itsgoodnow
Well-known member
Just got a new amp and thought I would share. First, Dan was really awesome to work with and offered great advice throughout the process. He modded a 1978 JMP Artiste 100. Total oddball head but it has the good old Marshall iron and had 2 extra holes in the chassis that housed input jacks Dan used as holes for some of the toggle switches. It looks very clean.
Dan installed a loop, new tubes, NOS mustard caps, and did a filter cap replacement. I opted to get the options for mid-shift, saturation control, glass control, and thump.
I only just got the amp yesterday after it was sitting in customs for a week. So I have had limited time to mess with it. Bummer.
On to the good stuff. First of all the amp sounds great. There are an unreal amount of tones in this thing. Insanely versatile. The amp can do a convincing traditional plexi tone and with minimal adjustments the notes can become very thick with chords sounding huge. The tone shaping options are kind of incredible with the mid-voicing, the violence mode, and the feel control (plus a couple of bright switches). The feel knob is very powerful and the various settings can allow you to have the amp come across as very tight or saggy. I play a little thrashier (and like tight amps) and with the violence on noon and the feel brought back a bit I get that quicker attack with more defined notes but still have a lot of meat and tone behind my playing. With a lot of amps if you run a lot of negative feedback at an aggressive level to get more note clarity and attack the amp will (of course) thin out a lot. This one really seems to have a great balance on that front with the voicing and tone of the amp still shining through.
The amp is really responsive to different playing styles but it is very easy to get uniform dynamics in playing. It never feels like you are fighting the amp and is easy to get what you want out of your playing. Even when you have the negative feedback going aggressively, lead notes really have a lot of tone behind them and seem to really sing. Although there is clearly a Marshall vibe going on, it is definitely Dan's own thing. The sometimes present fizzy aspect of a Marshall Kerrang is not present. The Marshall upper-mid presence is there with the bright switches engaged, but with those switches off the amp is darker and sounds rounder. So you get a lot of great tone but it eliminates some of the harsher aspects of Marshall circuits. I'm sure as I get more time to experiment with this I will find even more stuff to like, but, so far it is a winner. With most of my amps I basically dial in my setting, set it, forget it, and never move the knobs. The KK++ is not a one trick pony and seems to be capable of doing everything and I can see myself tweaking the amp a lot to cater to different styles. I have not been able to pull a shit tone out of it yet.
Dan installed a loop, new tubes, NOS mustard caps, and did a filter cap replacement. I opted to get the options for mid-shift, saturation control, glass control, and thump.
I only just got the amp yesterday after it was sitting in customs for a week. So I have had limited time to mess with it. Bummer.
On to the good stuff. First of all the amp sounds great. There are an unreal amount of tones in this thing. Insanely versatile. The amp can do a convincing traditional plexi tone and with minimal adjustments the notes can become very thick with chords sounding huge. The tone shaping options are kind of incredible with the mid-voicing, the violence mode, and the feel control (plus a couple of bright switches). The feel knob is very powerful and the various settings can allow you to have the amp come across as very tight or saggy. I play a little thrashier (and like tight amps) and with the violence on noon and the feel brought back a bit I get that quicker attack with more defined notes but still have a lot of meat and tone behind my playing. With a lot of amps if you run a lot of negative feedback at an aggressive level to get more note clarity and attack the amp will (of course) thin out a lot. This one really seems to have a great balance on that front with the voicing and tone of the amp still shining through.
The amp is really responsive to different playing styles but it is very easy to get uniform dynamics in playing. It never feels like you are fighting the amp and is easy to get what you want out of your playing. Even when you have the negative feedback going aggressively, lead notes really have a lot of tone behind them and seem to really sing. Although there is clearly a Marshall vibe going on, it is definitely Dan's own thing. The sometimes present fizzy aspect of a Marshall Kerrang is not present. The Marshall upper-mid presence is there with the bright switches engaged, but with those switches off the amp is darker and sounds rounder. So you get a lot of great tone but it eliminates some of the harsher aspects of Marshall circuits. I'm sure as I get more time to experiment with this I will find even more stuff to like, but, so far it is a winner. With most of my amps I basically dial in my setting, set it, forget it, and never move the knobs. The KK++ is not a one trick pony and seems to be capable of doing everything and I can see myself tweaking the amp a lot to cater to different styles. I have not been able to pull a shit tone out of it yet.
