Headfirst Alta or Ground zero Hellion or Wizard

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GuitarManTim

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I've been looking for modded Marshall circuits and have narrowed it down to these. I'd love some detailed descriptions and comparisons. The feel of the amp is just as important to me as the tone. I'm looking to be able to get thrash tones, classic tones like the Allman Brothers, ZZ Top, and ACDC, and saturated early Van Halen tones, with a good master volume so I won't always have to use my Fryette Power Station. Thank you.
 
Any of those 3 would be a great choice. I can't comment on a Wizard since I've never had the pleasure of playing one myself.

I do own both the Alta & Hellion. Both will do what you want and have great mater volumes, so it'll come down to features, specific tone, and your specific needs.

Alta:
A 3 channel amp with the quintessential Marshall tone. Each channel has a little overlap in saturation, but picks up mostly where the previous one left off. Channel 2 & 3 have a shared EQ. At least to my ear they have a slightly different voicing. Ch2 sounds a little more vintagey and Ch3 slightly more modern. It can do both modern and vintage voicings on both gain channels and both modes have a slightly different feel. As it should be vintage is a little looser feel while modern is tightened up some. You also have bright switches, clipping diodes, and everything accessible through MIDI. To me the Alta is the ultimate multi channel Marshall style amp.

Hellion:
It's Marshall DNA, but has a little more emphasis on the low-mids. Not that you don't get upper-mid grind, just a little more pronounced lower-mid than what you think of from a Marshall style amp. It's a single channel amp which does limit it if you really need channel switching. What it lacks there it more than makes up for in being able to fine tune the tone & feel. The 4 front switches and 1 rear switch give you great control over the voicing and feel of the amp. Then there's the Aura, Gain Style and Clipping knobs that allow for further fine tuning of tone, feel and saturation. If you don't need to switch channels on the fly, want a hint more lower-mids, and have ultimate control of shaping tone & feel, then the Hellion is the one for you.

I'm going to put another option out there for you. One that's been on my radar for at least a year and I finally bought one about 2 weeks ago...
Full disclosure, the builder is local to me so I'm a little biased in that regard.

https://www.sonictoneamps.com/
SonicTone Loyalist:
His website isn't updated with the Mk2 yet, so if you look them up keep that in mind. The Loyalist Mk2 sits fully in the British voiced category. To my ears it doesn't copy any specific amp voicing, but captures the British tone. It's a full 4 channel amp; Clean, Crunch, and 2 High Gain. Clean channel wasn't just an afterthought, it was designed to do full clean to light crunch. Crunch is basically a JCM800 style preamp. There's a hotrod switch which is like hitting the front end with a transparent boost. Ch3 is full on British high gain. Also a mid scoop switch which is self explanatory. Normally Ch4 is a duplicate of Ch3. I asked for the Patriot model's high gain channel instead (this will be offered as a standard option now). So my Ch4 is more American voiced with a bit of British bite. There's not as much control over the feel, but it's also one of those less is more things. The feel sits in a nice spot. Tight, but not too tight; loose but not too loose. Worst case you tighten it up a little more with a boost. I've discovered you can change the tone and feel a little with the channel and master volumes. CV low/MV up is brighter, tighter and more Marshall in tone. CV up/MV low is thicker, a little looser, and reminiscent of the Laney tone. The Loyalist is every bit on par with the Alta and Hellion and is becoming one of my top amps.
If you want the same thing, but more American voiced check out the Patriot.
 
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Highly recommend the Alta for modded Marshall and classic tones. Lots of flexibility and 3 channels. The other two amps stray pretty far from the standard Marshall sound.
 
Any of those 3 would be a great choice. I can't comment on a Wizard since I've never had the pleasure of playing one myself.

I do own both the Alta & Hellion. Both will do what you want and have great mater volumes, so it'll come down to features, specific tone, and your specific needs.

Alta:
A 3 channel amp with the quintessential Marshall tone. Each channel has a little overlap in saturation, but picks up mostly where the previous one left off. Channel 2 & 3 have a shared EQ. At least to my ear they have a slightly different voicing. Ch2 sounds a little more vintagey and Ch3 slightly more modern. It can do both modern and vintage voicings on both gain channels and both modes have a slightly different feel. As it should be vintage is a little looser feel while modern is tightened up some. You also have bright switches, clipping diodes, and everything accessible through MIDI. To me the Alta is the ultimate multi channel Marshall style amp.

Hellion:
It's Marshall DNA, but has a little more emphasis on the low-mids. Not that you don't get upper-mid grind, just a little more pronounced lower-mid than what you think of from a Marshall style amp. It's a single channel amp which does limit it if you really need channel switching. What it lacks there it more than makes up for in being able to fine tune the tone & feel. The 4 front switches and 1 rear switch give you great control over the voicing and feel of the amp. Then there's the Aura, Gain Style and Clipping knobs that allow for further fine tuning of tone, feel and saturation. If you don't need to switch channels on the fly, want a hint more lower-mids, and have ultimate control of shaping tone & feel, then the Hellion is the one for you.

