VIDEO / AUDIO: 2010 LA Amp Fest - Hemispheres Recording

[gbsmusic]

Thank you James! Those videos are just awesome! I wish I could have been there!

 

[PWE Amplification]

Just listened again with a fresh pair of ears.

For the most part I stand by my first post, but upon second listen some of the amps sounded a little more similar to each other. As stated above, all of these are killer amps and can be dialed to sound somewhat similar.

Just want to clear something up that said earlier too...the Bones is a KILLER amp and in no way was I putting it down. I'd love to own one. The actual tone of the amp sounded great, but it just sounded like the low end was clipping or breaking up in some way...don't know how to explain it. I should've just kept my mouth shut. I freakin LOVE the Fortin sound so don't take what I said the wrong way Mike, or anyone else.

Another thing I wanted to say is what a great job you guys did in sorting the amps by category. Some of them could ride the line between groups and excel at multiple sounds, but I thought the whole thing was sorted very well. Rock on.

Why do you need to keep your mouth shut? If you don't like something there's nothing wrong with that. I didn't think the Bones sounded that great either or that PWE, that sounded absolutely awful, lots of hype around that thing too. The Chupacabra didn't sound as good as I thought it would either, I liked the stock Ceriatone better. The Wizard sounded very good as well as the Friedman with the new and improved harmonically rich OT.

Dude, read the whole thread. The PWE that sounded awful had a couple of power tubes that went bad. Mark Cameron was there and thankfully turned the amp off when he saw that. Do you honestly think people are so stupid that they would buy an amp that sounds like that when it's running fine?

 

[PWE Amplification]

Just listened again with a fresh pair of ears.

For the most part I stand by my first post, but upon second listen some of the amps sounded a little more similar to each other. As stated above, all of these are killer amps and can be dialed to sound somewhat similar.

Just want to clear something up that said earlier too...the Bones is a KILLER amp and in no way was I putting it down. I'd love to own one. The actual tone of the amp sounded great, but it just sounded like the low end was clipping or breaking up in some way...don't know how to explain it. I should've just kept my mouth shut. I freakin LOVE the Fortin sound so don't take what I said the wrong way Mike, or anyone else.

Another thing I wanted to say is what a great job you guys did in sorting the amps by category. Some of them could ride the line between groups and excel at multiple sounds, but I thought the whole thing was sorted very well. Rock on.

Why do you need to keep your mouth shut? If you don't like something there's nothing wrong with that. I didn't think the Bones sounded that great either or that PWE, that sounded absolutely awful, lots of hype around that thing too. The Chupacabra didn't sound as good as I thought it would either, I liked the stock Ceriatone better. The Wizard sounded very good as well as the Friedman with the new and improved harmonically rich OT.

Dude, read the whole thread. The PWE that sounded awful had a couple of power tubes that went bad. Mark Cameron was there and thankfully turned the amp off when he saw that. Do you honestly think people are so stupid that they would buy an amp that sounds like that when it's running fine?

bad tubes, I should have known. Thank God Mark was there.

You just being a smart ass or what?

 

[jerrydyer]

PWE Donbarzini. Donbarzini, PWE Now you've met.

 

[overthemountain]

PWE Donbarzini. Donbarzini, PWE Now you've met.

PWE, you'll find that Db is always a smart ass. Dudes, out of respect for James & the rest of the guys that put forth alot of effort to pull this off, let's try to keep this thread focused & civil, shall we?

 

[Shiny_Surface]

 

[James Lugo]

All the amps went through the identical chain:

Bogner Twin Jet FL Uberkab>V30>M160/PR20>Pacifica/Neve 1073>Apogee 16X (with the Big Ben clock) @ 48/24. The chain and Gregg's engineering is impeccable and the fact that many amps sounded great is a testament to it's validity. Some of the best sounding amps of the event, Wizard, VH4, Reeves and Dirty Shirley were all dialed in by me and sound really good and each one took me about 30 seconds get a good sound. I let people who brought amps dial in their own amps out of respect to them and to let them feel more a part, maybe that was a mistake on my part. Anyway the cab, speakers, mics, pres and convertors are all industry standard stuff, hence why so many of the amps sounded great, I don't get paid to make guitars sound shitty I know what I'm doing. Honestly some amps just didn't happen at the source, meaning the amp. Maybe it was bad tubes, biased wrong, bad amp settings etc... I don't know I'm not an amp tech but I do know some of the amps didn't shine for one reason or another. But again the fact that many amps sounded great means the chain and the engineering was not in question. The only variable was the amps them selves and whoever was dialing it in. For me I'm a simple guy, you guys know my montra if I can set everything at noon and the amp sound decent I can't trust it. That's just me.

