Could it be a faulty tube maybe? I reckon they may have been sat round a while, and all the shipping around isn't going to do them any favours either.Originally Posted by leerocker
when you have the reverb on it feeds back terribly even with nothing plugged in! sent gak an email about returning it yesterday , so far no reply!
Have you tried tapping all tubes to see if one's microphonic at all mate? Might be worth a shot? They are supposed to have a six month warranty on the tubes so you should be able to get them replaced as they are being sold as new.
Let us know!
And what to my wondering eyes should appear? ...................... Nothing
My 2x12 cab arrived yesterday, solid build, great sound and a 3 year transferrable warranty inside, happy days, might buy another if there are any left
Whats up with the amp Dave, are you having the same issues as leerocker?right well this is going well so far
el diablo 100 watt head came yesterday- don't really like it. Probably going to return it. Apparently it's not all-valve, either- whether i'm subconsciously not liking it because I figured that out, I dunno, but still- it doesn't really "feel" like a valve amp, which is the main problem. And I'm sorta scared of keeping it in case what's a minor annoyance now gets worse as time goes on. It does have a lot of tones in there (and the cleans are pretty nice), but all are "fairly good" rather than "great".
black pearl 2x12 combo arrived today (after going "missing" in transit) and it seems to be faulty.
grrr.
And what to my wondering eyes should appear? ...................... Nothing
when you have the reverb on it feeds back terribly even with nothing plugged in! sent gak an email about returning it yesterday , so far no reply!If I'd spent a few hundred quid on something and it didn't work I wouldn't be emailing the shop, I'd be phoning them!
Rock covers band - www.somethingreal.org.uk
Rolling Stones tribute - http://www.facebook.com/TheStolenStones
and i certainly will be tomorrow, cant always call whilst im working so sent them a polite email to come pick it up,
I've just basically got no sound at all. I had the master and (preamp, i guess) volumes up at 11 o'clock each and only had a whisper. a 30 watt valve amp set to those levels should be deafening.
FWIW, I emailed them so I have proof that they said I wouldn't void my warranty if i tried swapping the valves etc. It's all well and good phoning, but it's your word against theirs.Considering how much stuff I have to send back currently (the el diablo; also my fender excelsior from musicstore is faulty too, had a run of bad luck recently
I think i ordered mine on Thursday? Whatever was the day after I noticed this thread. They told me I got the last one (but seem to have got more in since as they're back up on the website). That sucks yours didn't come yet, mine made it to Northern Ireland (which is one thing- their delivery cost at £26 was not-exactly-cheap-but-not-exactly-terrible, but the stuff did come very quickly indeed).
If I don't get any joy with the 2x12 black pearl combo (I.e. if i can't get it working and/or they send me a replacement that's still dodgy), I may well just get the 2x12 cab- a 2x12 with two alnico speakers is killer value for £250. You'd pay more than that for the speakers alone (nearly double that).
Last edited by Dave_Mc; 15th November 2012 at 11:06 PM.
The reverb feedback thing isn't an isolated incident- some people on a gear page thread said they had reverb feedback. Apparently the issue is that the sent level is linked to the master volume or something like that and that makes it more susceptible to feedback. Don't know what the solution is. For what it's worth i turned my reverb knob up and didn't have any troubles.
Used the head at practice tonight throug my vox cab with tayden ace 25 and celestion gold. Basically set it up to get a base tone that's similar to my ac30 and tweaked from there. I ended up with the gain on about half and volume on half too, which gave me a nice just starting to break up tone that easily kept up with the drums etc. Then I started using the boost with the foot switch and was very, very impressed. It's a great sound, very much a refined vox breakup that still has a nice amount of bottom end. By the end of the practice I was using the boost as my overdrive tone, then adding another volume boost pedal to push it even more and it worked really well- it never got nasty sounding or mushy.
The tone controls are very responsive and the voicing switch is a very useable addition- I kept it on natural during the practice but once my band mates left I started fiddling. 'Deep' is awesome with the gain cranked- thick and doesn't get farty. The switch that switches to two valves works very well- the tone change I heard was slight and probably attributable entirely to the speakers+ output transformer getting half the power.
