NAD (that's New Archon Day!) Yes, finally!

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Sorry for the seemingly self serving thread bump, but I agree with that completely! I've now run all types of guitars at the Archon, and used all kinds of gain levels. One that that continues to blow me away, is how great it is with the gain at 9:00 and set up "JCM800-ish." Bright, punchy, dynamic, and using that for rhythm and the Barber GC or Fulldrive 3 for lead tones, it's just awesome!

Or, set the gain at noon, or even 1:00 and roll back for rhythm tones.... This amp has an envelope around the notes. A chewiness, a touch sensitivity, that is just clearly "high end." Notes have this sweet dynamic quality even with high gain. It's addictive. With JCM800 gain, the rhythm punches like an M, but when you kick on the OD for solos, the tone is even better than an M.

I did try the C22 Semi Hollow LTD tonight. I went for the M stuff and it was just awesome. Next time, I'll go for the smooth thing and see how that does. It killed tonight. The C22 Anniversary in the pic over there < has 57/08s and the coil tap on the tone control. The Archon clean channel sounded great with all the combinations of pickups, and I never touched a tone control so there's more there.

I keep saying I'm going to throw the 10 band MXR in the loop and see how much farther I can push it towards certain other classic tones. I haven't even gotten there yet because everything sounds SO good without it.

This is an awesome Amp!
 
That it is. I tend to set the gain and then forget about it, but someone on here asked about the gain range on the dirty channel. So I made a point to just wind through the entire range. Honestly, I was stunned at how much variation - useful variation - there was across the dial. One of those things that makes me wonder why I don't play around with it more.
 
:D
DreamTheaterRules said:
Sorry for the seemingly self serving thread bump, but I agree with that completely! I've now run all types of guitars at the Archon, and used all kinds of gain levels. One that that continues to blow me away, is how great it is with the gain at 9:00 and set up "JCM800-ish." Bright, punchy, dynamic, and using that for rhythm and the Barber GC or Fulldrive 3 for lead tones, it's just awesome!

Or, set the gain at noon, or even 1:00 and roll back for rhythm tones.... This amp has an envelope around the notes. A chewiness, a touch sensitivity, that is just clearly "high end." Notes have this sweet dynamic quality even with high gain. It's addictive. With JCM800 gain, the rhythm punches like an M, but when you kick on the OD for solos, the tone is even better than an M.

I did try the C22 Semi Hollow LTD tonight. I went for the M stuff and it was just awesome. Next time, I'll go for the smooth thing and see how that does. It killed tonight. The C22 Anniversary in the pic over there < has 57/08s and the coil tap on the tone control. The Archon clean channel sounded great with all the combinations of pickups, and I never touched a tone control so there's more there.

I keep saying I'm going to throw the 10 band MXR in the loop and see how much farther I can push it towards certain other classic tones. I haven't even gotten there yet because everything sounds SO good without it.

This is an awesome Amp!
Click to expand...

And just think, you had to be talked into even thinking about, thinking about, just trying one. :p
 
You should! Find the one that does the tones you're after and it will be a great amp.
 
Another update: It just keeps getting better!

I only tried the half power mode for a couple minutes one night and was in a rush. I had been out of town all weekend. Got home last night and said "time to see what this does." I know what to expect from a pentode/triode switch as I've had it on other amps. I flipped the switch, let it warm up for a few minutes and started out on the clean channel. While I had not intention initially of doing so, I ended up staying on the clean channel for at least 20 minutes. VERY nice! Smoother, sweeter, warmer, as I would have expected, yet still clear and beautiful. Must note again, I've had this amp for weeks now, and I still have all the knobs on the clean channel right at noon. I've only turned them slightly from there and only a time or two. No need to change them. I'll some day experiment more with the range of sounds in can do, but I've never had an amp that just sounded so good with everything at noon that I owned it weeks without moving them!

Then to the gain channel. Again, what I expected. Less punch, but sweeter and smoother. It could still scream, but not as mean. Ha, maybe better for home since it wasn't shaking the floors in the other room where the wife was. I tried a lot of lower gain (9:00 to 10:00) lower presence and treble settings, going for the fatter smooth singing bluesy thing. The NF3 was eating it up! Then I did go for more aggressive and it still sounded SO good, it just didn't punch as hard, so like I said, probably more "home friendly" in many cases.

