The F112/F212 are like no other.Ummm...thanks!!!looks like we both likes 'em loud and warm
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Holy smokes!!! You need a permit for all that firepower!?!? Have you ever run the zypher into the power amp input on the SVT?? Would be interested in how having a all tube path would effect things
Count me IN on this club! Micah is outstanding and makes world-class gear.
I have a Beast of Both Worlds that I run through a Subway 215. It's endgame for me, at least in terms of modern rigs. It also sounds great through my old B-15 and B-18 cabs.
Next on my GAS list is an Oracle - 95% of my shows are backlined and I much prefer the tonality of the Oracle / Beast preamp to my Noble. When I use the Beast, I run the Noble's EQ completely flat.
I also have evil ideations of commissioning a tube power amp from Micah, but... that's for another time.
Here are a few old pics to prove my worthiness.
I have a Beast of Both Worlds that I run through a Subway 215. It's endgame for me, at least in terms of modern rigs. It also sounds great through my old B-15 and B-18 cabs.
Next on my GAS list is an Oracle - 95% of my shows are backlined and I much prefer the tonality of the Oracle / Beast preamp to my Noble. When I use the Beast, I run the Noble's EQ completely flat.
I also have evil ideations of commissioning a tube power amp from Micah, but... that's for another time.
Here are a few old pics to prove my worthiness.
This rig is too cool! I used to have a 1U pre, and was always trying to think about how to mount my quilter BB in the rack with it.
I've been curious about the "Arkham sound." I'd love to hear some descriptions!
I do love those rigs @Dave Hill....Holy crap! I can tell you @Smokey P that both the Zephyr and the DR103 pre sections through the power section of my old Mesa D180 from the 1980s/1990s (not sure the age but she's not young) sounds effing epic.
There is a great thread on Tube preamps and DIs. It's well worth checking out. The Arkham Oracle tones are compared along with lots of other preamps. Scroll down a bit and you will come to the sound samples. The Oracle is listed second below the Nobel. Tube Preamp/DI Sound Samples — Noble, Oracle, P-15, Super Stack, REDDI, Tonecraft, Jule...
Thanks, I've looked at that thread before, but forgot about it.
Getting out my good headphones now.
To me, it's my favorite flavor of a classic sound with modern enhancements. It gets me the closest I've gotten to the tones of my favorite old records.
In comparison with my Noble: to my ears, the Noble feels like a modern sound with a vintage twist, while the Arkham feels vintage with modern updates. I'm more likely to use my Noble w/ my active 5, but the Arkham makes my '63 P sing.
I would generally agree with this, the Arkham thing is like I think of it as in between a B15 with a dash of SVT in there. At its core it’s a squishy, warm Motown leaning sort of thing, but you can also dial it in to be really aggressive. I slap a lot with mine and it rules.
actually I remembered yesterday posting something like ‘why would you run this with a flat sound’ and then I checked out everyone’s settings in here and some folks run it really flat, some folks seem to mostly use the switches, and I saw a few with a bit of a bass boost on the knob. I messed around with some of those and yeah! Very nice! I’ll use it with some artists I play with for sure! I run mine pretty scooped and use the mids knob on my stingray to add in like volume and aggressive sound. Just for fun I tried getting the most aggressive metal sound I could (used to play in a doom trio) man, again, sounded great! Can totally do that thing, wicked!
I can attest that the Zephyr part of my Shadow is insanely good at Motown and Doom. The DR103 side is there to be an amazing platform for my heavy, doomy and psychedelic effects). Having the two channels is super versatile.
That said, I will echo the sentiments that the Zephyr/Oracle James style stack is vintage sounding, warm, tubey but not spongey tube if that makes sense, but a bit more clear than a B15.
I'm looking to start a Doom group. Nice!
Hahaha ah, it was great fun until but the guitarist was a jerk, me and drummer got sick of him. In classic doom metal fashion we made a demo that got a little local radio action, played a couple show and theeeen our EP’s big release show was our last show hahaha. We were irresponsibly loud, like running my PF500 nearly wide open into an ampeg fridge loud. Outdoor shows only.
