NAD: Uber Ultra

PurityS.L.G

Well-known member
UberCollection3.jpg


EL34 version. There is a LOT to tackle with this amp.


My first impressions;

1. Power amp switch (U, Hair+, Hair) is almost useless IMO. U and Hair are so far forward with boxy mids and lack of balls, I had trouble finding uses for them. Hair+ is where its at but initially way too dark and scooped sounding. I feel like its mislabeled and Hair+ should be the U setting.

2. Channel one controls is the return of the dreaded Twin Jet. They are highly interactive and do not do what it says like you expect. It took me 10 mins to finally catch on to that and when I did, I got the results I was sort of looking for.

3. The cleans are actually some of the best cleans I have played in a high gain amp. Very AC30 like. Also can match the volume of channel 2 for once!

4. Crunch channel is fun and when you crank it up, you get some glorious vintage Marshall-esque roar. You can even add in those piercing highs as well if you want. Which leads me to...

5. Channel 1 is bright at all times. There's some high frequencies you can't dial out, even with an EQ in the loop and darker voiced pickups. Very clanky and gets old pretty quick. This channel is based of the Ch.1 of the TJ no doubt, but more flexible.

6. Channel 2 is where all the goodness is at and it delivers. Much more useable than Ch. 1 as its nowhere near as bright. My head is still spinning on how many tonal options you can dial in. You can get it as loose or stupid unnecessary tight and everything in between. Scooped mids, Marshall quack, Mesa girth, Orange grind and sludge. Seriously, this amp is crazy versatile.

7. The new controls: Metamorphic acts as a bass cut. Fully clockwise is full girth and as you dial back, the tighter the bass response and punch gets. Tight mode is tight and modern. Fat keeps the uber giant low end characteristic we all love or hate. Density knob is now what the presence knob of the Rev Blue and Green was but backwards. Fully clockwise gives you the giant mid scooped bass heavy sound of the OG's and as you dial it back it adds in the mids. Boost function is a nice and welcome addition. Its a clean boost so no coloring of the tone. Only adds in more saturation.

8. Versus my Rev Blue and TJ, they are all 3 different and really not that much alike. The blue has more bass but in a bad way. Ultra has more bass and punch than the TJ. I can only imagine when I load this thing up with KT88's.

Of all the modes on Ch.2 the Uber mode is my favorite since it stays close to the OG's voicing the most but this amp still has its own thing going on, especially in Ultra mode. I can see myself loving that mode more and maybe eventually being my favorite as I spend more time with the amp. I've only had a chance so far to play it on my Uberkab, ENGL XXL Pro and Framus Dragon cab w/ UK GB's. Amp gets along with all 3 of those cabs so far and Its a tie between the Bogner and Framus cab at the moment. Amp takes OD pedals very well too. So far I've only tried my Kernom Ridge, Tumnus, ST9 Pro+ and Naga Viper with it. All with success.

This amp is going to take a while to figure out and I have much more experimenting to do but I promise to post clips of all 3 of my ubers for comparison for you guys when I do get more comfortable with the Ultra.

EDIT: I should note that Ch. 2 TMB controls react as they should and are nothing like the TJ-ish headache of Ch. 1. Its a bit baffling as to why they did this.

tldr; Ch. 1 is brighter than shit and not that great so far. Ch. 2 is fantastic and I've yet still barely scratched the surface on it. Need more time with it.
 
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View attachment 209848

EL34 version. There is a LOT to tackle with this amp.


My first impressions;

1. Power amp switch (U, Hair+, Hair) is almost useless IMO. U and Hair are so far forward with boxy mids and lack of balls, I had trouble finding uses for them. Hair+ is where its at but initially way too dark and scooped sounding. I feel like its mislabeled and Hair+ should be the U setting.

2. Channel one controls is the return of the dreaded Twin Jet. They are highly interactive and do not do what it says like you expect. It took me 10 mins to finally catch on to that and when I did, I got the results I was sort of looking for.

3. The cleans are actually some of the best cleans I have played in a high gain amp. Very AC30 like. Also can match the volume of channel 2 for once!

4. Crunch channel is fun and when you crank it up, you get some glorious vintage Marshall-esque roar. You can even add in those piercing highs as well if you want. Which leads me to...

5. Channel 1 is bright at all times. There's some high frequencies you can't dial out, even with an EQ in the loop and darker voiced pickups. Very clanky and gets old pretty quick. This channel is based of the Ch.1 of the TJ no doubt, but more flexible.

6. Channel 2 is where all the goodness is at and it delivers. Much more useable than Ch. 1 as its nowhere near as bright. My head is still spinning on how many tonal options you can dial in. You can get it as loose or stupid unnecessary tight and everything in between. Scooped mids, Marshall quack, Mesa girth, Orange grind and sludge. Seriously, this amp is crazy versatile.

