Jose Mod vs Vemuram Las Lunas

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scottosan

scottosan

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Day 2 of the Reactive Load and I got to say, I’m really liking the tones here. Did the Brunetti yesterday, but my modded Marshall sounds so good through it. I also thought is would be good to showcase the versatility of A3 pickups. I wind them just a tad hotter than normal PAFs rink compensate for the weaker magnets 8.7K bridge and 8.0k neck. They’re really. Ice clean and there’s just something I love about how well they play with high gain. I played these in my 89 Burny RR LP

Anyway. A few people here and in another forum ask med how amp like the Las Lunas is. My answer is pretty damn amplike. I figured the best comparison would be to use my amps clean channel @RedPlated ‘s add-clean board. So that I could compare the 2 real time through the same power section. I am using my one control programmable switcher the switches channels and engages the pedal loop simulataniosly. The Las Lunas dos have a J Rockett Bluenote Select in the front giving it just a little bit of push for tightness and hair, but it’s subtle.

 
Kapo_Polenton said:
Those two are not that close in tone to my ear. I def am not hearing what you guys are. No cut with the pedal.
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I’m with you Kapo.

No cut with the pedal compared to the Jose gain

Real Marshall gain aficionados would not be fooled in a blind test between the Jose and the Las Lunas through a clean amp.

I could hear the difference on my iPhone, and I’m sure it’d be more obvious being in the room.
 
I think the Jose (amp) sounds much better here

Which circuit are you using in the Marshall? Any known one?
 
The basic tone is there but the actual amp has more depth to the overall tone and compression sounds better with the amp. Not that the pedal sounds bad....... it just sounded a little flat, not horrible... but when immediately compared to the tone of the actual amp gain channel it's different overall depth of the dynamics and feel become apparent.

Cool comparison vid Scottosan Thanks!:2thumbsup:
 
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They are very close. All the Las Lunas needs is a little more presence and it’s right there with the amp.
I mean, I’ll take the technology in a new pedal designed by Japanese tone fanatics, compared to some old guy that was a TV repair man in the 70s.
I don’t know where you had the trimmers set on the pedal, but when you set them full up, you get the added bite and saturation.
 
Agree with the group here. You can definitely hear the presence and highs in the amp over the pedal. Both sound great depending on what youre after though.
 
the gain structures sound pretty similar to me, id probably bump the tone and treble on the pedal up a notch or two
 
Kapo_Polenton said:
Those two are not that close in tone to my ear. I def am not hearing what you guys are. No cut with the pedal.
Click to expand...
The clean channels is fender blackface based, so it’s not benefiting from the typical ~720hz peaking network or the tighter cathode bypass combo on the first gain stage
 
scottosan said:
Day 2 of the Reactive Load and I got to say, I’m really liking the tones here. Did the Brunetti yesterday, but my modded Marshall sounds so good through it. I also thought is would be good to showcase the versatility of A3 pickups. I wind them just a tad hotter than normal PAFs rink compensate for the weaker magnets 8.7K bridge and 8.0k neck. They’re really. Ice clean and there’s just something I love about how well they play with high gain. I played these in my 89 Burny RR LP

Anyway. A few people here and in another forum ask med how amp like the Las Lunas is. My answer is pretty damn amplike. I figured the best comparison would be to use my amps clean channel @RedPlated ‘s add-clean board. So that I could compare the 2 real time through the same power section. I am using my one control programmable switcher the switches channels and engages the pedal loop simulataniosly. The Las Lunas dos have a J Rockett Bluenote Select in the front giving it just a little bit of push for tightness and hair, but it’s subtle.

Click to expand...

it all sounds great to me!
the amp by itself sounds killer, and so does the pedal.
i just played the blue note yesterday and boy is it subtle on its own.
 
This is what I don't get about these amps in a box pedals.. no tubes in the thing and they want 500 euro for it? I mean a Friedman IR-X or any rackmount preamp is going to be way closer and same price. If i am doing amp in a box with no tubes, I go cheap with a guvnor and use power tube sim and cab sim in my Cab M+.
 
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Kapo_Polenton said:
This is what I don't get about these amps in a box pedals.. no tubes in the thing and they want 500 euro for it? I mean a Friedman IR-X or any rackmount preamp is going to be way closer and same price. If i am doing amp in a box with bo tubes, I go cheap with a guvnor and use power tube sim and cab sim in my Cab M+.
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Its not 500 Euro. At the current exchange rate, if bough in Japan. it would be 300 Euro. Everything is more expensive in EU.


I've been through a bunch of pedals and through a real amp, this is the closest to my ears, but more so, the feel. The Govnor is even going to get you close IMHO. The recording didn't capture what i was trying to show, and that's on me. I usually run the pedal one of 2 ways. Either with the brights switch off and the tone on the pedal a little turned up, or withe the pedal with everything at noon and with the bright switch on the amp. I noticed when I went back and look that the controls were at noon and I didn't turn the bright switch on. You can see that in the video and also the clean reference tone is missing some of that sparkle of the bright cap not being engaged. Unfortunately, I rushed it and the signal to the cab was attenuated enough that the loss of high end wasn't obvious since my recording desk is almost 90 degrees from the cab.

But yeah, the pedal is expensive, but quite frankly, they're stuff simply sounds better, much of which is hard to experience after track normalization and youtube compress you see on all video. Japan taxes everything imported, so parts are more expensive, It's a small shop in Tokyo and Japanese companies pay about 30% in taxes and another 10% sales tax when sold. They don't have a distributor, so EU and US stores are paying retail for them, having them shipped and then adding their own markup. Same is boutique US pedal prices over here.

Lastly, this video explains why these pedals are a bit more expensive, and I can vouch for what he's saying. In summary, the enclosures are brass. They are not cast like every other pedal on the market. They machined and welded. They are finished and then corners buffed to achieve their trademarked look. They mask off parts of the enclosure during finishing to ensure that there's optimal ground contacts. ground points that make contact with the enclosure is also roughed on the interior again for optimal grounding and shielding. They also dont use over the counter components. Their switches and caps are custom and labelled Tri Sound, which is the real name of their compamany. Vemuram is the pedal side and Allies Custom Cables is their other line.

Back to nuance. I own a Nux Sixty Five which is a Vemuram Jan Ray close. While it about 90% there, the thing you notice most when doing an A/B with any Vemuram pedal is that they have such a lower noise floor due to the enclosure and grounding efforts they put into the pedals.


It's a Korean video, but you can change the audio to English translation
 
Do you see any og Silverface Fender combos for sale there? What are their prices?
 
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