ADA Depot - A Forum To Support Users of ADA Amplification Gear
Non ADA Gear => Amps => Topic started by: Dante on September 16, 2022, 08:16:15 AM
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I have been drooling over these for a couple years now, the Grandmeister 18, 36, 40 amps. I got my Switchblade combo in hopes that is was a cheap alternative, and it is, but still....those glowing blue heads are so coooool :metal:
Somebody was selling a Deluxe 40 on Craigslist recently, specifying NO TRADES. So, what do I do? I offer him a trade - haha...I told him "I know you said no trades, but if I don't ask..." and he said "Y'know, I may actually take you up on that" and a trade was born. I gave up a nice US built Peavey EVH Wolfgang Special in exchange for the amp and I think we both did alright in the trade.
Turns out, I know the guy already - he's a local guitarist - friend of a friend (friend of a few of my friends) - and a really nice guy.
This amp is a lot like my Switchblade, but with some more bells & whistles. With the 4 voicings, I find it a pretty adequate replacement for my MP-1 Classic. The Classic also has 4 voices, but two are clean (Solid State and Tube Clean). The Brown channel on the Classic is very close to the Crunch channel on the Grandmeister - you can push it to overdrive really easy and it sounds great. Then, the Grandmeister has two distortion channels, whereas the Classic just has one. So, each has an advantage, each has a trade-off.
The effects in the amp sound pretty good, as good as my multi effects (Boss MS-3) for sure, but I have a lot more options available if I use the multi effects instead of the amp's onboard stuff...let me explain. The stock footswitch comes with buttons for each of the 4 channels, and 3 more buttons to toggle the Boost, Delay, and Modulation FX. So, that's all four channels plus 3 options for each one.
The Boss has 4 buttons, I set each one for a channel in the amp. Then, it has a button that accesses 4 stompbox type effects within. That's one more than the amp. Then, I also have a Boss FS-7 switch that is set to access the Boost and Delay in each patch. Essentially, I have SIX options for each patch. Much better, I can stack a couple delays on a clean tone if I want to, which is nice.
So, here's the first pic of many, I will have a review as soon as I plink around a bit
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Hey Dante, very cool :thumb-up:
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SEMI-UPDATE: it's only been a couple days
The direct out sound (via the built in H&K Redbox) is not as hot as the live sound out of the speaker. I simply turned on the boost feature in the amp to make it sound much closer to the 'plugged in' version
I have been plugging into my very wide, very deep 1x12 Peavey cab. It sounds really nice, so I am going to find a black one to match this amp (mine is tweed, to match my Peavey Classic 20mh). I think I ended up leaving the Blue Marvel speaker in my Peavey cab after trying a couple others. That cab really projects sound outward in all directions, and Peavey made black ones for their 5150 mini head and the ValveKing mini head...I'll find one to pair with this head and use both of them for my rack rigs too!
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UPDATE;
Got a Peavey cabinet, for the Valve King micro head (kinda the Metal brother to my Classic micro head). The cab is a bit smaller than the one I was looking for (the Peavey Classic 112C cab). In fact, the cab wood is thinner too. I opened the back to see the speaker...it's unbranded. NOTHING on it at all, no branding, no markings for resistance, nothing. Weird. I looked online, see that it's a 16 ohm/40 watt cab. It seems about the size of the ADA Viper, which had really great tone in a 1x12 package, so maybe this cab will be okay
I took it to practice today, finally got to turn it up, but I really wasn't expecting much...figured I'd be either changing the speaker or buying the cab I want. Well, the damn thing sounded pretty good, I cannot complain, and I usually do. Every fiber of my being wants to swap out that speaker, I'm fighting it like crazy. But, it sounded very tight and still had tons of bottom chunka, especially in the Devil's Tuning (drop D). The cleans were amazing, no breakup at all
So, I guess the cab stays like that for a while....at least through the gig I have on 9/30...I wanna see how it fills a room, if it's a sound beam or if it actually disperses
The amp itself is sounding very good - I used it at rehearsal with a band that only runs IEMs, so I didn't use the speaker at all, just ran direct. Everything sounded fantastic, that head is solid......and it looks so cool
I really think of this head as my modern day ADA rig, much like Harley considers his Cyber Twin(s) a modern alternative to the stuff we miss, the real deal, the ADA racks of yesteryear
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Hey Dante, great the cab worked out :thumb-up: , sounds like a keeper.
