First impression of the Herbert!

  • Thread starter Thread starter BigSwerve
  • Start date Start date
B

BigSwerve

Member
Now this model is MINT! Its the mki with external bias and is loaded with all 6l6s because well thats what the guy who owned it before me had in there!

1. Plenty of low end even coming out of an oversized mesa which sounds like crap as far as tightness and lowend goes. (I will be getting a VHT fat bottom on saturday)

2.Cleans are pretty nice Im not much on clean channels as I liek to keep it rockin but the clean on here was very nice lots of headroom and was very well pleased.

3. In need of some growl I know everyone says that the Diezels as a whole are a compressed tone but this thing needs a spark. Im pretty sure its just me needing some different flavor tubes in it.

4. After messing with it and trying to somewhat dial it in I finally got channel 2 where I am fairly happy with it. Channel 3 on the other hand is a totally different story that thing is so compressed and mushy sounding nothing I add to it or take away from it is letting this thing breathe! I dont really know what to do with this channel. Any help guidence and thoughts would be well appericated.

So after saying all that for right now I am reserving my opinion on the Herbert till I get all my pieces in place like the vht fatbottom cab, a set of el34 a set of kt77 and a set of 6550 in there and have something to crank up that's a little more mean. Does having active pickups in your guitar hurt you tone wise as far as the herbert goes. I have a prs that I have some mick thompson blackouts in( really like this guitar with the way I dialed in channel 2) and then I have an agile with a standard blackout in the bridge single coil in the middle and an emg in the neck. Cleans actucally sounded really good on the single coil and neck pickups. When you blended the soil coil and neck emg with the way I have the eq set you actually got a lil bit of nashville twang in the tone was pretty impressed with that. So yea if you have any tips I need to know for kind of opening up the amp and letting it get some life in the tone let me know.
 
You are having some of the same trouble I had when I bought mine. Why did you buy a VHT cab, you have a Diezel.... a Diezel cab possibly would have been a good choice... :confused: It will sound weird with P50's. Herbert was voiced with the V30 in mind, far as I know. As you are learning, a recto oversize cab is a horrible choice with the Herbert.

The Herbert likes a good passive pickup, like a JB or Distortion, in that 11-17ohm range. EMG's aren't bad, and seem to work pretty good, but they can add some compression to the amp, which just makes ch3 worse.

Going to all KT88's solved the compression issue for me.
 
i just spent all my cash on the head and a diezel cab would cost double the cost of a vht. my friend has a sweet esp with a jb in the bridge anxious to hear that. as well as gettin some kt77 in the head as well. i want to put kt 88 in there but dont want to damage the head as peter says it can cause over heating. so aftef going through the same issues i am is it worth the hassle and the money ur spending getting ur Herbert the way u it
 
#1 Keep the mid-cut off unless you're just wanking around with cds in your room. It's overrated and makes the amp far too compressed for any kind of band mix.
#2 get some EL34s and bias them correctly. It'll shock you when you get the proper tubes in it. :rock:

#3 try channel volumes around noon then work your master volume.
 
Swore by my Recto cabinet until I got a Herbert... worst possible cabinet to have with a Herbert...

And you need to ditch the 6L6's asap.... the Herbert isn't the most "cutting" amp and doesn't have a lot of mids to begin with, IMO a Herbert should be used with ALL EL-34's or KT77's, PERIOD.

Good luck man... personally sounds like you would dig a VH-4 or Hagen MUCH more... just my thoughts.
 
BigSwerve":1mcs0g7q said:
Now this model is MINT! Its the mki with external bias and is loaded with all 6l6s because well thats what the guy who owned it before me had in there!

1. Plenty of low end even coming out of an oversized mesa which sounds like crap as far as tightness and lowend goes. (I will be getting a VHT fat bottom on saturday)

2.Cleans are pretty nice Im not much on clean channels as I liek to keep it rockin but the clean on here was very nice lots of headroom and was very well pleased.

3. In need of some growl I know everyone says that the Diezels as a whole are a compressed tone but this thing needs a spark. Im pretty sure its just me needing some different flavor tubes in it.

