What's Your Dream Amp? - TGF Edition

[Mongillo19]

I wonder how much they could have saved not doing built-in effects. I mean VHX _user_ (lol) will likely have helix, fractal, eventide devices with favorite sounds, just like I do. Adds cost, confuses me. Kinda reminds me Engl E580 with COM port lol.

But I know only three in-production midi amps - H&K Grandmeister (buddy has one), Hook with motorized pots and VHX. And I want programmable just for fun.

My thoughts exactly. I feel like the VHX is a fit for digital users already and at that point, why not just use your modeler?

I'd rather just have a VH4 if I'm going for a Diezel amp or another one of their staples

 

[JiveTurkey]

My thoughts exactly. I feel like the VHX is a fit for digital users already and at that point, why not just use your modeler?

I'd rather just have a VH4 if I'm going for a Diesel amp or another one of their staples

The only clips I have ever heard from the VHX sounds like poop too. So that plus the price point is a big no thanks.

 

[chicken]

that's why I hope @GuitarJon or @2112 will do something about it. Pretty selfish ya? It's not like midi amps pop up too often though. There has to be some curiosity and exploration wisdom.

 

[GuitarJon]

A VHX isn't exactly in my budget but it seems like an incredible amp!

 

[DrewJD82]

A VHX isn't exactly in my budget but it seems like an incredible amp!

Just find a wannabe geartuber who has one and tell them you’ll mention their channel in your video, you’ll have one delivered in 15 minutes.

 

[itchyfingers]

Stoked to say I am already blessed with my dream amps. While I never considered myself a "Marshall guy", this is the best Bassman I've ever played, lol.

Played daily since I brought it home, I'll be buried with this guy. 57 Vibrolux.

 

[Stratzrus]

Dream amp? It depends on what I'm dreaming about.

If it's for Jazz I'm thinking about the Rivera Suprema Jazz Recording with Mini Multi-Watt speaker emulation (six different voices). I'm going to sit it on my Rivera Los Lowbottom Sub 1 to thicken up the tone from the open back 1x12.

If it's for anything else it's my Fryette Sig:X. Deliverance 120 four 4x12 rig with a Fractal Audio FM9.

 

[la szum]

good Choices for sure ,

For me I always lusted after the Dzl , and all the modern boutique High gainers , a few year back

But I have come to realize that a boosted Recto is just a classic for that genre , nothing really sounds like it , its strange and maybe a boring choice , but it has a Sound .

Just like I think the JCM w a boost is a staple

Yup. You could do Recto, JCM, and some kind of Fender in the Blackface realm (Reissue or otherwise) like a
Deluxe Reverb and really never need or require another amp your entire life.

I feel like I am getting closer and closer with each passing day to narrowing it all down to the fundamental
machines.

 

[Jim Roseberry]

Was interested/curious about the Diezel VHX (almost bought it several times)
The YouTube video "demos" of the VHX are *horrible*.
Mostly crappy iPhone recordings...

Decided to pull the trigger... and it arrived yesterday.
Mine came with EL34s.

Note: I'm not a Metal head.
I'm more into Modded Marshall type gain.

The VHX definitely does not sound like crap.
It actually sounds very good.

The Clean and Crunch channels are surprisingly good.
The VHX has one of the nicest clean channels I've heard.
Maybe not quite Shiva/20th Shiva... but not far off.

Crunch channel takes boost/drive pedals well.
Tried a Katana, TS, and Revv G2 (Green).
Not by any means necessary... the VHX has plenty of gain... and there's a 3dB boost.

The first (Blue) drive channel (with gain at ~40%) is getting into higher-gain Rock tone.
The second (Red) drive channel is thicker sounding... with crazy amount of gain on tap.
Transients are well preserved and great string definition... even when gain is set pretty high.

I've been running the VHX thru a MESA 2x12 vertical (v30s)... as well as a Bogner 4x12 (v30s and GBs).
Sounds equally good thru both cabs.
I'm thinking that overall... the VHX is a bit dark sounding. I'm turning up the Treble and Presence a fair bit.
Even so, noise is very reasonable.

The onboard effects are ok. The DI output is mono... so that (for me) takes a lot of the excitement out of the effects.

The onboard tuner is a nice convenience.