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Sounds like a pretty cool rig Dante,
Experimentation is the application of imagination
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Hi Y'all :wave:
Had a gig last night with the 'Grunge' band (Soundgarden, Audioslave, STP, Foo Fighters, Pearl Jam, etc..). The amp shined. My cleans were way too loud, I had to pick lightly until I could get near the master volume. It was a good problem to have, usually the gains are overbearing and there is a whisper of clean tones...
I discovered that P90s are FANTASTIC for Drop D tuning. It has a crisp attack and a bit of a honk, like a wah pedal half cocked (insert 'half cocked' joke here)
The amp's a keeper. I keep looking at replacement speakers for the cab, but haven't pulled the trigger because it sounds pretty good...hate to mess with that, but I'm intrigued about the possibility of 'removing the wet blanket' somehow. There is no wet blanket, in fact, if anything, I need to warm up a couple patches. It's punchy and a bit bright when I get on it, but I reckon that's got a lot to do with the cab - the Viper had that punch (in the midrange tho) that cut in a mix
Get this; The 40 watt setting was too hot for running direct out the built-in Redbox. I set it to 20 watts of FURY and it was fine. We have a heavy handed drummer and I had my amp at 12:00 on 20 watts. I was keeping up just fine, so there's that.
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Hey Dante, nice choice of material :thumb-up: , that stuff is fun to play and a fair amount of dropped D. Glad the H&K is working out, interesting about the output levels. I've noticed a few people using P90's, it's got me thinking where I could deploy one. Maybe build one of these (https://www.stewmac.com/kits-and-projects/instrument-kits/electric-guitar-kits/offset-trem-electric-guitar-kit), cost about $320 AUD, have to spray it and also reshape the horrible generic peghead.
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Hey Dante,
That does sound like a keeper. I wish I had some kind of level control with the Fenders like you have for going direct out to the board. Unfortunately, these amps didn't have that. I suppose I could use my Microcabs for that if I needed too.
Something I seemed to notice about speakers, and maybe it's just in my head, or maybe it's true. With any speaker, it seems like you need to get it to a certain volume for the speaker to "open up" and bring out it's characteristics. I seem to experience that "wet blanket" effect when the speaker isn't being pushed hard enough. That makes it a little more difficult when trying to get an amp set to a lower stage volume. I wonder if anyone else feels that way about it.
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I think you nailed it. I've always thought of the amp itself having more bright character...opening up...when cranked. It's probably the speaker reacting to getting punched. I'm liking the oversized 1x12 so far
I had no idea running at 20 watts would solve the gain issue, I just tried it. I could still crank the volume onstage tho, that was nice. I put the rig on a keyboard stand to raise the speaker and put the amp knobs at eye level
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Yeah, you see...your amp has a built in attenuation going direct, and you can still adjust your overall stage volume while it's doing that.
The Fenders don't have that. If I adjust my stage volume from the front panel, the direct volume will respond accordingly. I've got DI boxes that can drop the level -20db, but I don't know what that does to the overall tone. I have to use two of those with the CD since that has two 1/4" jacks on the back. I may need to use two more on the CT.
It depends on what the sound man can handle I guess
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I think you are both right about the speakers being a bit flat at low levels. Guitar speakers are quite stiff to take the power at their operational levels and thus not as physically reactive at low levels, also the loudness effect of our ears means the lows and highs are not as prominent, if you re eq for low levels (up the bass and treble) it will help a bit. The other solution for low levels is use more sensitive speakers, and that's not gonna happen I suspect. Also impedance makes a difference. In general, 16 ohm speakers are more efficient and sensitive with 4 ohm the least sensitive. Back in the Hi Fi days 16 ohm speakers were quite common, when power amps were typically 10 or 20 watts. Remember 10 watts is twice as loud as 1 watt and 100w is twice as loud as 10 watts etc.
@Harley, the -20db pad on your DIs shouldn't change the tone, it should just reduce the signal level (same as a pad on a mixer input or on some microphones), but some pad circuits may? work better than others? A simple pad is a voltage divider circuit (https://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/attenuators/l-pad-attenuator.html) I made a couple of leads with voltage dividers (2 resistors in series) in one of the jacks to drop my Rockman headphone output to inst level to plug into 2 Marshalls in my pre ADA days.
