Diezel VHX

To anyone who has a VHX in USA: Was yours made in Germany or at Boutique Amps in LA? Wasn't sure if both the Diezel cabs and amps are built in LA or just the cabs?
 
Now I am looking for recommended online shops to order one. Sweetwater had said a custom VHX color was 12 months? I called Chondro Guitars today and found out they closed.
 
C0UNT3RP01NT said:
ITT people wondering if they could improve their toan with a tube swap

I love Shape 2 actually. Shape 1 is my least used voice for sure. I suspect everyone's cab and guitar choices directly impact their opinion on the different voices.

My cab is more mid & bass heavy, I find that Red Channel, Vintage - Shape 2 lends a certain warmth to my lead tone. I'm also a big fan of Modern - Shape 2 for the same reason.

My favorite rhythm settings are Yellow, Vintage or Blue, Early - 0. That Early - 0 Blueface tone is fearsome.

In the same line of thought, interestingly enough I'm not specifically blown away by the Blue Channel as I assumed I would be from the VH4's reputation. Don't get me wrong the channel is amazing, but the way it's talked about on the VH4 is almost like the other channels are close to forgettable. Instead, I've found it to be incredibly well-balanced with high marks across the board, every channel sounds superb. I suspect this is because the VHX is really it's own amp, and not just a VH4 with more. I've never played a VH4, but I feel like this amp was designed by tearing apart a VH4 and then redoing it so it could be more than a VH4. This naturally lead to some design changes that makes the amp it's own thing.

Now all I need is a Wizard to finish out my tone.
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so shape 2 for lead and shape 0 for rhythm??? totally get that!
Do you use shape 2 for rhythm also?
 
valve said:
so shape 2 for lead and shape 0 for rhythm??? totally get that!
Do you use shape 2 for rhythm also?
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No I pretty much just use Shape 2 for Leads. Since I’ve posted that, I’ve picked up two new guitars and discovered some uses for Shape 1. The VHX is pretty sensitive to what type of pickups and what type of cabinet you have. I have to be mindful of the bass and depth, and Shape - 2 can be too much sometimes. I still think Early - 0 is my favorite rhythm tone on all my guitars, Classic - 0 or 1 is my second favorite on my humbuckers, Vintage - 0 is my second favorite on my single coils. I think my cabinet is just too naturally thick and dark to really handle Shape - 2 as a rhythm setting. Shape 2 on Vintage and Modern are my favorite lead settings by far, they just fucking punch. I run a GEQ into the front of the amp as a treble boost, throw in a little reverb and delay, and it really makes the amp just come alive.

However, when with the band, I’ll pretty much avoid Shape - 2. I find that the leads sound good enough on Shape - 1 or 2, but the Rhythm on Shape - 2 is just too finicky to be consistent especially with either of the cabinets I run it through. I don’t normally touch the amp settings while playing live, as I prefer to set it on one channel and control the distortion with a volume pedal; and then use my board for all the effects in the loop. Live is where I use Shape - 1 a lot more. Channel 3, Classic, Shape - 1 with the gain around 0.35-0.55 is my Swiss Army knife setting. My band has some core members but is generally a loose collective, so our sound can be quite different from session to session. We’ve had funk hip hop bassists, Congo/Bongo players, Tabla players, classical pianists, flautists, sax players, bluegrass players on a resonator, lapsteel, electric baritone ukelele, etc. I like heavy psychedelic ambient bedroom wankery myself but I like trying new styles. I’ve found that Classic - 1 tends to sit pretty well in the mix while still satisfying my enjoyment of a thick heavy rhythm.

I finally did pick up a midi controller for it though, because my board is fucking big, this amp is fucking big, the cabinet is fucking big, and trading out a giant pedal board for a single midi controller just seems easier. I’ll probably look into changing channels now because of that.

We should probably revive the settings thread again, it’s been awhile and I’m sure a lot of us have discovered some new settings. How about yours?
 
i never use shape 2 since it gives kind of a raspy quality in the distortion. shape 1 with increased bass sound better to me currently, but i will give shape 2 another try. I can totally see how it works for leads.
I like shape 0 the best but currently play mostly the yellow crunch channel on the bright setting. Enough gain for me.
For low gain i like vintage best, for gain more than around half, everything sounds good (vintage, early, classic, modern). hard to decide. Downside of that amp :D
 
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Badash said:
Now I am looking for recommended online shops to order one. Sweetwater had said a custom VHX color was 12 months? I called Chondro Guitars today and found out they closed.
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I am not sure but check with Randall from Chondro. I know he had a VHX left over when they closed. I bought my VHX from him brand new last year.
 
valve said:
i never use shape 2 since it gives kind of a raspy quality in the distortion. shape 1 with increased bass sound better to me currently, but i will give shape 2 another try. I can totally see how it works for leads.
I like shape 0 the best but currently play mostly the yellow crunch channel on the bright setting. Enough gain for me.
For low gain i like vintage best, for gain more than around half, everything sounds good (vintage, early, classic, modern). hard to decide. Downside of that amp :D
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I think speaker/cabinet choices, the band mix, and the playing environment itself have a more significant effect on our individual preferences than might be acknowledged when we are talking about shapes and voicing's. I have two different cabinets I play out of: one is an 412 Emperor RS w/ Weber Graywolfs and Silverwolfs. The other is one of those Blue Sparkle Tuck-n'-Roll Kustom 412's (stock Kustom speakers). My house has great acoustics, and the jam space, ironically, does not.