 

[PWE Amplification]

All the amps went through the identical chain:

Bogner Twin Jet FL Uberkab>V30>M160/PR20>Pacifica/Neve 1073>Apogee 16X (with the Big Ben clock) @ 48/24. The chain and Gregg's engineering is impeccable and the fact that many amps sounded great is a testament to it's validity. Some of the best sounding amps of the event, Wizard, VH4, Reeves and Dirty Shirley were all dialed in by me and sound really good and each one took me about 30 seconds get a good sound. I let people who brought amps dial in their own amps out of respect to them and to let them feel more a part, maybe that was a mistake on my part. Anyway the cab, speakers, mics, pres and convertors are all industry standard stuff, hence why so many of the amps sounded great, I don't get paid to make guitars sound shitty I know what I'm doing. Honestly some amps just didn't happen at the source, meaning the amp. Maybe it was bad tubes, biased wrong, bad amp settings etc... I don't know I'm not an amp tech but I do know some of the amps didn't shine for one reason or another. But again the fact that many amps sounded great means the chain and the engineering was not in question. The only variable was the amps them selves and whoever was dialing it in. For me I'm a simple guy, you guys know my montra if I can set everything at noon and the amp sound decent I can't trust it. That's just me.

Well, in the case of the blue Event Horizon, it was bad tubes and is going over to Tone Merchants for a new set and re-bias. Your work was great, no question about that.

 

[Buckeyedog]

Man James, much appreciated with all your hard work. Loved the vids. Still getting through them. I don't know if I honed in on maybe how you "played" them and your comfort level, but I dug many of the one's you did. Reeves, Ceriatone 100, Dr. Z, Ugly 18, Orange 50 among others. Yeah that Diezel man. Wow. Wizard and Friedmans were great too. Really great tones in most of them.

 

[Joeytpg]

great stuff james..... I personally enjoyed the non hi gainers more. I'd love to see a "clean low gain/ vintage amp" fest some day..... hi gain just doesn't do it for me anymore......

 

[glassjaw7]

FWIW, the PWE was one of my favorites in the Classic Gain round as I said in my first post. I know they're killer amps. Sucks that it died, but that's tubes for ya.

 

[James Lugo]

Thanks guys. I was not sure how my Ceriatone Plexi 100 was gonna compair but I just loved the sound in the room and listening to the clip it just spoke to me. I loved Jim at Southbay's Plexi, Dirty Shirley and Goldfinger for the same reasons.

The amps I dialed in;
Wizard
Southbay Plexi 50
VH4
Reeves
Orange Rockerverb 50
Ceriatone Plexi 100
Ceriatone Chupacabra 100
Both Friedman Marshalls
Hiwatt
Victoria
71 Super Tremolo
Racto

p.s. I didn't mean to come off hostile with my earlier comment about the possibility of the thread going south, I just don't want a blame war starting if someone doesn't like the way their amp sounds, we did our best and kept the gain structure very liberal to compensate for gain and volume settings. I did the original phasing, mic placement and mic pre gain structure with my 71 in HBE blazing loud. I figured that was about the loudest thing I was going to hear. From what I remember the loudest amps were my 71, Wizard and VH4, which I think all sound pretty damn good. The Wizard rattled my jaw. The low end got a little nuts on some of the high gain stuff but Gregg let us know it was to much and to reel it back some. These things are very difficult to do but easy to arm chair coach on Monday morning, everyone did their best. Try getting 85 amps and 85 ego driven guitar players and amp designers in one room with a 100 gallons of beer and see what happens. Try it some time. The conversations I heard between amp builders aren't even repeatable on here... Only I know.....lol

 

[glassjaw7]

Thanks guys. I was not sure how my Ceriatone Plexi 100 was gonna compair but I just loved the sound in the room and listening to the clip it just spoke to me. I loved Jim at Southbay's Plexi, Dirty Shirley and Goldfinger for the same reasons.

