NAD! HDRX 20 - gigging guitarists are going to LOVE this!
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Great question! As that amp has a lot of great feedback, I wondered the same thing. But after me getting VERY interested in that amp once it hit, due to all the great reviews, I’ve noticed that there are many of the same people who loved it, who lived with it for a while and said that it simply has to be turned up too loud for it to sound great UNLESS you have an attenuator. One guy said he listed his for sale, and got lucky, that he bought a Power Station before it sold and now he’d never sell it because now that he had a great way to tame the volume it was a “lifer” amp for him.
So, after lots of those type comments over the last few months, I wondered how this would do in comparison. I’ve seen a handful of comments already about the HRDX 20 that said that the master volume made it MUCH more usable at reasonable volume levels. In fact, one of those reviewers said that he had tested the HRDX 100 and “loved it” but said the same thing… even at gigs, too loud without an attenuator. He said he actually liked the 20 better for that reason. He said he would gig it without having to take an attenuator or Power Station just to control the volume.
Of course, being a known Van Halen disciple, I keep wondering about a variax…
ken374
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I own one first it has more gain , the PRS is old school plexi like a JTM in the gain department. Its fat and dynamic!! I boosted it with a Solo Dallas Shaffer replica it kickass for the ACDC back in black tones I love it! off its more like Free all right now tones. One of the best sounding amps ever! Always keep the bass channel low under 4 and under. Single coils rule on amp with the master up.
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You brought up something else that I see coming after I buy this… a new wave of pedal purchases. I have a Fulltone 69, but figure I may try another fuzz face type and another fuzz type or two, a treble booster and maybe even a klon…. I see myself chasing some Hendrix and other tones once I get this thing, which will require a few new pedals.
I’m also debating the cab. I sold so many of my 1x12s, that I figured I’d just get one, but I’m not ecstatic with the V type for the tones I’ll want. I’ll try it with a few that I have then decide about a cab, and which Scumback to put in it.
dmatthews
Dave's not here
Enjoy the hunt!
ken374
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I checked my preamp tubes and they are Gold lions, im surprised. I tried a Ruby chinese in the V1 it sounded good too maybe a tad less bass which is a good thing. Not sure there is a scratch that I can feel on the base of the 5881 hope its not a crack, I know sometimes putting them in can scratch them easy.
Jack1013
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Love hearing about the HDRX 20! I’ve never played a PRS amp, and I like the sound of that one. I’ve been looking at the Marshall sv20 as well, but this seems to be about the same sound I’m looking for as well. Wondering about the head room and pedals like a Klon Clone or tube screamer. Didn’t know if it would be loud enough out of the studio with a loud drummer, I’m used to 50 watt combos I have. I’ve got a hand wired 5 watt Marshall for practice too but may be on the way out. My Mesa Boogie Fillmore 50 has a lower wattage switch and it sounds great, and very manageable volume wise, even the lone star at low wattage is good it just gets compressed way more. Getting into a small head and cab is my next bit of fun. I’d like to build my own 1x12 as well would love to see some pics of any home build cabs, and types of wood etc. theres a tone tubby just waiting for a new house! Haha.
andy474x
Knows the Drill
The 20 is very loud for its rating, I’m playing it with the matching HDRX 2x12, and the clean headroom is almost equal to the clean channel on my Custom 50. It’s best achieved with the “turn the guitar volume down” technique, and it’s by far the best amp at that of any I’ve owned - stays present and sparkly, doesn’t get dark sounding. I’m not usually doing it that way, because I don’t feel my other amps do it well, but this one really does it flawlessly.
I actually had to stop playing it at home through the cab and just go to the load box into my interface - the crazy volume was starting to give me tinnitus problems. It works my reactive load really hard!
I, too, have a loud drummer friend - haven’t played it with him yet, but I fully expect it to keep up. And, if it won’t keep up for anyone, the SPL’s are getting just plain dangerous.
I think there are many boosts that would work well with it, just depends on what you like.
The SV20, from what I’ve heard, is 1. Also really loud, but no master, and 2. skinnier sounding than the HDRX. I loathe a Strat into plexi reissues, they always sound plinky and ice picky, but for humbucker guitars, the SV20 might be great. My SS into the HDRX 20 is just fantastic, no question about it.
If you want to build a cab/cabs, I say go for it. I crafted these for another amp, but they work wonderfully with the HDRX, too. Open back pine 1x12's - they're quite light even with heavier magnet speakers. You'll need a handful of tools and the right parts, but if you make a solid plan, the results can be great. The tolex work on these came out as good or better than any commercially available cab, even PRS or Mesa. After a little practice, it just takes dedication to pre-planning and having the patience to do it right.
I like that I can use one or both, depending on the volume I want and sound I want. Would definitely recommend doing it.
I actually had to stop playing it at home through the cab and just go to the load box into my interface - the crazy volume was starting to give me tinnitus problems. It works my reactive load really hard!
I, too, have a loud drummer friend - haven’t played it with him yet, but I fully expect it to keep up. And, if it won’t keep up for anyone, the SPL’s are getting just plain dangerous.
