NAD: BAD SLO100 & Cab Question

  • Thread starter Thread starter Bad.Seed
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Bad.Seed said:
Your tone association of "great" and "metal" is purely your perspective on the matter. But to your other point, the player and their ability to play as well as properly set up their gear goes a lot further than the actual gear used, so it's no surprise certain bands can make less respected amps sound great.
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Yes, my opinion is purely my opinion on the matter. You are correct.
 
espquade said:
Eddie Van Halen, Gary Moore, George Lynch, Warren Dimartini, Vivian Campbell, Steve Vai , Warren Haynes , Jimmy Page, and Clapton ETC ETC... All have used the SLO with killer results so too bad it didn't work for you... Killer , articulate singing sustain lead tone is one of the things always mentioned about the SLO...
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Very few of those used them on records that are relevant to me, if at all... I mean really? EVH during that era? Hard pass. People love to throw out those names to make a point and I get it, but they also would’ve made anything sound great. Gary Moore is arguably my favorite guitar player on earth, and a terrible stance to make a point on, because he is literally insane through absolutely everything, and we all know that!

I will also contend that the new ones, despite what many say ( and even I bought into), may just not sound as good as the older ones. I hate to go down that road, but I guess it’s possible. Joel from KSE was in a recent group text I was in, and he loves his to death: but his is an older one, has no effects loop, and I believe one channel: that is surely going to sound different, no doubt. So who knows. I do agree with Kyle’s assessment though, especially on the depth knob, the low end is an extremely weird place, like somewhere unnatural as far as guitar resonance is concerned in my opinion, that drove me nuts. It just wasn’t that great, at all. The clean was phenomenal and I loved the crunch channel as well, but I can think of about 15 other Amps I would personally like/use ( that I own) over the SLO for that thing.
 
Mr. Willy said:
Some of the best metal bands I’ve heard played through Valvestates, and they killed it. Heard several death metal bands using JCM900s, and they sounded great for the music they were playing. I wouldn’t associate great tone with metal tone. Turn up the brutz and chugga chugga. The SLO is more of a rock amp than a metal amp anyway. Its tone is more “brown” and sophisticated, imho, than just doing the brutz.
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Sophisticated? That’s a thing now to describe tone? Ok man!
 
Mr. Willy said:
Yeah, theres some interesting and complex things happening in the mids on the SLO. Maybe you can’t hear it.
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I understand what you mean by this. It's really a hard thing to put into words. I actually mentioned this in my playthrough video I made yesterday, that there is almost like a harmonic sparkle to the mids. Again, my description could be completely wrong, but it's kind of a hard thing to describe. The only other amps that I've noticed this type of "complexity" or "3d" quality from (these terms are often used) coming from are Friedmans, and the Omega Granophyre.
 
Bad.Seed said:
I understand what you mean by this. It's really a hard thing to put into words. I actually mentioned this in my playthrough video I made yesterday, that there is almost like a harmonic sparkle to the mids. Again, my description could be completely wrong, but it's kind of a hard thing to describe. The only other amps that I've noticed this type of "complexity" or "3d" quality from (these terms are often used) coming from are Friedmans, and the Omega Granophyre.
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So I’m not loosing my mind? ?

There is something happening in the mids that I’ve not heard any other amp do. Any clones or replicas of the SLO just don’t have it, either. I’m in no way saying that the SLO is better or worse than any other amp, but I hear what I hear when I listen to it. I also want to clarify that I’m in no way knocking metal or metal tone, but I think it’s way easier to get a good metal tone than it is to get a good rock tone. If I were playing metal, I’d get a 5150/6505 and call it a day. I’d prefer those amps over the SLO for metal because they do track a bit faster and aren’t as “squishy” (brown) as the SLO is.
At any rate, congrats on the new amp. FWIW, I tried a lot of speakers with mine, and I like G12-65, Greenbacks, and Redbacks with it the best, with the G12-65s being my favorite out of those.
 
Mr. Willy said:
So I’m not loosing my mind? ?

There is something happening in the mids that I’ve not heard any other amp do. Any clones or replicas of the SLO just don’t have it, either. I’m in no way saying that the SLO is better or worse than any other amp, but I hear what I hear when I listen to it. I also want to clarify that I’m in no way knocking metal or metal tone, but I think it’s way easier to get a good metal tone than it is to get a good rock tone. If I were playing metal, I’d get a 5150/6505 and call it a day. I’d prefer those amps over the SLO for metal because they do track a bit faster and aren’t as “squishy” (brown) as the SLO is.
At any rate, congrats on the new amp. FWIW, I tried a lot of speakers with mine, and I like G12-65, Greenbacks, and Redbacks with it the best, with the G12-65s being my favorite out of those.
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No, I totally get what you're saying. Like you said, not better or worse, it's just something that's there and pretty immediately noticeable, especially on big chords, not so much on chugs.

Agree with still enjoying a 5150 over the SLO for what I do as well for the same reasons you state. Tighter, more immediate. Esepcially the 5150 II and EVH variants.

So far, I've only played it through Mesa V30s and The EVH greenbacks. I liked it through both just fine, but have a few other cabs with cool speakers to try it with, including the G12-65
 
Mr. Willy said:
Yeah, theres some interesting and complex things happening in the mids on the SLO. Maybe you can’t hear it.
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Oh... I didn’t realize “sophisticated” meant complex mids... I learn something new on this board everyday.... I can assure you my ears aren’t the problem, I quite often get scrutinized for opinions on things that others can’t hear, or think don’t matter, but most definitely do. I agree the midrange is unique and complex, and nothing sounds like it, but that’s only one part of a sound that is important to me. The rest of the amp, for what I need or like to hear, is a shitshow. Surely the amp works for many, and people sound amazing with them no doubt. But the “hype” surrounding it by many in the METAL community specifically, and given the history of so many Amps being “influenced” by it, made it a huge let down for anything heavier than 90: rock to me.
 