The amps I dialed in;
Wizard
Southbay Plexi 50
VH4
Reeves
Orange Rockerverb 50
Ceriatone Plexi 100
Ceriatone Chupacabra 100
Both Friedman Marshalls
Hiwatt
Victoria
71 Super Tremolo
Racto

p.s. I didn't mean to come off hostile with my earlier comment about the possibility of the thread going south, I just don't want a blame war starting if someone doesn't like the way their amp sounds, we did our best and kept the gain structure very liberal to compensate for gain and volume settings. I did the original phasing, mic placement and mic pre gain structure with my 71 in HBE blazing loud. I figured that was about the loudest thing I was going to hear. From what I remember the loudest amps were my 71, Wizard and VH4, which I think all sound pretty damn good. The Wizard rattled my jaw. The low end got a little nuts on some of the high gain stuff but Gregg let us know it was to much and to reel it back some. These things are very difficult to do but easy to arm chair coach on Monday morning, everyone did their best. Try getting 85 amps and 85 ego driven guitar players and amp designers in one room with a 100 gallons of beer and see what happens. Try it some time. The conversations I heard between amp builders aren't even repeatable on here... Only I know.....lol

Dude, you went above and beyond! I hope a few people throwing their opinions around won't keep you guys from doing more events like this in the future. Your last shootout kept me happy for over a year as I went back and watched and re-watched those vids many times. This one was taken to a whole new level!

 

[James Lugo]

Thanks guys. I was not sure how my Ceriatone Plexi 100 was gonna compair but I just loved the sound in the room and listening to the clip it just spoke to me. I loved Jim at Southbay's Plexi, Dirty Shirley and Goldfinger for the same reasons.

The amps I dialed in;
Wizard
Southbay Plexi 50
VH4
Reeves
Orange Rockerverb 50
Ceriatone Plexi 100
Ceriatone Chupacabra 100
Both Friedman Marshalls
Hiwatt
Victoria
71 Super Tremolo
Racto

p.s. I didn't mean to come off hostile with my earlier comment about the possibility of the thread going south, I just don't want a blame war starting if someone doesn't like the way their amp sounds, we did our best and kept the gain structure very liberal to compensate for gain and volume settings. I did the original phasing, mic placement and mic pre gain structure with my 71 in HBE blazing loud. I figured that was about the loudest thing I was going to hear. From what I remember the loudest amps were my 71, Wizard and VH4, which I think all sound pretty damn good. The Wizard rattled my jaw. The low end got a little nuts on some of the high gain stuff but Gregg let us know it was to much and to reel it back some. These things are very difficult to do but easy to arm chair coach on Monday morning, everyone did their best. Try getting 85 amps and 85 ego driven guitar players and amp designers in one room with a 100 gallons of beer and see what happens. Try it some time. The conversations I heard between amp builders aren't even repeatable on here... Only I know.....lol

Dude, you went above and beyond! I hope a few people throwing their opinions around won't keep you guys from doing more events like this in the future. Your last shootout kept me happy for over a year as I went back and watched and re-watched those vids many times. This one was taken to a whole new level!

Thanks man, it's all good. I've been doing these for a longtime, being a moderator for gearslutz I've been through the mill with this. The thing I've learned you can't make everyone happy, one guy listens to the tracks and says I wish it was just a room mic but then I do it with a room mic and someone says I wish it was more in your face... Bottom line this cost me over 2K of my own money, nobody else's and I didn't ask for any money and I wouldn't take any money if it was offered, I don't roll like that. All I know is some of the amps sound f**kin' killer, that tells me something.

