New HX?

1) Most folks aren't using 100w heads anymore so that is puzzling. Maybe this is for the collectors while the 50w is for the working guys?
2) I'm going to reserve judgement on the sound quality but everything I've heard has not been very good to my ears. I'll attribute some of that to PRS needing to get some better guys to do these demos. When you have to rely on Tyler Larson to sell your product, you are in trouble. I love Tylers channel but he's not the guy you want doing the demo on this. You just released a product with Authentic Hendrix on it. Bring out the big guns to sell it, even if you have to pay them handsomely.
3) No built in attenuation or variable wattage is a colossal blunder. This is 2021. Yeah, this is more or less a re-issue type amp but you need to bring it into the 21st century for it to be usable for a lot of players. From a marketing perspective, the worst thing any company can do is to try to sell you a product, but disclaimer that you need to buy yet another product to get this most out of the product they are trying to sell you. When you get into the 3k plus range for amps, it's not really going to matter much if you have to raise the sticker a few hundred more to include some needed and expected features.
4) Building on #3, we aren't allowed to discuss specific MAP, but holy crap! I have to imagine the Hendrix estate is making out well on these. That's a super basic amp for that kind of money.

Just my 2 cents.
I don't think it's going to be a popular amp but for sure a boutique amp. The Tim Pearce demo with Paul really sounded like that live Hendrix tone. When you think of it Hendrix used the amp as a pedal platform. He still wanted that clean sound for rhythm but would step on a fuzz face or wah for solos. I'll definitely look for a profile for my Kemper ;)
 
I don't think it's going to be a popular amp but for sure a boutique amp. The Tim Pearce demo with Paul really sounded like that live Hendrix tone. When you think of it Hendrix used the amp as a pedal platform. He still wanted that clean sound for rhythm but would step on a fuzz face or wah for solos. I'll definitely look for a profile for my Kemper ;)

A good profile would be the next best thing, but nothing will give you what the amp can do other than the amp itself, due to the way tubes work with amplitude changes coming from the guitar/

This is not a criticism of the Kemper; the Kemper is without doubt a fantastic option.

I may order one of the HX 50s, even though I own an HXDA. It's just a little different.
 
A good profile would be the next best thing, but nothing will give you what the amp can do other than the amp itself, due to the way tubes work with amplitude changes coming from the guitar/

This is not a criticism of the Kemper; the Kemper is without doubt a fantastic option.

I may order one of the HX 50s, even though I own an HXDA. It's just a little different.
Yes you should get one. I won't be getting one unless I suddenly get an offer to tour North America when my songs become top 10 hits with the younger set. :rolleyes:
 
Yes you should get one. I won't be getting one unless I suddenly get an offer to tour North America when my songs become top 10 hits with the younger set. :rolleyes:

Ha! I'm not planning a tour, but I'd just get one to have a slightly different flavor from the HXDA. I'm trying to figure out the need, but certainly the 100W version would have a different feel from my HXDA 30, and I can somehow justify it. I think/guess. ;)
 
Tim Pierce's new video made me appreciate the type of tone the HX is giving. I'm going to spend some time playing with Plexi models in my Helix to get the gist of finding the sweet spot. If I can work it out, I may consider getting one.
 
Tim Pierce is such a great player!

In terms of gear, watching him with his rig is what convinced me to get an amp/cab switcher, and some other stuff. Come to think of it, he's cost me a lot of money!! :eek:

I think he should send his viewers checks to offset the expenses incurred in being his fan. :cool:
 
Thanks! That guy could make anything sound good, but this was among the best at showing musical tones from the HX. Some of the videos didn’t sound that great, but that happens when you apply three channel master volume thinking to a single channel non-master amp. Same family, different sister.

Sweet guitar, too :)
 
And note that in both videos Tim has mentioned how loud it is downstairs in his cab room. I should zoom and see if you can see settings, but he's definitely got it opened up. And that is what concerns me about the amp. How much of THAT tone, can I get with maybe a PPIMV installed, or with a relatively affordable attenuator. It's not like I can't afford an ox or whatever, but spending another $1200 on a box to make your amp work for you seems a bit over the top, to me. I can buy a used Splawn Quick Rod, or another really great amp for that much. Yet people that have them rave about them. Just a tough pill to swallow that you have to spend over a grand more to actually make your amp sound good at anything less than ear splitting stage volume.

