NAD: Wizard Modern Classic 2 MkII - (with more clips)

Racerxrated said:
Congrats!

The Wiz MC100, 2010 version I had was an absolute beast. Only amps that can stay with them in the punch dept are an old Superlead or HiWatt...
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And also some Hermansson’s (not most though). The Carlsbro 5GS I had slightly out-punched the MTL I had when AB’ed, the other Herm’s I had lost in the punch battle, although the Hell Razor KT150 out-punches all these amps considerably IME. Sent that Carlsbro Herm packing instantly. For strictly low end punch the Beta and OG Uber are the strongest I’ve tried
 
TheGreatGreen said:
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I've wanted one of these amps for a long time now. About 10 years ago I went to Vintage King audio in Nashville and tried one out, and by that point, I’d been interested in them long enough to make an appointment reserving time at a high end guitar store over an hour from where I lived just to play one. Ever since then, I've told myself I'd get one some day.

Well, "some day" came around and as of now there's a Modern Classic 2 MkII in my studio, and guys... what an amp. I've been building this thing up in my head since I played it back then, and funny enough it's actually better than I remember. It's a modern high gain amp that's dynamic, clear and articulate, and takes boosts like a champ. This thing isn't going anywhere.

One thing I didn't remember from playing them the first time which surprised me is just how EXTREMELY tweakable this amp is. The basic "tight articulate modern gain" character is always there more or less, but between the EQ, Treble-Shift function, Presence, Contour, and Bright knob, it's ridiculously adjustable. You can kind of give it whatever EQ profile you want.


Here's a clip of my general take on what the amp is best at doing. There's a few db's of treble boost EQ at the input just to offset how dead my months-old guitar strings are, lol.




Here's a stereo "Bleeding Me" test with a decent amount of high cut in the DAW to try and get in the ballpark of the album tone. This was guitar (old strings and all) straight into the amp.


edit #1: Bleeding Me - Take #2 - slightly less high cut, and with drums and bass this time:


edit #2
Intro clip to Metallica's Prince Charming as requested.



And just to show that this thing has some hidden tricks up its sleeve, here's my attempt at making it sound kind of like an Ecstasy 101B with the "low Treble, high Presence, max Gain" trick people do with that amp. Beware, lots of aimless noodling here. Of course it’s still a Wizard and definitely not a Bogner, but I was kind of surprised at what I was able to dial up.
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fantastic sounding
 
Congrats dude, it makes me happy to see people get this amp especially after commenting/liking on clips from those of us here that posted because now you see what everyone says "wait until you are in the room with it". Not a mythical thing at all, half the joy of Wizard amps is the feel, movement of air, room filling sound.

My first time I plugged into my MC II the first thing I noticed was how it fills the room and appears louder than just straight up loud volume on other amps. Hard to explain, but if I compared the Helios to the MC II, the Helios is more beamy loud vs Wizard; fills the entire room loud like water filling up whatever form it is in.
Be like water my friend, play the Wizard.
 
TheGreatGreen said:
Sure! Here ya go.
Thanks for the suggestion, this one turned out to be really fun and I wouldn't have thought to do it myself.

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Wizards seem to have this strange (but killer) quality where they have a great mid-range character to them...While sounding slightly scooped (in a good way) simultaneously. Really dig it brother.
 
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angelspade said:
Wizards seem to have this strange (but killer) quality where they have a great midrange quality to them...While sounding slightly scooped (in a good way) simultaneously. Really dig it brother.
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Fryette/vhts do this too. The 300-700 range seems a bit dipped on a frequency spectrum. Then bumps up afterwards. Wizard just does this better IMO. Some people feel they are hollow sounding because of this. But I dig it.
 
lessarti said:
Congrats dude, it makes me happy to see people get this amp especially after commenting/liking on clips from those of us here that posted because now you see what everyone says "wait until you are in the room with it". Not a mythical thing at all, half the joy of Wizard amps is the feel, movement of air, room filling sound.

My first time I plugged into my MC II the first thing I noticed was how it fills the room and appears louder than just straight up loud volume on other amps. Hard to explain, but if I compared the Helios to the MC II, the Helios is more beamy loud vs Wizard; fills the entire room loud like water filling up whatever form it is in.
Be like water my friend, play the Wizard.
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Man, it's kind of unreal. And you're right, in the room it's a force to be reckoned with.

Something else, the more I play it, the more I understand how it got its name. It really does sit in kind of the perfect place between something like a classic old Plexi and a modern high gain fire breather. I think that Prince Charming clip above sort of shows what I mean. In the neck slide at the very start of the clip, You can really hear and feel the old "Plexi coming apart" thing happening, but as soon as you dig into it, the notes just snap into place and punch/slice right out of the amp, completely clear and clean, even with the gain.

Hot damn thing thing rocks.
 
