mortega76
Fractal Fanatic
My first “full blown” amp fest… there were plenty of awesome high gain amps to go around, that was for sure. There were four Mills Acoustics cabs, two Marshall 1960BV (edit) cabs, a Port City 2x12 cab with Scumback H75(?) that sounded huge for a 2x12 and a 4x10 cab.
Please chime in with the details of your cabs Matt and Paul…
We did a test between the Mills v30 loaded cab and the Marshall 1960AV v30 loaded cab and all I can say is the Mills (in my opinion) sounded thicker/meatier and much louder… the Marshall 1960AV sounded as if the “volume” was being dispersed in all directions as if the sound was “bleeding” in all directions… whereas the Mills was thick and very focused sounding cab. I never realized how much the cab itself makes in the overall “tone” and “feel” using the same exact speakers. The scumbacks definitely sounded better though...
I got there a bit late so I didn’t get a chance to hear the 5150 in the room to have a sense of how it compares to the other amps…
Evil Pumpkin Marshall (NATAS prototype): I only heard this amp for about 30 seconds and it sounded great going into the Marshall 1960BV (edit) cab… but it wasn’t turned up as loud as I would have liked to have heard it.
Fortin NATAS: Great “marketing” on the 6irth, 6rind, 6gain & kill… first things first. This amp was the best looking amp in attendance hands down… of course this is just my opinion. They plugged in the Natas into the Mills v30 cab and it sounded thick with a lot of low end and high end distortion that sounded very dry. They plugged it into the Marshall 1960BV (edit) cab and it was a lot more “level”… but for me it just sounded as if the low end and high end were “cut off”… The Mills cab just sounded better. It did sound a bit “harsh” but that was because it’s pretty much brand new and hasn’t really been broken in.
Cameron CCV-100: The CCV going into one of the Mills cabs sounded great… it had everything the Fortin didn’t have. Saturated mid and high distortion… each noted being played sounded great… it almost sounded as if each note was being doubled with distortion… very cool. The lows were lacking a bit compared to the Natas for sure… I’m thinking the best combination would have been these two run together! There is a clipping type switch on the Cameron of off, mid or high and it sounded best with the clipping off.
I left the room for a bit after this so I’m sure I missed something…
Matchless into a 4x10 cab… it sounded pretty good driven by the PRS but it didn’t “right” until the Tele and Gibson were running through it… that setup sounded phenomenal for classic rock, rock to country style… very nice.
Diamond Spec OP: We really only heard this amp for about 5 minutes… very nice rock n’ roll sounding amp… again, this sucker was dialed perfectly for the Tele/Gibson guitars. Very nice.
Bad Cat: Into the 2x12 Port City cab sounded pretty good… we didn’t hear it for very long.
Mojave Peacemaker (?): into the Marshall 1960BV (edit)… this amp sounded sooooooo thick in the low-mid and mid area… had almost no sizzle in the high end whatsoever. I’m sure it was just dialed that way but I must say that I liked it for the Billy Gibbons style and blues riffs that were being played on this amp.
Marshall (edit: Mercury OT and Choke added) JVM: This was the best overall sounding amp of the entire bunch… I don’t know if my ears were fried by this time or what but that sucker sounded great. Great low end, great mids/highs… and great saturated distortion.
Then finally my…
Axe-fx Ultra Power by Peavey PV1500: I was expecting great things from my setup and so was everyone else… but sad to say that the Axe-fx had no “dynamics” or “feel” when compared to every amp there… It was pushing 300 watts per side (at 8ohm) into the Mills cabs… Let’s keep in mind that the Axe-fx followed the best sounding amp (modded JVM) in the whole room, so this may have played a part in the overall opinion we had of the Axe-fx setup… I initially thought it had to be that there wasn’t “enough juice” going into the cabs so I bridged it at 1000 watts (8 ohm) and it still didn’t have the “dynamics” or “feel”… we tried a couple of different amp sims… 5150, Das Metall, Brit 800 and HBE. The HBE sounded the “worst” of the bunch, very “honky” sounding… the best was the Brit 800. The same patch that “killed” at the last “mini amp fest” sounded decent but lacked any depth or mid-range “body”. The thing everyone immediately noticed was how “quiet” the Axe-fx was… almost little to no noise when compared to every other amp. But that same “noise” is what I think “filled” in every other amp’s overall sound. I really need to look into getting the Fryette 2/90/2… very disappointing.
