Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
Forum Ringside => Guitars, Amps and Effects => Topic started by: Drac on June 01, 2006, 10:56:19 AM
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At long last, the circle is complete...
-I've been drooling over this since first hearing one-
literally years of teetering on the precipice of having, & having not.
Picked up my Nano from a dealer in the states-
I had contacted Zach Vex in regard to ordering a Nano with a custom paint job- Black chassis, with bloody red drippingletters, and spooky evil iconry-
true Drac style!-He wrote me back that they had nothing but problems doing customs on a one off basis, & said that customs paint was only randomly available to dealers. DAMN!
Found one in custom SHO gold-really rich metalflake gold ala his SuperHardOn boost pedal-and nabbed it.
Ripped into it in the car on the way home from the post office-just had to see it...
It's miniscule. I plugged it in ASAP-
Mesa 4x12" Recto cab-cranked it up- "R O C K ! ! !"
Yeah!-I played for an hour, trying different axes/pickups/cabs/pedals
-have to say that I prefer a less efficient 2x12" cab, as to get in the gain zone, you gotta turn the volume up, and it's bloody loud for half watt through a 4x12"!-
Surprise!-this amp at full screw, & therefore full gain, is gonna be TOO LOUD for bedrooms @ Moms joint, and apartment dwellers,yer not going to be tracking at midnight while yer woman sleeps...DROP THAT IDEA.
This is a loWatt amp head for driving a guitar cabinet, feeding stompboxes into, and miking the sum : my experience is that one is really hearing the amp itself with a naked input chain- axe/amp/cab-but it sounds best with an additional gainstage-boost/overdrive/distortion,etc.
To my ears, the distortion is good, but fragments earlier than I'd like it to-VERY ROCK N'ROLL, in a usable dynamic way-Crank the volume on the amp, and use the guitars controls-AMAZING.
But does it ever give the tube experience!-Your guitar's controls LORD over the gain stage-why anyone would deprive themselves of this experience, I do not know.
The Nano is very peculiar in tone shaping, having only switches rather than pots-I freely admit to taking my time warming up to this- but there is a lot you can do considering the relatively few parameters for tweaking.
Playing straight into it gives a good honest rendering of the input chain sequence, from axetimber,pickup,controls,to the cab your plug out through-Dynamic, wide, true, and NAKED. Gotta clean up those chops!-Like any pure direct tube amp, it will reveal weakness behind the guitar being played.
Ok, plug some pedals in-Very impressed!-All my ZVex pedals seem optimized for this amp ( surprise...)-My other favorite is an EH MetalMuff distortion box-This yields mighty blackest stygian deathtone, and you can bet I will be spending no small amount of time in this micro environment!
I have to say, if it was MORE METAL, that I'd be ok with that...If you want a pocket recto wall, you're going to have to run boxes into it.But the volume is great for recording, methinks, possibly gigging?-It gets louder than one is allowed at the London Guitar Show-forget about "Quiet Time"...
Take all this with a grain of salt- I'm still in the 'honeymoon' period, having just packed it out...We'll see if it stays with me, and more importantly gets tracked. I can already see that I will be using pedals with this all the time, but I'm already doing that dance anyway.
Wanted to share the rapture, and post a photo-
going to track some soundbites today, and will post them to the player's soundclips section of the forum SOON.Will try to do a well rounded tour through the sounds it makes, and will use the Warpig & MiracleMan BK's for the ride.
check back later, mates!- cheers from Drac in guitar hell[list=][/list]
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Drac, its no suprise you like it. I'm expecting an extended honeymoon period with mine-I'm amazed how musical those mini tubes are. I took my nano to a
friends last night who has a 2X10 cab loaded with lightly doped Weber speakers and it nailed the tone I'm looking for-far superior to the 1X12 and 2X12 V30 cabs I've got.
Just gotta decide now which BKP pickups I shall get for guitars-starting with my strat first..
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GREAT review Drac man!
Keep us updated as the honeymoon progresses into the long haul of life.
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wow it seems she's a lot louder than i'd have expected! congrats on the amp, she's certainly pretty! we'll see how she sings from clips later :) . I'm suprised that it's your sort of thing though Drac; to be honest i had you down as a strictly 100W HEAVY METAL kind of guy. :P
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Cool stuff Drac, hmm you got me thinking.
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Nice, I just ordered one, although I am happy with the normal finish. After playing my Epiphone valve jr, which sounds great I decided to sell my Atomic Reactor 112 w/ pod XT. I just do not use it, for that pure distortion tone I used it for I can will use the nano. Now to find an affordable and good 2x12. Should be a great little distortion amp, for the lower volumes I have to play at.