectors system to work with his Monorail system (SIS) and linked me to his page, which has an impressive video showing how one of his Monorail cables mounted with the SIS system, was supporting the weight of a combo amp!!!.
Watch this video!.




He also pointed me to a page where I could buy the Siren with such a clamp connectors and, that this was released some time ago.

Finally, he understood my point with the Forte but, let me know that the Forte was re-engineered and that now sound exactly the same as the Lyric HG and, it's more expensive, because each thread of the double multi-thread core wires were insulated with Enamel (as big part of pickups' coil wires!!!).

So, I've thanked them again for the great update and, sent the original purchasing info for him to discuss the way with the store. I am waiting that replacement cable.


Pay it once, enjoy it your whole life

As already mentioned above, there are few cables that I will put on the top of the pyramid and, in my personal tests, tone-wise, the best sounding cables where Vovox Sonorus and Evidence Audio The Lyric HG, in every single variable: punch, loudness, definition, low microphonics, tone preservation, plain frequential response, etc. But both presented same issues: they were so thick and rigid that weren't unsuitable for real performance (at least that you stand up quiet as a mummy).

The Mogami 2524 sounded to me slightly better than the Forte and slightly worst that those two heavy weights but, price-wise, the Mogami was way more affordable than any of those and, I could buy the bulk cable to make my patch, cords and cables to the lengths I needed. That's why I went for Mogami 2524, without any doubt.

To be honest, I didn't know that Evidence Audio offered a "for life warranty" and, if I knew that in some point of time, I would probably though that this was just "snake oil".
But, evidently, Evidence Audio is taking really seriously his compromise and, this completely changes my perception of what is really expensive or affordable.

How many cables have broken due to the messes that occur while you move while playing, in your life?.

Evidence Audio cables are the hell expensive, indeed. If you think you should buy again a replacement cable, then you end searching for a more reasonable alternative, as I did.
But understand this key point: you buy once, enjoy the whole life.

I don't know of any other product in musical world (honestly, even out of the musical environment) offered with such a level of warranty and compromise!. Only this subject sets completely apart Evidence Audio from other cable makers / assemblers.

I know that there are many people that think that cables make no difference and, this is just snake oil. And, to be honest, I was in the same position long time ago.
But, instead of discussing about something I had never experienced, I bought several cables, of variate prices and design to demonstrate to myself that I was right.
The surprise was to discover that I was wrong and, that cables make real difference, specially in long runs and when your pedalboard has some respectable number of pedals (12 in my tests).

For those that thing this is just snake oil, please, do your own tests (with significative lengths and number of pedals). This is the only way you will be in a real position to discuss about the subject.
For those that already know cables make a difference and, that were thinking on to go for Evidence Audio but, ended with a more affordable and reasonably well sounding cable (as myself), just consider that to buy an Evidence Audio cable is a one-time expense for your whole life.
Can it be considered as expensive from that point of view?.

Unfortunately, the news about the upgrades and enhancements that EA did, aren't easily seen in his own page. Tony has a presence in Thegearpage and, will probably provide right feedback in some social networks tools (facebook, twitter, etc.) but, since I'm not using those, I didn't new about what he enhanced.

Myself, once I can save the money, I will go back to EA stuff, this time knowing that I am getting the best sounding cables for my whole life, paying just once!.


More readings

The Tone Quest Report published a nice report The Truth about Audio Cables, where the interview with Toni Marinella will bring you a lot of interesting technical information about cables and cable makers.

In my own blog, I was discussing about the qualities that a good guitar cable should have, in my entry what is a good guitar cable? (including a video comparing several cables) and, a comparison Mogami vs Evidence Audio.

Strat Fighters: Fender's Eric Johnson model vs Fender's American Deluxe Strato loaded with David Allen Dovers pickups

Introduction

Few weeks ago, we went to an awesome store to test several Stratocasters for my fellow friend.
During that intensive testing of the best sounding axes under 2500 Eur, the winner in sound was the Eric Johnson model, that sounded several steps over any other model (including some relics and other interesting variants).