 

[skoora]

All the amps went through the identical chain:

Bogner Twin Jet FL Uberkab>V30>M160/PR20>Pacifica/Neve 1073>Apogee 16X (with the Big Ben clock) @ 48/24. The chain and Gregg's engineering is impeccable and the fact that many amps sounded great is a testament to it's validity. Some of the best sounding amps of the event, Wizard, VH4, Reeves and Dirty Shirley were all dialed in by me and sound really good and each one took me about 30 seconds get a good sound. I let people who brought amps dial in their own amps out of respect to them and to let them feel more a part, maybe that was a mistake on my part. Anyway the cab, speakers, mics, pres and convertors are all industry standard stuff, hence why so many of the amps sounded great, I don't get paid to make guitars sound shitty I know what I'm doing. Honestly some amps just didn't happen at the source, meaning the amp. Maybe it was bad tubes, biased wrong, bad amp settings etc... I don't know I'm not an amp tech but I do know some of the amps didn't shine for one reason or another. But again the fact that many amps sounded great means the chain and the engineering was not in question. The only variable was the amps them selves and whoever was dialing it in. For me I'm a simple guy, you guys know my montra if I can set everything at noon and the amp sound decent I can't trust it. That's just me.

I don't think anyone here is questioning the engineering. I think you're right about having let other people dial in their amps. If they were a bedroom player some of the high gainers were probably dialed in bass heavy and too much preamp saturation. I did notice many of the high gainers seemed loose in the lows for chugging etc. but I thought was how the amp was probably set. Just like you said earlier, you would have backed off the gain, raise the Master, bring up the mids, lower the bass etc. If it was manufacturers or their reps dialing it in badly well, what can you do when you have 2 minutes to rip it out. Totally agree, all knobs at 12 O'Clock should already be pretty bitchin' or something's up.

Well done James and Gregg. The positives of what you accomplished really make the the negatives minutia. Don't take to heart if some responses focus on a negative. It is a guitar forum after all I'm sure it's still said with great respect for what you guys pulled off.

 

[wheelman]

Thank you James. You did a really good job.

 

[jabps]

To me this thread is a classic reason of why you gotta play the amps yourself...example...I personally am not that much of a fan of Bogner stuff when I've played them multiple times...hear, they sounded really good.

That being said...this was a fantastic project and James and gang proved...there's alot of great sounding amps out there and when it comes to high gain, all can sound similiar.

The amps that suprised me were the H&K Trilogy, the QR (I'm a former owner)...stood up amazingly well here, the Wizard > wow...and the Henning.

Amps that didn't suprise as they always sound great...Cameron and virtually any of the Friedman stuff.

 

[glassjaw7]

To me this thread is a classic reason of why you gotta play the amps yourself...example...I personally am not that much of a fan of Bogner stuff when I've played them multiple times...hear, they sounded really good.

That being said...this was a fantastic project and James and gang proved...there's alot of great sounding amps out there and when it comes to high gain, all can sound similiar.

The amps that suprised me were the H&K Trilogy, the QR (I'm a former owner)...stood up amazingly well here, the Wizard > wow...and the Henning.

Amps that didn't suprise as they always sound great...Cameron and virtually any of the Friedman stuff.

I agree to a point. Part of finding what you like in an amplifier is finding the right feel. How the amp "gives" and responds to your picking attack is of course part of the equation, but I think these clips give you most of the idea of what the amp is about!
Like that Reeves for example. I guarantee that I would love that amp! And like you said, the Wizard...wowzers! I didn't want to like the Wizard because I can't afford one. But that goes for most gear right now. For affordability, that Reeves and the H&K Trilogy are amazing!
The Wizard has become another of those amps that I must try someday!

 

[ConcreteVampire]

I loved your ceriatone! Big, open sound. Like you can hear the glass workin, if ya know what I mean. The bass availabilty was crazy in that room with the high gainers, a Rivera woulda fit right in!
I'm glad my vintage modern is a plug and play....

Consistant testing bro. No doubt.

 

[dstroud]

Try getting 85 amps and 85 ego driven guitar players and amp designers in one room with a 100 gallons of beer and see what happens. Try it some time. The conversations I heard between amp builders aren't even repeatable on here... Only I know.....lol

sounds like a recipe for something - I don't know what but something !!!!!!! I'll say it again - you did a great job man and it's very appreciated.