tbonesullivan

I seem to recall there were supply issues with Schaller for a while. There were some issues with the company itself, resulting from the death of founder Helmut Schaller and his son Rene Schaller in 1999-1998. Helmut Schaller's widow Grete than ran it, but it really stagnated, and I think veered towards bankruptcy. In 2006 is when it got close to bottom, and was restructured as Schaller GmbH.

When is the last time it was given a full service? Swapping preamp tubes and cleaning the sockets would be a good start if things aren't working right.

Man this is really tempting me. My Tremoverb combo has two Vintage 30s. My Maverick has two Black Shadow C90s. I'll have to patch both in to the RA speakers to see what it sounds like. In the end, the giant PITA swapping speakers in a combo would be will probably prevent anything from happening.

I REALLY like the mix of the Black Shadow and the Vintage 30. They complement eachother nicely, and it keeps it from getting to high mid heavy. I am in general a BIG fan of the Black Shadow C90s. I have them in my DC-5 Combo and my Maverick. With the Vin30 it keeps it from getting too boomy. Still on order. Probably going to arrive in late February or March. My Sweetwater Rep has been on top of it. Though at this rate I'll get the Flying V before the Mark V. I've also still got a few guitars to sell off.

HAH! That joke is still great. Time will tell whether it stays a joke or not.

I love that I can get a great KRRAAANNNG out of it without exploding the neighborhood. Now I've gotta have a shootout with my Stiletto Combo.

This was hanging around the Cherry Hill Sam Ash. Apparently long enough for the price to drop from $1495 to $995. Originally the plan was to trade in my Marshall TSL122, but that plan went up in smoke, almost literally. Changed the tubes on that, checked the bias, and 3 days later it red plated on me. So anyway, got to try out this bad boy, and it was love at first AC/DC riff. Like the beginning of Shoot to Thrill. Just that magical crunch and then fade into a harmonic. THAT is the sound I need from an amp. ANY amp. I need an organic overdrive that isn't just in your face gain. This one

There's been a lot of discussion about this online, as you can imagine. It all depends whether the new management team at Gibbons really IS about keeping things good. They definitely had some missteps, like Suing Dean and the "All Original" campaign. Guitarworld had the first interview that I've seen regarding it: https://www.guitarworld.com/features/jc-curleigh-cesar-gueikian-and-randy-smith-on-Gibbonss-monumental-acquisition-of-mesaboogie-and-what-it-means-for-the-iconic-brands

Sam Ash is selling them I believe, but I don't know if they have any distribution outside of the U.S. anymore. It can get pretty loud, definitely loud enough for home practice. I just got in my Mach 100 pedal amp, so now I can push some real air without having to run through a guitar amp. It sounds really nice through the headphones, though I would guess that if someone REALLY wanted to run it direct, they should pick up a Two Notes POwer amp and cabinet modeller pedal, which is a relatively new device that REALLY opens up possibilities for just using your pedalboard on a gig. It

So I guess it's "new preamp day", even though it's a pedal. It's a BIG pedal with 4 buttons and lots of knobs. All I can say is, WOW. It IS the X-100B series IV preamp, in a pedal. They were not kidding about that. I have a Series IV X-100B, and a 1990s X-100B Fuzzy EL34 version, and it has that magic sound. Plenty of gain on tap, and just a great rock sound, and possibly into further territory. I tested it both direct into a 2x12 open back with Texas Heats, as well as through the Power Amp section of a Rivera R-55 into the same cabinet. It gets a little m

Was it something the first tech missed, or did a tube just go and take a bunch of things with it? I haven't had it happen to me yet, but I definitely have friends who had a tube go a few days after installation, and fry some components. It's definitely interesting how on most of their amps, one channel has TMB, and the other is BMT. Definitely makes dialing in channels a bit interesting at times. My R55 is a pretty "simple" design, but still has 4 push pull voicing pots. It IS nice to be able to turn the "Fender Channel" from Tweed to Blackface with the pull of a knob though.

Well, I have placed the order. 2-3 months was the estimate when I ordered it, so now the waiting begins. That will give me plenty of time to read and re-read the manual, which is 30 pages of solid text. It really is like buying a bunch of different amps in the same housing.

Paul Rivera STILL loves push-pull knobs. I don't think any of his amps are free of them. Still I'm not sure anything can compete with the Push-Pull insanity that is the Mesa Boogie Mark IV. 7 of the 18 controls on the front pull to do something.

Ooof. I wonder if the tube went, or maybe the filament had some type of issue?

It is such a great guitar. Awesome raunchy rock sound, and no excessive "bling". Thank you again for selling it to me. It's being well taken care of.