But, my friend election was an American Deluxe, because of its ergonomics and added features (deluxe tremolo, staggered locking keys, compound radius fretboard, etc.).

Our goal was to give to that axe, at least, same quality sound as the Eric Johnson model had, with the help of David Allen's Dover pickups.
I've designed some special wiring for this axe, to overwrite the no-sense stock alternative pickup combinations and, my fellow friend luthier did the wiring and overall set-up.

The axe was sounding really good but, did we success?.
How to know it without a fair axe to axe comparison, right?.


Strat Fighters

We needed to compare both guitars, in a fair way, by using exactly same gear without changing anything, between one or the other test.

We went back to the store and, ask them to allow us to test both axes with same rig, because we were very curious about final results. That Eric Johnson had the sound, the Deluxe the playability so, if we achieved the sound in the Deluxe, we had the complete axe on hands.

First, we were plugged in an amp that made everything to sound lifeless. It was the George Benson's model of the Fender's Hot Rod series.
Ok, maybe it can work for a semi-accoustic guitar and Jazz stuff but, it wasn't our coup of tea.

As soon as we moved on the Bassman reissue (same we used first time to test every Strato), bells, chime, spark, quack came back to life and, that was a key point to do a fair comparison.

For driven tones, we used the Bogner Ecstasy Red pedal, that would allow us to test how the singles stand under hi gain conditions. So we covered from clean to hi gain and, everything in between.

During the first phase, we were just trying the Deluxe with Dovers alone and, fine-tunning pickup's heights, once the fair Bassman revealed every nuance.

Also, we checked the alternative wiring of my design, finding really useful the 5 alternative combos (LP Neck virtual humbucker / Tele single/single virtual middle position / LP virtual middle position / Tele humbucker/single virtual middle position / LP virtual bridge humbucker).
Results of virtual humbuckers with Dovers isn't vintage-alike but, hot output humbuckers, instead.
Virtual bridge humbucker sounded fatter than any LP vintage humbucker but, awesome for hi gain stuff, anyway.

Once we were satisfied with the sound of the Deluxe with DA's Dovers, the doubt floated on the air: "Ok, that is sounding crazy good but... really good?... did we achieved a sound with the quality of the EJ model?".

My fellow friend started to play a part of a song and, I said: "Stop here. Just get that EJ, select same position and replay same part!".

Just after the first note, everything was clear but, he finished the part, anyway.
We swapped the guitars several times more with some other song parts and, trying several (standard) positions. Always same results.

You know, sound differences are very difficult to explain but, I will try it.
Overall, the EJ model sounded as being pushed back in a Z edge of a tridimensional sound, while the Deluxe with Dovers sounded in your face. Similar effect to what happens when you change from an small combo to a bigger open back cab.

Dovers sounded string-to-string and note-to-note more defined but, not in a cold and aseptic way but, in a very musical and harmonically rich way.

Under hi gain, the Dovers stand firm without issues, delivering huge sound and, without going muddy, blurry or just undefined.  Any pinch or artificial harmonic is achieved with ease, shredding, tapping, palm mutes, everything works with attitude. The well defined piano-alike basses give a good body to the sound and, helps to achieve a powerful sound, without going undefined.


And the winner was...

Well, taking into account that the Eric Johnson model was BY FAR the best sounding Stratocaster under 2500 Eur in that store and, taking into account that such an axe sounded as shy or pushed back and undefined compared the Deluxe with Dovers then... the winner was... the winner was...

Yes, you can name it!
Deluxe with David Allen Dovers !!!.

Unfortunately, we were not allowed to record a video with this comparison, since this could potentially affect brand's relations. So, if you are a follower of this blog, you will know that I care about tone and, you can just believe on this or not. But, to me, David Allen pickups are the most exciting pickups I've ever tried and, go some step over Bareknuckle Pickups (which were my preferred ones, up to now).

