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Heya,

Just wondering what you guys think of the VHT Special 6 head and cab and also the Fender Excelsior? I want a simple amp for jamming at home but that could keep up with a drummer when jamming. I'll mainly be using it at home with pedals but interested in trying out proper valve amp overdrive too.

At the moment the Excelsior is edging slightly ahead as the extra wattage will mean a little more headroom I guess. Also it has a 15" speaker so I imagine it'll have a nice low end. As someone who likes to doom out often, this is very appealing!

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks

I didn't fancy the vht 6 when I played it. Very sterile sounding to me. I really liked the fender 500 I played the other day, and that's a similarly styled amp. You should check that out too if you want a quieter tube amp to play with.

The excelsior is probably louder than you think.

Can't say much for the VHT, but the Excelsior is ridiculously bright, even with the Dark switch and the 15.
As far as the overdrive goes, it's very "tweedish". I don't think you can doom out with just the amp alone,
but you can get some Neil Young / Earth "Bees Made Honey..." tones.

ALLisNOISE wrote:Can't say much for the VHT, but the Excelsior is ridiculously bright, even with the Dark switch and the 15.
As far as the overdrive goes, it's very "tweedish". I don't think you can doom out with just the amp alone,
but you can get some Neil Young / Earth "Bees Made Honey..." tones.

All true.

i tried the vht6 when b-room amp shoppin
actually was able to plug pedals into it at shop
and mess around for a bit and liked it
i wouldve gotten it but a pathfinder came my way for cheap
plus my homey said i didnt deserve a tube amp
then find out dude was tryin to buy it himself
oh well
another dude i know has the head
weird ponytail pedal freak
he loves it cause its decently clean at higher vols
and can effectthefuckout

univalve wrote:

ALLisNOISE wrote:Can't say much for the VHT, but the Excelsior is ridiculously bright, even with the Dark switch and the 15.
As far as the overdrive goes, it's very "tweedish". I don't think you can doom out with just the amp alone,
but you can get some Neil Young / Earth "Bees Made Honey..." tones.

All true.

Yup.

I am really happy with my Special 6, and it will definitely do what you want....
but that Excelsior has a 15! The Special 6 is a great amp at that price point. What kinda deal can you get on a Excelsior?

If you are not planning to use a cab....the fender has a 15....so boom!

I should said, I wont just be playing doom stuff on it, I often play shoegazey stuff. Also wanting to experiment with some more trebly garage sounds too as I've always tended to gravitate towards more bassy sounds.

In terms of the price, the VHT Special 6 + cab is €200 and the Excelsior is €277. Not a massive difference!

Ok so I ordered the Excelcior BUT I got an email saying they were actually out of stock. Bit of a pain because the site is usually pretty up to date in my experience. Anyway, the Excelsior seems to be sold out everywhere. This led me to do some more research and I stumbled upon the VHT 12/20. Good holy fuck, going by specs it'll do EVERYTHING I want from an amp. Yeah it costs a bit more, but it seems to be worth it. Thinking of going with the RT model too for some nice genuine spring reverb goodness. Any users of the 12/20 on here?

Excelsior, it seems to have much more headroom and volume available and it's more sweet

chutneyfarmer wrote:Ok so I ordered the Excelcior BUT I got an email saying they were actually out of stock. Bit of a pain because the site is usually pretty up to date in my experience. Anyway, the Excelsior seems to be sold out everywhere. This led me to do some more research and I stumbled upon the VHT 12/20. Good holy fuck, going by specs it'll do EVERYTHING I want from an amp. Yeah it costs a bit more, but it seems to be worth it. Thinking of going with the RT model too for some nice genuine spring reverb goodness. Any users of the 12/20 on here?

Was the 12/20 the hotrodded one? VHT made one in particular (with the woodgrain, I remember) that was a little more sweet sounding overdrive, didn't really do the high-gain brutz, but had a really nice sound and more headroom on tap.

that sounds exactly like 12/20 to me except for the woodgrain

Oh, the woodgrain one I'm thinking of is a the Handwired 18 watt.. which costs twice as much as most of the amps we've been talking about. And for like $50 more, you can get the 36 watt version

A store in Denton has the Excelsior in stock...as do most Guitar Centers. Get a homie to hook you up?