Post by kabala on Dec 15, 2011 8:51:25 GMT -5
Sold my fiftyone fitty three. Nice amp, shoot, great amp, no complaints really, but it was no big deal to me either way, one of those gear pieces you could live with or without it. I did feel I could do better though if I looked around a bit. And I did. Kind of scary actually just how quickly I found TWO killer used amps, both in MINTY shape. Figured my B'day is this week anyway, what the heck. I did have to drop $300 more outta pocket in addition to what I sold the evh for, but I think it was worth it.
The Dr.z Carmen Ghia is super straight forward, 18 watts, clean to to bluesy tones and sounds nice through many speaker/cab types. No effects loop but a couple pedals up front cures that. Cathode based (EL84), so no biasing needed - I likes that! It's sounding great through my old Fender 2x12 (and not as loud as I was thinking it would be) but can easily drive one of my 4x12's as well. I refuse to wear t-shirts two sizes too small, oversized belt buckles and a cowboy hat when playing it however. ;D
The Marshall is actually a 100w Ceriatone Chupacabra. Bought it from the original owner. Really cool thing about this amp: its been modded by Mark Cameron, who's amps and mods I've always thought sound REDIC, just awesome sounding stuff! The seller is a producer in LA (I googled him, lol). He has a studio with over twenty high gain heads alone, including 2 Cameron CCV's, 5 Cameron modded Marshalls, etc, so I guess it was no loss for him to part with some amps for extra $. He had Cameron take the stock Chupa (which they IMO, already sound great as is, h3ll, they should, they're supposedly based/cloned on the Jose modded Plexi scheme floating around and built with high quality components) and make it even "more chewier and warmer while also adding the standard Cameron flavor." So many tweakable things on this amp my head is spinning, lol! Has three 3-way toggle switches, including an "era" switch, taking it from 60's Plexi, to 80's metal, to modern high gain (guess they intentionally skipped the 70's and 90's, lmao). One of the two gain knobs is a push/pull as well, engaging a "focus" feature. Has external bias points/trims so no need for 'ole shaky hands' to go jittering around in there now. The amps master volume is a treat too, heavy, saturated, open sound at normal volumes! Tons of gain on tap, way more than I'll ever need, so no boost pedal needed whatsoever - but it does take them well for even more tonal options.
The Dr.z Carmen Ghia is super straight forward, 18 watts, clean to to bluesy tones and sounds nice through many speaker/cab types. No effects loop but a couple pedals up front cures that. Cathode based (EL84), so no biasing needed - I likes that! It's sounding great through my old Fender 2x12 (and not as loud as I was thinking it would be) but can easily drive one of my 4x12's as well. I refuse to wear t-shirts two sizes too small, oversized belt buckles and a cowboy hat when playing it however. ;D
The Marshall is actually a 100w Ceriatone Chupacabra. Bought it from the original owner. Really cool thing about this amp: its been modded by Mark Cameron, who's amps and mods I've always thought sound REDIC, just awesome sounding stuff! The seller is a producer in LA (I googled him, lol). He has a studio with over twenty high gain heads alone, including 2 Cameron CCV's, 5 Cameron modded Marshalls, etc, so I guess it was no loss for him to part with some amps for extra $. He had Cameron take the stock Chupa (which they IMO, already sound great as is, h3ll, they should, they're supposedly based/cloned on the Jose modded Plexi scheme floating around and built with high quality components) and make it even "more chewier and warmer while also adding the standard Cameron flavor." So many tweakable things on this amp my head is spinning, lol! Has three 3-way toggle switches, including an "era" switch, taking it from 60's Plexi, to 80's metal, to modern high gain (guess they intentionally skipped the 70's and 90's, lmao). One of the two gain knobs is a push/pull as well, engaging a "focus" feature. Has external bias points/trims so no need for 'ole shaky hands' to go jittering around in there now. The amps master volume is a treat too, heavy, saturated, open sound at normal volumes! Tons of gain on tap, way more than I'll ever need, so no boost pedal needed whatsoever - but it does take them well for even more tonal options.