The Cab Section that's routed to the DI output sounds pretty decent.
You've got three speakers and four mic choices.
You can also move the mic position.
Not as elaborate as some other Cab sims... but it's easy to use and sounds good.
You can also load your own Cab IRs (via USB connection to computer).
There's no software to load/run... the VHX shows up as a flash-drive... and you just copy the desired IRs to the VHX IR folder.

I'm only 24 hours in... but so far so good.
The entire amp is MIDI programmable... so I grabbed a Quad Cortex to act as MIDI controller (and to be able to Capture).
Want to explore that after I'm more familiar with all the details.

 

[JiveTurkey]

I didn't need to read this

Was interested/curious about the Diezel VHX (almost bought it several times)
The YouTube video "demos" of the VHX are *horrible*.
Mostly crappy iPhone recordings...

Decided to pull the trigger... and it arrived yesterday.
Mine came with EL34s.

Note: I'm not a Metal head.
I'm more into Modded Marshall type gain.

The VHX definitely does not sound like crap.
It actually sounds very good.

The Clean and Crunch channels are surprisingly good.
The VHX has one of the nicest clean channels I've heard.
Maybe not quite Shiva/20th Shiva... but not far off.

Crunch channel takes boost/drive pedals well.
Tried a Katana, TS, and Revv G2 (Green).
Not by any means necessary... the VHX has plenty of gain... and there's a 3dB boost.

The first (Blue) drive channel (with gain at ~40%) is getting into higher-gain Rock tone.
The second (Red) drive channel is thicker sounding... with crazy amount of gain on tap.
Transients are well preserved and great string definition... even when gain is set pretty high.

I've been running the VHX thru a MESA 2x12 vertical (v30s)... as well as a Bogner 4x12 (v30s and GBs).
Sounds equally good thru both cabs.
I'm thinking that overall... the VHX is a bit dark sounding. I'm turning up the Treble and Presence a fair bit.
Even so, noise is very reasonable.

The onboard effects are ok. The DI output is mono... so that (for me) takes a lot of the excitement out of the effects.

The onboard tuner is a nice convenience.

The Cab Section that's routed to the DI output sounds pretty decent.
You've got three speakers and four mic choices.
You can also move the mic position.
Not as elaborate as some other Cab sims... but it's easy to use and sounds good.
You can also load your own Cab IRs (via USB connection to computer).
There's no software to load/run... the VHX shows up as a flash-drive... and you just copy the desired IRs to the VHX IR folder.

I'm only 24 hours in... but so far so good.
The entire amp is MIDI programmable... so I grabbed a Quad Cortex to act as MIDI controller (and to be able to Capture).
Want to explore that after I'm more familiar with all the details.

 

[Jim Roseberry]

I sold my 20th Ecstasy (to fund other gear).
It took me several days to choose between another 20th Ecstasy and the VHX.
In a perfect world... I'd have the VHX, 20th Ecstasy, 20th Shiva, and BE-100 Deluxe.

 

[laxu]

That and it's what, $4500. That's wild!

I know it's dream and I'm ruining the point but just from logical standpoint, that's one expensive amp

In Europe the Diezel VHX is a more reasonable 3499 euros at Thomann, incl 24% VAT. The Friedman Twin Sister or REVV Generator 120 Mk3 cost as much.

But the problem with the amp to me is that even though I like Diezels, I've never necessarily wanted all of them in one box. I'd be probably happy with just one of them. At 24 kgs the VHX is one heavy amp to move around.

Even if it could be your whole rig if you like the fx, at that point I might as well use an Axe-Fx 3 + poweramp and it would be a pretty similar, but massively more flexible rig.

I wonder how much they could have saved not doing built-in effects. I mean VHX _user_ (lol) will likely have helix, fractal, eventide devices with favorite sounds, just like I do. Adds cost, confuses me.

Probably not much savings in anything but R&D costs. If you want to have IRs, you need a DSP. If you want to have reverb, it would make sense to do that digital as well in an amp like this so with a bit of extra, you could just go to town by implementing other fx too.

 

[Mongillo19]

Even if it could be your whole rig if you like the fx, at that point I might as well use an Axe-Fx 3 + poweramp and it would be a pretty similar, but massively more flexible rig.