4. After messing with it and trying to somewhat dial it in I finally got channel 2 where I am fairly happy with it. Channel 3 on the other hand is a totally different story that thing is so compressed and mushy sounding nothing I add to it or take away from it is letting this thing breathe! I dont really know what to do with this channel. Any help guidence and thoughts would be well appericated.

So after saying all that for right now I am reserving my opinion on the Herbert till I get all my pieces in place like the vht fatbottom cab, a set of el34 a set of kt77 and a set of 6550 in there and have something to crank up that's a little more mean. Does having active pickups in your guitar hurt you tone wise as far as the herbert goes. I have a prs that I have some mick thompson blackouts in( really like this guitar with the way I dialed in channel 2) and then I have an agile with a standard blackout in the bridge single coil in the middle and an emg in the neck. Cleans actucally sounded really good on the single coil and neck pickups. When you blended the soil coil and neck emg with the way I have the eq set you actually got a lil bit of nashville twang in the tone was pretty impressed with that. So yea if you have any tips I need to know for kind of opening up the amp and letting it get some life in the tone let me know.
Click to expand...


Please send me an email
 
I picked up a vht cab last weekend with p 50e's in it and I think it sounds killer with my Diezel.
I've been running both cabs but the vht by itself sounds good imo.
 
spguitar":ma3ornwa said:
#1 Keep the mid-cut off unless you're just wanking around with cds in your room. It's overrated and makes the amp far too compressed for any kind of band mix.
#2 get some EL34s and bias them correctly. It'll shock you when you get the proper tubes in it. :rock:

#3 try channel volumes around noon then work your master volume.
Click to expand...


Thanks for the info! I love mids so the mid cut was never an appeal to me. I left it off. I just ordered a pair of el34 and 2 pairs of kt77 from dougs tubes and they should be here on Monday. I was curious how the masters and individual channel volumes worked on this one. So is the popular consensus to put all individual channels at noon and just work that master?

Where do I go to find out the proper bias for the differnt types of tubes?
 
base341":2ah5zj9p said:
I picked up a vht cab last weekend with p 50e's in it and I think it sounds killer with my Diezel.
I've been running both cabs but the vht by itself sounds good imo.
Click to expand...

Thats music to my ears! I get the fat bottom on saturday and looking forward to hearing the diezel and fat bottom start making some sweeeeeeeeet baby makin music! :m17:
 
Can someone PM me Peter Diezel email address if they know it. He told me to email him but he doesnt have an email button and I didnt know the best address to email him at where he would get it.
 
Bias each pair at or under 70ma or so. I biased my KT88's at around 52 to help keep the heat down. I actually tried it with the bias higher, but didn't notice any sonic differences. The cooler, the better for tube and component life.

You don't use the mid cut? That is one feature that is just plain awesome!

After reading your posts, I think you should have gone with a VH4 or Hagen, might be more up your alley.
 
RJF":29u4ggol said:
Bias each pair at or under 70ma or so. I biased my KT88's at around 52 to help keep the heat down. I actually tried it with the bias higher, but didn't notice any sonic differences. The cooler, the better for tube and component life.

You don't use the mid cut? That is one feature that is just plain awesome!

After reading your posts, I think you should have gone with a VH4 or Hagen, might be more up your alley.
Click to expand...


I am going to see how I like the set of tubes I have coming in on Monday. But if you biased ur kt88 down that much and didnt hear a difference I am going to have to get some and do the same! I hear so many awesome things about those tubes!

Well as of right now I havent used it. I may try to mess with it when I start getting "my tone" dialed in but I like a full bodied tone not to big on really scouped tones.

I never heard to much dissucssion about the Hagen so didnt know that much about it. As far as the VH4 it seemed like from the clips I heard it seemed to be more of like a lead player or solo players amp and I am def a rhythm guy I am all about trying to get great tones and a massive sound! The VH4 didnt really deliever that from the clips I heard it was the Herbert that I got that from. Plus there is a ton of VH4s on the market or at least it seemed to be that way when I was looking and Herberts were a lot more hard to come by. So part of my thinking was if they are so great why is everyone trying to sell there VH4.
 
as long as you dont crank the mid cut it doesnt really cut the mids....
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top