7. The new controls: Metamorphic acts as a bass cut. Fully clockwise is full girth and as you dial back, the tighter the bass response and punch gets. Tight mode is tight and modern. Fat keeps the uber giant low end characteristic we all love or hate. Density knob is now what the presence knob of the Rev Blue and Green was but backwards. Fully clockwise gives you the giant mid scooped bass heavy sound of the OG's and as you dial it back it adds in the mids. Boost function is a nice and welcome addition. Its a clean boost so no coloring of the tone. Only adds in more saturation.

8. Versus my Rev Blue and TJ, they are all 3 different and really not that much alike. The blue has more bass but in a bad way. Ultra has more bass and punch than the TJ. I can only imagine when I load this thing up with KT88's.

Of all the modes on Ch.2 the Uber mode is my favorite since it stays close to the OG's voicing the most but this amp still has its own thing going on, especially in Ultra mode. I can see myself loving that mode more and maybe eventually being my favorite as I spend more time with the amp. I've only had a chance so far to play it on my Uberkab, ENGL XXL Pro and Framus Dragon cab w/ UK GB's. Amp gets along with all 3 of those cabs so far and Its a tie between the Bogner and Framus cab at the moment. Amp takes OD pedals very well too. So far I've only tried my Kernom Ridge, Tumnus, ST9 Pro+ and Naga Viper with it. All with success.

This amp is going to take a while to figure out and I have much more experimenting to do but I promise to post clips of all 3 of my ubers for comparison for you guys when I do get more comfortable with the Ultra.

EDIT: I should note that Ch. 2 TMB controls react as they should and are nothing like the TJ-ish headache of Ch. 1. Its a bit baffling as to why they did this.

tldr; Ch. 1 is brighter than shit and not that great so far. Ch. 2 is fantastic and I've yet still barely scratched the surface on it. Need more time with it.
Very good review, my dude
 
I'm curious about whether you have a solid favorite out of the three or if you think they're all just slight variations of the same quality of high gain.
 
View attachment 209848

EL34 version. There is a LOT to tackle with this amp.


My first impressions;

1. Power amp switch (U, Hair+, Hair) is almost useless IMO. U and Hair are so far forward with boxy mids and lack of balls, I had trouble finding uses for them. Hair+ is where its at but initially way too dark and scooped sounding. I feel like its mislabeled and Hair+ should be the U setting.

2. Channel one controls is the return of the dreaded Twin Jet. They are highly interactive and do not do what it says like you expect. It took me 10 mins to finally catch on to that and when I did, I got the results I was sort of looking for.

3. The cleans are actually some of the best cleans I have played in a high gain amp. Very AC30 like. Also can match the volume of channel 2 for once!

4. Crunch channel is fun and when you crank it up, you get some glorious vintage Marshall-esque roar. You can even add in those piercing highs as well if you want. Which leads me to...

5. Channel 1 is bright at all times. There's some high frequencies you can't dial out, even with an EQ in the loop and darker voiced pickups. Very clanky and gets old pretty quick. This channel is based of the Ch.1 of the TJ no doubt, but more flexible.

6. Channel 2 is where all the goodness is at and it delivers. Much more useable than Ch. 1 as its nowhere near as bright. My head is still spinning on how many tonal options you can dial in. You can get it as loose or stupid unnecessary tight and everything in between. Scooped mids, Marshall quack, Mesa girth, Orange grind and sludge. Seriously, this amp is crazy versatile.

7. The new controls: Metamorphic acts as a bass cut. Fully clockwise is full girth and as you dial back, the tighter the bass response and punch gets. Tight mode is tight and modern. Fat keeps the uber giant low end characteristic we all love or hate. Density knob is now what the presence knob of the Rev Blue and Green was but backwards. Fully clockwise gives you the giant mid scooped bass heavy sound of the OG's and as you dial it back it adds in the mids. Boost function is a nice and welcome addition. Its a clean boost so no coloring of the tone. Only adds in more saturation.

8. Versus my Rev Blue and TJ, they are all 3 different and really not that much alike. The blue has more bass but in a bad way. Ultra has more bass and punch than the TJ. I can only imagine when I load this thing up with KT88's.

Of all the modes on Ch.2 the Uber mode is my favorite since it stays close to the OG's voicing the most but this amp still has its own thing going on, especially in Ultra mode. I can see myself loving that mode more and maybe eventually being my favorite as I spend more time with the amp. I've only had a chance so far to play it on my Uberkab, ENGL XXL Pro and Framus Dragon cab w/ UK GB's. Amp gets along with all 3 of those cabs so far and Its a tie between the Bogner and Framus cab at the moment. Amp takes OD pedals very well too. So far I've only tried my Kernom Ridge, Tumnus, ST9 Pro+ and Naga Viper with it. All with success.

This amp is going to take a while to figure out and I have much more experimenting to do but I promise to post clips of all 3 of my ubers for comparison for you guys when I do get more comfortable with the Ultra.