Mr. Willy said:
So I’m not loosing my mind? ?

There is something happening in the mids that I’ve not heard any other amp do. Any clones or replicas of the SLO just don’t have it, either. I’m in no way saying that the SLO is better or worse than any other amp, but I hear what I hear when I listen to it. I also want to clarify that I’m in no way knocking metal or metal tone, but I think it’s way easier to get a good metal tone than it is to get a good rock tone. If I were playing metal, I’d get a 5150/6505 and call it a day. I’d prefer those amps over the SLO for metal because they do track a bit faster and aren’t as “squishy” (brown) as the SLO is.
At any rate, congrats on the new amp. FWIW, I tried a lot of speakers with mine, and I like G12-65, Greenbacks, and Redbacks with it the best, with the G12-65s being my favorite out of those.
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I’d agree with this as well. However, lots of legendary amps aren’t “tight “ by today’s standards, or really at all. Rectos come to mind: hell most “metal” amps are still way more often than not, boosted anyways. But even with a boost, the SLO was all wrong in the low end and saturation to me, Atleast for what I like to hear.
 
VESmedic said:
Oh... I didn’t realize “sophisticated” meant complex mids... I learn something new on this board everyday.... I can assure you my ears aren’t the problem, I quite often get scrutinized for opinions on things that others can’t hear, or think don’t matter, but most definitely do. I agree the midrange is unique and complex, and nothing sounds like it, but that’s only one part of a sound that is important to me. The rest of the amp, for what I need or like to hear, is a shitshow. Surely the amp works for many, and people sound amazing with them no doubt. But the “hype” surrounding it by many in the METAL community specifically, and given the history of so many Amps being “influenced” by it, made it a huge let down for anything heavier than 90: rock to me.
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I love the SLO. But, at first plug in I was disappointed...I’m like, “2500 for this?”
But, I wasn’t boosting everything like I do now...and when I dialed the gain back to 4-5 and hit it with a mid bump from an eq pedal WOW there it was. Much tighter and angrier response. Clarity was always great but without that boost pedal I was very ‘meh’ on it. Just like Triple Recto-doesn’t need a boost but holy shit did it sound better with one.
 
Racerxrated said:
I love the SLO. But, at first plug in I was disappointed...I’m like, “2500 for this?”
But, I wasn’t boosting everything like I do now...and when I dialed the gain back to 4-5 and hit it with a mid bump from an eq pedal WOW there it was. Much tighter and angrier response. Clarity was always great but without that boost pedal I was very ‘meh’ on it. Just like Triple Recto-doesn’t need a boost but holy shit did it sound better with one.
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I’d consider myself more a rock than metal player, and I (clean) boost everything most of the time. Even if it’s my Telecaster into a Bassman. It’s way more about feel to me than gain, per say (although by boosting I understand I’m adding gain). I’ve found myself turning the gain on my preamp down these days and going for a “clean” gain. I think there’s more clarity in your chords that way.
 
Mr. Willy said:
I’d consider myself more a rock than metal player, and I (clean) boost everything most of the time. Even if it’s my Telecaster into a Bassman. It’s way more about feel to me than gain, per say (although by boosting I understand I’m adding gain). I’ve found myself turning the gain on my preamp down these days and going for a “clean” gain. I think there’s more clarity in your chords that way.
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Definitely. And, if you ever go into a studio to record(yeah this was long ago when 2 inch tape ruled haha) you realize how much better ‘less is more’ really is on tape. All that stuff we listen to, those amps have a lot less gain than we might think when they were recorded
 
Racerxrated said:
Definitely. And, if you ever go into a studio to record(yeah this was long ago when 2 inch tape ruled haha) you realize how much better ‘less is more’ really is on tape. All that stuff we listen to, those amps have a lot less gain than we might think when they were recorded
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Yep, what you’re talking about is how I “discovered” it myself. Once I started slapping a mic in front of a speaker and hitting record, I very often found myself turning the gain down rather than up.
 
Randall Smith had the first cascaded pre-amp & master volume by 1970 before anyone else & M. Soldano designed the SLO after the MESA MK series amps.
To claim the MESA Rectifiers are a "rip-off" of the SLO is just not accurate but i hear it all the time.
Every demo i hear of the SLO II comes across super harsh like a cheese grate on chalkboard.
They all sound that way.
In any event thanks for taking the time anyway.
 
Samhain said:
Randall Smith had the first cascaded pre-amp & master volume by 1970 before anyone else & M. Soldano designed the SLO after the MESA MK series amps.
To claim the MESA Rectifiers are a "rip-off" of the SLO is just not accurate but i hear it all the time.
Every demo i hear of the SLO II comes across super harsh like a cheese grate on chalkboard.
They all sound that way.
In any event thanks for taking the time anyway.
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The original circuit of the Dual rectifier was an exact clone of the SLO preamp. That's why you hear it bro. Has nothing to do with the cascading preamp design and you're going down the rabbit hole of everything stems from an old RCA radio design, which is super tired at this point
 
Bad.Seed said:
The original circuit of the Dual rectifier was an exact clone of the SLO preamp. That's why you hear it bro. Has nothing to do with the cascading preamp design and you're going down the rabbit hole of everything stems from an old RCA radio design, which is super tired at this point
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When are you making the RCA radio vs Rectifier vid?
 
DeathbyButterslax said:
When are you making the RCA radio vs Rectifier vid?
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m_603917df8da5c9b374ff5347.jpeg

mesa-boogie-triple-rectifier-solo-head-xl.jpg


Anyone can plainly see the similarities. :checkthisout:
 
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