VIDEO / AUDIO: 2010 LA Amp Fest - Hemispheres Recording

[gtr31]

for classic Marshall the Henning was awesome as was the freidman ..

for modern .really liked the Bogner proto 70

 

[snowdog]

Very well done, thanks for all the hard work that went into the project. That is a great selection of amps no doubt.

Here is my thoughts on a few of them:

Friedman Dirty Shirley-Best Highway to Hell sound I heard, I was waiting for the drums to kick in...it seemed exactly like the record.
Wizard-really like the overall clarity of this one..sounded great.
Mesa Racto-Thought this one had a really good tone to it, seemed better to me than the pre 500 s/n one.
Mesa MK V-Took that Jump in the Fire riff a little too seriously
VHT Pitbull-really liked the voicing on that amp
Fortin Bones-I see a lot of people didn't dig it cause of the settings or whatever, but even with the way it sounded I see the potential for getting some really unique sounds with it


It may have been mentioned, but were these all played through the same cabinet?

 

[skoora]

It's weird, I played a Goldfinger in person and the overdrive was so dark and had no kerang. I swear it must have had a bad tube or something because it sounded awesome in these vids. I really dug the hot rodded one.

fav's, so far (in no order)
Ugly Whirley
68 50 watter + Jim's 68 replica
Jose Marshall (boy would that sit nice in a mix)..
Friedman with new type transformer
SLO
Wizard
Goldfinger hot rodded
bad cat 30R
Dr Z Carmen Ghia
Victoria 35210

 

[Doubleneck]

I was floored to hear some of these results. The amps that I thought where going to blow everything else left me limp, and I have one of these due very shortly.
I was very impressed with the Henning, the Jose/Marshall, the 71 Marshall Friedman, VH4

James this is EPIC. Thank you.

 

[mightywarlock]

At least it didn't catch fire like the Mesa Mark V did

Mesa covered me very well on this one.
We shot this on Saturday. Sunday, a Mesa rep called me on his day off on his cell phone and we went over the whole thing.
monday I dropped it off.
it got worked on on Tuesday.
I spoke with the rep and picked it up again today.

They blamed it on a bad EL34 going south and taking out a grid resistor and maybe something else.

it's a long story, and I'm not going to get into it, but basically, they aren't very trusting with the quality of EL34's nowadays, and still recommend 6L6's, but warn that if one is to keep using EL34's, they may have issues.

Regardless, Mark V is back up and running.

They did good by me, so that's cool.

It was a shame we didn't get to really go through it though...

 

[DEWD]

First of all, big thanks for doing this. I really dig the way you did it. Very professional and to the point. I had no idea these clips would turn out so great. They sound massive and look great on my hdtv and through my home theater speakers. Thanks again.

I was really looking forward to the Mark V clip because I own one and have it dialed in perfectly for my tastes. From the first note, I knew something had to be wrong. That amp can sound massive.

Out of all the mods and liquid metal amps the VH4 was BY FAR my favorite. I have owned that amp twice and sold it both times gassing for other crap but no other amp sounds as good to my ears. It is just so articulate, mean, crunchy, versatile, etc. I love that amp and I must get another one and keep it this time.

 

[Ayrton]

Thank you for all the work that went into this!

I liked several things I heard, but nothing that would make me sell my Friedman Marshalls.

 

[tom_h]

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.

James, did you mean that you don't trust an amp if you can't get a decent sound @ 12:00 or that you don't trust it if you can?

Sorry if it seems like I'm just being a smartass and calling you out on a typo. I'm not, just confused as to what you really meant.

By the way, If you choose to do it again and Reinhold can't get his hands on a loaner, I'd be willing to loan one of my Bogner XTC 20th Anniversary heads. Both have EL34's.

 

[jcj]

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.

James, did you mean that you don't trust an amp if you can't get a decent sound @ 12:00 or that you don't trust it if you can?

Sorry if it seems like I'm just being a smartass and calling you out on a typo. I'm not, just confused as to what you really meant.

By the way, If you choose to do it again and Reinhold can't get his hands on a loaner, I'd be willing to loan one of my Bogner XTC 20th Anniversary heads. Both have EL34's.

Just a typo.

 

[ConcreteVampire]

At least it didn't catch fire like the Mesa Mark V did

Mesa covered me very well on this one.
We shot this on Saturday. Sunday, a Mesa rep called me on his day off on his cell phone and we went over the whole thing.
monday I dropped it off.
it got worked on on Tuesday.
I spoke with the rep and picked it up again today.

They blamed it on a bad EL34 going south and taking out a grid resistor and maybe something else.

it's a long story, and I'm not going to get into it, but basically, they aren't very trusting with the quality of EL34's nowadays, and still recommend 6L6's, but warn that if one is to keep using EL34's, they may have issues.

Regardless, Mark V is back up and running.

They did good by me, so that's cool.

It was a shame we didn't get to really go through it though...