I don't know how David achieves it but, man, you owe a good set of David Allens to know how good your guitar can sound.


Some height adjustment tricks for David Allen single coils

If you are used to standard mass production pickups, you need to be aware that the sensitivity of awesome boutique pickups, as David Allen's ones needs a more careful approach to determine the right height for each pickup. I've lost lot of time with several sets and several Stratos so, I'm feeling in a position where I can share something to help you in the process.

First, you must understand that the balance side to side (low E / high E strings) is more important than the average height of the pickup. There is just one plane (determined by both sides height) were those pickups sound perfect, any slight side unbalance can mask the sound.

So, that's the procedure I've followed:

1. Lower the three singles to pickguard level.
2. Start fine tuning the Neck pickup.
3. Raise the low-E side of the pickup until you get a clear defined, good output sound for bass strings.
4. Around that spot, 1/8 of turn of the adjustment screw will make a clear difference.
5. Raise now the high-E side of the pickup until you get a clear balance in every string. Double check balance by playing same note in same fret of low and high E strings. Check the chord overall body and consistence, note by note.
6. Once the both sides are balanced, raise both up or down, same screw turns, up to get the best sounding result.
7. Check now with some overdrive or distortion pedal. The sound should be liquid, sustained and well defined. Otherwise, readjust pickup.
8. Once you have the neck pickup fine tuned. It's time for the Middle pickup.
9. Just measure the gap between pole and string bottom in both sides of the neck pickup, while you press related string against the last fret of your fretboard.
10. Once measure, press again the string for each side and adjust the gap for the middle pickup to the exact same height.
11. Play with 1/8 turns of the adjustment screw to fine tuning the middle. Maybe, you will need to raise both sides 1/8 to 1/4 of screw turn respect of the neck. Be sure you have both sides well balanced, as explained for the neck pickup.
12. Try the middle with some distortion and, readjust when needed.
13. Now, check the notch position that combines neck + middle pickups. If you need to fine tune, do 1/8 screw turn adjustments to the middle pickup, until you get the perfect notch sound.
14. Time to go for the bridge pickup.
15. Measure middle heights (as described above) and fine tune the balance of the bridge pickup.
16. Try with distortion and fine tune.
17. Try then the notch position that combines middle and bridge pickups. Fine tune bridge height to get a good quacky sound.
18. Check that the output of the three pickups seems the same, in loudness.
19. You are done!. Enjoy it!.

The fair sounding the amp where you do the tests, the best the results.
Try to use some simple design single channel amp, with a good organic and clean sound.

Guitars: Epiphone Korina Flying V review

Introduction

Note: this blog entry was already published in my old Spanish version of this blog, around November 2011. I'm revisiting it here and updating it with more relevant info.

Who can resist to the attraction of the Gibson Korina Flying V?. Who wouldn't love to have one of those in his/her arsenal?.

Well, prices of a Gibson Korina Fying V are absolutelly out of my budget and, more if this shall not be my #1 guitar. So, I went to Gibsons' poor brother and bought an Epiphone Korina Flying V and, this is my experience and impressions with such a guitar.


Presentation

No surprise. All these low cost guitars, Made in China, come with a cardboard box (which seems a casquet), wrapped in some kind of foam-foil that just protects the guitar from dust and nothing else.
With the guitar, some adds by Epiphone, a cheap instrument cable and an Allen key to set up the thrussrod.
But, wood looks really good. No flaw, nothing wrong to point here.

Well, you need to know that Korina is just a paint color, not the wood. Really, the wood for neck and body is just mahogany, with a Korina-colored clear coat.
So, if you expected a Korina made instrument, you will not get it.

Body, neck and peghead are really good finished and, even the fretboard has a nice look (not that cheap rosewood fretboards with zebra aspect).

Respect of plastics: the pickguard and the jack's plastic nut are triple-layered (cool!). The nut, even being a plastic one, looks hard plastic and not that bland plastics seen in most of cheap Chinese guitars.

