SFT vs VMT

Noobie question: SFT?

 

VMT sooooo hard.

I own an SFT for nearly two years, absolutely hated it. It got to live on my pedalboard because it was true bypass and took an 18v plug that nothing else was using. I found it unpleasantly thick, inarticulate, and just overall unpleasant. A couple of times I dialed in a useable tone, but I wasn't able to consistently get a sound I liked out of it.

Fast forward to me being a darkglass whore, and I love my B3K and VMT like children (except that they contribute, earn me money, don't grate the ears and are remarkably preiswert).

I've owned both pedals at the same time, had extensive experience with the SFT and hate it. Maybe we have different tastes, maybe I didn't get the most out of it; I've heard some clips where it sounded decent, hell that's why I bought it, but I never got it that good myself.

VMT, all the way.

EDIT: In an effort to provide links to more hilarious possible meanings for SFT, I can see that it looks like the SFT has changed; it seems to have the same controls, but has an ampeg logo on it now and may have different goals. I'm not inclined to give it another go or recommend it based on this, but to be fair to it, it may sound better now.

 

Haha even Catalinbread don't have an answer for that one. My favourite was Sneaky Fork Trick.

 

Here is a recent vid I did. I prefer my SFT over my Sansamp bddi, but don't have experience with the VMT.

 

I've owned both. The VMT won out for me. The SFT was fantastic for giving that delayed attack of a tube and the almost farty gain overdrive of a tube head (so it's great for warming up a modern-voiced ss amp), but ultimately the compression was too much for my taste. The VMT sounds more like an older tube head paired with a sealed cab, so you get the fast note aspect and mid tightness that really cuts through the mix. It also has tons of low end for an overdrive, as it doesn't compress away the notes. It has its own flavor and specific range but covers a lot of detailed tone territory within that range.

 

I have both on the board, different sounds for different covers. The SFT for Motown-ish and heavier blues type songs and the VMT more for Cream and Hendrix type songs.

 

SFT is like SVT but with FETs instead of Valves.

 

Also the current SFT sounds totally different to the original - Much brighter, less woolly. I have both and they are different enough to warrant keeping both!

 

Love my SFT.

Would like to try a vmt...

 

Love my vmt.
Never tried sft but in terms of vintage warmer darker tones, you can't go wrong with vmt. Not to mention, vmt has awesome awesome mids!

 

Check out the link in my signature. I've compared both. I use the sft with the gain cranked for huge chords. It farts out and does all kinds of awesome harmonic things. I would use the vmt has more of always on tube sim overdrive. I have the old sft by the way.

 

I had an SFT and liked it quite a lot but I had to keep both bass and treble below noon to counteract its mid scoop.

 

Does the VMT have the same sort of responsiveness as the SFT? What I like about SFT demos I've heard is being able to dig in for more for more OD.

 

Not that I've measured it scientifically, but mine doesn't sound scooped at all. The original sounds like it has a low mid boost with the eq at noon, and the newer one a high mid / treble boost.

 

I cut the treble a bit (~10:30-11) and boost the bass a bit (~1-1:30) on the SFT, for a fatter alternative sound compared to the VMT.

 

It was a while ago and it's kind of all relative but with my gear the SFT had a lot of bass and a whole lot of treble leaving the mids kind of missing. It sounded to me like it had more bass response than my Blueberry which kind of surprised me. I think the Blueberry has a very low mid hump but the SFT's bass was lower.
And yeah, the SFT's touch response was very nice indeed.

 

How long ago? Seems like the different versions of the SFT don't sound the same.

 

It was the white one with white knobs. It was earlier this year but that's a while ago in my memory.

 

OK, is that perhaps one version earlier than my blue with black knobs?