So I had about an hour Thursday night. Didn't plug in the PS yet, but did crank the bass gain back up, and straight into the Zbest. Had to turn the bass control down a lot but got the NF3 plugged in and had a lot of fun. I'm finding a variety of pedals that just work great with it. The Barber Direct Drive is a champion! Amp11 is great! But last night, a new star emerged... the Timmy. I knew I had used it in only the way I normally do (adding a little gain, a little level, a little treble, and cutting a little bass) and it sounded really good. But to push it further into M land, was a simple twist of the gain knob. Pushing the gain up was fantastic! Now I have 3 pedals that truly push the pedal into REALLY great M tones... less 60s and more pushed 70s to 80s. Really good stuff. The problem is, I quickly discovered that I could be completely happy with any of the three... The Compact Direct Drive is a more Marshall sounding pedal. The other two are just "more" pedals, but when you add more gain and and adjust the tone controls correctly, you get REALLY nice tone that pushes way more towards pushed JCM800 tone, which is more my thing anyway than the older M tones the HDRX has without "assistance" from a pedal.
Further, I can take that tone and go lighter JCM, or pushed JCM quite easily. And even better, I can push THAT base tone with many different flavors of solo boosts. The Fulltone Fulldrive 3 is everything you'd expect. The Catalyst is also really nice when jack up in to it's Fuzz settings. (Those familiar with this pedal know that while it can be a mild OD, when pushed, it becomes pretty much square wave fuzz clipping). But as usual, THE ROCK STAR is the Black Magic Zendrive. There's just something about the note shape that thing provides. The attack of the notes takes on a fat chewy quality that is addictive.
Last week I played my Archon and Bogner and remembered "I thought I was done with pedal platform amps." But even pending the SS being functional and chasing the Jimi thing, I have 60s -80s M rhythm and solo tones and many of each, with just a few pedals. And I really like it!
That said, I am going to plug it into the PS, because cranking that master up does give it the overdriven PI thing which is a whole other world to explore. I'll also add that the two masters do make the amp a bit more... I won't say tricky but versatile... and requiring dial time, to master. Moving those bass and treble channel gain controls round really changes the amp. Seems like I have lots more exploring to do.
