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]