I think there are many boosts that would work well with it, just depends on what you like.
The SV20, from what I’ve heard, is 1. Also really loud, but no master, and 2. skinnier sounding than the HDRX. I loathe a Strat into plexi reissues, they always sound plinky and ice picky, but for humbucker guitars, the SV20 might be great. My SS into the HDRX 20 is just fantastic, no question about it.
If you want to build a cab/cabs, I say go for it. I crafted these for another amp, but they work wonderfully with the HDRX, too. Open back pine 1x12's - they're quite light even with heavier magnet speakers. You'll need a handful of tools and the right parts, but if you make a solid plan, the results can be great. The tolex work on these came out as good or better than any commercially available cab, even PRS or Mesa. After a little practice, it just takes dedication to pre-planning and having the patience to do it right.
I like that I can use one or both, depending on the volume I want and sound I want. Would definitely recommend doing it.
Very interested in one of these. Master Vol seals the deal for me
It may go against the ethos of recreating the HDRX vibe, but does anyone know if a combo version is in the works? A 19" wide "lightweight" combo would be an ideal practice / gigging amp for many
It may go against the ethos of recreating the HDRX vibe, but does anyone know if a combo version is in the works? A 19" wide "lightweight" combo would be an ideal practice / gigging amp for many
Lewguitar
Old Know It All
It's basically a baby Marshall, right? But instead of EL34's it uses 5881's?
Using a guitar with humbuckers, can it do Eric Clapton's sound with Cream? Those killer tones on Sleepy Time Time, I Feel Free and throughout the Fresh Cream album?
And can it do Peter Greens tone on the Supernatural?
Using a guitar with humbuckers, can it do Eric Clapton's sound with Cream? Those killer tones on Sleepy Time Time, I Feel Free and throughout the Fresh Cream album?
And can it do Peter Greens tone on the Supernatural?
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My PRS HXDA can do those tones, easily. I haven't played that 20W Hendrix amp, though.
I've never tried to get Peter Green's tone, so can't answer the other part of the question.
Lewguitar
Old Know It All
Well in both cases I suspect it’s just a Gibson through a dimed Marshall 100 watt. Although Peter might have used a boost to get that incredible sustain. Clapton didn’t though and I love his tone on the first 2 or 3 Cream albums. So did Eddie Van Halen. I’d settle for a tone like Clapton’s if that PRS HDRX 20 watt could provide it. I have some killer Celestions in 1 12 and 2 12 Matchless cabs I could play through.
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You know, sometimes it's really hard to say what's going on with a recording, especially an old one.
We're listening to the guitar > amp > microphone > mic preamp > recording console with onboard or outboard EQ > tape machine preamps > Tape > tape machine output amps > multiple bounces from track to track on the tape through the console because in those days they didn't have 24 tracks to work with, they had 4 or 8 > back to console with more EQ > compression > mix bus compression and EQ, > mastering EQ and compression >> master tape >> vinyl pressing / CD conversion.
In the case of Peter green we're also hearing tape echo/slapback (could have been done with a studio machine, or with an echo-plex) AND a ton of reverb chamber (or maybe plate reverb). The recorded sound is pretty low fidelity, and too echoey to try to match, unless you feel like pulling your hair out. Or in my case, what's left of my hair.
All that stuff is tone-altering. You can get the vibe, but not the whole thing.
There's a LOT of gear having a say in records, and any one of those factors can alter the tone. I've manipulated guitar tones for many years on my ad tracks.
That's why I sometimes think chasing a particular recorded tone is iffy at best, and often really a fool's errand (yes, I've been that fool!).
I can hear through to the Clapton tone on the Cream stuff, it was less highly processed. Not the other track. There's too much going on. Does sound like a serious treble booster hit, or maybe they goosed the treble at the console, though.
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You know, sometimes it's really hard to say what's going on with a recording, especially an old one.
We're listening to the guitar > amp > microphone > mic preamp > recording console with onboard or outboard EQ > tape machine preamps > Tape > tape machine output amps > multiple bounces from track to track on the tape through the console because in those days they didn't have 24 tracks to work with, they had 4 or 8 > back to console with more EQ > compression > mix bus compression and EQ, > mastering EQ and compression >> master tape >> vinyl pressing / CD conversion.
In the case of Peter green we're also hearing tape echo/slapback (could have been done with a studio machine, or with an echo-plex) AND a ton of reverb chamber (or maybe plate reverb). The recorded sound is pretty low fidelity, and too echoey to try to match, unless you feel like pulling your hair out. Or in my case, what's left of my hair.
All that stuff is tone-altering. You can get the vibe, but not the whole thing.
There's a LOT of gear having a say in records, and any one of those factors can alter the tone. I've manipulated guitar tones for many years on my ad tracks.
That's why I sometimes think chasing a particular recorded tone is iffy at best, and often really a fool's errand (yes, I've been that fool!).