@Dante, getting your speaker up to ear level makes a big difference on stage, you'll hear a lot more top end (and volume overall) that is otherwise disappearing into your legs (from your perspective), it opens up in the crowd though and they hears the tops and volume. Though I suspect you know this already. Another approach I used to use with a band I mixed was to have them set up their amps like a monitor wedge (they had Peavey bandits or similar), then I had good control out front and they got to hear themselves without upsetting the overall mix levels.
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@ Richard:
I always have the bass and low Midrange up a bit higher than average, no matter what volume I use the amp at because I play Strats most of the time. I trim the treble frequencies a bit, and tune in the highs with the upper midrange, which I find more manageable.
The stiffness of the cone does make sense from a physical response perspective, but I don't get just an accentuation in the upper bandwidth when I crank the amp up, the whole spectrum as a whole just changes character. It's what most guitar players commonly refer to as a "sweet spot" where your amp just SINGS. That's when your speakers are sounding the best but they're usually on the verge of frying in my case. That seems to be true with just about any amp. Maybe that's why low powered amps are getting so popular these days. You don't have to make your eardrums bleed to get that kind of tone. But I do see a compromise there. A low-wattage amp with a matching speaker will get that kind of tone, but it's still kind of lackluster because you're not moving air at the same sound pressure levels as you would with a couple of tube Twins, or a Marshall half stack. That's one of the reasons I love outdoor gigs. I've cranked up my Twins to screaming volume levels and they sounded killer even without an OD or Dist pedal. A boost pedal does it for solos, and Twins can hold their own even against Marshall full stacks. It's too bad people are becoming too wimpy to play with real amps these days.
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Man, running that amp at 20 watts of FURY was nice tho...and, unlike my Blues DeVille, I didn't kill any birds with the volume
Whatever that generic little speaker is in my cab, it was stretching out just fine. I was punching that thing with CHUGGA CHUGGA in the Devil's Tuning >:D
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Hey Harley, it's nice to play cranked up, certainly helps float my boat.
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@ Dante,
Now you've got me curious about that cab and the speaker that's in it. I'm going to have to go back and re-read some threads to refresh my memory on what it is. Of course, that IS a tube amp, and 20 watts on a good tube amp is still pretty loud. Just think of the Trainwrecks, they were pretty damned loud and all of them were in the 20-30 watt range.
@ Richard,
It sure is :thumb-up:
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Hey Dante,
I went and looked this up and found that the speaker they put in those cabs and other similar 1X12 cabs is the same thing - Blue Marvel.
Even though it's unmarked, that is what Peavey claims is in those.
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@Richard
Nothing wrong with that, the speaker in my Classic 1x12 cab is also a Blue Marvel. It's a bigger cab, made of thicker wood, but that speaker sure sounds great
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Those are great amps, other than the fact I never really got along with the midrange on the high gain with it. :)
It’s too bad, really good amp and had everything I wanted in one little package. And it was funny how my cat would lay on it, being so small. I don’t know how he could stand it though, that thing got really hot I wouldn’t want to touch it.
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They do get hot, but I bet my cat would love it too
I agree about the midrange, I feel it more in the high-mids. I keep pulling down the highs to get more lows, or low-mids. I don't see a problem with it though, it sounds good with a large cab, or direct out of the Redbox (although, my impression of the Redbox was not good when I watched videos before I got the amp)
TBH: the MP-1 Classic could be accused of the same thing - lack of lows. I pump the lows with the Classic - clean or crunchy. I don't mind heavy midrange, it cuts through a band. There are times when I don't like the sound of the tone itself until it's in the mix...gotta hear it with the band to be sure
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(There are times when I don't like the sound of the tone itself until it's in the mix...gotta hear it with the band to be sure), to me that's how they are designed, The MP-1 and then MP-2 & MP-1 Classic are live, road reliable preamps giving you the best of what you need to play in a band context at stage levels (loud). Sure they work stand alone (and turned down), but that was never (as I understand it) the intention. And so they developed the MB-1 to fill that gap.... We don't talk about it as much as we should, the MB-1 is the best bass preamp I've ever come across.
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@ Richard,
The MB-1 is a great preamp for bass, I totally agree with that, but I disagree on the point of it being the stand alone kind of amp. IT too was meant to be used in a live situation with a lot more than just one tonal option for the bass guitar. Having the full ADA bass rig here, I can say without a doubt, it can hold a band together with whatever preamp tone you've selected.