Respect of hardware: we can find typical medium-cost asian stuff, not bad and, fully functional. Die-cast oil sealed tuning keys, etc. The gold plated coat is low cost so, it will wear really fast, as usuall.

Frets are of type of wide medium-jumbo but, a tad shorts on height so, if in a future your frets wear, you will probably need to completely refret the fretboard.

Two aspects that worry me are the narrow sparrows where stand the light weighted bridge and, that piece where the strings go to their anchoring spots thru the body.

Electronics are good. Not those typical mini-pots or cheap 3-way pickups selectors. The electronics work was neat and the guitar presents no hum or ground noise, at all.

Pickups have a very low output and, to get something good from them, you need to push them with some booster (Xotic EP Booster or Wampler Decibel+ are good ones for this task).
They sound PAF-alike but, they lack output, body, harmonical richness, and openess for a wide and huge sound. Well, they sound just plain and lifeless.

Anyway, as it comes stock (except for overall setup) it has an use but, as often happens with Epiphone's guitars, a new set of better sounding pickups will be very well welcome, indeed.


Playing the guitar

After, seen that the overall impression is favorable, this is time to hung the guitar on and to check how it plays. But What the hell is this?.

This guitar has a serious head diving issue. It's just unplayable as it cames stock!.

Without going to change the position of the strap anchors, the only way to get a bit rid of the issue is to use a lether (with big grip) strap, to minimize the diving issue.

I've finally decided to move the upper anchor to the back of the body, centered just below the neck junction (as you can see in Gibson's models). This completely fixes the diving issue but, then, you have that anchor drilling your belly, and certain lateral deviation.

Neck is easy to walk and smooth (well finished frets). Overall, it seems to me that strings haven't the right stress, they feel bland. But, after swapping stock strings with D'Addario XL110 (10") everything, in stress and sound made an awesome difference.

Pots and 3-way work smoothly. No issues.

Respect of sound, testing it with a Marshall 1923C and a few pedals: Xotic EP Booster, Hermida Audio Zendrive and Tiki Drive, it sounds a tad dark and warm, which makes it a bit difficult to cut the mix and, the sound seems as covered by a blanket but, this is a clear issue coming from the choosen pickups.

If I test the guitar unplugged, it's clear that the wood is very resonant and with a huge sustain.
As I said, new pickups are a must for this guitar to let it shine


Moding the guitar

Until now, we found three main issues: head diving, strings and pickups but, if you try to mod your guitar, you will soon find the forth and fifth issues with this guitar.

One of the worst design decisions I've ever seen is that the posts of the bridge are drilled through the pickguard and, that means that if you wanted to remove the pickguard to swap your pickups, you need to unscrew the post (so ruining your setup) and, just when you had that post removed you could be able to remove the pickguard. So, you bet it, one of the best mods you can do is to carve that part of the pickguard to avoid that screw thru the pickguard.

Second issue is related to the way the strings are being inserted. Not having the typical stop tail piece, you cannot just loose the strings and remove bridge and stop-tail, you need to completely unstring the guitar.

Other issue that you can find is that there is no room for a push/pull pot. Body is slim and its cavity also so, any potential mod should go thru micro-switches, IMHO or, after routing the cavity deeper.


Conclusion

This is a great guitar for its price, even leaving it stock. Has an eternal sustain and a very particular voice, bumped in mid-low frequencies, with a very warm and vocalish sound, all arround.

But, it's highly recommended that you re-position the straps anchors to fix the peghead diving and, that you swap stock strings with a good sounding set (D'Addario XL110 sounded good to me) and, that you throw there a good set of pickups.

Other than this, cut that pickguard to avoid the bridge post to go thru it and, you are done.

With right strings and pickups and, after fixing the peghead diving issue, this guitar will give you lot of fun and satisfaction. I have to highlight, very specially, its sustain and very vocalish voice.

Fender American Deluxe SSS (2010 model) - a succesfully mod story

Introduction

As I've explained in a previous blog entry, my friend was in the market for a new Fender Stratocaster and, ended with an American Deluxe SSS, 2010 model.
Not because of its sound, but because of the rest of ergonomic and good enhancements.