I plan to leave it in half power tonight and get out either the Cutlass to try some single coil tones, or the C22 Semi Hollow. I anticipate nothing other than excellence. This amp just keeps getting better! Ha, I've got a guy with a 25 combo listed locally on Craigs List and I'm trying to trade him stuff for it (since the gear fund is still in the negative for another week or so). I actually have a couple things he wants but not enough to cover the whole thing and I don't have the cash yet to cover the difference, but I'm actually trying to get another Archon. LOL Also, I've still got a couple very different speakers that I haven't tried it with yet. I have an Alnico Red Fang in an open back cab and a Mesa Thiele C90 that I haven't even tried with the Archon yet. Love to hear that clean channel and some of my smooth gain OD channel tones through that Red Fang!
 
DreamTheaterRules said:
Another update: It just keeps getting better!

I only tried the half power mode for a couple minutes one night and was in a rush. I had been out of town all weekend. Got home last night and said "time to see what this does." I know what to expect from a pentode/triode switch as I've had it on other amps. I flipped the switch, let it warm up for a few minutes and started out on the clean channel. While I had not intention initially of doing so, I ended up staying on the clean channel for at least 20 minutes. VERY nice! Smoother, sweeter, warmer, as I would have expected, yet still clear and beautiful. Must note again, I've had this amp for weeks now, and I still have all the knobs on the clean channel right at noon. I've only turned them slightly from there and only a time or two. No need to change them. I'll some day experiment more with the range of sounds in can do, but I've never had an amp that just sounded so good with everything at noon that I owned it weeks without moving them!

Then to the gain channel. Again, what I expected. Less punch, but sweeter and smoother. It could still scream, but not as mean. Ha, maybe better for home since it wasn't shaking the floors in the other room where the wife was. I tried a lot of lower gain (9:00 to 10:00) lower presence and treble settings, going for the fatter smooth singing bluesy thing. The NF3 was eating it up! Then I did go for more aggressive and it still sounded SO good, it just didn't punch as hard, so like I said, probably more "home friendly" in many cases.

I plan to leave it in half power tonight and get out either the Cutlass to try some single coil tones, or the C22 Semi Hollow. I anticipate nothing other than excellence. This amp just keeps getting better! Ha, I've got a guy with a 25 combo listed locally on Craigs List and I'm trying to trade him stuff for it (since the gear fund is still in the negative for another week or so). I actually have a couple things he wants but not enough to cover the whole thing and I don't have the cash yet to cover the difference, but I'm actually trying to get another Archon. LOL Also, I've still got a couple very different speakers that I haven't tried it with yet. I have an Alnico Red Fang in an open back cab and a Mesa Thiele C90 that I haven't even tried with the Archon yet. Love to hear that clean channel and some of my smooth gain OD channel tones through that Red Fang!
Click to expand...

So, you're digging it?
 
After careful reflection and deliberation... HOLY CRAP YES!!!!!!!
 
So, once again, I didn't do what I said I was going to do. I turned it on tonight and picked up the Wolfie. 45 minutes later it was time to work out. No Cutlass. No C22 Semi. Just the Wolfgang. And I DO NOT regret my decision! More and more... I can't seem to do much "testing" on this amp. Once I turn it on, I just want to play. Actually had the gain at 8:00 tonight for a while. And never turned it up past 10:00. Dialed B/M/T and P/D a little for various tones... holy crap does this thing ROCK with the Wolfie. Wondering if an Axis would even be an upgrade. So while we always obsess over the "new, better" thing, most times when I plug into this amp, I don't even care about upgrading anything else!

Now I'm sure, that tomorrow while sitting at my desk, I'll be dreaming about a Monarchy Magesty 7, an Axis, a 594SC, a DC3 and a SAS, but tomorrow night I'll plug into the Archon and say "how can it get any better than this?"
 
LSchefman said:
That's what my best friend's mom told him when we were in high school. ;)

Of course, mine told me that HE was the bad influence.
Click to expand...
This all sounds very familiar... I've heard it before somewhere
 
The Archon has a distinctive voice but the range of that voice is pretty impressive. The gain knobs, bright switches and depth knobs in particular seem to really help shape my set tone.
 
It's a GREAT voice! And it can be shaped a number of different ways with the controls. But it can be changed with pedals. Such as, even though it has plenty of gain, it is very refined. If you want more raw and aggressive, you can easily get that with an SHO clone, or a Timmy with the treble up, or EP, or even a flat boost. If you want more smooth and less aggressive, that's easy to do without pedals. Turn the presence down, maybe the bright off, treble to taste, and if you want a softer feel with it, hit the half power mode to use a triode power stage. You want open, JCM-ish type tones, turn the master way up, gain way down (like 9:00) presence and treble up to taste, bass down... It can cover an awful lot of ground. I've thrown a pretty wide variety of guitar styles and pickup types at it and it sounds GREAT with everything. I've thrown a few widely varying pedals at it and it handles them like a champ.

It really is a super great amp!
 
I still need to get my hands on one of these. They sound so freaking good!!!!!
 
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