@ Dante,
I posted that many moons ago about the MP-1 Classic lacking enough low end punch in comparison to the original MP-1. That was also when I posted my review of the Classic after I had purchased a pair of GT 12AX7R2's for it and noticed it helped bring a bit more low end to the overall tone of it. But, they do sound pretty damned good in a mix.
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Hey Harley, that's not what I meant, more that the guitar preamps are designed to work well in a band context (albeit great on their own), with a bass player creating more of the bottom end in a band mix. I didn't know that about the Classic (lacking a little in bottom end punch) as I've never had one. My journey (after a Marshall 50) has been MP-1 then MP-2, perfect (for me). There were post a while ago with lowering the bass eq centre freq in the MP-1, though the MP-1 always sounded great for me, and the MP-2 I like even more with all it's bells and whistles.
My 8RU live rack has MP-2 and MB-1 in it so I can (and did for a while when I needed to) use it as an awesome bass rig, or guitar, and even more interesting is using the stereo out on my Alembic (well not really stereo, bridge PU on one ch and neck on the other) and I can plug bridge PU into MP-2 and neck PU into MB-1, that gets some killer variations e.g. MP-2 distortion, wah etc with the awesome lows from the MB-1 >:D . Never saw the ADA bass cabs here in Oz, but the 2 Messa P112 cabs I bought for the bass rig setup are great. And because they have a tweeter, I use the MP-2 cab sim outs for guitar (when I use them for guitar). The 8 ch mixer in that rack has ch 1&2 MP-2 main outs, 3&4 MP-2 cab sim outs, ch5 MB-1 full range out, sends 1&2 to Quadverb, and return, so stereo guitar and bass :whoohoo!: .
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@ Dante,
I posted that many moons ago about the MP-1 Classic lacking enough low end punch in comparison to the original MP-1. That was also when I posted my review of the Classic after I had purchased a pair of GT 12AX7R2's for it and noticed it helped bring a bit more low end to the overall tone of it. But, they do sound pretty damned good in a mix.
I remember something about that.
IF I really need more bottom end, I can make 4 more patches in the MS3 just for the Classic and bump up the master levels - all the EQ stuff is flat right now (see the screenshot below)
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@ Richard:
Yeah, that was a long time ago, before Jurrie passed away, when I posted about the lack of low end in the Classic. I also bought a few 12AX7R2 tubes and put them in there and wrote a review on how they seemed to affect the EQ curve. It was kind of helpful, and maybe one of the first reviews of long plate tubes posted here.
I have the B500B power amp and the Basslines HX Cabs. One is a 1X15, and the other is a 2X10. That rig is NUTS! Oh, I almost forgot, I also added one of my Pitchtraqs in the loop of the preamp for an extra octave lower when I need it. Simple, yet effective.
@ Dante:
I'm just getting into the software bit for effects. I mean, I can go into my Fender amps via Fender Fuse software, edit and save resets and such, and I've been dabbling into the software for the NUX pedal board I built which is pretty cool for it's size, and it does quite a lot. It's also able to store presets in the Cerberus pedal. For it's size, it's a pretty powerful platform if I wanted to use just one amp and the pedal rig. It kind of a nifty feature to edit in my laptop.
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TBH: I need to practice editing stuff on the unit itself instead of the computer
I do love the software aspect, but yeah, I am a nooob at using the tiny screen on the pedal
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Hey, those small screens can be a pain sometimes, and that's where having the ability to do it on your laptop helps.
Then again, I shouldn't complain because editing on the CT is a lot like the MP-2 screen. Editing in the CD is like editing the MP-1 with just number values for the selected parameters. What I like about it the most, ( and was hoping if ADA would have put out a "MP-3" rackmount preamp), is that instead of membrane buttons to increase or decrease values, you just turn a knob. Just like a guitar amp should be. It's also a lot faster to dial in what you're looking for.
I don't believe I mentioned it here before, but about a month ago, I went and auditioned a Fender Mustang GTX 50, just to see what it was all about. Talk about a waste of time, that was it. It just didn't sound like a guitar amp. The sales guy who was showing it to me was so proud of this box of turds he was trying to sell me, and I kept telling him it didn't sound like a guitar amp, it sounded like a recording of a guitar amp, that was being played back through my car stereo.
I think Fender really knocked it out of the park when they had the Cyber amps. Sure, they're modeling amps, but they can certainly fool you into thinking they are the real deal. Too bad they can't make them anymore. But I have mine and I am seriously considering pulling the trigger on another C Deluxe. I'm really digging what this rig can do.
