Sorry so long, kinda running into a wall here...
Ok, here's the deal. I recently decided to revamp my rig. I'm running a Mo'Bass through a Goliath III 8 ohm, and I decided to get another head and second Cab to go with it. ( The poor old Mo' sounds like a million bucks, but I've had just about enough of her scratchy pots and all the reliability issues... )
I headed to a store that said they had a killer deal on a new 750x and another Goliath III for me. I had been looking into the 750x for a while ( I'm a sucker for the SWR overdrive sound from my Mo' ), read all the reviews I could and decided that it was worth the plunge. I ran to the store, grabbed up the 750x and a Goliath III and headed off to practice. I know, by now I should know better than to buy something without trying it first, but hey a million reviews can't be wrong, right?
So, I get back to practice with the guys, hook it all up, and low and behold it sounds like crap. I spent about an hour holding up everything trying to dial it in and it wouldn't get close to anything passable. There were 2 major problems...
1.) It was muddy with NO definition and LOW volume output.
2.) There was a strange "blooming" effect going on with the notes. I would pluck the string, the note would start out quiet and then swell in volume.
I tried it with one and then both Cabs... same problem. I tried messing with the Gain, Limit and Master. I run a Bartolini Pre at 18v so I thought it might be pushing "hot". While doing different things with these all did different things to the sound, it never seemed to want to dial in at all. I unplugged it, plugged in the Mo Bass and both cabs and man it sounded great, so I know the Cab wasn't the problem... I also run the mo with wide open gain and little Limit and it doesnt have any problem with the input signal.
So, I took it back. But, I keep reading about folks who seem to love this head. Was I doing something wrong ? Maybe the amp was a lemon, and that's why they came across with the great deal ? Maybe my Bart OBP is pushing too hot and it's somehow messing with the imput signal so that I cant turn up enoug to get a good sound ( even tho the Mo' doesn't have any trouble, is there something about the 750x that doesnt like this setup? )... I just don't know.
I really hate to say it, but The difference between that 750x and the Mo' was like night and day. In all honesty, all I use the Mo' for now is the preamp and the overdrive, so I thought switching to the 750x would be like swaping for a more reliable, lighter weight and less complicated version of the things I love from the Mo. It still seems to be the consensus, maybe I just had a bad egg and I need to try another?
Any suggestions or ideas on what might have gone wrong or something I might have missed? Anyone have the same experience? I'm thinking of going around to some more stores and trying a few different 750x's out and see what happens, but unfortunately not alot of folks around me have a 750x and 2 goliath III cabs for me to test run ( Much less a megoliath, which is what I really want ). Real test drives require a pretty long haul from home.
Just wondering if anyone had some helpful input...
P.S. Oh, and any of you folks drooling to tell me to get "Anything but an SWR, Dude, because SWR is the suck and "Brand X" is teh win !!!", please don't waste your breath. I'm one of those guys that will actually tell you I like the SWR sound more than anything else I've tried.
Thanks in advance for any help/advice.
Ok, here's the deal. I recently decided to revamp my rig. I'm running a Mo'Bass through a Goliath III 8 ohm, and I decided to get another head and second Cab to go with it. ( The poor old Mo' sounds like a million bucks, but I've had just about enough of her scratchy pots and all the reliability issues... )
I headed to a store that said they had a killer deal on a new 750x and another Goliath III for me. I had been looking into the 750x for a while ( I'm a sucker for the SWR overdrive sound from my Mo' ), read all the reviews I could and decided that it was worth the plunge. I ran to the store, grabbed up the 750x and a Goliath III and headed off to practice. I know, by now I should know better than to buy something without trying it first, but hey a million reviews can't be wrong, right?
So, I get back to practice with the guys, hook it all up, and low and behold it sounds like crap. I spent about an hour holding up everything trying to dial it in and it wouldn't get close to anything passable. There were 2 major problems...
1.) It was muddy with NO definition and LOW volume output.
2.) There was a strange "blooming" effect going on with the notes. I would pluck the string, the note would start out quiet and then swell in volume.
I tried it with one and then both Cabs... same problem. I tried messing with the Gain, Limit and Master. I run a Bartolini Pre at 18v so I thought it might be pushing "hot". While doing different things with these all did different things to the sound, it never seemed to want to dial in at all. I unplugged it, plugged in the Mo Bass and both cabs and man it sounded great, so I know the Cab wasn't the problem... I also run the mo with wide open gain and little Limit and it doesnt have any problem with the input signal.
So, I took it back. But, I keep reading about folks who seem to love this head. Was I doing something wrong ? Maybe the amp was a lemon, and that's why they came across with the great deal ? Maybe my Bart OBP is pushing too hot and it's somehow messing with the imput signal so that I cant turn up enoug to get a good sound ( even tho the Mo' doesn't have any trouble, is there something about the 750x that doesnt like this setup? )... I just don't know.
I really hate to say it, but The difference between that 750x and the Mo' was like night and day. In all honesty, all I use the Mo' for now is the preamp and the overdrive, so I thought switching to the 750x would be like swaping for a more reliable, lighter weight and less complicated version of the things I love from the Mo. It still seems to be the consensus, maybe I just had a bad egg and I need to try another?
Any suggestions or ideas on what might have gone wrong or something I might have missed? Anyone have the same experience? I'm thinking of going around to some more stores and trying a few different 750x's out and see what happens, but unfortunately not alot of folks around me have a 750x and 2 goliath III cabs for me to test run ( Much less a megoliath, which is what I really want ). Real test drives require a pretty long haul from home.
Just wondering if anyone had some helpful input...
P.S. Oh, and any of you folks drooling to tell me to get "Anything but an SWR, Dude, because SWR is the suck and "Brand X" is teh win !!!", please don't waste your breath. I'm one of those guys that will actually tell you I like the SWR sound more than anything else I've tried.
Thanks in advance for any help/advice.
