Musikmesse 09

tdr

Member
***This is a re-post from the Harmony-Central Amp Forum, but I'm sure some people over here will enjoy this, too.***

Alright, I was at Messe today, as I do every year, but this year was a bit different. I was with a blind guy, walking around "showing" him stuff. It was a very cool experience, but it was of course totally different from the last few years, had less time to check stuff out, had consider the other guys interests etc. I might go back on saturday, but I am not sure, depends on my money-situation and how hungover I will be from fridays party.....but anyways, here is some of the new stuff.

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Shitty pic of the new Fireball 100 and the new matching cab in matte black finish. From the brochure: "....compared to the E625 60 Watts version, the new Fireball 100 features a darker, lower midrange focused ton."
Other new features: separate gain controls for clead and lead channel, footswitchable mid boost (for clean and lead channel), bottom switch (clean & lead) that adds low end punch, noise gate.

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Brave amps - made in Italy. The Raptor comes in three different versions, 25 watt (6v6), 50 watt (6L6 or EL34) and 100 watt (kt88 or 6550). I liked the small footprint of those amps, the clean sound was nice with single coils but a bit dull with humbuckers, the lead channel sounds very American, sorta of a Mesa-flavour going on there (at least on the 50watt 6L6 version I heard).

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Elmwood had some rack stuff on the display one is a rack version of their Modena 60, the bottom one is a new product, unfortunately I have no info on that.

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Bolt amps - apparently a new company, have never heard of them before. They introduced a new all tube 3 channel head. Every channel has three different sound modes, plus a switch called "active tone" but I did not get what this thing is supposed to do. The mids on the gain channels are parametric which I think is a nice feature. There is also a large VU-meter that is supposed to indicate the tube saturation - not sure how usefull it is, but nonetheless a fairly unique feature.
 
In regards to the BOLT amps:

The active and passive tone circuit make the eq active or passive. Also, I called them for a price today and they said they were running for $2299.00. I asked for sound clips and they mentioned when they get back from Musikmesse they'll try to post some.

-Greg
 
Oh, ok, that's what it does, I forgot. Unfortunately I did not get to hear the Bolt, their was no demo going on at the time I passed the booth, but the their sales rep was very nice and down to earth.
 
I'm definitely intrigued by that 100 watt fireball. I loved mine when I had it. I'm a bit confused that they describe it as a "lower midrange" sounding model. I thought the regular Fireball was lower midrange focused as well.

-Joe
 
Nah man, when I think the Fireball, I think crazy upper-mids! (e.g. Scar Symmetry's first two albums, and the Engl sound in general) Granted, I've never played one though...
 
Nah man, when I think the Fireball, I think crazy upper-mids! (e.g. Scar Symmetry's first two albums, and the Engl sound in general) Granted, I've never played one though...

Eh dunno bro, both the Fireball and Powerball seem pretty low mid oriented when compared to the Savage. I'd still like to hear one!

-Joe
 
Well actually, the HU tone I'm really not a fan of (too scooped/thin), but "Symmetric in Design" has this disgusting raw nastiness to it that I actually really like, and "Pitch Black Progress" is a lot more full sounding; both are straight-up Fireball (and possibly a Behringer cab, believe it or not) AFAIK!
 
Well actually, the HU tone I'm really not a fan of (too scooped/thin), but "Symmetric in Design" has this disgusting raw nastiness to it that I actually really like, and "Pitch Black Progress" is a lot more full sounding; both are straight-up Fireball (and possibly a Behringer cab, believe it or not) AFAIK!

Yeah possibly a touch on the thin side but the scoopyness kinda fits the rest of the mix. Fucking great album too :)
 
Comparatively yes, but still, have you heard either of those SS albums? :)

Yep! Definitely have...I've also played the Fireball extensively and played an Engl SE on a couple occasions. I guess I should have phrased comparatively.

Still, I used to jack up the mids a lot on my Fireball. I'm sure the SS guys did as well. Most reviews you read out there of Fireball and Powerball owners (from what I've read over the past couple of years), tell of the mid knob needing to be way higher than most amps to compensate for the lack of natural mids. :) Now, compared to say, a Recto I can see the argument, but I didn't think the Fireball really needed any tone stack modifications. I am happy about the power upgrade though.

-Joe