We have already decided to swap those pickups with David Allen's pickups and, after hearing the EJ model, we decided to go for Dovers set, which should nail EJ's tone.

I myself own one of the first Deluxe versions (that was produced for very short) so, I knew what's good and wrong with that axe.

In some way, this entry is an overall review of the American Deluxe model 2010 and, a story of the wiring mod I've designed for this axe, to substitute non-sense factory tones.


The Beast and the Beauty

Seriously, this guitar is Hell and Heaven, Beast and Beauty.
They did an awesome job in some areas but, they have took scary decisions in other areas.
Let's talk about the good things first.

From a "wood-luthier" point of view, this guitar is what any strato ever dreamed.
I mean, wood quality is clearly superior, as well as inlays and overall finish.
It has compound radius fretboard (my own deluxe, hasn't), a good nut (not the LSR nut of mine), staggered tuning keys (that give the right angle to strings, to avoid the tree strings) and, locking keys (which help to keep the tuning stable.
It has a nice Deluxe Bridge, that works pivoting with its blade on two posts, as any modern bridge (Kahler, Floyd Rose, etc.), which gives a better touch, immediateness and accuracy to tremolo effect and, helps to tuning stability also.
Also, the junction body / neck was beveled to allow a more comfortable access to low frets.

Well, in wood, hardware and ergonomics aspects is a great enhancement respect of Standards.
Now the bad (and understandable) things.

Why in the Hell, the minds that prototyped such a guitar thought on a set of Noiseless Samarian-Cobalt N3 pickups?. Not sounding bad at all, they aren't organic and, this is more clear when you just play any other good Strato. Why a Deluxe model has such a thing?.

Then, the potentially interesting S-1 switch, which should bring you 5 new exciting alternative pickup combinations (or sounds) to cover lots of ground. A good configuration that can give you 10 different sounds (including the 5 standard strato sounds) sounds amazing on paper, right?.

Well, from an "electronics-tech" point of view, every taken decision during design phase was wrong for this axe. Even the combos that came with the first version of the Deluxe SSS made more sense.
Most of the 5 alternative combos (with the S-1 pushed down) have no real use and sound really awful.

So, I can imagine lots of people missing all the good that the Deluxe model has to offer, because it plainly sounds worst than any Standard, with stock pickups and wiring.
Fender people!. What were you thinking while designing the electronics side?.


Bringing back the Deluxe to life

An axe of this level owes stuff at its level. We were clear about to throw there a set of David Allen's Dovers, because that was the sound we wanted for this axe.
Now, it was time to re-design the alternative wiring for this axe and, I had some surprise, again!.

After removing all the solder and, leave components unwired and clean, I've discovered that the new Deluxes are mounting some kind of hybrid super-switch.
It has one wafer as the original 5-way (that is, 3 real positions and 2 fake notch positions) and, one more wafer as the super-switch (that is, 5 real positions) so, this is a mix of a DP3T (with two notch positions) and a real DP5T. So, you have all the issues of the typical standard 5-way and, just few advantages of the super-switch.

Once more, Fender people, what were you thinking on when designing this axe?.

Well, we had to buy a new brand Super-switch (4P5T) to have 4 poles with 5 real positions to re-design the wiring for some interesting alternative sounds.

My plan was to preserve the original strato sounds in the normal mode (S-1 switch up) and to, provide LP-like sounds and some other interesting alternatives (as the middle position of the tele and, one of my favourite combinations).

So, my plan was to have:

1. Virtual LP Neck humbucker (Neck in series with Middle)
2. Virtual Middle position of Telecaster (Neck in parallel with Bridge)
3. Virtual LP Middle position (Neck in series with Middle - in parallel with - Middle in series with Bridge)
4. HS combination (Middle in series with Bridge - in parallel with Neck)
5. Virtual LP Bridge position (Middle in series with Bridge)

Results exceeded our expectations. In words of my fellow friend luthier: "this axe covers several decades of music styles. Every combo makes sense and has a real use. This is the most versatile guitar I've ever heard.".

