Okie doke - Arrived, in superb packaging, and everything is good =)
Now for the review - I'll go through each channel etc, and give a brief description.
Channel 1 - Clean:
Basically, you have 2 main sounds here - A sharper clean when you have the brightness switch on, and that sounds great for the good ol' chicken plucking, bluesy stuff etc, and a warmer clean channel when you have the brightness switch off, which is lovely a thick and great for chords, jazzy stuff etc.
Channel 2 - Crunch:
When you turn the clean volume (basically acts like a gain control for the clean/crunch due to use of the master vol) down it sounds nice a bluesy crunch - very useable, if you're into that sort of thing - But when you turn up the clean volume, you get beautiful thick rock tones - think AC/DC, Led Zep etc.
Channel 3 - "Soft lead":
Now we're getting into the more warm liquid metal tones, at low gainit it's quite similar to the high gain crunch, while at high gain, it's basically metal rhythm. Of all the channels, I'd say this one was probably the least usefull, since it's basically the crunch channel for people who need to keep the clean gain down for playing clean.
Channel 4 - "Heavy Lead":
Rich liquidy sustain and great metal tones - Very crushing while not being too full on - It's not the very tightest of amps but the notes catch well and you won't lose notes in waves of gain like you would on Mesas. Chords are pretty crushing, and the lead sounds are nice and liquidy.
Other things:
Reverb:
The reverb is gorgeous! Very wet, and very usable - While not being overkill. Seriously - Some of the nicest reverb I've ever used, really thick and wet - love it!
"VLS":
Basically, it's a volume boost - You hit it before a solo and cranks your volume up a notch on the master volume - or so it seems. It works fine, and doesn't make you ridiculously louder, just enough to make you stand above in a mix. Basically it's a volume boost for people that don't own volume boosts - Does it's job fine, and it's a very nice addition to the amp.
Build Quality:
Everytime I see the amp I forget just how big it is. This amp is really quite big. It's built like a freaking tank. Although only time will tell how reliable it is, it does not look like I could break it even if I tried. It's really bloody tanklike :|
Cabinet: Open back with a V30 - obviously being open back it doesn't sound as tight as it could - but it does sound nice - I'm no cab expert, so I won't go on about how the V30 does or does not do something or other, or how the cabinet design limits/exceeds tone compared to closed back - but I will say the amp sounds good doing any style through this cab, and maybe one day I'll put a K100 in to darken the tone, but at the moment it's perfect.
General Sound etc:
Overall the amp is quite bright - Not too bright, just that's the general tonality of the amp, it seems to do every style well, and I can't imagine replacing it any time in the near future. Compared to other amps in the market, I can't really think of anything that really competes with it - And trust me, I LOOKED. I might darken the tone with a Celestion G12K-100 one day - I played through a Diezel cab with them once and just - WOAH.