I got a Kustom halfstack for a trade years ago (I thought it looked cool). I keep it over at practice space to save room at my house (and in case any of our rotating cast needs something to play out of). I got tired of moving the Emperor up and down the stairs every time we had practice/jam/not playing by myself, so now I just play the VHX through the Kustom over there. I'm willing to bet it's an atypical cabinet choice for a Diezel, and with the acoustics and band mix, I find my choices are significantly different than my personal/show rig.

Here's my comparison:
Out of the Emperor, I cut the bass significantly more than with the Kustom.
Channels 1 and 2:
I set it on Vintage nearly exclusively, Bright is set for taste. Tone stack and gain is set all over the place.
Channel 3:
- Rhythm: Early - 0 or 1, occasionally Vintage - 0 and Modern - 0. Gain between 0.35-0.5. Mid push with a slight midcut. Treble higher than bass.
- Lead: Vintage - 2 or Modern - 2. Gain pretty much the same. Similar tonestack, but with slightly more treble.
Channel 4:
Pretty much only for leads, same settings as 3. Occassionally I want to watch the world burn, so I just max out everything to feel it deep down in my soul. At that point I can hardly hear make out anything over the sheer volume, so what is good tone at that point?

The Kustom is pretty flat, and one of my longterm bandmates plays an overdriven baritone uke out of a Fender Blues Jr (Thank god for the attenuator in the VHX). So I'm pretty much the rhythm guy, because his tone is inherently very bright and he can't fill the spectrum like I can.
Channels 1 and 2:
Still Vintage only, but bright is always off. Low mid focus, big cut on the high end, with a semi-bass cut to give room for the bassist. Gain on channel 1 is always below breakup, gain on channel 2 is around 0.35-0.45.
Channel 3:
Early or Classic, set at 1. Gain at 0.4-0.45. Mid focus, presence and treble equal or slightly lower than bass.
Channel 4:
Lol... I never get to use 4.

The main differences between the cabinets is how much bassier the Emperor is compared to the Kustom. My tone settings in the band end up being completely different than my home settings (essentially I can experiment more at home). Along with the drummer, I form the central rhythm of the band: our bassist is good but she's only been playing for two years, and we all have seriously diverse and different musical tastes (not to mention we have a lot of people rotate in to play with us). So I confine myself to the mids with some bass overhang, and focus on a good thick sturdy rhythm tone. I do long for the day I can bust out a guitar solo, but the band falls apart the moment I stop playing chords (it falls apart the moment I stop playing big blocky chords too).

...*sighs* one day all of our different genre's are going to synthesize into something awesome. But until then...
 
Yes the cabinet and room do have a big influence.
I do have 2 different cabs with Vintage 30s and the difference is crazy.
And everything matters, the cab construction and the different speaker batch + 8 Ohm vs 16 Ohm.
I want to try a different Speakers too, but i would have to make room for another 4x12 or 2x12.

Your Gain settings are similiar to mine except for channel 1 (i love the edge of breakup). EQ wise i am on the bright side, but then i don't have to share sonic space with a 2nd guitar player
 
valve said:
Yes the cabinet and room do have a big influence.
I do have 2 different cabs with Vintage 30s and the difference is crazy.
And everything matters, the cab construction and the different speaker batch + 8 Ohm vs 16 Ohm.
I want to try a different Speakers too, but i would have to make room for another 4x12 or 2x12.
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I'd like to try out an actual Diezel cab one day but that's a long road away. Sometimes I hear people getting sounds out of VH4's on youtube that I can't seem to get, and they're usually playing a Diezel cab. I had the Emperor cabinet made for the VHX. I heard they were high quality and honestly, I love the look of them. Wanted something that had an "heirloom" feel that would fit the southern gothic vibe of our house. The shell is a slate grey-green-blue, with a navy trim, and a blue-black-silver sparkle grillcloth.

Your Gain settings are similiar to mine except for channel 1 (i love the edge of breakup). EQ wise i am on the bright side, but then i don't have to share sonic space with a 2nd guitar player
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It's been interesting playing with others again. I've been playing with these guys for the last 1.5 years, and before that it had been bedroom playing for 4 years (I've got a million 75 second long songs... now to assemble them), and before that I was doing a lot of sit-in's. These guys are my neighbors, I met one of them out in the neighborhood and that's how we got started. So we didn't start with a sound in mind, and I often have to play the band director to get everyone EQ'd correctly. I love the VHX and I doubt I'll ever get rid of it, but it is overkill. If I'm not careful, it will swallow everyone besides the drummer. So I have to lower the gain, lower the volume, cut out the brightness, and usually play at a half-time feel to give the other instruments space. Then I've been coaching the others on where to EQ their instruments (for the new keyboardist, it's been a lot of coaching on where to play). Honestly, I'm a little bored with my tone (I rarely get to use channel 3, I never get to use channel 4), but damn, if our uke player hasn't been sounding fantastic. He cuts the bass, boosts the treble, chains two distortions, and his leads just soar.

I can't stand bright tones myself. I'm also not big on the midscoop sound. I want it bright enough to get a good solo tone, but other than that, I like it warm, thick, and hanging low :)
 
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