Mid/high gain amp with useable cleans.

Jonathanthomas83

webrthomson said:

Jonathanthomas83 said:

@webrthomson I love it, great amp. I won't be keeping it though, not because it isn't great but because I can't pull myself away from my Kemper. As nice as it is owning a real amp, I am besotted with the Kemper and what it offers me. I have a profile of the old Kraken and it's not a million miles off what I'm hearing with this amp and a load box, so I don't really see any benefit...apart from the satisfaction of owning the real thing, and I'd like to think I'm past that now.

No doubt in my mind, this is the amp for me though, high gain wise, sounds exactly like how I'd want it to sound...great! If I were to go back to amps, this would be in the arsenal!

Good to know - I'll need to try one out

Do you have a powered Kemper or run a power amp with it?

Powered Kemper, mate. It's great. Currently I don't play out so only use it at home with headphones and Genelec 8020 monitors.

trolley

I can't praise the Mesa Boogie Roadster enough - best valve amp I've ever owned. and with 4 channels & 3 modes/channel it's versatile.
But it's been replaced by the Helix for my needs - currently playing at home & the odd jam night

prlgmnr

Clarky said:

a thing I forgot to mention about the VH4 is that it's a 4 channel amp

ch1 is clean and will get quite aggressive if you want it to
ch2 is low to mid gain but it also has nice aggressive cleans
ch3 is mid gain to the low end of hi gain [and is jaw dropping cos it's a mid gain tone with a hi gain feel]
ch4 is full on hi gain

And now I want one of these.

webrthomson

Jonathanthomas83 said:

webrthomson said:

Jonathanthomas83 said:

@webrthomson I love it, great amp. I won't be keeping it though, not because it isn't great but because I can't pull myself away from my Kemper. As nice as it is owning a real amp, I am besotted with the Kemper and what it offers me. I have a profile of the old Kraken and it's not a million miles off what I'm hearing with this amp and a load box, so I don't really see any benefit...apart from the satisfaction of owning the real thing, and I'd like to think I'm past that now.

No doubt in my mind, this is the amp for me though, high gain wise, sounds exactly like how I'd want it to sound...great! If I were to go back to amps, this would be in the arsenal!

Good to know - I'll need to try one out

Do you have a powered Kemper or run a power amp with it?

Powered Kemper, mate. It's great. Currently I don't play out so only use it at home with headphones and Genelec 8020 monitors.

Nice - I really need to try one of these out

prlgmnr said:

Clarky said:

a thing I forgot to mention about the VH4 is that it's a 4 channel amp

ch1 is clean and will get quite aggressive if you want it to
ch2 is low to mid gain but it also has nice aggressive cleans
ch3 is mid gain to the low end of hi gain [and is jaw dropping cos it's a mid gain tone with a hi gain feel]
ch4 is full on hi gain

And now I want one of these.

Yup the VH4 is amazing - however look at this from NAMM, the VHX:

Diezel + IR's + FX, nice!

Nerine

The Diezel Einstein covers all this territory easily, too. 

I... Ahem... actually have the 50w combo for sale. 

Quite rare beasts nowadays. It's a real shame they stopped making them. No idea why that was. 

rockmonster

Nerine said:

The Diezel Einstein covers all this territory easily, too. 

I... Ahem... actually have the 50w combo for sale. 

Quite rare beasts nowadays. It's a real shame they stopped making them. No idea why that was. 

I had the Einstein 50 head which was very nice! I would recommend one of them. I was underwhelmed by the XTC both EL 34 and anniversary- two many switches and shared eq- didn’t like the loop either- too much money too imho! Gold finger was a major disappointment. Shiva and anniversary shiva were very good as you know. PT100 is very nice. If you want to do it on a budget get a peavey classic 50- I have a head version- that will surprise you- it did me! The EVH 100 head is still the one for me and the 50 is great too but they work much better with greenbacks or Creamback m’s. Try a DG modded Marshall (I did) he’ll tweak it exactly how you want it and you’ll have a shed full of money left over too! Just saying!

PolarityMan

webrthomson said:

Jonathanthomas83 said:

webrthomson said:

Jonathanthomas83 said:

@webrthomson I love it, great amp. I won't be keeping it though, not because it isn't great but because I can't pull myself away from my Kemper. As nice as it is owning a real amp, I am besotted with the Kemper and what it offers me. I have a profile of the old Kraken and it's not a million miles off what I'm hearing with this amp and a load box, so I don't really see any benefit...apart from the satisfaction of owning the real thing, and I'd like to think I'm past that now.

No doubt in my mind, this is the amp for me though, high gain wise, sounds exactly like how I'd want it to sound...great! If I were to go back to amps, this would be in the arsenal!

Good to know - I'll need to try one out

Do you have a powered Kemper or run a power amp with it?

Powered Kemper, mate. It's great. Currently I don't play out so only use it at home with headphones and Genelec 8020 monitors.