EDIT: I should note that Ch. 2 TMB controls react as they should and are nothing like the TJ-ish headache of Ch. 1. Its a bit baffling as to why they did this.

tldr; Ch. 1 is brighter than shit and not that great so far. Ch. 2 is fantastic and I've yet still barely scratched the surface on it. Need more time with it.
That's a collection of all monsters !
 
I have the exact TJ like your too... does it warrant the UU more than the TJ ?
So far I would say yes because again, ch. 1 is just like TJ ch.1 but with 3 modes. You can actually get a beautiful clean with the UU. Also Ch. 2 can get more gnarly than the TJ. The only thing is the TJ ch.1 is thicker than the UU ch.1.
looking forward to clips!
For sure man! And yes @ZEN Amps I will be micing them up all on the Uberkab to start for that thread. I will reamp through other cabs down the road on another thread.
I'm curious about whether you have a solid favorite out of the three or if you think they're all just slight variations of the same quality of high gain.
Way too early to say but I give the edge to rev blue for now only because I'm so familiar with it and know exactly how it sounds and plays with all my guitars, cabs and the 40+ OD boosts I have LOL
Good to see some better reviews roll in. I was a bit nervous seeing people trashing it. But everyone who was, wasn’t really playing metal on it… and being an uberschall I thought that was strange? Look forward to playing mine when I get home from work!
Yeah that was puzzling for sure. My clips will be on a drop F# baritone and a C standard guitar so no worries there. @hellzington review was a little baffling but in his defense, I can see why he was complaining about the brightness and having excessive feedback. Telling you man, those switches on the power amp can fuck everything up and I'm still not seeing the purpose for them. Perhaps they are supposed to be used with a combination of settings/switches engaged that I haven't discovered. The manual doesn't give any examples either. Also channel 1 is so thin and clanky. Tomorrow I'm going to spend some major time on that channel and see if I can figure it out. It doesn't seem promising as I already spent a little over an hour on that channel so far and can't find what I'm looking for. I play fairly loud as it is but you have to REALLY crank it to get some punch with the crunch mode.
 
@PurityS.L.G This might sound obvious when you say it out loud, but when you mess with channel one of the UU, being that you’re saying it’s overly bright, don’t be afraid to set the treble and even mids full counter clockwise and see what happens then. Go nuts with it. Maybe that's unnecessary to say but I’ve seen a lot of people say they have “fully experimented” with amps but really have never turned anything beyond 10-2. Twist those knobs, that’s what they’re there for. :)

One more other thing to note, I’m not completely sure if the new Uberschall works like this, but every other Bogner amp I’ve played behaves in the following way: the treble knob is audio taper and doesn’t really do anything between fully off and like 1:00, and when the treble knob is set lower than around, say, 2:00, the mid knob acts as basically a high shelf that starts in the mids, so it controls the treble just as much as the mids. In other words, when the treble knob is set to “normal“ values, it's not doing a lot and instead the mid knob kind of takes over everything above the bass frequencies and raises / lowers them all fairly equally. So even if you zero the Treble control you might still get some shrill highs if the Mid knob is too high, but you just never think to adjust it because it's labeled "Middle," you know?


Here are two tracks I made with my Helios 100 a few months back. Both setups were identical except in the "darker" track, the Mid knob is turned down several o'clock settings. That's it. Presence, Treble, Bass, Gain, and Volume were untouched.

Helios Mid knob set higher:


Helios Mid knob set lower:
 
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Good to see some better reviews roll in. I was a bit nervous seeing people trashing it. But everyone who was, wasn’t really playing metal on it… and being an uberschall I thought that was strange? Look forward to playing mine when I get home from work!

Yeah it seemed pretty obvious from everything prior to the release that its intended to be a metal amp that specifically leans more modern than previous Ubers (which it absolutely crushes at). People being surprised at that must have missed the marketing
 
Yeah it seemed pretty obvious from everything prior to the release that its intended to be a metal amp that specifically leans more modern than previous Ubers (which it absolutely crushes at). People being surprised at that must have missed the marketing.
It is very modern sounding, much more so than the previous Ubers. Killer amp, but too modern for my taste.
 
So far I would say yes because again, ch. 1 is just like TJ ch.1 but with 3 modes. You can actually get a beautiful clean with the UU. Also Ch. 2 can get more gnarly than the TJ. The only thing is the TJ ch.1 is thicker than the UU ch.1.
i have no idea if your with me i was also quite disappointed with the TJ i got pretty much the same Mid,Treble, Presence and bass settings on your TJ you posted... i think the gnarly part is when the mids of the second channel of the TJ gets pass 11am without the treble dim up further.... it gets like a thin out mid heavy sound which ya wont like without the bass and depth.... is that what ya describe as the UU being like the TJ ?
 
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