Well, my VR arrived last thursday.
I am playing it through an Eden D410T and a Warwick 4*10.
First Impressions:
Definitly seems well made. Knobs are all pretty tight, the switches feel fine and everthing seems solid.
I turned it on and checked out the doo-hickees and light and stuff in the back. The fan came on right away and was very quiet. The Biasing lights are a little confusing to me (keep in mind this is my first tube amp) The manual says that when the tubes are properly biased that the two LEDs will glow green. Well they we both green but only faintly so. I knoticed when playing the bass through it later on that when notes we played they would glow brighter (kinda like a limit light would work on other amps)
I hooked it up sending the 4ohm output to the Eden and that daisy-chaining that to the Warwick. Upon letting it warm up for about 20 minutes finally the moment of truth had arrived. I plugged my 1989 Fender Precision BAss plus into it and let it rip.
Sound:
Now this is where i feel like i might be going a little crazy. It sounded good, dont get me wrong, but I was expecting the total enveloping gigantic-ness that I heard the first time I switched on a friends origional magnavox 1970s SVT (through an SVT 8*10 cabinet). That is not the sound I got w/ this thing. Ok, dont freak, just mess w/ it a little, adjust the eqs stand back from the rig, turn it up turn it down. I notice that when the ultra low is boosted all the good midrangy growel dissapears unlike the old SVT I borrowed. That one just got deeper and more growly.
Like I said, it sounds good but I am not flipping out yet.
So the rest of the band files in, we all oooh and aaah over how attractive the amp is, and it is a good looking beast.
Everybody plugs in (guitar player are bothing using full Marshall and Sunn Stacks. Very loud). Normally one guitar plyer uses a 50watt Marshall and the other guy uses a hotplate on his sunn to make the volume humane. But the 50watt broke, so a 100w Marshall is being used, the Sunn player couldnt hear himself so he took the hotplate off. So now the guitars are so loud I am starting to wonder if I have been rendered sterile by the volume. The volume is so loud that I can see the drummer playing but thats about it.
So naturally, I join the idiocy and start cranking my amp up in an attempt to try and hear myself. At about 1 o'clock Ampeg just sounds like fuzz no matter what I do, the mid control stops working, and I can hear the speaker in the Eden screaming for mercy (not in a good way).
We finish our amazingly loud rehearsal and I am feeling a little bummed. For the amount of money I paid I was expecting a bit more than what I got.
We played a show monday night and as an experiment I borrowed a friends SVT 8*10 to hear what it sounded like w/ my VR. Definitly better. A little more like the old one. So, that leades me too believe that the svt 8*10 are big part of the reason I loved the old one I borrowed (even though the idea of carting that thing around gives me the total heebees).
I still feel like I want more clean head room. A bass player friend of mine keeps telling me to try the Mesa 400+, that it is a great combow of SVT tube gooeyness w/ a more modern sound like a higher watt Eden or something.
So anyway, there it is. Sorry about the meander. I am feeling a bit lost at the moment. I dont want to count the SVT out, but it did not knock me offa my feet like I was hopping.
Ian
