VH4/VH4S owners -turn up your master volumes!

R

rockridge98

Member
I've had my VH4S for about 2 years. I liked it, loved having stereo in a head,
but it always felt kind of stiff and unforgiving to me
relative to other amps, including the Herbert and other high-end amps (Engl's, Bogner XTC).
I tried various tube types, nothing felt quite right.

I use it more for recording and small spaces, so I have never really tried the master volumes past 12 o'clock
since it is plenty loud.
Yesterday I was reading the manual, and I suddenly noticed for the first time the section
about turning the master volumes past 1 o'clock to get power amp distortion.

I turned the masters all the way up (5 o'clock), turned the channel volumes down, and was amazed to get
awesome tone with a looser feel out of every channel at not much louder than bedroom levels.
Its still has a little tighter feel than most other amps, but now I'm digging the tighter feel!
 
It really depends whether you like more headroom or power amp distortion to your sound. Also a huge role play the power amp tube's type. Personally I like to set the channel volumes to a reasonable level (10 'o clock) according to the effects (in order to avoid clipping) and the master volume between 9 and 12 o clock according to the situation and the size of the room. By this way, more headroom is achieved and paired with EL34s which have pronounced mids the rig becomes more 'balanced'.
IMHO opinion always
 
Last sunday i went to a meeting for gitaarnet.nl forummembers.
People brought their amps and guitars. I took the green iceman (SD JB) and the Diezel VH4. Played over a Mesa V30 4x12 cabinet.
There were several amps, like a Engl Powerbal, a JCM800, a Mesa Mark 2C, a Mark 4, a Dual Recto and some others.

Most people said the VH4 stayed so well defined, so clear when driven hard. I didn't get the master past 11'o clock.
The lows were huge and the mids/highs very tight and clear. The sound stayed "open".

I played a Hagstrom Select Super Swede with the super 58 pickups. http://www.hagstromguitars.com/selectseries.html#
These are vintage sounding alnico-5 pickups, wich sounded better than my JB equiped iceman. More open and clear. The JB's have a bit too much top highend. The Hagstrom seemed more balanced.
I'm trying to order these Super 58 pickups this week, but they are only LesPaul-spaced.

So i ended up ordering the SeymourDuncan TB-14. Should sound about the same.
 
JohnRageOn":35e93 said:
It really depends whether you like more headroom or power amp distortion to your sound. Also a huge role play the power amp tube's type. Personally I like to set the channel volumes to a reasonable level (10 'o clock) according to the effects (in order to avoid clipping) and the master volume between 9 and 12 o clock according to the situation and the size of the room. By this way, more headroom is achieved and paired with EL34s which have pronounced mids the rig becomes more 'balanced'.
IMHO opinion always
Click to expand...
I used to set the masters between 9 and 12 o'clock as well. It had never occurred to me to run full master volume
because I thought it would be too clean and too loud in most of the situations I play in.
Of course its a matter of personal taste , but since it never occurred to me to try this before
I thought there might be others who had never tried it as well.
 
rockridge98":0f36a said:
JohnRageOn":0f36a said:
It really depends whether you like more headroom or power amp distortion to your sound. Also a huge role play the power amp tube's type. Personally I like to set the channel volumes to a reasonable level (10 'o clock) according to the effects (in order to avoid clipping) and the master volume between 9 and 12 o clock according to the situation and the size of the room. By this way, more headroom is achieved and paired with EL34s which have pronounced mids the rig becomes more 'balanced'.
IMHO opinion always
Click to expand...
I used to set the masters between 9 and 12 o'clock as well. It had never occurred to me to run full master volume
because I thought it would be too clean and too loud in most of the situations I play in.
Of course its a matter of personal taste , but since it never occurred to me to try this before
I thought there might be others who had never tried it as well.
Click to expand...

I have tried it too and I like mostly the sound of the first two channels this way ;)
 
Sorry to hyjack your topic, but i made a new topic (questions to Peter) regarding the mastervolume and the deep control. :scared:

This topic about the Master Volume control got me thinking.......
 
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