Okay, so it only just arrived... but I think this has solved my issues with the EVH5150III 50-watt.
The pedal has a channel loop, so it basically A/B's between its internal Fender style amp, and whatever you put into the channel loop. It mutes the channel loop when you're switched to the built in preamp, so you don't get a load of noise bleeding out of your high-gain EVH channel, which I discovered increased tap dancing last night when using two amps at once with a Lehle switcher!
So yeah... band practice tonight. Gonna try it out at volume. It sounds pretty nice in my bedroom I have to say. I've never used an actual Fender Deluxe Reverb or anything, so I can't really say whether it is an accurate Fender tone. But it sounds quite clear, and crisp, with lots of low-end available. I had to roll off the lows to get the tone that I like, as well as the mids. It's VERY loud. The gain staging is going to be the main thing, but it does add a master volume to the whole setup.
I'm impressed with it, but definitely need to give it more than a 20minute test run.
http://amtelectronics.com/products/legend-amps-1-channel-jfet/amt-electronics-f1-legend-amps-jfet-guitar-preamp/
Comments
Thinking possibly about investing in something like the Eventide H9, but not 100% sure yet.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/630473/GearDemos/AMT F1/F1QuickDemo1.mp3
As you can hear, it doesn't really distort like a valve amp. All the gain tones are from the EVH, or a tubescreamer pedal. But despite that, what you get is a pretty lush tons of headroom clean tone, which is what I wanted. The EQ is very powerful; it really cuts what you want it to.
I know of at least 1 person who uses the p2 direct into the power amp of a 6505 head so he has true clean and he can't tell the difference between the pedal and the valve preamp in the amp! Edit: would make a good direct to pa backup too, though some seem to sound better into an appropriate amp.
How do you use yours, line in or fx loop? Also, what is the pedal loop for? #noob
Last pedal in my chain (reverb in the case) hits the input of the F-1. Then:
F1 channel send - EVH preamp input
F1 channel return - EVH fx loop send
F1 output - EVH fx loop return
Pressing the switch on the F1 unit goes between the EVH preamp and the F1 Fender preamp. So with the EVH I only use channel two and channel 3, thus avoiding the dumb ass volume discrepancy of these amps all together.
I also have the option of putting an effect into the F1 FX Loop Send/Return jacks... which will basically put any effect I like *after* the preamp stages. I also have the option of putting a noise-gate in between the EVH fx loop send and the F1 channel return, thus having noise-gate on my distortion sounds ONLY.
It is a pretty flexible system actually, and I've got my head around it quite quickly.
This is the kind of thing I want to do. The Metal Zone, EQ, and LS-2 are just there for sizing. But if I had a gate, delay, and reverb, all plumbed into the FX loop on the AMT unit, that would basically be the most complete rig I've had in years!
I wasn't the only one who noticed too. The rest of the band - who usually never make comments about my tone - all said that it sounded weird. Drummer used the word 'fuzzy' even. I was also getting quite a bit of feedback, which I normally *never* experience. I think this is all related to gain staging. But I had the pedal set to unity (IE: volume coming out was the same as the volume of the amp with the pedal not in the chain)
I've got 30 days to decide. So not going to immediately send it back. But need to put it through its paces some more. I am pretty sure I didn't configure anything wrong. It's fairly simple to understand.