Hi,
First post, former Herbert and VH4 owner. Now I'm a proud owner of a Hagen and since I had the chance to revisit the VH4 yesterday and A/B it to the Hagen I figured I should contribute and at least provide a mini-review. Keep in mind this is just my perception of the differences between these two awesome amps, YMMV. I'm merely writing this to provide some help for those who are considering a VH4 or Hagen.
Build quality (if you want to call it that) - VH4 is slightly better built than the rest of the diezel line-up, with no PCI boards directly connected to the front or back of the chassis, as a fellow rig-talk member just recently pointed out. The VH4 is still the flagship. The Hagen and Herbert are IMO still painstakingly high quality pieces though. Have not been inside any other Diezels though.
Hagen Ch1: better clean than the VH4, rounder and brighter, a more blackface like diezel clean.
Hagen Ch2: More gain on tap and more British sounding, more Marshallish than the VH4 equivalent, more useable, a great surprise.
The Hagen Ch3 and Ch4 are not as compressed as the VH4 equivalents and they also feel more saggy than the very stiff VH4, (somewhat) more like a vintage amp feel, quite fun to play. They also tend to inherit, just like the Ch2, a more Marshally character as compared to the VH4.
Hagen Ch3: more dirty and has more gain on tap, a muscular Marshall. It is more fully sounding but with a dirtier distortion character which I find lacking some clarity when using a Gibson LP with burstbuckers. With the les paul I definitely prefer the VH4 Ch3, and I do have a preference for that VH4 German signature tone! The Hagen is very related though, a tad more British. With a YJM strat with a low output SD HB in the bridge position I do however prefer the Hagen, the fuller sounding midrange of the Hagen complements the maple-neck alder body strat characteristics way better, that guitar just comes alive (the same guitar is fairly lifeless and thin with the VH4). However, I still just prefer the Ch3 VH4 tone (with a HB LP-style guitar) over pretty much anything else - VH4 wins.
Hagen Ch4: Great solo channel, fairly forgiving with more compression (good and bad for a sloppy player like me). Quite useable as opposed to the VH4 Ch4 which I had a hard time taming, especially when turning the gain knob up beyond 9 o'clock. The Hagen actually has a lot of interesting tonal possibilities with this channel. Also the strat shines on this channel - a win for the Hagen.
End result - a tie, I like the VH4 Ch3 too much for not miss that amp, although the Hagen is a successful evolution of the VH4 in all other respects I think, I especially like the overall less compression of the Hagen. Darn, might hunt down a VH4 or a VH2 in the future..
First post, former Herbert and VH4 owner. Now I'm a proud owner of a Hagen and since I had the chance to revisit the VH4 yesterday and A/B it to the Hagen I figured I should contribute and at least provide a mini-review. Keep in mind this is just my perception of the differences between these two awesome amps, YMMV. I'm merely writing this to provide some help for those who are considering a VH4 or Hagen.
Build quality (if you want to call it that) - VH4 is slightly better built than the rest of the diezel line-up, with no PCI boards directly connected to the front or back of the chassis, as a fellow rig-talk member just recently pointed out. The VH4 is still the flagship. The Hagen and Herbert are IMO still painstakingly high quality pieces though. Have not been inside any other Diezels though.
Hagen Ch1: better clean than the VH4, rounder and brighter, a more blackface like diezel clean.
Hagen Ch2: More gain on tap and more British sounding, more Marshallish than the VH4 equivalent, more useable, a great surprise.
The Hagen Ch3 and Ch4 are not as compressed as the VH4 equivalents and they also feel more saggy than the very stiff VH4, (somewhat) more like a vintage amp feel, quite fun to play. They also tend to inherit, just like the Ch2, a more Marshally character as compared to the VH4.
Hagen Ch3: more dirty and has more gain on tap, a muscular Marshall. It is more fully sounding but with a dirtier distortion character which I find lacking some clarity when using a Gibson LP with burstbuckers. With the les paul I definitely prefer the VH4 Ch3, and I do have a preference for that VH4 German signature tone! The Hagen is very related though, a tad more British. With a YJM strat with a low output SD HB in the bridge position I do however prefer the Hagen, the fuller sounding midrange of the Hagen complements the maple-neck alder body strat characteristics way better, that guitar just comes alive (the same guitar is fairly lifeless and thin with the VH4). However, I still just prefer the Ch3 VH4 tone (with a HB LP-style guitar) over pretty much anything else - VH4 wins.
Hagen Ch4: Great solo channel, fairly forgiving with more compression (good and bad for a sloppy player like me). Quite useable as opposed to the VH4 Ch4 which I had a hard time taming, especially when turning the gain knob up beyond 9 o'clock. The Hagen actually has a lot of interesting tonal possibilities with this channel. Also the strat shines on this channel - a win for the Hagen.
End result - a tie, I like the VH4 Ch3 too much for not miss that amp, although the Hagen is a successful evolution of the VH4 in all other respects I think, I especially like the overall less compression of the Hagen. Darn, might hunt down a VH4 or a VH2 in the future..
