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Anonymous
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Well, Bob Savage, Chubtone (Curt) and I met up for a few hours at Sound Matrix Studios in Fountain Valley, CA to test the two Bottle Rocket prototypes...
As I mentioned before, the prototypes have slightly different preamps. One has slightly more aggressive values in the first two gain stages and less aggressive values in the third gain stage, while the other has less aggressive values in the first two gain stages and more aggressive values in the third gain stage. Other than that the amps are identical and I use really high precision components throughout the amp. For the record, the amp played at the GAB Amp Fest was the latter of the two (in the black head case). The first amp was in the white head case and no one played it at the Amp Fest...
I may have given the wrong impression when describing the different preamps that the white amp would be even heavier then the black one. I really didn't know which would be heavier because one is more aggressive up front, while one is more aggressive later in the gain stages, but my description to folks may have been confusing...
Anyway, we had a blast playing through them LOUDLY! After I explained the amp controls, both Bob and Curt dialed them amps in to suit their playing styles starting with all knobs at noon and all switches in their OFF positions. We didn't do a bunch of different type of tones, each guy just got what they wanted in a tone and played. It was interesting that Curt dialed the amps very close to the way I do, while Bob dialed them in quite differently. By the end, I think he ended up liking what Curt dialed in (with slight tweaks) most.
I wasn't sure how different the amps would be, but all three of us felt that, while they were pretty similar, there were some subtle, but important differences. I'll try to summarize and maybe the guys will jump in with their thoughts:
White Headshell Amp - this was Curt and my favorite of the two. Slightly squishier, slightly less modern sounding. At the same settings as the other amp, legato lead playing was easier and fast, alternate picked solo lines retained that nice pick click. Curt liked this saying, "If I'm going to make the effort to pick something, I want to hear the pick. While both amps can be dialed for vintage sounds, we all felt that (given the same settings) this amp was more vintage sounding, less modern. I think this amp would more suit the '80s guys, lead players who play legato, but still want to retain the pick attack when picking. Definitely a lead guys amp.
Black Headshell Amp - this was Bob's favorite. Tighter and more modern tones were evident. It really sounded great with Bob's heavier rhythm playing. We felt this amp had more girth to the sound, I think that may be because it is a bit more low mid heavy. Even with the girth, it was tight and focused in the low end and reacted really well to heavy rhythm playing. Leads sounded crisp, but certainly not quite as forgiving for playing long legato lines. While very tight sounding, it did not seem to retain the pick click that Curt likes on fast, alternate picked lines as much. Still sounded really good on soloing, just different from the white headshell amp. This amp would suit players looking for a slightly more modern, tighter sound for rhythm playing and soloing.
Both amps cleaned up nicely with guitar volume,
Bob played through the strat he built that has a Duncan '59/Custom hybrid pickup and Curt played through my solid maple USA Kramer '85 Baretta re-issue that has a slanted JB.
I want to make it clear that the amps are still VERY close in sound and can be dialed very close to each other. The differences being pointed out are somewhat subtle and are specific to them being set identically. We all still felt that no amount of tweaking could be done that would make one sound identical to the sweet spot of the other amp (what it excels at). Both guys said they dug either of the Bottle Rockets more than the ROD channel of the Cherry Bomb. Main reason being the versatility of the dual GAIN controls for the preamp and the gain adding/shaping capabilities of the associated BRIGHT switches, which are not available on the Cherry Bomb.
Perhaps Curt or Bob will jump in here to clarify their thoughts as I'm summarizing based on my memory of what was being said.
Based on the testing, I've decided to offer BOTH preamps and let the player decide what subtle differences they prefer based on their style and the material they play... I'm pretty psych'd about this!
Over the next few weeks Bob and Curt are going to do some recording with the amps since they are local. After that, I'm shipping the Black amp to Jer and the White amp to gibson5413 to do clips and then we'll take it from there...
There was no time for video as we took the whole three hours to get to these conclusions, but here are some crappy pics
:
Oh... and Curt brought by my EVH Star that just came in. More on that later in another thread...
