gonzoknife
Roadie
- Messages
- 150
My Stupid Deal Badlander 50 combo arrived today. I've been playing with it a little and it's a keeper. After a few missteps: Why does it sound so dark and odd? Oh, guitar tone knob is down! What's that rattle, a bad tube? Oh, it's the amp stand.
Clean and crunch work for me. Crush doesn't seem that much different than crunch. A little more gain and more compressed. Quick test with an SD1 in front and it sounds fantastic. I'll probably live between clean and crunch most of the time. I did a quick swap to some 6l6 tubes I've had in a box for years. I'm not sure which I prefer. The el34s are more percussive and the 6l6s are more forgiving. I'm going to put the el34s back in and live with them for a while. With el34s there's an articulation to the notes I really enjoy. It's nice to have the option. The masters also works very well. I may not even need the 20w setting for home practice most of the time. A little heavy but the wheels are there for most movement. I'll eventually experiment with things like the IRs, using my FM9 as a pedalboard or the Badlander as the power amp for modeling, etc... but for now I'm enjoying plugging in and playing. For that purpose sometimes a real amp with maybe a pedal or two is more immediate satisfaction.
Overall I'm happy and it's really fun to play. I do have to build a board for it. Most likely a simple one with a compressor, phase (I love a good phase), od of some flavor and then a delay and/or reverb in the loop. I'll keep it simple. I can see this being my main amp for many years to come. View attachment IMG_0639.jpeg
Clean and crunch work for me. Crush doesn't seem that much different than crunch. A little more gain and more compressed. Quick test with an SD1 in front and it sounds fantastic. I'll probably live between clean and crunch most of the time. I did a quick swap to some 6l6 tubes I've had in a box for years. I'm not sure which I prefer. The el34s are more percussive and the 6l6s are more forgiving. I'm going to put the el34s back in and live with them for a while. With el34s there's an articulation to the notes I really enjoy. It's nice to have the option. The masters also works very well. I may not even need the 20w setting for home practice most of the time. A little heavy but the wheels are there for most movement. I'll eventually experiment with things like the IRs, using my FM9 as a pedalboard or the Badlander as the power amp for modeling, etc... but for now I'm enjoying plugging in and playing. For that purpose sometimes a real amp with maybe a pedal or two is more immediate satisfaction.
Overall I'm happy and it's really fun to play. I do have to build a board for it. Most likely a simple one with a compressor, phase (I love a good phase), od of some flavor and then a delay and/or reverb in the loop. I'll keep it simple. I can see this being my main amp for many years to come. View attachment IMG_0639.jpeg
