OK After my docters appointment I went to 3 different music stores for a total of about 2-2 1/2 hours. I took my schecter to play on and my amp to get a trade in value.
The first store I plugged my blackjack into a Vox AD50VT. THAT THING ROCKS. It has a great
classic rock tone with the AC30TB setting, great cleans on the blakface 2x12, and pretty good distortion with the high gain and UK 80's settings. The built in effects are pretty good, not pedal quality but good. I found the amp a little confusing at first but soon got used to it. I love the tap delay feature, which really came in handy for solo's. Then I had one of the store workers plug the digitech
distortion pedal board into the vox. It had the digitech, death metal, grunge, hot head, screamin blues, and bad monkey. I went down the line...The bad monkey is a nice booster/light blues OD, but doesn't have nearly as much gain as my SD-1. The screamin blues kinda only had one tone, and that tone had too much high end. The hot head...uhhhg only one setting sounded good. All the other settings on the hot head sounded REALLY sharp and thin. The grunge also sounded thin and VERY raspy, it REALLY lacked definition and clarity. The death metal...lets not go there...just a bunch of noise and you couldn't even tell how you were picking the notes. So I bought some strap locks there and asked about trade in vlue on my amp towards the vox AD50VT. He said that if I traded my amp in I could have the AD50VT for $300 out the door...I thought that was a GREAT deal. I decided not to buy it today, instead I would try out more things at different stores.
Store number 2. I went in and said I wanted to play the classic 30. He handed me an ESP with duncans, and plugged me in. I found the classic 30's cleand channel was no better than the Vox's Blackface or tweed settings. The distortion was nice and crunchy but I REALLY thought it muffled my picking dynamics in comparison to the vox's AC30TB. I fiddled with it a while and found it to be nice but I thought the vox had great reproductions of its tone. Then he plugged me into a SS Kustom amp...Think CRATE SS!!! It was SOOO thin and lifeless. I immediatly unplugged and asked about my MT-2 problems. He reccomended and EQ, and acted like I was stupid for thinkin my MT-2 was harsh. He went on and on about how he swears by the MT-2. I said thanks for lettin me play and left.
Store number 3. I took my guitar in to this store. I went in store number 3 just to try out pedals cause there amp selection isn't very good. I opened the case of my schecter and the guy helpin me said NICE!!!. I tried a Boss DS-1 and MXR Double Shot distortion plugged into one of those peavey SS transtube amps. I found the DS-1 really only had a few settings that were usable. I then unplugged it and hooked up the MXR. That thing was awesome. The top channel was a normal type high gain and a versitile EQ which I found is voiced great for rythem work. The bottom channel had a mid range boost that made it great for solo's. Both channels have a focus button that is like a compressor. It really made the pedal even more versitile. With it off you got grainy distortion but not harsh like my MT-2, with the focus on it smoothed out and got a little creamier. He said I could get $50 for my MT-2 and the MXR was $70. I told maybe after I decide on my amp. I then unplugged the mxr and decided to play the peavey SS straight up. The clean was decent and the vintage/modern switch made it versitile, but the distortion channel was not at all versitile, and razor sharp. The guy helping me then asked to play my schecter cus he has an omen 6. OK the guy said he has been playin for about 17 years and he freekin rocked. My jaw about dropped to the floor. He played everything VERY fast but every note rung out smooth and clear. I was amazed by his playing, and he was amazed by my guitar
. He handed it back to me and I said thanks and left.
Overall I think I want the vox. Tomorrow I am supposed to call store number 1 and ask them if they can ship in a brand new vox instead of the floor model. If they can I hope I can buy it Saturday.
My amp goes to 11!Nigel Tufnel
Linear Mode