There's a surprising among of gain on tap. With the preamp gain maxed it'll easily do Ac/dc style riffs, then with the boost I was able to do some porcupine tree, incubus and tool without too much bother.
I did some clips, but only with my iPad and will need t sort through them I think.
In all a promising honeymoon session. Hope you guys can get the issues you've got dealt with, I'd be very surprised if its not just a valve change that's needed.
Edit; some clips. My playing is bad in places. In particular, don't judge my attempt at muse; it's clear I can't play it! :-D
Settings I was using with my band, clean then boost:
http://soundcloud.com/cirrusband/121...-upAsh/s-upAsh
Clean, master maxed, with delay and U2 riff;
http://soundcloud.com/cirrusband/121...-cB5Rf/s-cB5Rf
Gain maxed, master just under half;
http://soundcloud.com/cirrusband/121...05-wav/s-OMGof
Last edited by Cirrusband; 16th November 2012 at 12:12 AM.
thanks, I'm hoping that's all it is. I don't want to have to parcel up anything else, it's a real pain (or maybe I'm just lazy
Ok, I'd echo the volume 5, master 5 as the sweetspot for the BP head. With my Les Paul I'm getting nice tones here.
I've been trying it out today through an EVH412, which has the EVH greenbacks. My initial impressions are that I prefer the overdrive tones from the Vox AC30c2 I have when put through the same cab, but for car space reasons I am not taking a 2x12 combo and a 4x12 cab anywhere. I hoped the BP head would be the solution, but I must say I'm a bit underwhelmed by the tones when you get it wound up through the EVH cab. The drive sounds good through my Blackstar S1 4x12 cab with V30s, but the cleans and semi breakup are too dull through that cab, and it isn't very 'Vox sounding' anyway.
Honestly I just prefer the Vox. The BP has a fantastic clean tone, and the edge of breakup is good and can get similar to the Vox. But when you really wind it up I think the Vox wins for the tone I want, even if mine is the c2 (so many split opinions on the differing AC30 models, I like mine). The BP doesn't lack gain at all, it just doesn't have the same character as the AC30 when really cranked. It is hard to explain. It is not a bad sounding amp at all. It just seems to go thick and throaty and loses some of the 'anrgy jangly' Vox tone. A good rock overdrive tone though not the one I wanted. I didn't want a Vox copy, but I wanted to be able to recognise the tone. And for me the really cranked tones aren't in the right ballpark. I didn't like bright mode when cranked, I found it too toppy without enough body, and deep is good but moving things away from the tones I'm looking for.
I'm going to sleep on it, but might send mine back. I'm already happy with the Vox combo for low volume clean and rock band volume breakup tones, but when it comes to higher drive I prefer it through a larger closed back cab. Ironically the BP head was supposed to be the solution to the AC30 overdrive sound through closed back cab, but the louder you get it the less it sounds like an AC30 IMO. The cleans are really very nice though, as are the mild breakup tones, but I see no reason to keep it as it is overlapping with the strong points of the AC30 combo at that point.
Normal setting is my favourite for the entire gain range, but the bright mode also works nicely for bringing out a bit more from humbuckers on cleaner settings. Having 5 voicings is very nice for pedals. I was enjoying playing my Big Muff through the different settings.
The trail on the reverb is really very long, and since it isn't foot switchable I don't find it that useful. This is the only real negative on the amp IMO, the tone is nice just I'm not sure it is what I wanted it to sound like.
I may have time for comparison clips but can't promise anything as it depends if I send it back and how soon it gets collected. I'm probably splitting hairs, but even at the 'cheap' price it isn't a cheap investment if I'm not convinced. I'll see how I feel tomorrow.
^ yeah not making the reverb switchable is a pain
i got an email back from gak- they were very nice, and said I could swap the valves. I couldn't get two of the preamp valves out (those wee screws are very tight! and i didn't want to use any more force in case i broke something), but swapping the preamp valves i could (I didn't have a matched quad of el84s or the rectifier valve to hand) didn't solve my problems.
Think I'm gonna take them up on their offer to collect it so I can get a replacement- even if I could get it working again, the fact I couldn't get two of the preamp valves out would concern me.
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