Steve
As I mentioned before, the prototypes have slightly different preamps. One has slightly more aggressive values in the first two gain stages and less aggressive values in the third gain stage, while the other has less aggressive values in the first two gain stages and more aggressive values in the third gain stage. Other than that the amps are identical and I use really high precision components throughout the amp. For the record, the amp played at the GAB Amp Fest was the latter of the two (in the black head case). The first amp was in the white head case and no one played it at the Amp Fest...
I may have given the wrong impression when describing the different preamps that the white amp would be even heavier then the black one. I really didn't know which would be heavier because one is more aggressive up front, while one is more aggressive later in the gain stages, but my description to folks may have been confusing...
Anyway, we had a blast playing through them LOUDLY! After I explained the amp controls, both Bob and Curt dialed them amps in to suit their playing styles starting with all knobs at noon and all switches in their OFF positions. We didn't do a bunch of different type of tones, each guy just got what they wanted in a tone and played. It was interesting that Curt dialed the amps very close to the way I do, while Bob dialed them in quite differently. By the end, I think he ended up liking what Curt dialed in (with slight tweaks) most.
I wasn't sure how different the amps would be, but all three of us felt that, while they were pretty similar, there were some subtle, but important differences. I'll try to summarize and maybe the guys will jump in with their thoughts:
White Headshell Amp - this was Curt and my favorite of the two. Slightly squishier, slightly less modern sounding. At the same settings as the other amp, legato lead playing was easier and fast, alternate picked solo lines retained that nice pick click. Curt liked this saying, "If I'm going to make the effort to pick something, I want to hear the pick. While both amps can be dialed for vintage sounds, we all felt that (given the same settings) this amp was more vintage sounding, less modern. I think this amp would more suit the '80s guys, lead players who play legato, but still want to retain the pick attack when picking. Definitely a lead guys amp.
Black Headshell Amp - this was Bob's favorite. Tighter and more modern tones were evident. It really sounded great with Bob's heavier rhythm playing. We felt this amp had more girth to the sound, I think that may be because it is a bit more low mid heavy. Even with the girth, it was tight and focused in the low end and reacted really well to heavy rhythm playing. Leads sounded crisp, but certainly not quite as forgiving for playing long legato lines. While very tight sounding, it did not seem to retain the pick click that Curt likes on fast, alternate picked lines as much. Still sounded really good on soloing, just different from the white headshell amp. This amp would suit players looking for a slightly more modern, tighter sound for rhythm playing and soloing.
Both amps cleaned up nicely with guitar volume,
Bob played through the strat he built that has a Duncan '59/Custom hybrid pickup and Curt played through my solid maple USA Kramer '85 Baretta re-issue that has a slanted JB.
I want to make it clear that the amps are still VERY close in sound and can be dialed very close to each other. The differences being pointed out are somewhat subtle and are specific to them being set identically. We all still felt that no amount of tweaking could be done that would make one sound identical to the sweet spot of the other amp (what it excels at). Both guys said they dug either of the Bottle Rockets more than the ROD channel of the Cherry Bomb. Main reason being the versatility of the dual GAIN controls for the preamp and the gain adding/shaping capabilities of the associated BRIGHT switches, which are not available on the Cherry Bomb.
Perhaps Curt or Bob will jump in here to clarify their thoughts as I'm summarizing based on my memory of what was being said.
Based on the testing, I've decided to offer BOTH preamps and let the player decide what subtle differences they prefer based on their style and the material they play... I'm pretty psych'd about this!
Over the next few weeks Bob and Curt are going to do some recording with the amps since they are local. After that, I'm shipping the Black amp to Jer and the White amp to gibson5413 to do clips and then we'll take it from there...
There was no time for video as we took the whole three hours to get to these conclusions, but here are some crappy pics
:
Oh... and Curt brought by my EVH Star that just came in. More on that later in another thread...
Steve
Clips!