Glad to hear it was minor bro! I remember we looked at it and were like fuckin hell! I was a lil freaked, rechecked the speaker out!

Haha....

 

[mightywarlock]

ahh. ok. i know who you are now.

i guess we can call you the man BEHIND the amplifiers.

 

[ConcreteVampire]

ahh. ok. i know who you are now.

i guess we can call you the man BEHIND the amplifiers.

Im just the Cableguy bro......

Just the cableguy......


Yeah being stuck in that room all day with the worlds best amps cranked was suuch a chore.....
Not!

 

[hunter]

James, thanks a lot for this, GREAT JOB.

I also have to say you guys did an amazing job playing those amps, you really got the tone happening.

I guess some amps that were dialed in by their owners could have sounded better, maybe they didn't all have experience on how to dial in for recording.

So here my humble top 5 of each category:

Mid Gain Central:
1. Bogner Custom Hi Gain Mojado (2 Watt)
2. Dr Z Carmen Ghia - the better Marshall
3. Randall RM50 XTC and Mashall
4. Egnater Tweaker - I might miss some dirt when playing it, but listening wise it sounds just right
5. Ugly Amp for having an own vibe, would sound great on a Tom Petty record

Jet City JCA 20H (Friedman) - was superb, but it had more gain than the others so it would have belonged to mod central IMO

Classic Tone:
This I found the hardest to decide.
1. Event Horizon 50W (I liked 50W more than 100W for this)
2. Ceriatone Plexi 100
3. Reeves Super '78
4. Southbay 50W Plexi
5. Orange RV50 (you can also tell James likes this one the way he looks at it, his face expression says: "yeah, that's my baby")

Honorable mention of the Ugly 100W for the best Lugo face

Allyn Myers Koncorde sounded great at first but after the guy turned the dials I founf it went to quite "small" sounding


The Mod Squad:
1. Marshall 100W Friedman Mod '74 (oh man that low end is TIGHT)
2. Wizard Modern Classic 100W
3. Henning Plexrod 100W
4. Marshall Jose
5. Marshall 100W Friedman KS

I really liked the Fortin Bones (even if it wasn't dialed in perfect)

The Trilogy sounded great on leads but it seemed to lack headroom for muted chords, flubbed out on those.

That SLO100 didn't sound like what I remember them to sound like. Weird settings, tubes, Filter Caps, who knows.

Liquid Metal:
1. Bogner Twin Jet
2. Marshall 100W Tremolo KS High Gain
3. Friedman (Marsha)
4. Diezel VH4
5. Friedman Naked

 

[metalsoup]

Thanks, James, for pulling off an amazing event so successfully. Your dedication and enthusiasm essentially made the impossible possible. I hope your hard work and generosity are returned to you manifold.

FWIW, this event was fundamentally a LIVE event, so of course the unexpected/unwanted occurred. That is virtually unavoidable, as with any live performance. Nevertheless, no one can deny that overall the event was a huge success. Really about the best one could hope for.

It’s also hard to deny the impact of using the same cab for all of the amps. Some amps are just going to work better with that Bogner cab than others. Given the circumstances, however, it seems the only practical solution.

 

[Nico]

Thanks, James, for pulling off an amazing event so successfully. Your dedication and enthusiasm essentially made the impossible possible. I hope your hard work and generosity are returned to you manifold.

FWIW, this event was fundamentally a LIVE event, so of course the unexpected/unwanted occurred. That is virtually unavoidable, as with any live performance. Nevertheless, no one can deny that overall the event was a huge success. Really about the best one could hope for.

It’s also hard to deny the impact of using the same cab for all of the amps. Some amps are just going to work better with that Bogner cab than others. Given the circumstances, however, it seems the only practical solution.

First off, thank you James Lugo and all the people who shared their amps!

I think using one cab is the only way to do it as well... Yeah some amps are not going to sound the best through some speakers but if you hve to test 80 or so amps you can't be switching cabs all of the time.

I thought it was hard to compare clips when different riffs were played in different amps. In the last shootout they played the exact same parts with all the amps, I thought that would have been cool. Same guitar, pickups and cabs... Only changing amps and adjusting EQ to make it best for that particular one...

 

[jmgman69]

Hey guys,this was a fun thing,if anyone local would like to take the Fortin for a spin,feel free to give me a shout,it was having a bad hair day i guess and no it's not for sale but my Orange is

 

[Mr. Willy]

Awesome thread.

 

[ratter]

Thanks for these - they were great!

 

[AmpliFIRE]

I liked these the most:

- Reeves
- Rockerverb
- SLO (not sure why it's getting bashed)
- Pre-500 Recto
- Stock Plexi
- Henning (nice job Steve!)
- Friedman Shirley
- Twin Jet

Didn't care for the Diezels...but I'm just not a Diezel fan

 

[tweed]

I did not take anything wrong as well James, I would give Tweed's left nut to be at the next one!

Hey! Leave my nuts alone! They are all I got left with this economy going the way it is!!