Totally agree. I've said before if I'm getting a Diezel it'll be a full tube flagship such as the VH4 or Herbert.

The VHX just seems to be a hybrid which is cool in theory but may just be caught in the middle

 

[Achilles]

Just read about this beast. Sounds like a 21st century tube amp with a 20th century rack modeler shoehorned into it.

That display is.

 

[Jim Roseberry]

Totally agree. I've said before if I'm getting a Diezel it'll be a full tube flagship such as the VH4 or Herbert.

The VHX just seems to be a hybrid which is cool in theory but may just be caught in the middle

The VHX is a full tube amp.
The different voices and shaping are all analog... switched via relays (not modeled/simulated).
The only digital part is the DSP based effects and IR/Cab sim.

 

[chicken]

If you want to have IRs

I somewhat agree with you 1) have irs 2) have decent latency - means something powerful enough and then more can be added. My point is I don't need IRs in the amp at all. I have IRs in helix.
They created very capable analog thing, why compromise it with modeling? They are 5 people shop IIRC, they surely could have spent R&D time/money (including whole supply chain part) on amp things. Like allowing BMT CC controls or adding programmable boost (think RJM overtune). Exposing bias test points and pots, allowing individual bias like some Randall amps. Allowing different tubes combinations, like Triamp, Roadking. They could have done ultimate tube experience but chose to compete with Line6, Strymon, etc.

The only thing worse than that is adding usb audio interface to the amp.

Probably will buy it anyway :-/

 

[laxu]

I somewhat agree with you 1) have irs 2) have decent latency - means something powerful enough and then more can be added. My point is I don't need IRs in the amp at all. I have IRs in helix.
They created very capable analog thing, why compromise it with modeling?

IRs should be a standard feature on amps coming out nowadays. They make it so convenient to record, run into a PA etc.

They are 5 people shop IIRC, they surely could have spent R&D time/money (including whole supply chain part) on amp things. Like allowing BMT CC controls or adding programmable boost (think RJM overtune). Exposing bias test points and pots, allowing individual bias like some Randall amps. Allowing different tubes combinations, like Triamp, Roadking. They could have done ultimate tube experience but chose to compete with Line6, Strymon, etc.

I'd say the number of people interested in messing with their amps to a Triamp/Roadking level are quite few. I've had amps that took any tube you could think of, or had tons of tweakability switches. Eventually you just find a single setting or a set of tubes (probably the ones that came with the amp) that works great and forget all those other options exist.

It's not really known who developed the digital stuff for Diezel. It could just as well be outsourced for fx.

I think you are coming from the point of "I have a Helix, why do I need fx in an amp?" but for others it might be "cool, I can replace this big ass pedalboard with the fx in the VHX so I just plug in and play".

 

[chicken]

They make it so convenient to record,

You might as well have amp switcher and centralized line out.

Eventually you just find a single setting or a set of tubes (probably the ones that came with the amp) that works great and forget all those other options exist.

The whole point of full midi amp is to mess and eventually settle. If we think they added FX after IRs "while at it", they could have "while at it" added bias points and other stuff as well. That's what I mean - midi amp is for geeks, while stop short of really fully customizability and what is considered good taste (bias exposed) but go and do FX. That's an amp, one could expect they do amp things to the max first and then think about pedalboard replacement.

PS re bias, I think I saw on rig-talk they advise against biasing "at home". Nonsense

 

[Jim Roseberry]

It's not really known who developed the digital stuff for Diezel. It could just as well be outsourced for fx.

In one of their videos, they mention that the effects are all developed in-house.

 

[Achilles]

IRs should be a standard feature on amps coming out nowadays.

No!!!! The new Diezel is a perfect example of someone totally outside of that arena thinking they needed to jam some new tech into a product. IR loaders are a dime a dozen and cheap as all hell if you go the software route. I don't want every new amp in 2025 full of bells I'll never have a use for. This is a digital leaning forum so the view is skewered - go to a dedicated amp forum and start talking about IRs in every new amp.

@laxu
I'm not replying to you as much as just spouting off in general. I thought the Suhr PT-15IR was interesting. It comes out with all the gizmos only to have Suhr seemingly rush to market a non-IR version not too long there-after. I honestly see the new VHX as hideous and consider it a bit of a sell-out on their part.

Just one opinion.