I'll be posting some demo clips of this rig as soon as I get a few bugs worked out on this desktop. Cubase is still down at the moment.
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Hey Harley, interesting report on the Fender Mustang, the drummer in my band bought one and loves it (not that he plays much guitar, he's a beginner from a guitar perspective), then everyone in his other band bought one as well, so 3 of them, I didn't bother to try it as I have my MP-2 rig when I go to his place, I suspected I'd be underwhelmed, from what you say I'm glad I didn't bother.
I had a thought (ages ago now) to make a 1 RU midi editing unit with a bunch of infinite spin knobs, basically for the ADA (but also for other CC enabled gadgets), so when you change patches, the knobs would be set to the current values of the patch and you could tweak any of the assigned parameters and have it remember those tweaks for the session/gig, or save them at the end of the gig. I spose another approach would be to make a replacement face plate for the MP-2 with knobs instead of the membrane buttons. Like you, I'd prefer knobs. Then again, once it's set I don't change it much or often. I haven't tried the MP-2 editor yet, been thinking to give it a go as I embark on running up some new patches specific to different guitars (ala Dante), particularly as I'm playing the JPLP mostly in this current band, it's great to play and sounds awesome, although I miss having a whammy bar.
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Richard,
It's not really a report as much as it is my impression. The tones sounded artificial to my ears, sort of like an excessively over-processed rack setup. I fell into that hole myself back in the 90's, and began backing off the processing and changed the routing of my wiring to keep the guitar sounding as natural as possible.
The Mustang amps are probably good for beginners since they give a beginner something close to what they are looking for; The distortions, effects, and cab emulations of the real rigs in a mall package, that you can access with the twist of a knob and press of a button. I don't care for the little screen and the pages and sub menus you have to scroll through for editing. Would I ever use one in a live situation? Only if I could edit out a bunch of preset junk they pre-program from the factory, and get something that sounds like a real amp tone.
I had to do that with the Cyber amps, but it was pretty easy to do. They also came with a whole library of factory presets which I found most to be unusable. With the CT, I had to go shut off a lot of stuff to get to a core tone, then add in whatever effects I wanted after that. Most of the time though, I'm not using effects through that amp now, that's how I came up with the combination rig using the CD for the stereo effects and spatial separation. With the CD, it was different. I could actually start with a blank program location and build my tone from the ground up, then add any variety or combination of effects I want with it, then I can save it to any preset location I want
Those motorized pots are kind of expensive and it's going to take some hellacious software to get them to ramp up and down on your program changes. The only rack mounted preamp I know that ever did this was the Soldano X-88. The CT has these knobs, but the CD doesn't, and neither of them need it as far as I'm concerned. It's more about eye candy than function really. When I hit a program change with these amps, the sound changes instantly. The knobs just rotate on the Twin to give you a look at where you set that particular tone across the panel, and that's only for the amp tone. You have to go into the LCD menu to see where you set your effects.
The CD is different. This amp only has a numerical display screen that will give you the values you have set at each programmed preset. They are not motorized, and the way it works is like this: I'll turn every pot except for the Master Volume and the Trim (Input) down to zero (fully CCW). Then to see what value I have any parameter set at, I will rotate a knob on any of the amp or effects I want to change, and it will display the value I have it stored at, but it will not change the value until the knob rotation arrives at that value. Then I can increase or decrease that value as I need it, and save it if I like it. So, it's similar to the MP-1 in that respect. I just love the fact that I can go as deep in the editing for amp tones and effects as I want to in the Deluxe. With the Twin, I can only choose single effects or preset combinations of effects with limited editing in those combinations. That's why I decided to make the Twin my center guitar tone and use the Deluxe for effects, both mono and stereo. That setup just works.
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The pots on the Grandmeister are not motorized, but the STORE button lights up when you have the knob set to the saved position (Except the master volume - that's never saved)
So...I'll typically start turning the knobs to figure out where they're saved and then look at them to see what I've done :) My ears are my guide to adjust from there.
@Harley - I typically start from scratch too - flat line everything on the EQ, turn the gain down and raise it to taste....it's pretty easy to just get a raw amp tone (like a good chocolate cake) and put a little icing on top with effects - YUM
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Dante,
I know what you mean all to well brother! :thumb-up: