Evan666
New member
So, after just laughing at the KRANK amps booth at this years NAMM, I see the Diamond amps booth. I was a little apprehensive to play their stuff because of the bashing the Spec-Op received on here...but my aprehensions soon faded when the owner Jeff Diamant approached me, offering a full test drive of his amp line in the loud room.
At first glance, they looked awesome. Thick tolex, stainless steel grill, 11 tubes total, and two huge transformers, built by Hayboer too. Plus it had cool L.E.D. lights. (IMO it looks cool on stage, but I know some of you old timers dont like it )
I plugged in to the Spec-op, the flagship amp of the line. I was using a supplied les paul menace with stock pups. It was on the spec-op cab, which is v30s and g12h30s in an x pattern. I was BLOWN AWAY. The clips on the website do it no justice at all... It just sounded HUGE!! I felt my insides move when I would do a chugga riff, (the low freq. range is controlled by a three posistion switch on the back) and liquid leads all day, with juicy gain saturation. It was amazing. I have never been able to find an amp with awesome mid-range tone, with huge bass response, and stayed clear with saturated gain. It had an unbelievable Cut to it as well, which I cant get with my framus gear.
Next I plugged into the Phantom, the new "metal head" amp, which I dont understand when the spec op had ginormous amounts of gain already, but this one has more gain, with a tighter more modern sound. Sounded amazing from the get go, very similar to the Spec, but with, like advertized, a more modern feel. The cab had all v30s, and the head had one less preamp tube (no boost) and had green leds. It was 200$ cheaper too. I was SOLD!
The clean channel was awesome! It was better then most clean amps! It is a cross between a fender and a marshall..very distinctive, lively, and organic. Better then both of my framuses cleans, and my dads od100. Also better the the two engls ive owned. The clean is the same for both the spec and phantom. They also have a Spitfire, that isnt released yet, but is based on the clean channel but has two gain knobs so you can push it. Very very JCM marshall sounding
They came stock with Svetlana EL-34s and Tung-Sol 12ax7s. All of the wiring, and components are millitary spec, with the BEST effects loop in the business, similar to the bradshaw loop in CAE stuff. The amp is top grade, and I was thouroughly impressed. Needless to say, all my gear is being sold, because I just bought a phantom halfstack and 2x12. My dad who is a hardcore blues and rock fanatic, is selling his CAE od100 and Mojave Peacemaker to fund his just bought spec-op set up.
They are amazing amps, dont believe the bashers on the Harmony Central forums. These are definitely the future of guitar amps.
METAL!
At first glance, they looked awesome. Thick tolex, stainless steel grill, 11 tubes total, and two huge transformers, built by Hayboer too. Plus it had cool L.E.D. lights. (IMO it looks cool on stage, but I know some of you old timers dont like it )
I plugged in to the Spec-op, the flagship amp of the line. I was using a supplied les paul menace with stock pups. It was on the spec-op cab, which is v30s and g12h30s in an x pattern. I was BLOWN AWAY. The clips on the website do it no justice at all... It just sounded HUGE!! I felt my insides move when I would do a chugga riff, (the low freq. range is controlled by a three posistion switch on the back) and liquid leads all day, with juicy gain saturation. It was amazing. I have never been able to find an amp with awesome mid-range tone, with huge bass response, and stayed clear with saturated gain. It had an unbelievable Cut to it as well, which I cant get with my framus gear.
Next I plugged into the Phantom, the new "metal head" amp, which I dont understand when the spec op had ginormous amounts of gain already, but this one has more gain, with a tighter more modern sound. Sounded amazing from the get go, very similar to the Spec, but with, like advertized, a more modern feel. The cab had all v30s, and the head had one less preamp tube (no boost) and had green leds. It was 200$ cheaper too. I was SOLD!
The clean channel was awesome! It was better then most clean amps! It is a cross between a fender and a marshall..very distinctive, lively, and organic. Better then both of my framuses cleans, and my dads od100. Also better the the two engls ive owned. The clean is the same for both the spec and phantom. They also have a Spitfire, that isnt released yet, but is based on the clean channel but has two gain knobs so you can push it. Very very JCM marshall sounding
They came stock with Svetlana EL-34s and Tung-Sol 12ax7s. All of the wiring, and components are millitary spec, with the BEST effects loop in the business, similar to the bradshaw loop in CAE stuff. The amp is top grade, and I was thouroughly impressed. Needless to say, all my gear is being sold, because I just bought a phantom halfstack and 2x12. My dad who is a hardcore blues and rock fanatic, is selling his CAE od100 and Mojave Peacemaker to fund his just bought spec-op set up.
They are amazing amps, dont believe the bashers on the Harmony Central forums. These are definitely the future of guitar amps.
METAL!
lol...
