ColonelForbin
Hit me with Music
Revision to my previous comments about changing to different preamp and PI tubes: I went back to the stock tubes, it just wasn't sounding right with the swapped tubes!
So I did three things when jamming on it last night and this morning, and overall, I'm feeling a lot better about this amp:
1.) put the stock tubes back in.. probably should have left 'em in there in the first place!
2.) bought a Friedman Dirty Shirley 1x12 open back cabinet (16ohm Celestion G12M-65 Creamback)
3.) ran the Sonzera+Friedman cab through my Fryette Powerstation 2. (PS2)
My impressions now are much improved! The stock tubes are fine. Amp still has a ton of gain, but able to get cranked up nice crunchy, sustaining amp sound just with a bit lower speaker volume. Can even get some tube breakup / crunch with the clean channel if I crank it up a bunch and turn down the PS2. It would sound fine without the PS2 if able to be cranked up enough to hit the right spot. I'm in a pretty small room; so it's much happier attenuated in here a touch. At the jam spot we can open up the volumes considerably louder.
Responsiveness is good, tones are good, for lack of a better word; "feel" it good. Can dig in on notes and not get brittle or harsh. Dynamics good; can turn up or down on guitar and get nice tone shaping.
Dirt channel cleans up very nicely with some roll back; go from very high gain to crunchy bluesy just by working the guitar volume controls.
Dirt channel has ALOT of bass. Don't be afraid to turn it as far down as you need, all the way down is a bit thin, but there is a nice sweet spot depending on overall volume.
Not doing any radical amount of attenuation; and just a touch with the PS shaping controls.
It's been a fun morning! Wife gets home later this afternoon, so I've got a few more hours to play
A side note to that; guitar choice also helps.. Played my buddies LP through it last night with and without the PS2, before and after swapping back the tubes.
Sounded much better with stock tubes back in, and then sounded really good with PS2 on.
This morning I pulled out my PRS S2 (semi hollow) and jammed out for a while; liking the pairing of the S2 and the Sonzera; good stuff!
That's all I've got for now; time for breakfast me thinks..
Cheers!
So I did three things when jamming on it last night and this morning, and overall, I'm feeling a lot better about this amp:
1.) put the stock tubes back in.. probably should have left 'em in there in the first place!
2.) bought a Friedman Dirty Shirley 1x12 open back cabinet (16ohm Celestion G12M-65 Creamback)
3.) ran the Sonzera+Friedman cab through my Fryette Powerstation 2. (PS2)
My impressions now are much improved! The stock tubes are fine. Amp still has a ton of gain, but able to get cranked up nice crunchy, sustaining amp sound just with a bit lower speaker volume. Can even get some tube breakup / crunch with the clean channel if I crank it up a bunch and turn down the PS2. It would sound fine without the PS2 if able to be cranked up enough to hit the right spot. I'm in a pretty small room; so it's much happier attenuated in here a touch. At the jam spot we can open up the volumes considerably louder.
Responsiveness is good, tones are good, for lack of a better word; "feel" it good. Can dig in on notes and not get brittle or harsh. Dynamics good; can turn up or down on guitar and get nice tone shaping.
Dirt channel cleans up very nicely with some roll back; go from very high gain to crunchy bluesy just by working the guitar volume controls.
Dirt channel has ALOT of bass. Don't be afraid to turn it as far down as you need, all the way down is a bit thin, but there is a nice sweet spot depending on overall volume.
Not doing any radical amount of attenuation; and just a touch with the PS shaping controls.
It's been a fun morning! Wife gets home later this afternoon, so I've got a few more hours to play
A side note to that; guitar choice also helps.. Played my buddies LP through it last night with and without the PS2, before and after swapping back the tubes.
Sounded much better with stock tubes back in, and then sounded really good with PS2 on.
This morning I pulled out my PRS S2 (semi hollow) and jammed out for a while; liking the pairing of the S2 and the Sonzera; good stuff!
That's all I've got for now; time for breakfast me thinks..
Cheers!