Our plan is to go back to the store where my other fellow friend bought it and do a face-to-face comparison with the amazing Eric Johnson's model. We all (us and store' staff) know how both axes sounded before so, it will be a very exciting test, which I hope to record and hang in Youtube later.

This will leave you to understand how amazing would be a Deluxe with the right electronics from factory and, if you like how it plays, you will be able to enhance it with some additional economical effort but, at least, you will have a great ergonomical axe (with Charvel's compound radius fretboard!), versatile and sounding good as hell.


New heart and neurons for the beast

Before going for the wiring diagram, I would like to warn you about a very important issue, if your plan is just to swap stock pickups with a new set of good sounding strato pickups.

Warning about mounting sets with RWRP middle in a Deluxe!

If your intention is just to swap the annoying N3 stock pickups with a good sounding replacement set of pickups, be aware that you will be able to use there a set without RWRP middle pickup.
Reason is that stock wiring uses some (awful) out-of-phase combinations and, an RWRP pickup reverses the whole wiring sense and, makes no good to something that already sounded bad.

If your plan was to just swap original set of pickups with a new one, just be sure you use regular middle pickup.


With David Allen's Dovers

Most of DA' sets have a RWRP middle pickup so, they aren't direct candidates for direct replacement pickup but, since stock alternative combos made no sense, we've already decided to re-design the whole axe for versatility and real application.

My design includes no out-of-phase position so, you can throw there any kind of set of pickups (with or without RWRP middle) and, it will work flawless. If you use a RWRP middle, you will have real virtual humbuckers (alternative positions 1, 3 and 5), with hum cancellation, otherwise just expect some hum but, that's all.

The Diagram

As ever, click on the diagram for full size.

Pickups white conductors are drawn in light blue for readability.
This wiring will give you 100% satisfaction if you use mentioned DA Dovers, even that other pickups of similar quality level (if they are) can give you very good results.

Eric Johnson is originally using a 300K volume pot and 250K tone pots. He also uses a 0.1 mF cap, while my design works with a 0.047 mF cap.
DA pickups were designed to work with standard strato configuration and, therefore, they deliver same (or better tone, we will discover it in the comparison video!) with just three pots of 250K (stock).

Also, Eric Johnson is assigning Neck pickup to Tone 1 (middle pot on diagram) and Bridge pickup to Tone 2 (lower pot on diagram). But, we are using standard strato tones assignment here, therefore, Neck to Tone1 and Middle to Tone2.
To go for the EJ tone arrangement, just move the olive green wire from the tab where M+ lands to the tab where B+ lands and you are done.

The feedback

The owner of this axe is a fellow friend, who has not knowledge and not real interest on any technical subject. He just loves to play guitar and has "tone". Plays a broad range of styles and does it with feel and technic, with some special magic. You know what I'm talking about.

Who did the work was my other fellow friend luthier (and brother of the owner), who is a beast of wood and hardware but goes lost in electronics (even that solders as a pro). He couldn't understand what all those wires that he had to solder were going to do and, was scared to loose the standard strato sounds.

I want to share with you their comments, after testing the guitar with selected pickups and new brand wiring design, because it made me laugh a lot.

Owner comments:
"There is only one word that can define this: PERFECTION".
"I give thanks to God to allow me to play THIS axe".
"It has so huge sounds that I have to redo my whole rig' setup"
"I even don't need pedals, this is pure crazyness!".

Luthier comments:
"Gooooood, this is a fucking MASTER WORK!. A real beast!."
"I have no words to explain it... 10 sounds that cover most of the great decades of music.
Sound covers from Van Halen to pure Gilmour, Knopfler, Clapton, Prince... anything!"
"Clean, you get all the best sounds of the musical history, I swear it!".
"Man, my sincerly congratulation!. This is the more complete guitar I've ever heard. Anything he plays sounds to a disk record. Hiperpolivalent.".
"We MUST build guitars exactly as this one. They will be sold with ease".
"You should be here. Drive to here and, get some cava, dozens of bottles!".


