
Bad.Seed
Well-known member
Scored this amp used, and have been curious about these for some time.
Haven't gotten more than 30 minutes with the amp, and there are lots of options, so here are my initial impressions.
It very much reminds me of a high gain Marshall 1987X that I used to have, tonally. Obviously, the Helios has far more gain, and many more options, but it has that same nasally (not bad) Marshall roar. It seems a fair bit darker than my other M Type amps, and very thick on the 80's mode. Definitely reminds me of some Motley Crew type tones with the gain around 11 O'Clock and the gain up on 80's mode.
Eclipse mode was essentially unusable on both channels. Grainy in a non musical way, tons of feedback. Just not pleasant sounding. Hot mode was more of a hot rodded plexi sound to my ears. Has some jangle, could probably clean up nicely. Didn't try though.
I'm not 100% sure it will stay, but I'd like to try it with different cab and pickup combos. I like it, but dunno if I can justify the price tag when I have a Friedman and Diezel sitting next to it that I love to pieces.
Here's a sloppy play video on channel 2, 80's mode - boosted with an MXR M77 od. Guitar is an Lp Traditional with Wolfetone Marshallhead bridge pickup.
Haven't gotten more than 30 minutes with the amp, and there are lots of options, so here are my initial impressions.
It very much reminds me of a high gain Marshall 1987X that I used to have, tonally. Obviously, the Helios has far more gain, and many more options, but it has that same nasally (not bad) Marshall roar. It seems a fair bit darker than my other M Type amps, and very thick on the 80's mode. Definitely reminds me of some Motley Crew type tones with the gain around 11 O'Clock and the gain up on 80's mode.
Eclipse mode was essentially unusable on both channels. Grainy in a non musical way, tons of feedback. Just not pleasant sounding. Hot mode was more of a hot rodded plexi sound to my ears. Has some jangle, could probably clean up nicely. Didn't try though.
I'm not 100% sure it will stay, but I'd like to try it with different cab and pickup combos. I like it, but dunno if I can justify the price tag when I have a Friedman and Diezel sitting next to it that I love to pieces.
Here's a sloppy play video on channel 2, 80's mode - boosted with an MXR M77 od. Guitar is an Lp Traditional with Wolfetone Marshallhead bridge pickup.