I can hear through to the Clapton tone on the Cream stuff, it was less highly processed. Not the other track. There's too much going on. Does sound like a serious treble booster hit, or maybe they goosed the treble at the console, though.
Les, I’ve read about “re-amping” and I believe it was with respect to Jimmy Page. Not to send this discussion to another direction, but any thoughts on that aspect?
Lewguitar
Old Know It All
I can tell you that Page loved recording with a 50's Supro amp called a Thunderbolt with a 15" speaker. And he's terrific at combining close miking and distant miking to get the amp and also the ambience of the room in the sound. Live the Supro was too small to be used. But you hear it a lot on Zeppelin albums. It made his Tele sound like a Les Paul! Like on Communication Breakdown.
Lewguitar
Old Know It All
Having heard Clapton live back in the day, as you have too, I can safely say that his live tone playing through two full Marshall stacks was just as devastating as his recorded tone. And pretty much the same. Right?You know, sometimes it's really hard to say what's going on with a recording, especially an old one.
We're listening to the guitar > amp > microphone > mic preamp > recording console with onboard or outboard EQ > tape machine preamps > Tape > tape machine output amps > multiple bounces from track to track on the tape through the console because in those days they didn't have 24 tracks to work with, they had 4 or 8 > back to console with more EQ > compression > mix bus compression and EQ, > mastering EQ and compression >> master tape >> vinyl pressing / CD conversion.
In the case of Peter green we're also hearing tape echo/slapback (could have been done with a studio machine, or with an echo-plex) AND a ton of reverb chamber (or maybe plate reverb). The recorded sound is pretty low fidelity, and too echoey to try to match, unless you feel like pulling your hair out. Or in my case, what's left of my hair.
All that stuff is tone-altering. You can get the vibe, but not the whole thing.
There's a LOT of gear having a say in records, and any one of those factors can alter the tone. I've manipulated guitar tones for many years on my ad tracks.
That's why I sometimes think chasing a particular recorded tone is iffy at best, and often really a fool's errand (yes, I've been that fool!).
I can hear through to the Clapton tone on the Cream stuff, it was less highly processed. Not the other track. There's too much going on. Does sound like a serious treble booster hit, or maybe they goosed the treble at the console, though.
Younger players who base their opinion of Clapton on what he's done in the last 20 years have no idea what the man was capable of or how important he is to the sound of guitar music.
He was as influential as Django Reinhardt, Charlie Christian or BB King. Or Jimi Hendrix or Eddie Van Halen.
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I couldn't agree more that Clapton was a foundational player for a lot of people, myself included (not that I can remember how to play one damn thing he did at this point!
).I've seen him play live only three times: Grande, the Goodbye Tour at Olympia, and with his own band at the Auburn Hills Palace around 2007 or '08 (where the Pistons played before moving back to downtown Detroit).
I'd say (going by memory with all its foibles) Clapton's live tone was pretty consistent the first two times, but the third time about 15 or so years ago, playing through Soldanos and a Fender Tweed, the sound replicated what was done on the various records.
However, that Auburn Hills gig was with a modern sound system, mixing console, outboard gear, etc., where it's easier to sculpt the sound to replicate what was on a recording, and that's what the big-time live sound engineers aim to do.
It's crazy to say, but at the Palace gig, Clapton played quite a bit of his material from over the years, ending with Sunshine of Your Love, and damned if the sound on each song wasn't very much like each of the records!
However, on the early recordings, listening on a good pair of studio monitors, you can to hear the evolution in Clapton's recorded sound.
Go back and forth between Fresh Cream and Disraeli Gears, one recorded in the UK, the other in NYC, and the sound is different. On Fresh Cream, the tone is less distorted, less compressed, and sounds more like amp tone than fuzz to me, where on Disraeli Gears it's far more compressed and fuzzy, with less bottom end.
Then on Wheels of Fire it's a bit different, almost cocked wah, on songs like Sitting on Top of the World.
Granted, whether that's down to the engineering, the tone for each, etc., is hard to say, though Clapton seems to have been way more into the fuzz and other effects on the later Cream records. That makes sense, since music was evolving; it was a giant feedback loop where players would hear each other, and absorb each other's influences.
The Marshall 'Bluesbreaker' combo was different from what was captured on Fresh Cream, and different from the more psychedelic tone on Disraeli Gears and Wheels of Fire. Then the tone changed again on Blind Faith, where lots of modulation effects are on the sound, and it sounds more Fender amp-ish. Then it's way, way more rootsy with the Delaney and Bonnie stuff with a far less effected sound, again sounds more like a Fender style amp, and then evolved more on Slowhand, and became closer to what it has been recently.
So I guess I both agree with you, and differ a bit on the recorded sound. But then, too, everything sounds different from record to record anyway. Back then every studio sounded really different. There was no Neve, or SSL, or Quad Eight, or whatever else was used starting in the late '70s and '80s, where the sound become more homogenized as studios started using the same gear.
In the '60s, studios built their own consoles, assembled their own outboard, etc. So they really had unique sounds, and you can hear it not only in the guitars, but the vocals, drums and other instruments.