Just stay tuned. We will arrange a demo session with Auvisa store's people to make a fair comparison with the expensive (but awesomely sounding) Eric Johnson's model.

Auvisa: a day on Guitarists' Heaven

Yesterday was a great day for some friends of mine and me.
One of my friends was in the market for a new brand Fender Stratocaster and, I was there also searching some amp with a solid clean channel that could take pedals with ease and cover a wide range of loudness.

We went to Auvisa, a nice music store here in Spain.
We were received by Auvisa staff, which seemed to me very knowledgable, kind and friendly.
They were able to answer any technical question we did, with full sense and, they've helped us to narrow our search to just an small number of items to be tested in depth, as per our description of what we were after.

The store has a very classy but modern look. Spaces are well illuminated and, everything seems sorted and well classified, in separated sections (Guitars, guitar parts, technical support, drums, keyboards, studio and gig gear, bass guitars, etc...).

The Store runs a lot of guitar brands like Fender, Ibanez, Tokai, Jackson, Martin, Vigier, LTD, Shur, Vox, etc. And an impresive number of amp brands as well, as: Marshall, Fender, Vox, Mesa Boogie, Yamaha, Line6, George, Victoria, Ampeg, Custom Audio, TC Electronics, Mark Bass, Shur, Engl, etc.

There is at least a representation of each guitar and amp lines, so we were able to test a broad range of stratos, from the cheapest (but good sounding) Mexican ones to Eric Johnson's model.

Auvisa people had everything ready for our tests. We were lead to the testing room. An impressive room full of nice guitars (Fender, Tokai, Taylor, ...) and full of amps, regular production and more arcane boutique ones and, of any size, from lunchboxes to the half-stacks.

We spent the whole morning just to narrow the set of stratos to just three models, the ones that impressed we all the most. So, before lunch, we narrowed the search to a Vintage Strato with Ash body, an American Deluxe and Eric Johnson's model.

To be fair, Eric Johnson's model was the one sounding the best. That model had a binding around the fretboard (often seen in Gibson's guitars and rarely in Fender's), which is just anecdotic but, the sound was incredible good and resonant.

But, my friend was more concerned about ergonomical aspects of the axe and, in that area, the American Deluxe wins hands down. Features of the Deluxe are very wellcome: two posts blade floating bridge, compound radius, staggered locking tunners and, alternate wiring (with the S-1 switch).

My friend felt at home with the Deluxe so, that was his finally election, during the afternoon.

Not sounding bad at all, the Noiseless Samarian-Cobalt 3 pickups that these axes mount stock, aren't so organic as other strato replacement pickups.
But, we weren't worried about it, because we had already a set of David Allen's Dovers (that David sent very kindly to me, to test) and we were already planning to swap the stock pickups with that great sounding set, who should let us close to (or surpass) the sound of EJ's model.

We are planning go back to Auvisa, once the guitar is being setup by my other fellow friend (the luthier) and, those David Allen are in place, to demo the enhancement to Auvisa's people.

To test those stratos, I've initialy selected the Fender Bassman LTD (4 x 10" speakers), because is a fair sounding amp that helps to reveal everything you want to hear in wood and pickups.
Unfortunately, the Bassman had some kind of tube hiss that was a tad uncomfortable and, it doesn't sounds very well at low volume levels. You need to push that baby to get the very well known organic sound.
But, it was ok to select the guitar, anyway.

Then, it was the time to select my amp. This time I went with open mind and not particular prejudices, not positive or negative about brands or models. I've clearly explained what I wanted and, which other amps I've already tested and what I didn't liked. Even that the Bassmann is an awesome amp, it wasn't what I was actually after.

I've bring with myself the whole rig, guitar, pedalboard and cables, to be sure that the amps that I was going to check will deliver with my gear.

