NAD! Archon

[nosidamde]

So after a ton of research, hearing great things and a few negatives, I decided to pull the trigger on a new Archon! It came just in time today for a gig I'll be using it on tonight, so that makes me a little nervous. However, I think my homework prior to the amp getting here helped me land a solid rhythm/lead and clean channel for tonight. I'm excited to unleash this beast!

 

[CoreyT]

Great!
Let us know how it worked out at your gig tonight.
A clip would be cool too.

 

[nosidamde]

Great!
Let us know how it worked out at your gig tonight.
A clip would be cool too.

Will do CoreyT! I plan on recording the last hour of our gig tonight, hoping for some good footage.

 

[CoreyT]

Cool, looking forward to it.
I am considering the new 6L6 Archon 50 watt combo.
Not that I need anymore amps, but I like the tone of the Archon very much.

 

[veinbuster]

Will do CoreyT! I plan on recording the last hour of our gig tonight, hoping for some good footage.

Cheers.

 

[László]

Have a great gig! Looking forward to the report.

 

[watelessness]

:rock:

 

[WEDGE]

Nice score. I want badly to make some noise with one of these.

 

[Michael B]

Sweet!! Can't wait to hear how it went! Congrats on a great amp!

 

[nosidamde]

Good morning everyone! The Archon is helluva head, it sounded great considering the circumstances. The gig last night was a split gig where two bands played three hours a piece, we opened or played first. The stage was set up so all I brought was my Archon, pedalboard, and guitars... I had to use the other guy's cabinets. He had two Marshall 4x12 cabinets and requested that I run 4 ohm into those instead of my normal 16 ohm I run into my one 4x12 Celestion V30 equipped cabinet. So right away I could tell a difference in sound/tone, comparing with how he wanted me to run through his cabinets compared to how I practiced at home before the gig with mine. It still sounded really great though, but I feel like I wasn't able to fully show off the amps cababilitys! As for video, I recorded our last set on my FLIP HD Video recorder and it actually didn't turn out that well. The guy running the sound had too much of vocals and drums, and not enough guitar and bass pushing through the front of the house...

Here is a photo album for proof though. https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.897369570293165.1073741846.258884884141640&type=1

Here is a short review of the Archon after day 1.
Pros: Has an AMAZING clean channel.
Has a powerful sounding High Gain distortion that fits my personal taste quite well.
It looks great on stage, plus it matches my Tremonti.
Cons: It doesn't have all the effects built in like my previous head(s), Line 6 SpiderValve.
So I will have to spend more money on items such as: pedal tuner, phaser, and delay. (any suggestions on these three items?)
Nothing else so far for me!

I also wanted to point out that even though I've seen posts about hum and popping when changing channels, I don't have any of that happening with this unit so far. *fingers crossed* If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask.

 

[CoreyT]

Great to hear it went well!
As far as a tuner, I have two of the TC Electronic Polytune II models, and one of the older Polytune I model which came out first.
The II model is much brighter.
You can use it as a regular one string at a time, or pluck all strings at once, very cool.

 

[vchizzle]

Cool, glad the gig went good. It's sometimes frustrating to use other people gear.

Tuner- I like the Poly Tune Mini or Korg Pitch Black for gigs. Haven't used the Korg in awhile.
Phaser - MXR Phase 90. There's tons of newer, crazier, fancier phasers...but the 90 is a classic. Run this pedal in front of the amp for most dramatic effect.
Delay - need more input from what you want on this. More vintage or modern? The Strymon Timeline is the do it pretty damn well pedal. Really pricey though. You could pick up a used Eventide Timefactor which is also awesome.
-Vintage types: I want a Catalinbread Belle Epoch bad, also the Wampler Faux Tape echo sounds good

....kind of in between is the Lovepedal Echophonic which is vintage-esque but not as dark sounding and very in expensive.

I just ran across the Earthquaker Devices Dispatch Master which look really cool too.

Depends a lot on how much flexibility you want/need.

 

[nosidamde]

Great to hear it went well!
As far as a tuner, I have two of the TC Electronic Polytune II models, and one of the older Polytune I model which came out first.
The II model is much brighter.
You can use it as a regular one string at a time, or pluck all strings at once, very cool.

You've got me sold on this tuner unit. Thanks for sharing!

 

[nosidamde]

Cool, glad the gig went good. It's sometimes frustrating to use other people gear.

Tuner- I like the Poly Tune Mini or Korg Pitch Black for gigs. Haven't used the Korg in awhile.
Phaser - MXR Phase 90. There's tons of newer, crazier, fancier phasers...but the 90 is a classic. Run this pedal in front of the amp for most dramatic effect.
Delay - need more input from what you want on this. More vintage or modern? The Strymon Timeline is the do it pretty damn well pedal. Really pricey though. You could pick up a used Eventide Timefactor which is also awesome.
-Vintage types: I want a Catalinbread Belle Epoch bad, also the Wampler Faux Tape echo sounds good

....kind of in between is the Lovepedal Echophonic which is vintage-esque but not as dark sounding and very in expensive.

I just ran across the Earthquaker Devices Dispatch Master which look really cool too.

Depends a lot on how much flexibility you want/need.

Thanks for all the info!

The more compact version of the PolyTune looks great, I do have a lot of extra space on my pedalboard now though since my Line 6 Shortboard is missing, so I may stick with the normal sized one.

I should clarify what style of music I'm playing, it ranges from 90's to 10's rock/hard rock covers. Many demos I've seen of an MXR Phase 90 on YouTube have been demo'd using the clean channel (on a Strat). Also the 9V location seems pretty awkward to me, even though I'm not sure why that bothers me so much.

Delay would be preferred in a modern tone instead of a vintage one, due to the style of music I play.

I'm finding out that there are a head spinning amount of pedals to pick from out there. So any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Thanks.