Big fan of the Oracle. Would like to hear more of the Super Zephyr.
I did a compro of the Oracle and a Slampegg some time back. Just snagged a Slampegg X from Nathan's in stock sale. Shootout to continue, maybe this time with samples.
As to the question of a baked in sound and comparison to the VT Bass. These two devices are on completely other planes... The Arkham can be clean, clear, almost transparent if not fully so. It can impart a nice airy tube presence or can get a bit grindy - not my favorite thing with it though. The VT sounds like someone's idea of what a driven SVT might sound like. I have yet to hear a box from Tech21 that I actually liked - except for maybe the ancient old ParaDriver as at least that one could lose some of the baked in thing.
My latest Oracle came with a NOS 5751 which is fairly low output. The gain has to be way up there to make output. Not sure if I like that or not... Need to compare with a good NOS 12AX7.
Mine goes from the board to FOH via TS-TS if the board is near me. It usually is. If not it goes to a Mesa Subway DI+. The DI+ is transparent. I can use the tone shaping on it as a last stop for room correction. Two sweepable mids can solve a multitude of sins... The two pair well together.
I'll also run the Oracle into a BB800 or 1 side of a PLX2-1804. Just depends on the gig and how much FOH we need.
I did a compro of the Oracle and a Slampegg some time back. Just snagged a Slampegg X from Nathan's in stock sale. Shootout to continue, maybe this time with samples.
As to the question of a baked in sound and comparison to the VT Bass. These two devices are on completely other planes... The Arkham can be clean, clear, almost transparent if not fully so. It can impart a nice airy tube presence or can get a bit grindy - not my favorite thing with it though. The VT sounds like someone's idea of what a driven SVT might sound like. I have yet to hear a box from Tech21 that I actually liked - except for maybe the ancient old ParaDriver as at least that one could lose some of the baked in thing.
My latest Oracle came with a NOS 5751 which is fairly low output. The gain has to be way up there to make output. Not sure if I like that or not... Need to compare with a good NOS 12AX7.
Mine goes from the board to FOH via TS-TS if the board is near me. It usually is. If not it goes to a Mesa Subway DI+. The DI+ is transparent. I can use the tone shaping on it as a last stop for room correction. Two sweepable mids can solve a multitude of sins... The two pair well together.
I'll also run the Oracle into a BB800 or 1 side of a PLX2-1804. Just depends on the gig and how much FOH we need.
That's awesome and sounds about right to me. Is it possible to play doom at any other volume than "irresponsibly loud"?
Part of the difference (as I understand it) is that the Oracle is based on the James/Baxandall tone stack (used by Ampeg) and the Nobel is based on the Fender tone stack. There is a cool little tone stack calculator you can download and play with. It has the Fender and James tone stacks (and a few others), so you can see graphically how the knobs affect the tone. I found this on the Arkham Oracle website as a link. It's helpful for this topic: TSC
I've been using the Zephyr for a bout 2 years now (I think?) and it has become my #1 pre for all gigs. I used to swap it out for an SWR Grand Prix when I needed something more sparkly but I've managed to get the Zephyr to ape that tone quite nicely. It's certainly a lovely, very musical piece of gear.
I've been playing around with different settings, but lately I'm running mine with the Bass knob all the way up, everything else flat. Adjust gain and master for the amount of hair I want and spice with any combination of the "Lo" and HPF switches depending on the room.
For those running an Arkham pre into a BB-800, how do you like it? Since my gigs are usually backlined, I tend to go straight from the Noble (or future Oracle) into the FX return / power amp in of whatever the backlined amp is. But I'm wondering if it'd be worth it to just grab a BB800 and nix the backlined amps altogether, just using whatever backlined cab is sitting underneath it.
I'm very happy running the Zephyr side of my Shadow into the BB800. I run the Low Z output into the BB800's active input so I can use the BB800s limiter (talked to the Quilter folks about this years ago via email and it is a great combo) and I have the DI out on the Zephyr connected to the DI In on the BB800. The result is clean, warm, responsive and very tonally flexible. I'm super happy with it...it is also stupid loud through the FEARLESS F212.