This was also a good oportunity to demo to Auvisa people the sets of David Allen Stratcats pickups that I've got actually mounted in my American Deluxe Strato (the old one, without the compound radius).

It seems that a collaboration between David Allen and Auvisa can be possible and, if it works, I will feel really proud of have being the nexus between both parts, without any economical reward.
I believe on David Allen' stuff and, I love how Auvisa run their musical store, how they care about music, tone and people. So, I only wish good luck for both, if there is some agreement.

Well, going back to the amps.
Auvisa's people bring me a George boutique amp. I think it was the Tornado Duo model but, with a snake-skin tolex. I had good expectations with George's amps, after reading a bunch of reviews in guitarists forums.

To be honest, that amp wasn't my cup of tea. To me, it lacked loudness, body and, it was breaking up in a wrong way when pushed hard. It seemed to be as the speaker was farting under high preassure. Probably is a good amp but, it didn't worked fine with my gear so, it was quickly discarded.

Thinking on next one, I was very curious about the Hot Rod series of Fender, that seemed to me (on the paper) good candidates. So I've asked to test some Hot Rod and, a Hot Rod III Deville was already there, in the testing room.
So, I've plugged my gear to that Hot Rod III Deville and, tone was instantaneus. We all smiled and, nodded our heads.

I wasn't really interested on the gain channel, since I wanted to build my own gain textures with my pedals. I just wanted a nice clean channel that could take pedals with ease and that can sound good a lower levels and impressive a gig levels.

In the meanwhile, Auvisa people made me interested into test a Bogner distortion pedal (Ecstasy, the blue one) but, even having a good tone, I prefer myself how the Jetter Gear JetDrive pushed the amp and made those 6L6 tubes to sing. Wah, modulation, vibe, overdrive, distortion, delay, everything worked to my taste. The sound clean was really good and, rock stadium with my gain pedals.

I've jumped out my chair to check where the volume knob was dialed, because I thought the volume should be at 3/4 of its range and, I was concerned about headroom.
My surprise was huge. I was scared seeing that the volume was just at 2.5 !!!.
Mother of God!. What a big sound!.

I thought: "man, this seems the definitive amp, at least for my #1, the strato". But, while I was thinking that way, my friends were saying: "bro, get that one home and sell your rest of amps!. This will be the best amp in your collection. Forget the rest. Even that Marshall cannot be compared to this one".
Unfortunatelly for my pocket, I had to agree with all them so... I did it!!!.

Scared about price, I was greatefully surprised with the deal. Around 900 Eur, with VAT included. This is less than I had to pay for my Princeton Reverb reissue and, the sound has no comparison.

Since I had negative experience with Jensen' speakers, that usually sound beautiful, detailed and silky when playing alone but, that tend to be lost in the mix, I've talked about my concerns with this amp and, wanted to test the rig with some backing tracks, to check if the amp was able to cut the mix with authority.

But then, Auvisa's people told me that starting on series III (or maybe II) of Hot Rods, Fender started to mount Celestion speakers. This one had a couple of 2 x 12 G12P-80 celestions, that are very commonly used in modeling amps, that need to represent a broad range of frequencies and, therefore, every ecualization is able to work with such a speakers.
After this clarification, I was satisfied and finished the economical transaction, to bring that monster home.

Well, probably the speaker isn't the best around there but, to me, it did a nice job in this particular amp.
In any case, this is the only amp I've got loading 6L6s.
I never liked an amp loading 6V6GT tubes. Those sound really nice and sweet alone but, the tend to be lost in the mix and, they have some kind of sag and compression that tames the attack too much for my own taste. 6L6s are other kind of beast, very powerfull and big sounding.

At such a price, it seems to me difficult to get so much tone.

Well, I have a queue of gear to review / demo and, not so much free time.
Will try to post about all this in further entries.

But, yes, we felt ourselves as in guitarists' heaven, yesterday.
A big musical experience in an awesome store.
Thanks to Auvisa' staff!!!.