So i have been until very recently a helix user yada yada yada same old story and to cut it short i am on the hunt for a valve head.
I need it to be smaller than your standard head size especially in terms of width. But the trade off for this seems to be shared EQ for both channels. While that is not a complete deal breaker for me i would prefer more tonal flexibility for each channel so i can dial my clean and OD tone in more precisely. Anyone have any suggestions?
Needs to be 2 channels minimum
Effects loop
good clean and OD tones but i dont need crushing amounts of gain
good headroom for the cleans at gigging volumes
I await wisdom!
Comments
- Two channels
- Effects loop
- Fantastic tones. Has crushing gain but sounds equally great with low to mid levels too.
- Bastard loud *
- Small
* I DI to the PA and use the amp to monitor, but with a decent cab I bet you could play a pub clean before pushing the output valves into distortion.
Maybe the H&K Tubemeister 36 & Deluxe 40 . Not quite as compact in width but still fairly small & light and with separate EQ on each channel.
As for the H&K tubemeisters i was looking at those and i heard that the drive channel is partially solid state. Does anyone know how that works? I know we already usually push SS drive pedals into tube amps for our drive tones usually but is that the way it works in the tubemeister? like a SS stage into a tube stage? or is it some other kind of witchcraft?
I do like the look of some of the mesas too, i have never jumped on the mesa train though what are peoples experiences with them? reliability? tone? dynamics?
I replaced a Tubemeister with the Rec, the TM tone was, for me at least, a bit ‘nice’. Nothing to do with it being partially SS I wouldn’t have thought. A bit of tranny distortion never bothered Hendrix after all.
As ever with these things, try loads and see what you like.
The blues channel is great, last weekend, experimenting with the graphic EQ I could get the blues channel to sound almost identical to the sound of turning on a Klone type overdrive pedal in front of the clean channel, which may not sound revolutionary but it's changing and reducing my need for pedals. The reverb sounds very good and the boost function is brilliant, it has it's own level control and just adds a volume boost to either channel.
2 fully independent channels, each with 2 selectable flavours of tone and gain structure, with separate volumes, master, EQ and reverb controls, a graphic EQ that can be set to either a preset scoop or sliders and applied to either or both channels plus an adjustable volume boost, all in a tiny head?
Superbly flexible and loud little beast.
so far on my shopping list i have...
carvin v3m
tubemeister deluxe 40
mesa express 5:25
mesa mini rec 25
mesa recto-verb
mesa mark five 25
So yeah, try all 3 and you will soon know which is for you.
I will add the Mini Rec is easier to dial in than the mk5, just put everything at noon and tweak from there.
There's also a TM36 on Facebook (UK Gear Exchange group).
Good hunting!
JM build | Pedalboard plans
Effects loop
EQ
Small Foot print
Great cleans
Great OD
(NOT crushing amount of gain)
Did I say it's small?
Has crushing gain but appears to do crunch nicely from the vids I have seen.