Please chime in with the details of your cabs Matt and Paul…
We did a test between the Mills v30 loaded cab and the Marshall 1960AV v30 loaded cab and all I can say is the Mills (in my opinion) sounded thicker/meatier and much louder… the Marshall 1960AV sounded as if the “volume” was being dispersed in all directions as if the sound was “bleeding” in all directions… whereas the Mills was thick and very focused sounding cab. I never realized how much the cab itself makes in the overall “tone” and “feel” using the same exact speakers. The scumbacks definitely sounded better though...
I got there a bit late so I didn’t get a chance to hear the 5150 in the room to have a sense of how it compares to the other amps…
Evil Pumpkin Marshall (NATAS prototype): I only heard this amp for about 30 seconds and it sounded great going into the Marshall 1960BV (edit) cab… but it wasn’t turned up as loud as I would have liked to have heard it.
Fortin NATAS: Great “marketing” on the 6irth, 6rind, 6gain & kill… first things first. This amp was the best looking amp in attendance hands down… of course this is just my opinion. They plugged in the Natas into the Mills v30 cab and it sounded thick with a lot of low end and high end distortion that sounded very dry. They plugged it into the Marshall 1960BV (edit) cab and it was a lot more “level”… but for me it just sounded as if the low end and high end were “cut off”… The Mills cab just sounded better. It did sound a bit “harsh” but that was because it’s pretty much brand new and hasn’t really been broken in.
Cameron CCV-100: The CCV going into one of the Mills cabs sounded great… it had everything the Fortin didn’t have. Saturated mid and high distortion… each noted being played sounded great… it almost sounded as if each note was being doubled with distortion… very cool. The lows were lacking a bit compared to the Natas for sure… I’m thinking the best combination would have been these two run together! There is a clipping type switch on the Cameron of off, mid or high and it sounded best with the clipping off.
I left the room for a bit after this so I’m sure I missed something…
Matchless into a 4x10 cab… it sounded pretty good driven by the PRS but it didn’t “right” until the Tele and Gibson were running through it… that setup sounded phenomenal for classic rock, rock to country style… very nice.
Diamond Spec OP: We really only heard this amp for about 5 minutes… very nice rock n’ roll sounding amp… again, this sucker was dialed perfectly for the Tele/Gibson guitars. Very nice.
Bad Cat: Into the 2x12 Port City cab sounded pretty good… we didn’t hear it for very long.
Mojave Peacemaker (?): into the Marshall 1960BV (edit)… this amp sounded sooooooo thick in the low-mid and mid area… had almost no sizzle in the high end whatsoever. I’m sure it was just dialed that way but I must say that I liked it for the Billy Gibbons style and blues riffs that were being played on this amp.
Marshall (edit: Mercury OT and Choke added) JVM: This was the best overall sounding amp of the entire bunch… I don’t know if my ears were fried by this time or what but that sucker sounded great. Great low end, great mids/highs… and great saturated distortion.
Then finally my…
Axe-fx Ultra Power by Peavey PV1500: I was expecting great things from my setup and so was everyone else… but sad to say that the Axe-fx had no “dynamics” or “feel” when compared to every amp there… It was pushing 300 watts per side (at 8ohm) into the Mills cabs… Let’s keep in mind that the Axe-fx followed the best sounding amp (modded JVM) in the whole room, so this may have played a part in the overall opinion we had of the Axe-fx setup… I initially thought it had to be that there wasn’t “enough juice” going into the cabs so I bridged it at 1000 watts (8 ohm) and it still didn’t have the “dynamics” or “feel”… we tried a couple of different amp sims… 5150, Das Metall, Brit 800 and HBE. The HBE sounded the “worst” of the bunch, very “honky” sounding… the best was the Brit 800. The same patch that “killed” at the last “mini amp fest” sounded decent but lacked any depth or mid-range “body”. The thing everyone immediately noticed was how “quiet” the Axe-fx was… almost little to no noise when compared to every other amp. But that same “noise” is what I think “filled” in every other amp’s overall sound. I really need to look into getting the Fryette 2/90/2… very disappointing.