I'm going to put another option out there for you. One that's been on my radar for at least a year and I finally bought one about 2 weeks ago...
Full disclosure, the builder is local to me so I'm a little biased in that regard.

https://www.sonictoneamps.com/
SonicTone Loyalist:
His website isn't updated with the Mk2 yet, so if you look them up keep that in mind. The Loyalist Mk2 sits fully in the British voiced category. To my ears it doesn't copy any specific amp voicing, but captures the British tone. It's a full 4 channel amp; Clean, Crunch, and 2 High Gain. Clean channel wasn't just an afterthought, it was designed to do full clean to light crunch. Crunch is basically a JCM800 style preamp. There's a hotrod switch which is like hitting the front end with a transparent boost. Ch3 is full on British high gain. Also a mid scoop switch which is self explanatory. Normally Ch4 is a duplicate of Ch3. I asked for the Patriot model's high gain channel instead (this will be offered as a standard option now). So my Ch4 is more American voiced with a bit of British bite. There's not as much control over the feel, but it's also one of those less is more things. The feel sits in a nice spot. Tight, but not too tight; loose but not too loose. Worst case you tighten it up a little more with a boost. I've discovered you can change the tone and feel a little with the channel and master volumes. CV low/MV up is brighter, tighter and more Marshall in tone. CV up/MV low is thicker, a little looser, and reminiscent of the Laney tone. The Loyalist is every bit on par with the Alta and Hellion and is becoming one of my top amps.
If you want the same thing, but more American voiced check out the Patriot.
Do you feel that with the zener diodes it get close to the feel and compression of a really cranked Plexi on the alta? I love my jcm 800 but sometimes I wish it had a little more sag or squish in the bottom end for certain sounds. And thank you again for detailed descriptions and I'll definitely do some research on the loyalist. You, pipboy and craggin are actually the main people that made me want an alta from posts lol.
 
I also have an Alta and it is a great amp. Marshall modded tones in spades!
 
Highly recommend the Alta for modded Marshall and classic tones. Lots of flexibility and 3 channels. The other two amps stray pretty far from the standard Marshall sound.
I saw that you sold yours when I was researching the amp but you seemed to still really like it. May I ask why you sold it?
 
Do you feel that with the zener diodes it get close to the feel and compression of a really cranked Plexi on the alta? I love my jcm 800 but sometimes I wish it had a little more sag or squish in the bottom end for certain sounds. And thank you again for detailed descriptions and I'll definitely do some research on the loyalist. You, pipboy and craggin are actually the main people that made me want an alta from posts lol.
It's not going to be the same as a cranked Plexi; let's face it not much can compare. On Ch2 vintage mode it does have some squish that reminiscent of that. Whether that's attributed to the zener diodes or the design as a whole I couldn't say. I can tell you that Jason is pretty much an expert on Marshall tone and fully knows what he's doing.

@burger Jason's actually a member here. He could give you some better insight on that than I can.
 
I didnt get low mids from the hellion at all. I couldnt dial low end into the thing personally. But it is a very good sounding amp.

The wizards are pretty special both in sound and feel.

I havent played the alta, but it seems like it may be a good option for op just because of versatility.

The type of music isnt really the type i would go for any of these amps for, but maybe they can do it.
 
I think for me, if i were doing softer music like that, i would go class A and do something like the maz 18
 
I saw that you sold yours when I was researching the amp but you seemed to still really like it. May I ask why you sold it?
At the time I needed the money, so I sold it, but I regretted it. I actually just bought a new revision 2 Alta directly from Jason. It’s awesome.
 
I didnt get low mids from the hellion at all. I couldnt dial low end into the thing personally. But it is a very good sounding amp.

The wizards are pretty special both in sound and feel.

I havent played the alta, but it seems like it may be a good option for op just because of versatility.

The type of music isnt really the type i would go for any of these amps for, but maybe they can do it.
that's surprising, the Helion hangs with all my other amps easily in the low end. Between the depth and bass controls, I haven't found any issues with low mids. That would definitely be a turnoff for me. There are some very powerful controls on that amp though if you get some time to play with them.
 
I didnt get low mids from the hellion at all.
What version Hellion & tubes were you using? Jeremy did a few component changes and switched from EL34 to KT66. Once I got the V2 upgrade and switched power tubes is when the extra hint of low-mids came in. Before that it was closer to the Alta in tone.
 
What version Hellion & tubes were you using? Jeremy did a few component changes and switched from EL34 to KT66. Once I got the V2 upgrade and switched power tubes is when the extra hint of low-mids came in. Before that it was closer to the Alta in tone.
ahh that's interesting. I never tried the V1 Hellion with EL34.
 
What version Hellion & tubes were you using? Jeremy did a few component changes and switched from EL34 to KT66. Once I got the V2 upgrade and switched power tubes is when the extra hint of low-mids came in. Before that it was closer to the Alta in tone.
Not sure. It was at Matt's.
 
I think for me, if i were doing softer music like that, i would go class A and do something like the maz 18
If I ever hit the big time I'm gonna stop in at Norm's rare guitars and take one from him at gunpoint and deliver it to you brother. :LOL:
 
I didnt get low mids from the hellion at all. I couldnt dial low end into the thing personally. But it is a very good sounding amp.

The wizards are pretty special both in sound and feel.

I havent played the alta, but it seems like it may be a good option for op just because of versatility.

The type of music isnt really the type i would go for any of these amps for, but maybe they can do it.
I mainly play prog metal/rock and thrash and some Van Halen, I just enjoy playing allman brothers and zz top type stuff after 8 hours of trying to learn entire dream theater albums lol so i was curious if it could get those sounds. Not a huge fan of the mesa sound though to be honest I much prefer the marshall sound even when playing dream theater type music. I will admit the mark 2c plus sounds amazing for leads though.
 
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