duncan
Active member
First, the amp physically.
This amp is built remarkably well. I mean, on par easily with my Bogner, my old Bad Cats or my old Soldano SLO. The difference is that its built well but without feeling like it was "overdone" like with my Bad Cat or Soldano. Those amps felt like they were built with a "beefed up" build, meaning they were overbuilt to withstand the deepest circle of hell. The Diezel is just as tough, easily, but in a much more subtle way. The build quality isn't found behind stiff, robust switches and 1/2" thick screws holding everything in place. The Diezel feels like more of a elegant durability in how smooth the knobs turn, how snappy the switches feel, and so on. Its hard to explain.
This is the first amp I've ever owned that's had external bias points.
AMAZING. Last night, I went to the jamspot and spent a couple hours just experimenting with different tubes (EH 6CA7's, =C= SED EL34's, JAN GE 6L6's, and Ruby EL34B's). I was having a blast. Every amp should have external bias points. Seriously.
Now for how it sounds...
I'll copypasta what I've typed before about how it compares to my XTC:
As far as how it compares to the XTC? The Bogner's got a more flexible and (to my ears, at least) better clean channel, for starters. On the dirt side, the Einstein is a bit darker, more punchy. With the Deep control set less than half, the Einstein is tighter than the XTC. It doesn't hide your sloppiness as much as the XTC, that's for sure. haha. Lead playing comes through better on the XTC, but it still sounds great through the Einstein, its just not as liquidy.
The clean channel's 3 modes are fucking unreal. Clean (setting 1) isn't bad, but its not AMAZING. Texas mode (2) is probably the most versatile mode I've encountered on any amp. It can go from a nice blues-y clean to a nice mid-gain rock tone.
Mega mode (setting 3) is one of my favourite settings on this amp. It can go from a nice jangly not-so-clean to all out balls to the wall without sounding forced (if that makes sense). Crazy versatile.
The presence control works better than most amps I've played. I keep it right around noon. Off, the amp sounds dark and moody, almost muddy, but that can be corrected by turning up the treble and mids slightly. Cranked, it brightens up nicely without ever getting harsh.
The deep control, like the presence control, is awesome. Full on, you can tell your bass player to take the night off; off, you still have ample low end, but its more of a thinner bottom end, ala a Marshall boosted with a stock SD-1 (note: I'm not saying the amp sounds anything like a Marshall, more that the low end sounds like an 800 boosted with an SD-1: tight and sweet).
I've jammed the Einstein out in my band twice now at pretty loud volumes (the first time, the other guitarist was using his boosted 1977 Hiwatt Custom 50, the second time, with his 5150) and both times, the Einstein sat perfectly in the mix. At times, I've noticed my XTC not get buried, more just blend into the mix. I could still be heard and I sat nicely in the mix, but at times, I would sort of blend in. The Einstein manages to blend in and stand out all at the same time. Its strange, but damn nice.
I haven't tried out the Parallel loop yet, but the Serial loop is incredible. Easily as good as my XTC's. I'm running my Timefactor and ML2 through it.
The compensated line out sounds the way my amp sounds like through my speakers. Its crazy. I just gave it a try for shits and giggles, and ran the compensated out through my PA last night. I turned the master volume down nearly all the way, and just controlled the line out volume. Instead of sounding like a bag full of assholes like most line outs do, this one sounded nearly exactly what my amp soudns like though my cabinet. I couldn't understand it. haha.
The master volume on this amp blows my Bogner's out of the water. As with most amps, my Bogner has a little bit of the "hair trigger" syndrome, in that it goes from nothing to loud-talking volume with nothing in-between. The Diezel's master volume has the smoothest taper and response I've ever heard/felt.
I'm sure I'll add more to this review the more I play this amp, but yeah, I love this fucking thing.
This amp is built remarkably well. I mean, on par easily with my Bogner, my old Bad Cats or my old Soldano SLO. The difference is that its built well but without feeling like it was "overdone" like with my Bad Cat or Soldano. Those amps felt like they were built with a "beefed up" build, meaning they were overbuilt to withstand the deepest circle of hell. The Diezel is just as tough, easily, but in a much more subtle way. The build quality isn't found behind stiff, robust switches and 1/2" thick screws holding everything in place. The Diezel feels like more of a elegant durability in how smooth the knobs turn, how snappy the switches feel, and so on. Its hard to explain.
This is the first amp I've ever owned that's had external bias points.
AMAZING. Last night, I went to the jamspot and spent a couple hours just experimenting with different tubes (EH 6CA7's, =C= SED EL34's, JAN GE 6L6's, and Ruby EL34B's). I was having a blast. Every amp should have external bias points. Seriously.Now for how it sounds...
I'll copypasta what I've typed before about how it compares to my XTC:
As far as how it compares to the XTC? The Bogner's got a more flexible and (to my ears, at least) better clean channel, for starters. On the dirt side, the Einstein is a bit darker, more punchy. With the Deep control set less than half, the Einstein is tighter than the XTC. It doesn't hide your sloppiness as much as the XTC, that's for sure. haha. Lead playing comes through better on the XTC, but it still sounds great through the Einstein, its just not as liquidy.
The clean channel's 3 modes are fucking unreal. Clean (setting 1) isn't bad, but its not AMAZING. Texas mode (2) is probably the most versatile mode I've encountered on any amp. It can go from a nice blues-y clean to a nice mid-gain rock tone.
Mega mode (setting 3) is one of my favourite settings on this amp. It can go from a nice jangly not-so-clean to all out balls to the wall without sounding forced (if that makes sense). Crazy versatile.
The presence control works better than most amps I've played. I keep it right around noon. Off, the amp sounds dark and moody, almost muddy, but that can be corrected by turning up the treble and mids slightly. Cranked, it brightens up nicely without ever getting harsh.
The deep control, like the presence control, is awesome. Full on, you can tell your bass player to take the night off; off, you still have ample low end, but its more of a thinner bottom end, ala a Marshall boosted with a stock SD-1 (note: I'm not saying the amp sounds anything like a Marshall, more that the low end sounds like an 800 boosted with an SD-1: tight and sweet).
I've jammed the Einstein out in my band twice now at pretty loud volumes (the first time, the other guitarist was using his boosted 1977 Hiwatt Custom 50, the second time, with his 5150) and both times, the Einstein sat perfectly in the mix. At times, I've noticed my XTC not get buried, more just blend into the mix. I could still be heard and I sat nicely in the mix, but at times, I would sort of blend in. The Einstein manages to blend in and stand out all at the same time. Its strange, but damn nice.
I haven't tried out the Parallel loop yet, but the Serial loop is incredible. Easily as good as my XTC's. I'm running my Timefactor and ML2 through it.
The compensated line out sounds the way my amp sounds like through my speakers. Its crazy. I just gave it a try for shits and giggles, and ran the compensated out through my PA last night. I turned the master volume down nearly all the way, and just controlled the line out volume. Instead of sounding like a bag full of assholes like most line outs do, this one sounded nearly exactly what my amp soudns like though my cabinet. I couldn't understand it. haha.
The master volume on this amp blows my Bogner's out of the water. As with most amps, my Bogner has a little bit of the "hair trigger" syndrome, in that it goes from nothing to loud-talking volume with nothing in-between. The Diezel's master volume has the smoothest taper and response I've ever heard/felt.
I'm sure I'll add more to this review the more I play this amp, but yeah, I love this fucking thing.