Maybe it's time I just try one of theses devices or start selling some cabs and invest more in the modeling side of it. I've played all my life and always wanted great tube amps though, so these last few years rolling through a bunch of them is good for the soul. Hate to give that up, but hate to let them sit untouched for weeks at a time because I only have time to play after Mrs. DTR is in bed... but, at least I still HAVE them to play. Maybe it's time for a Power Station...
 
And note that in both videos Tim has mentioned how loud it is downstairs in his cab room. I should zoom and see if you can see settings, but he's definitely got it opened up. And that is what concerns me about the amp. How much of THAT tone, can I get with maybe a PPIMV installed, or with a relatively affordable attenuator. It's not like I can't afford an ox or whatever, but spending another $1200 on a box to make your amp work for you seems a bit over the top, to me. I can buy a used Splawn Quick Rod, or another really great amp for that much. Yet people that have them rave about them. Just a tough pill to swallow that you have to spend over a grand more to actually make your amp sound good at anything less than ear splitting stage volume.

Maybe it's time I just try one of theses devices or start selling some cabs and invest more in the modeling side of it. I've played all my life and always wanted great tube amps though, so these last few years rolling through a bunch of them is good for the soul. Hate to give that up, but hate to let them sit untouched for weeks at a time because I only have time to play after Mrs. DTR is in bed... but, at least I still HAVE them to play. Maybe it's time for a Power Station...
I think you’d get a lot of use out of a UA Ox Box. I know I certainly have found more uses for it than I first envisioned. You have to think of it differently, though. It’s not an accessory to make one amp be what it can be. Really, it is it’s own thing, like a mic pre, interface, DAW, etc. It’s something you buy for all your amps, present and future. You’ll never factor volume into your purchase equations again. It can make a 12 watt amp sound big, or turn a 100 watt amp into a headphone driver. You could spend the same exact sum on a single Royer 121 to mic your amp with, and no one would think you’ve gone all deep-pockets on them.

While you could get one a little cheaper used, consider going to Sweetwater and see what a sales rep can do on price. Then, if you don’t like it, you can send it back. In honesty, that was my intention. When I got it, I liked it ok, but wasn’t blown away. But (like a great guitar or amp) the more I used it, the more fun I had with it, and the more it grew on me. And it never left. I don’t use it every day, or with every amp. But it’s just a super useful tool to have, and gets regular enough use to never actually get disconnected and put away.

A studio quality device isn’t for everyone, and if you’re getting the tones you like and want, there’s no need. But for someone like me who loves to experiment, two tools I wouldn’t be without are the Ox Box and the Weber Z-Matcher. They just take the “you can’t do that” out of my equation.
 
Thanks! That guy could make anything sound good, but this was among the best at showing musical tones from the HX. Some of the videos didn’t sound that great, but that happens when you apply three channel master volume thinking to a single channel non-master amp. Same family, different sister.

Interesting point.

I don't disagree with you, but I'll throw in another consideration:

The HX and HXDA style amps are very revealing of the individual player's tone and guitar, as well as amp setup preferences. You're going to hear more differences between guitars and players. You're going to like some a lot, and others less.

It's easily explained.

Many (if not most) modern amps have multiple gain stages, each one of which drives the preamp tubes into clipping. That's great for high gain stuff, however, the price paid is loss of transparency and clarity. An amp with fewer gain stages, like our HXDAs and the new HX, tends to put more of a "halo" or dirt around the original tone instead of obscuring it. You hear more of the guitar and the player come through.

That's because each gain stage on a 'modern' amp removes high and upper midrange frequency content as the overdriven tube approaches a square wave, adds bass and lower midrange push to the frequency curve, and a little less fidelity. You can see amps' square waves on an oscilloscope as they start to clip, and the sine wave becomes a square wave.

Do that a few times, as with a multiple channel or higher gain amp, and people are going to tend to sound more alike because the tone of the guitar and player become more veiled. A typical two channel, higher gain amp has 5 or 6 preamp tubes, each one adding its own saturation and distortion. This tends to veil the tone.

Practical example:

I like Mesa amps along with PRS amps because it's nice to have different options. Please don't take this as a criticism of Mesa amps - it's not a bug, it's a feature! I have a couple of Mesas in the studio that get used often. I've also recorded a lot of players using both my amps and their own Mesa amps over the past 31 years, so I've heard what I'm going to describe over and over, enough to form what I think is an informed opinion.

Set up a Dual Rectifier, or even something like my Lone Star and Fillmore to medium or higher gain, and you recognize the sound of the amp more than the sound of the guitar or player.

