mctallica1
Well-known member
As some of you know, Josh sent me the Mr. Hector he had on a trial basis and I agreed to give a review of it.
The amp is a basic 2 channel design with shared EQ. It also has an effects send return and 2 master volumes.
From a tone perspective, the amp sounds quite good for high gain and clean applications. I do not think the mid gain tones are very good.
High gain tones are Ultra heavy and can get very compressed. There is a mid cut switch that sounds very good in either position (unlike the Framus Cobra, who's mid cut switch is pretty bad IMHO). There is also a bright switch on the gain channel. The bright switch really acts as a NOISY boost. I could do similar boosting with either my Power Screamer or OD808 without the hiss added with the bright switch.
The voicing of the amp is somewhat Mesaish, but the mids are focused a tad higher.
The clean channel also has a bright switch which does a noce job and the clean channel sounds good with it on or off.... the shared EQ does not cause any problems. There is not a volume for the clean channel, but rather a gain knob. I found it to be pretty useless past about 10 oclock... you start to clip after that and it isnt a nice sounding clip....very digitalish and yuck sounding.
I slapped an EQ in the loop and it worked fine... I did not, however try any other effects, I am not an effects loop guy.
Going just on tone and features, I think it is a nice amp, but not worth the price they are selling for.
Now for build quality:
I think the amp is built sub par at best. The jack for the guitar is not mounted very well and can be wiggled quite a bit...I could easily see it getting ripped out if you step on the cord, etc. The power tube sockets are mounted above the chasis and are plastic with 2 screws holding each one in. I pulled a couple power tubes and was actually nervous that the sockets were going to come out!!!
I also do not, at all, like the preamp tube layout. they are scattered all over the chasis and other than v1, I am not certain which is which. Another thing I found odd about the preamp tube sockets is that the pin opening on each one faced a different direction. The vast majority of the amps I have messed with have had all the pin openings facing the same direction...which makes it substantially easier to replace preamp tubes without pulling everythng or using a flashlight. The preamp tube sockets apear to be direct mounted on the board (which I normally don't really care about) and 2 of the 4 felt like they would break pretty easily...kinda mushy feeling when I got teh tube seated.
The tolex or whatever is covering the head case looks pretty thin and when I flipped the amp over, there was a visible crease (I could see the wood) that was stapled to the bottom of the chasis.
All in all, I was VERY disapointed with the build quality of an amp in this price range. Peavey's (which are substantially less expensive in the US) are built quite a bit better IMHO.
I spoke with Josh before posting this review because I wanted him to know exactly what I thought. I try to be fair and really don't like bashing a company or product, but I just really don't want to see anyone buy this amp expecting quality commensurate with a piece of gear in this price range.
If they straighten out the quality and find a way to sell the amp for several hundred dollars less, it does sound damn good.
Needless to say, the amp is on its way back and I would not consider buying one as they are now.
Tony
The amp is a basic 2 channel design with shared EQ. It also has an effects send return and 2 master volumes.
From a tone perspective, the amp sounds quite good for high gain and clean applications. I do not think the mid gain tones are very good.
High gain tones are Ultra heavy and can get very compressed. There is a mid cut switch that sounds very good in either position (unlike the Framus Cobra, who's mid cut switch is pretty bad IMHO). There is also a bright switch on the gain channel. The bright switch really acts as a NOISY boost. I could do similar boosting with either my Power Screamer or OD808 without the hiss added with the bright switch.
The voicing of the amp is somewhat Mesaish, but the mids are focused a tad higher.
The clean channel also has a bright switch which does a noce job and the clean channel sounds good with it on or off.... the shared EQ does not cause any problems. There is not a volume for the clean channel, but rather a gain knob. I found it to be pretty useless past about 10 oclock... you start to clip after that and it isnt a nice sounding clip....very digitalish and yuck sounding.
I slapped an EQ in the loop and it worked fine... I did not, however try any other effects, I am not an effects loop guy.
Going just on tone and features, I think it is a nice amp, but not worth the price they are selling for.
Now for build quality:
I think the amp is built sub par at best. The jack for the guitar is not mounted very well and can be wiggled quite a bit...I could easily see it getting ripped out if you step on the cord, etc. The power tube sockets are mounted above the chasis and are plastic with 2 screws holding each one in. I pulled a couple power tubes and was actually nervous that the sockets were going to come out!!!
I also do not, at all, like the preamp tube layout. they are scattered all over the chasis and other than v1, I am not certain which is which. Another thing I found odd about the preamp tube sockets is that the pin opening on each one faced a different direction. The vast majority of the amps I have messed with have had all the pin openings facing the same direction...which makes it substantially easier to replace preamp tubes without pulling everythng or using a flashlight. The preamp tube sockets apear to be direct mounted on the board (which I normally don't really care about) and 2 of the 4 felt like they would break pretty easily...kinda mushy feeling when I got teh tube seated.
The tolex or whatever is covering the head case looks pretty thin and when I flipped the amp over, there was a visible crease (I could see the wood) that was stapled to the bottom of the chasis.
All in all, I was VERY disapointed with the build quality of an amp in this price range. Peavey's (which are substantially less expensive in the US) are built quite a bit better IMHO.
I spoke with Josh before posting this review because I wanted him to know exactly what I thought. I try to be fair and really don't like bashing a company or product, but I just really don't want to see anyone buy this amp expecting quality commensurate with a piece of gear in this price range.
If they straighten out the quality and find a way to sell the amp for several hundred dollars less, it does sound damn good.
Needless to say, the amp is on its way back and I would not consider buying one as they are now.
Tony
