Using the EGC neck mascis squier. The marshall cab has lorantz speakers in it, which are locally made 100 watt speakers that break up beautifully, excellent for high gain stuff. I really like that Hot Snakes / Jehu sort of guitar sound and was really considering Novak gold foils for the jazzmaster but I think this amp has made it unnecessary. The deep contour switch really helps bring in a really solid bottom end without making things muddy and preserving all the top end. It's one of those amps where if you palm mute and just chug some open strings you can really feel it thumping against your legs, it's fantastic.
I had been using a boost into my beta lead to get the sound I wanted but running into the OD channel of the mother has made that unnecessary. The gain is really smooth and doesn't go to instant feedback unlike the boosted beta (and my plexi before it) did. Running a Tym guitars dod 250 clone into it for thicker stuff really makes it sound heavy. I can't wait to get my HM2 and big box rat into it. But again the thing that strikes me about it is it's so smooth in the gain. Feels like it just keeps ramping up and never reaches a tipping point where it gets too shrill or over the top (that's what I have fuzz pedals for!).
And it's just SO LOUD. Thing has headroom for miles, I honestly feel like I haven't pushed it yet to a point where the guts fall out of it (something I hate about say modern orange amps). You just keep on winding it up and it keeps on delivering right across the band.
I'm aware that I've used a bunch of TGP buzzwords and things like 'smooth gain' would never really have appealed to me in the past but yeah...I loved my old plexi, I love HD130s and I love my beta lead, but this thing has sold me. It feels like an amp that I can just throw anything into and it's going to be able to keep up, no matter what shitty no PA crust show I play it at. So into this amp. And Alex was an absolute pleasure to work with.