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angelspade said:
Wizards seem to have this strange (but killer) quality where they have a great midrange quality to them...While sounding slightly scooped (in a good way) simultaneously. Really dig it brother.
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Bram576 said:
Fryette/vhts do this too. The 300-700 range seems a bit dipped on a frequency spectrum. Then bumps up afterwards. Wizard just does this better IMO. Some people feel they are hollow sounding because of this. But I dig it.
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For sure. I had the Treble knob pulled for the Prince Charming clip btw, which seems to shift the center frequency of that control just a bit higher, which then also has the effect of making the mids feel slightly more scooped. Bumping the Mid knob up from there evens things out but there's still a kind of "clean distortion" character you can hear that comes from a slight dip in the mids.

However, pushing the Treble Shift back in and cranking the Mid knob definitely works, there's nothing scooped or hollow about the amp at all when you do that.
 
Sounds great but very different from my Modern Classic.

I had thought the MCII had the same lead channel as the MC?

Any idea what changes were made for the MK2?
 
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dead-pan said:
Sounds great but very different from my Modern Classic.

I had the the MCII had the same lead channel as the MC?

Any idea what changes were made for the MK2?
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I'm not sure actually. The MC2 has a Contour knob which I believe adjusts negative feedback, and I like mine set lower than I thought I would, below noon most of the time, so that's probably a significant change right off the bat, as the MC1 doesn't have that control. The MC2 MkII also adds a Treble Shift pull knob, which I find myself keeping engaged a lot so it's what you're hearing in most of these clips. It shifts the Treble knob's center frequency up just a bit, which means the pot controls a bit more crispy highs overall, and also kind of scoops some upper mids at the same time, just because it's no longer boosting the upper-mid frequencies as you turn it up, compared to the standard Treble control which is more upper-mids centered.

However I'm not sure how the MC2's "core" preamp tone, the way it handles everything between input and tonestack, might differ from the MC1.
 
TheGreatGreen said:
I'm not sure actually. The MC2 has a Contour knob which I believe adjusts negative feedback, and I like mine set lower than I thought I would, below noon most of the time, so that's probably a significant change right off the bat, as the MC1 doesn't have that control. The MC2 MkII also adds a Treble Shift pull knob, which I find myself keeping engaged a lot so it's what you're hearing in most of these clips. It shifts the Treble knob's center frequency up just a bit, which means the pot controls a bit more crispy highs overall, and also kind of scoops some upper mids at the same time, just because it's no longer boosting the upper-mid frequencies as you turn it up, compared to the standard Treble control which is more upper-mids centered.

However I'm not sure how the MC2's "core" preamp tone, the way it handles everything between input and tonestack, might differ from the MC1.
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Interesting. The treble shift is probably what I'm hearing. Sounds somewhat similar to the shred switch on the JP2C.
 
dead-pan said:
Interesting. The treble shift is probably what I'm hearing. Sounds somewhat similar to the shred switch on the JP2C.
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Ok that could possibly be what you're hearing yeah, but keep in mind that in some of the clips, I boosted some treble at the input by a 3-4 db to try and account for dead strings. That actually might be what you're hearing. Wizards are very clear and when I listened back, I could absolutely tell the clips with and without boost, even though it was subtle. But that boost would be a lot more similar to the JP2C's Shred switch than the Treble Shift pull switch.
 
dead-pan said:
Sounds great but very different from my Modern Classic.

I had the the MCII had the same lead channel as the MC?

Any idea what changes were made for the MK2?
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The first Wizard I played was a newer MCII. I currently have a 2016 MC1 100w that also sounds and feels quite different from the MCII I played. It's preamp was updated by Rick to 2023 specs, but it has the "C" transformers....so it could be that. The MCII had more give and you dial in more Marshall-ish tones if you wanted. The w800, takes the Marshall even further. With my MC1, I don't hear or feel any Marshall vibes. Much more Fryette like. Amazing amp that is a keeper....but I was shocked how different it was to the MCII I played!
 
TheGreatGreen said:
Man, it's kind of unreal. And you're right, in the room it's a force to be reckoned with.

Something else, the more I play it, the more I understand how it got its name. It really does sit in kind of the perfect place between something like a classic old Plexi and a modern high gain fire breather. I think that Prince Charming clip above sort of shows what I mean. In the neck slide at the very start of the clip, You can really hear and feel the old "Plexi coming apart" thing happening, but as soon as you dig into it, the notes just snap into place and punch/slice right out of the amp, completely clear and clean, even with the gain.

Hot damn thing thing rocks.
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Yeah, kinda nuts... I’m 4 maybe closer to 5 years owning, and 100+ gigs in the last three years into my MC25, and it’s really easy to say that at least for me there’s no substitute....always amazed how freaking good it sounds. I don’t even try to convince people anymore. My latest surprise is how often I’ve been using the rhythm channel with the Black Cat engaged, it’s even more open than the other channel which 5x more open and less compressed than the average amp...what a sound. I’ve dialed the gain way back too, yes it feels a bit different but the clarity in the room and on recordings is killer.
 
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