Nice - I really need to try one of these out

prlgmnr said:

Clarky said:

a thing I forgot to mention about the VH4 is that it's a 4 channel amp

ch1 is clean and will get quite aggressive if you want it to
ch2 is low to mid gain but it also has nice aggressive cleans
ch3 is mid gain to the low end of hi gain [and is jaw dropping cos it's a mid gain tone with a hi gain feel]
ch4 is full on hi gain

And now I want one of these.

Yup the VH4 is amazing - however look at this from NAMM, the VHX:

Diezel + IR's + FX, nice!

Not sure about this...obvs the diezel preamp circuit is awesome but when I bought mine i explicitly bought it over a kemper or axefx because I wanted something that wouldnt become obsolete. I feel like any digital effects / IR's etc are eventually going to be outdated whereas a kick ass tube amp is never going to. Mine was also a gift from Wife + son so obviosuly wanted something that I would never want to sell so the longevitiy was a particular factor. 

Jonathanthomas83

I agree. Keep it separate, is the best bet, IMO.

LastMantra

Fender roc Pro 

Clarky

professorben said:

Clarky said:

ICBM said:

webrthomson said:

Oddly I've never owned any version of 5150, thought I did have a SLO and I still have a dual recto 2 channel revision C which are all very close or so I'm told

No, they’re not. Part of the Dual Rectifier preamp circuit is copied from the SLO, but only part - the rest of the amp is completely different - and the 5150 is not remotely similar to either of them, or any other of the amps which evolved from the 5F6-A Bassman via Marshall. The 5150 is actually quite unusual in amp history in that it appears to be more or less an original design, not directly copied or derived from anything else as far as I know.

I don't know the history or technicals regarding the 5150 family
but I have played through a real 5150 Block, 5153 and the Axe-FX modelled versions [which I use regular and know sound and feel pretty much the same as the real thing]..
the 5150 Block seemed very single minded to me.. a very hi-gain amp.. does one thing brilliantly
the 5153 has all the goodies of the 5150 plus very nice clean and mid-gain channels
the unexpected surprise was the aggressive clean from the green channel..
it's wonderful.. thick and full bodied with a nice edge in the highs

if I were to ever switch from the Axe to a real amp, the contest would be between the VH4, Herbert and 5153
it'd be a very tough choice but for flexibility I reckon the VH4 would win by a whisker

Quick question? 

The 5153 you are citing, is that by any chance the 50w that belonged to Drew and now resides in my sweaty mitts? 

no it's a 100W one I played for ages at an exhibition once a few years back..
it was lovely
and now I have the 50W and 100W versions as models in the Axe-FX
I'm told the 50W model is extremely good, and the 100W model is pretty much the experience I remember from the exhibition..

webrthomson

PolarityMan said:

webrthomson said:

Jonathanthomas83 said:

webrthomson said:

Jonathanthomas83 said:

@webrthomson I love it, great amp. I won't be keeping it though, not because it isn't great but because I can't pull myself away from my Kemper. As nice as it is owning a real amp, I am besotted with the Kemper and what it offers me. I have a profile of the old Kraken and it's not a million miles off what I'm hearing with this amp and a load box, so I don't really see any benefit...apart from the satisfaction of owning the real thing, and I'd like to think I'm past that now.

No doubt in my mind, this is the amp for me though, high gain wise, sounds exactly like how I'd want it to sound...great! If I were to go back to amps, this would be in the arsenal!

Good to know - I'll need to try one out

Do you have a powered Kemper or run a power amp with it?

Powered Kemper, mate. It's great. Currently I don't play out so only use it at home with headphones and Genelec 8020 monitors.

Nice - I really need to try one of these out

prlgmnr said:

Clarky said:

a thing I forgot to mention about the VH4 is that it's a 4 channel amp

ch1 is clean and will get quite aggressive if you want it to
ch2 is low to mid gain but it also has nice aggressive cleans
ch3 is mid gain to the low end of hi gain [and is jaw dropping cos it's a mid gain tone with a hi gain feel]
ch4 is full on hi gain

And now I want one of these.

Yup the VH4 is amazing - however look at this from NAMM, the VHX:

Diezel + IR's + FX, nice!

Not sure about this...obvs the diezel preamp circuit is awesome but when I bought mine i explicitly bought it over a kemper or axefx because I wanted something that wouldnt become obsolete. I feel like any digital effects / IR's etc are eventually going to be outdated whereas a kick ass tube amp is never going to. Mine was also a gift from Wife + son so obviosuly wanted something that I would never want to sell so the longevitiy was a particular factor. 

Yeah I get that and it's valid as there are plenty of amps from the 50's / 60's / 70's still going strong - I just thought it was an interesting direction, given other IR loading amps on show

 The other thing this amp does have is lots of channels as well as effects and IR - granted that’s been done before in the shape of the Mesa Triaxis preamp, but it's relatively unusual in guitar amps.

I doubt this is going to stop production of the VH4 - lets face it they have been making them since 1994 and they are still selling and sounding as great as ever!

PolarityMan

I didnt really appreciate that the thing one the bottom is a graphic analyser which is a great idea.

Fishboy7

Sounds like you want a Friedman Dirty Shirley