dementiacaptain

So many of you may know that I swap amps fairly regular. Most of the time I make horizontal shifts, but this time I believe I have made quite the vertical shift up.

I had a carvin V3, it was cool, did a bunch of things alright, but I didn't ever love it, I just kind of felt like it was a bit too "refined." I wanted something vintage, something raw and pissed off. I emailed a guy on a longshot hoping he would bite, and luck was on my side!

He fell in love with the V3, I fell in love with this:


Untitled by bllyfen8, on Flickr


Untitled by bllyfen8, on Flickr


Untitled by bllyfen8, on Flickr

A VHT/Fryette Pitbull 45 This bad boy is simple at first glance, but really quite complicated as you get into all the features.

First off, specs:

4 EL84s in the power amp

5AR4 rectifier tube

EL84 powered reverb and 12AX7 powered effects loop

12AX7 PI

Two 12AX7s in the preamp signal path, not sure how it is divided among each one or how the channels are setup.

Class A/B or A switch, very useful

High/Low inputs

Footswitchable boost, effects loop and spring reverb.

Celestion Vintage 10 and Eminence Ragin' Cajun speakers (these were put in by a previous owner)

No blender though, real bummer

Now the important part, how it sounds!

So, I have had it for about 5 days now, and I can say that this amp is just as versatile as the V3, but in a much more convincing way. The clean channel is very reminiscent of an AC30, perhaps partially attributed to the power tubes, though I doubt that has much to do with it. It stays very clean until it starts to get really loud, though it breaks up earlier in Class A. Awesome with my strat, I get a sweet country tone great for Chicken Pickin', very bouncy and clear. I like to run the clean channel with my modded DS-1, just a little bit of breakup to make chords jump out more.

Now, the real treat on this bad boy, the dirt channel! I will admit I expected maybe some grandpa rock levels of distortion out of this bad boy, but this was a severe underestimation. The dirty channel gets very distorted, but more important, it is very, very fat. This channel is very versatile. Plugged into the low input, you get a punchy but controllable breakup great for Zepp and the like. With preamp gain dimed you can get some nice early metal tones, Sabbath and the like.

The high input kicks it up a notch. I can get most 80s metal tones (including thrash) and depending on how I set the EQ, I can get it setup for some more modern sounds with some help from my tubescreamer. The key to this channel are the edge and bass shift switches. The edge switch does what it sounds like, adds some sharpness to the sound to get it more aggressive. I can't really tell what the bass shift is actually doing yet, I hear a difference, but I can't really put it into words, it is just different I can get some real heavy tones out of this channel, not your typical sound, but something I would feel comfortable playing modern metal styles with.

Overall, this amp was full of surprises. I didn't expect it to sound so huge considering the 2x10 format, but it definitely is a monster. I definitely didn't expect metal, but I definitely got it. The replaced speakers are a definite nice touch, they blend very well together and make the amp perfectly balanced.

Conclusion:

Sweet amp, glad I traded for it. Let's see how long it lasts

__________________
WOLFPACK!

My name is Jon

H4T3BR33D3R

I'm jelly man. Nice amp! We need clips

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Only at times, though.

Cathbard

Very nice.


HNAD

__________________
Gilchrist custom guitar
Yamaha SBG500
Telecaster
Ibanez Iceman
Roland GP-8
Quadraverb
Abbey Harmonic II
Marshall JTM45 clone
Marshall JCM900 4102 (modded)
Marshall 18W clone
Fender 5F1 Champ clone
Marshall 1960A

Cathbard Amplification

dementiacaptain

Clips are difficult to produce, lack or a recording interface and all. I am hoping to cart all my amps over to my friends soon and record a few clips, hopefully I can do that soon.

Thanks fellas

__________________
WOLFPACK!

My name is Jon

LaidBack

HNAD dude! very cool...I'd like to get my hands on a VHT/Freyette soon.

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Gibson Les Paul Studio
Highway One Telecaster
Dean Evo
Mesa F-50
Laney GH50L
Ampeg V2
pedals

dementiacaptain

Yeah, very surprising for my area, don't normally see stuff like that around here.

__________________
WOLFPACK!

My name is Jon

Ippon

Sweet!

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Who To Listen To EG/GG&A and GB&C ... 7/ERG Field Marshall ... ?!?

gregs1020

wtf is grandpa rock?

another god damn'd genre invented by ****ing bubble gummers that's what.

oh yea, HNAD.

Cathbard

And I see that it came with good tubes too. I bet you were glad when you looked in the back and saw JJ's rather than Sovteks.

__________________
Gilchrist custom guitar
Yamaha SBG500
Telecaster
Ibanez Iceman
Roland GP-8
Quadraverb
Abbey Harmonic II
Marshall JTM45 clone
Marshall JCM900 4102 (modded)
Marshall 18W clone
Fender 5F1 Champ clone
Marshall 1960A

Cathbard Amplification

311ZOSOVHJH

HNVHTD


Great looking amp and I'm glad to hear it is as versatile as you say.

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dementiacaptain

Greg: by that I mean rock that my grandpa listens to, duh!

Cath: Yeah, the preamp tubes are still ruby and the PI is some weird old ass lookin' thing, but the power and rectifier are all JJ.

Ippon/311: Thanks guys

__________________
WOLFPACK!

My name is Jon

Cathbard

Ruby what?

__________________
Gilchrist custom guitar
Yamaha SBG500
Telecaster
Ibanez Iceman
Roland GP-8
Quadraverb
Abbey Harmonic II
Marshall JTM45 clone
Marshall JCM900 4102 (modded)
Marshall 18W clone
Fender 5F1 Champ clone
Marshall 1960A

Cathbard Amplification

dementiacaptain

I can't remember what the exact code was, I can't be assed to look now since I have glued my rear to the sofa, but I imagine there is potential for them to be something good

__________________
WOLFPACK!

My name is Jon

gregs1020

my granpa listened to sinatra almost exclusively.

dementiacaptain

Well I have fairly young grandparents to be fair, I'm 18 and my grandfather I live with is 58, the other is 63. The one is a biker/tough guy, lots of zepp and old sabbath, bluesy stuff, Neil young, but the other is total 60s hippie, cream and Beatles, little bit of ccr type stuff

__________________
WOLFPACK!

My name is Jon

gumbilicious

HNAD, awesome get dude!


whatever you and cath play at your diaper parties

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"A perfection of means, and confusion of aims, seems to be our main problem."
-ae

gregs1020

so santana, page and moore.

duly noted.

R45VT

Nice trade!

Now if only you can get us some gut shots.... that thread needs more VHT.

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BobDetroit

Welcome to the VHT club. The shift button shifts the bass middle and treble shelving down a bit.