Dmoll and Hagen experience?

[moltenmetalburn]

Had dmoll and hagen and einstein and fokker all at once to compare. Vh4 previously as well.

Dmoll is a bit fuzzy and wooly. NOT like Einstein with midcut at all. Einstein is like baby vh4 V1. A bit more polite and vintage.

Hagen I liked, chewy mids, all the channels were usuable and different. Suppsed to be voiced for lower tunings which I used.

 

[bubucci]

I wanted to buy Hagen few years ago but playing one was maybe biggest letdown ever. Very stiff and unorganic feeling, almost artifical sounding. I has bass-mid-tre frequencies somewhat unconnected together. I give up trying after about a hour. I had Einstein and played VH4, Herbert for reference but Hagen was overpriced joke.

 

[peterc52]

Well. The VH4 is a my all time favorite Stays on ch 3 all the time though

 

[splatter]

Hagen has 4 very good channels. Channel 3 on the VH4 is GREAT.

Channel 4 can be great also if you do the mod. Takes alot of the compression out basically makes it sound like an extension of the 3rd channel.

What mod? Something about the negative feedback?

I don’t know for sure. I think it’s called the decompression mod . I ask peter about it and he sent me pic showing which resistor to change . No schematic so I really don’t know what that resistor does .
It opens up channel 4 though so that it’s more of a channel 3 like tone

 

[155]

had the dmoll couldnt stand it, my 5150 sounded 10 times more oragnic, super sterile amp that didnt cut through the mix for what I was doing...

 

[hopkinWFG]

Hagen has 4 very good channels. Channel 3 on the VH4 is GREAT.

Channel 4 can be great also if you do the mod. Takes alot of the compression out basically makes it sound like an extension of the 3rd channel.

What mod? Something about the negative feedback?

I don’t know for sure. I think it’s called the decompression mod . I ask peter about it and he sent me pic showing which resistor to change . No schematic so I really don’t know what that resistor does .
It opens up channel 4 though so that it’s more of a channel 3 like tone

Was that resistor for decompression made for VH4 models after 2007 ? I sort of read the resistor mod but told its a compromise between compression and presence...? Its written down on Diezel service manual if not wrong...

I guess the only Diezel closer to tighter sound and feel is the VH4... mine is a 2008 model and it just sound and feel ok to me with the very raw saturated and unpolished tone mainly ch3....

Herbert mk2 works best with nos china preamps tubes... with the right eq settings and a push on the masters with presence set to least 1300hrs can set ya tone pretty aggressive... however its still a very pleasing amp without much of the harshness going... and herbert lead tones are sweeter than the VH4... forgotten to add... with the midcut engaged the tones of the Herbert be a tad tighter its tight enough...

 

[Speeddemon]

I once went out to buy a used D-Moll, but after trying it, I couldn't get myself to buy it, even though the guy offered it at a bonafide steal.

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The cleans on the D-Moll are some of the best cleans I've heard on a high gain amp. It's like the counterpoint to the Fryette Sig:X cleans, which are a little spongier and bloom out. The D-Moll cleans are clear, percussive, "piano-like" as many would say.

Agreed.
The D-Moll is easily in my top 3 of best cleans from a high-gain, multi-channel amp. And it *does* beat the SigX's cleans IMO too.

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The drive channels on the D-Moll are obviously capable of massive amounts of gain. It did take me a while to realize that the best way to dial them in is with the global master volume up above 1:00, and then use the channel volumes to set level. Keep the gain below 12:00 on channel 2 and let your picking hand really determine how much saturation you'll get. Dig in for more, play lightly for less. For a long time I was getting frustrated with the amp because I couldn't find a good classic rock crunch. Everything just sounded too metal on it.

The presence knob is really important on these amps, both in the actual EQ aspect, but also in how percussive and immediate it sounds.

It's still my #3 amp behind my Fryettes because, like MetalHeadMike, I like tight/immediate amps, but the D-Moll is a great complement to those amps, both in terms of the cleans and the dirty tones. With these three, I don't ever really feel any GAS except for an occasional reminisce about my old Trem-O-Verb, but between the Sig:X and D-Moll I feel like they both have elements of the Recto sound available already to where that GAS is only fleeting and mild.

My experience with the drive channels was more along MetalHeadMike's; it had this almost singing, woofy, fuzzy quality in the low-mids that I couldn't get rid of. And I was fighting to get a crunchy mid-gain classic/hard-rock tone from the DMoll as well.
Leads were nice, but easily too thick. Although, better than the over saturated, thick lead tone from my Engl Invader's Channel 4. I almost never use that, unless I need something more Santana-lead-like.

Interesting to read about the master volume level; with my Engl Savage 60 it's the other way around; if you run the channel volumes too low, it will make the amp sound like a ratty distortion pedal, crank it past noon and suddenly it comes alive. The clean/rhythm channel can be run a bit lower (around 10 o' clock).