NGD: Ground Zero Hellion & Fender Showman

[ners]

Ordered months apart yet delivered within 24 hours of each other, an embarrassment of riches...

GZA Hellion is coming off as more Mesa Mark than Marshall to me, but there's so many knobs/switches I haven't even scratched the surface in the 60mins I got to play it today. I don't really know what I wanted this for, but I just knew I wanted one, so I got lucky when an EL34 version popped up on the classifieds the other week. I know a few people on here have one of these so let's hear what settings your liking on this beast!

The Showman is actually a clone made by Carl's Custom Amps. More specifically it has both the Blonde and Black Panel circuits in it. My other amp is a Monomyth SK so I wanted something more clean for surf & spaghetti western stuff; so after failing to find an old Showman in decent shape I went down the rabbit hole of a custom amp and all the different circuit differences. This thing sounds absolutely glorious and has a thunderous snap to it's low end, I almost want to try running it in stereo with one of the high gainers to see how they sounds together.

 

[Brandonrz]

Ordered months apart yet delivered within 24 hours of each other, an embarrassment of riches...
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GZA Hellion is coming off as more Mesa Mark than Marshall to me, but there's so many knobs/switches I haven't even scratched the surface in the 60mins I got to play it today. I don't really know what I wanted this for, but I just knew I wanted one, so I got lucky when an EL34 version popped up on the classifieds the other week. I know a few people on here have one of these so let's hear what settings your liking on this beast!

Interesting about the hellion. Haven’t played one yet. Marks have this dip about 1200 hz; well at least the way people set them up usually.

 

[VonBonfire]

A Showman lover on Rig-Talk? Blonde and BF circuits? Neat.

I think I just found my new best friend.

 

[ners]

Interesting about the hellion. Haven’t played one yet. Marks have this dip about 1200 hz; well at least the way people set them up usually.

So I'm not an expert on Marks, but I've been contemplating getting a VII since launch and now I'm going to hold off until I figure out this Hellion some more.

But was mostly surprised at how it wasn't as saturated in the mids as I assumed a modded Marshall would be...but I also think some of the gain options might change that, so I need to play more.

 

[ners]

A Showman lover on Rig-Talk? Blonde and BF circuits? Neat.

I think I just found my new best friend.

LOL yeah wasn't expecting much engagement on the Showman here but I don't frequent TGP or anything else all that often so figured why not.

I used to have Milkman for my Fender-ish tones but it lacked that snap of a Showman and I realized I was never going to use it for breakup anyway, so may as well go full on Fender clean.

 

[VonBonfire]

LOL yeah wasn't expecting much engagement on the Showman here but I don't frequent TGP or anything else all that often so figured why not.

I used to have Milkman for my Fender-ish tones but it lacked that snap of a Showman and I realized I was never going to use it for breakup anyway, so may as well go full on Fender clean.

I love my Twins and the Showman is more or less the same amp so we are brothers now, lol. I've known a person or two who converted them into a bass rig even and they work pretty good as a club gigging arrangement. Congrats on the amps, very nice. Any plans for cab/speakers to go with it? If you can land a nice Fender standalone reverb tank all the spaghetti and surf waves will be yours. That is a Dick Dale approved head my man.

 

[ners]

I love my Twins and the Showman is more or less the same amp so we are brothers now, lol. I've known a person or two who converted them into a bass rig even and they work pretty good as a club gigging arrangement. Congrats on the amps, very nice. Any plans for cab/speakers to go with it? If you can land a nice Fender standalone reverb tank all the spaghetti and surf waves will be yours. That is a Dick Dale approved head my man.

So I have two 212s that I have on an amp switcher, except they're both stereo, so I can mix & match between all 4 speakers. For the Showman I specifically got a Weber Cali 12 as the closest approximation for DD, then it happens to be paired with a V30 (since my Scumback and Alnico Cream seemed slightly less of a pairing for it). The Cali is in an Emperor specifically, it had a bit too much resonance for the Scumback/Alnico Cream to me, but I do like that extra resonance on more clean tones.

Spring Reverb wise I have a Surfybear rack unit, which I actually haven't got up and running yet since I'm having issues with my fx loop chain that I haven't had time to troubleshoot.

 

[RedPlated]

That Hellion is pre-update for the V2’s. I changed quite a bit in the circuit after the first 4 were built. I believe you may have #1. There’s close to 30 of them out there now with 10 more around the corner.

I’d be happy to update it for you free of charge if you send it to me. I personally feel the update is a big improvement. There’s over 20 changes in the circuit. Current amps are also running KT66’s which sound much better to me than el34’s in that amp.

 

[MadAsAHatter]

GZA Hellion is coming off as more Mesa Mark than Marshall to me, but there's so many knobs/switches I haven't even scratched the surface in the 60mins I got to play it today. I don't really know what I wanted this for, but I just knew I wanted one, so I got lucky when an EL34 version popped up on the classifieds the other week. I know a few people on here have one of these so let's hear what settings your liking on this beast!

I recommend sending the Hellion to Jeremy for the updates and switching out the EL34's for KT66's. I did this and couldn't be more please with the changes. The updates definitely steps things up to the next level. KT66's to my ears smooth out the upper mid grind, add some dynamics to the lower mids, and make it sound beefier with more punch.

 

[ners]

That Hellion is pre-update for the V2’s. I changed quite a bit in the circuit after the first 4 were built. I believe you may have #1. There’s close to 30 of them out there now with 10 more around the corner.

I’d be happy to update it for you free of charge if you send it to me. I personally feel the update is a big improvement. There’s over 20 changes in the circuit. Current amps are also running KT66’s which sound much better to me than el34’s in that amp.

Ya know what that makes a lot of sense. I got a few more minutes with it last night and was struggling to get some of tones I heard in videos (went as far as trying to match settings on them).

Will shoot you message about sending it over, appreciate it man!