That makes perfect sense, because the Mesa has multiple gain stages, something Randall Smith pioneered along with a few others, like Dumble. It gives you a thick, saturated tone, at the price of hearing more of the nuance shine through. Listen to any of the bands who made records with Dual Recs, and you will hear that sound, upfront. It's harder to distinguish the tone of each player because you're hearing more amp. This isn't to say the players all sound exactly alike, because there are lots of differences in phrasing, touch, and so on, but you're also not hearing much transparency in the tone.

Compare that with, say, a Hendrix recording, where the tone is unmistakably unique to Jimi's ears, hands, and taste. Everything comes through, even when he uses pedals. As an example, you can compare Little Wing to You Got Me Floating, and the latter is using more pedals and crunchier medium gain. But you can still hear that it's Jimi just as clearly; his hands and his guitar shine through.

To be able to control every nuance of that tone with the guitar's controls, the controls on the amp, and any pedals you might want, gives the player the opportunity to customize the sound to a greater degree.

So it's natural and expected that every demo of the HX will sound different. It's entirely a good thing that some turn you on, and some don't excite you as a listener. We all have different tastes in how we want our playing to sound!
 
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Interesting point.

I don't disagree with you, but I'll throw in another consideration:

The HX and HXDA style amps are very revealing of the individual player's tone and guitar, as well as amp setup preferences. You're going to hear more differences between guitars and players. You're going to like some a lot, and others less.

It's easily explained.

Many (if not most) modern amps have multiple gain stages, each one of which drives the preamp tubes into clipping. That's great for high gain stuff, however, the price paid is loss of transparency and clarity. An amp with fewer gain stages, like our HXDAs and the new HX, tends to put more of a "halo" or dirt around the original tone instead of obscuring it. You hear more of the guitar and the player come through.

That's because each gain stage removes high and upper midrange frequency content as the overdriven tube approaches a square wave, adds bass and lower midrange push to the frequency curve, and a little less fidelity. You can see amps' square waves on an oscilloscope as they start to clip, and the sine wave becomes a square wave.

Do that a few times, as with a multiple channel or higher gain amp, and people are going to tend to sound more alike because the tone of the guitar and player become more veiled. A typical two channel, higher gain amp has 5 or 6 preamp tubes, each one adding its own saturation and distortion. This tends to veil the tone.

Practical example:

I like Mesa amps along with PRS amps because it's nice to have different options. Please don't take this as a criticism of Mesa amps - it's not a bug, it's a feature! I have a couple of Mesas in the studio that get used often. I've also recorded a lot of players using both my amps and their own Mesa amps over the past 31 years, so I've heard what I'm going to describe over and over, enough to form what I think is an informed opinion.

Set up a Dual Rectifier, or even something like my Lone Star and Fillmore to medium or higher gain, and you recognize the sound of the amp more than the sound of the guitar or player.

That makes perfect sense, because the Mesa has multiple gain stages, something Randall Smith pioneered along with a few others, like Dumble. It gives you a thick, saturated tone, at the price of hearing more of the nuance shine through. Listen to any of the bands who made records with Dual Recs, and you will hear that sound, upfront. It's harder to distinguish the tone of each player because you're hearing more amp. This isn't to say the players all sound exactly alike, because there are lots of differences in phrasing, touch, and so on, but you're also not hearing much transparency in the tone.

Compare that with, say, a Hendrix recording, where the tone is unmistakably unique to Jimi's ears, hands, and taste. Everything comes through, even when he uses pedals.

To be able to control every nuance of that tone with the guitar's controls, the controls on the amp, and any pedals you might want, gives the player the opportunity to truly customize the sound.

So it's natural and expected that every demo of the HX will sound different. It's entirely a good thing that some turn you on, and some don't excite you as a listener. We all have different tastes in how we want our playing to sound!
Totally agree. Neither are better or worse intrinsically, they’re just different. I’ve got some of both kinds, from single channel Vox, Fenders, and PRSs to 3 and 4 channel Mesa Boogies, to an amp like the California Tweed that’s one channel and 5 tube configuration/power settings. They’re all different and I love that about them.
 
It's not like I can't afford an ox or whatever, but spending another $1200 on a box to make your amp work for you seems a bit over the top, to me. I can buy a used Splawn Quick Rod, or another really great amp for that much. Yet people that have them rave about them. Just a tough pill to swallow that you have to spend over a grand more to actually make your amp sound good at anything less than ear splitting stage volume.

Think of it more in terms of buying a different cab for your amp, only this one can be tweaked to a bunch of different configurations. At least that's what I try to tell myself when I consider buying one (haven't yet).
 
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