New Amps Week- Shiva and 5153 Edition!

Hell yeah! Congrats!

Try sending the FM9 straight into the loop of the EVH and a great cab with whatever amp models float your boat. With that setup, I've been able to nail the tones of every amp I tried with the singular exception of the California Tweed. I've been able to match Dual Recs, Peaveys, EVHs, and Fenders.

Less cables, no ground hum, every amp I could want, every effect I could want, every routing I could want (I'm partial to w/d/w these days--pardon me, m/d/m so we don't start a war).
 
Hell yeah! Congrats!

Try sending the FM9 straight into the loop of the EVH and a great cab with whatever amp models float your boat. With that setup, I've been able to nail the tones of every amp I tried with the singular exception of the California Tweed. I've been able to match Dual Recs, Peaveys, EVHs, and Fenders.

Less cables, no ground hum, every amp I could want, every effect I could want, every routing I could want (I'm partial to w/d/w these days--pardon me, m/d/m so we don't start a war).

Hahaha that’s actually how all this started; I wanted to run the FM9 into a tube power amp/section. I was supposed to be weighing out power amp choices, but when these popped up at the prices they did , I looked at it as getting two birds stoned at once; I’m getting some killer amps and a tube power section.

I’ve got three 2x12 cabs now, I’m totally setting up a w/d/w rig just for shits and giggles. I’ve yet to play through one!
 
Fuck yeah ! Glad you got the matching cab too!

This is as loud as I can turn it up in my apartment :rofl but it sounds pretty damn killer! That actually does make sound at that setting, just loud enough that it’s a definite no-no after 10pm in an apartment. Hahahah I got bummed the other night and then remembered I have the FM9 sitting right there I can get whisper quiet with the Powerstage.

Derp, I forgot to upload the pic :ROFLMAO:
IMG_5389.jpeg
 
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@DrewJD82 do you feel like the digital versions gave you a good idea of what to expect with these amps? or has the “identity” of these amps been more obvious and revealing after using the real thing?

Curious if you’ve found anything different or surprising based on what you might have been familiar with on the models, and if so, in what ways?
 
@DrewJD82 do you feel like the digital versions gave you a good idea of what to expect with these amps? or has the “identity” of these amps been more obvious and revealing after using the real thing?

Curious if you’ve found anything different or surprising based on what you might have been familiar with on the models, and if so, in what ways?

Honestly, I've never spent any great deal of time with either model, before or after getting the amps. I got some time to kill today and am going to start playing in a few. The only model I have a 1:1 of is the 50 Watt 5153 Blue Channel (which is a pretty killer channel) as the Shiva is the 20th Anniv version in the Fractal.

Something interesting, Yek's amp guide notes the original model was a borrowed head, I'm guessing an original run, but Fractal got the 20th to model, noting it had less gain than the original. The 20th's in general have more gain than the original run, but there's a few different versions out there of each. The 20th has KT88's and I've got EL34's.

Regardless, it'll be interesting to do some comparisons using the amp's power sections.
 
I’m quite well decided at this point the 5153/FM9 is going to be the live rig. It’s overkill for what I want to do with the band, giving me ample room to do whatever the hell I want in the future. Got a MIDI cable on the way to start playing with changing amp channels via the FM9.

Outside of an additional EVH cab, all I need to do is build a breakout box for the pedalboard that I keep all the I/O delegated to instead of using the FM9’s jacks directly. Color coded jacks and I’ll make a couple snakes with color coded ends and that rig is DONE!
 
I had a MIDI cable kicking around so I already got the head/FM9 set up for channel switching, that took all of 5 minutes and most of that time was me not thinking I did it right. :rofl

The last week I’ve been practicing/learning how to play and sing the last tune I finished, this one is a tricky bastard because all the whammy pedal stuff. This is chock full of mistakes, like every other thing I play, sometimes I’m not catching the mistakes as I’m doing it because I’m thinking about the part ahead of me by the time it goes by, so scrutinizing the shit out myself watching these videos helps. The hardest part about this is going to be not fucking headbanging when I have to sing.

Red channel is my rhythm channel, there’s a TS808 Mod boosting it, but the amp gain is around 11 o’clock, Drive is off and the Level is 4.37 on the 808. Lead is the Blue channel with an SD-1 boosting it, giving it a good amount of dirt and level, I have to keep the Gain on the Blue channel around 12 o’clock if I want a usable clean channel.

 
I love the "alright now where are my glasses" frame at the end 😂😂 sounds so brutal. You can tell you are having a blast playing it!
 
Been following his mods for a while, he does great work. Helps he’s a killer player, but even still he seems to do some of the best sounding takes on those classic mods. Big fan of how Jason Tong tunes a Marshall too, and Shea Monomyth and Jeremy from Ground Zero are doing amazing sounding stuff
Word!
 
I had a MIDI cable kicking around so I already got the head/FM9 set up for channel switching, that took all of 5 minutes and most of that time was me not thinking I did it right. :rofl

The last week I’ve been practicing/learning how to play and sing the last tune I finished, this one is a tricky bastard because all the whammy pedal stuff. This is chock full of mistakes, like every other thing I play, sometimes I’m not catching the mistakes as I’m doing it because I’m thinking about the part ahead of me by the time it goes by, so scrutinizing the shit out myself watching these videos helps. The hardest part about this is going to be not fucking headbanging when I have to sing.

Red channel is my rhythm channel, there’s a TS808 Mod boosting it, but the amp gain is around 11 o’clock, Drive is off and the Level is 4.37 on the 808. Lead is the Blue channel with an SD-1 boosting it, giving it a good amount of dirt and level, I have to keep the Gain on the Blue channel around 12 o’clock if I want a usable clean channel.


Hell yeah man!!
 
I love the "alright now where are my glasses" frame at the end 😂😂 sounds so brutal. You can tell you are having a blast playing it!

Hahahahah if I didn’t take ‘em off before I started I’d have been looking for them on the floor. It’s definitely a fun one and I really can’t wait to play it with a band!
 
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