I tried a YCS50 out for 2 hours yesterday, my impressions.
1.) hard to dial in
2.) bright - really bright.
3.) It did not work with the strat I grabbed off the wall
4.) The PRS MCarthy was a match made in Heaven
5.) When I finally got it dialed in --WOW--
This amp suprised me it has several design features that make dialing in require some time. For instance the volume controls are not LOG - I think- they don't seem to do much for 80% of the range and then the last 20% is where the magic starts to Happen. With the gain stages set low the amp sound thin and trebly.
The Expander - I hate it , the scoop I will never use it. Modern... jurys still out.
Eq in general is better than the YCV series.
Where this amp reall shines is: the Brit / American switch - and the Prescence Resonance/ Voice switch - plus the dial in boost circuitry. and the 15watts Class A!
First The Brit/ American switch actually switches the Tone stack preamps configuaration- as it says in the literature - Going to the brit setting and cranking the gain and Volume up in the clean channel gets a Very Nice Very CHimey _VERY_ touch responsive sound that works really well at lower volumes - I didn't get to crank it. THis grits up nicely as the guitar volume is turned up and as you dig in with the pic. The american setting sounded more like the YCV50 a lttle darker a little thicker mids - it wasn't for me - More Headroom.
The Resonance - Presence /Voice - I set these ccts in and dialed them to about 9:00 on the presence and 3:00 on the Resonance - it added a lift that sweetened the spectrum nicely. - nothing radical but I had to keep the presence down to avoid ICE Pick Hi's
Switching these out is theorecticall Open Loop - but the sound wasn't quite there - I would like to play with this at higher volumes though.
The Lead Channel was capable of some Very Marshally Lead Tones, and I think a few others, Hi Gain is not my forte! I thought the Boost Volume control makes this very usefull -For Me The YCV preset boost was allways over the top and I never used it.
Over All I was able to dial in a crunchy rythm sound and pull up the volume for lead, then hit the boost for a little more punch - nice.
All of my testing was done on the 15 watt side - going to 50 is louder -with a bit more girth but I wasn't comfortable and didn' have my earplugs! It's Loud.
This amp will make a crappy single coil - even a $1200 crappy single coil sound bad, It will make a $3000 guitar sound like it should from dark smoky Jazz tones to crunchy blues to you name it.
I need to grab my guitars - an american strat with noiseless pu and an EPI Elitist 335 to see how they work. If they work this is my new amp!
Cheers, Mark.
ps also need to see how it sound on Axis - I can't stand the YCV50 on Axis. This is how I need to play in the small room I tend to play in.
1.) hard to dial in
2.) bright - really bright.
3.) It did not work with the strat I grabbed off the wall
4.) The PRS MCarthy was a match made in Heaven
5.) When I finally got it dialed in --WOW--
This amp suprised me it has several design features that make dialing in require some time. For instance the volume controls are not LOG - I think- they don't seem to do much for 80% of the range and then the last 20% is where the magic starts to Happen. With the gain stages set low the amp sound thin and trebly.
The Expander - I hate it , the scoop I will never use it. Modern... jurys still out.
Eq in general is better than the YCV series.
Where this amp reall shines is: the Brit / American switch - and the Prescence Resonance/ Voice switch - plus the dial in boost circuitry. and the 15watts Class A!
First The Brit/ American switch actually switches the Tone stack preamps configuaration- as it says in the literature - Going to the brit setting and cranking the gain and Volume up in the clean channel gets a Very Nice Very CHimey _VERY_ touch responsive sound that works really well at lower volumes - I didn't get to crank it. THis grits up nicely as the guitar volume is turned up and as you dig in with the pic. The american setting sounded more like the YCV50 a lttle darker a little thicker mids - it wasn't for me - More Headroom.
The Resonance - Presence /Voice - I set these ccts in and dialed them to about 9:00 on the presence and 3:00 on the Resonance - it added a lift that sweetened the spectrum nicely. - nothing radical but I had to keep the presence down to avoid ICE Pick Hi's
Switching these out is theorecticall Open Loop - but the sound wasn't quite there - I would like to play with this at higher volumes though.
The Lead Channel was capable of some Very Marshally Lead Tones, and I think a few others, Hi Gain is not my forte! I thought the Boost Volume control makes this very usefull -For Me The YCV preset boost was allways over the top and I never used it.
Over All I was able to dial in a crunchy rythm sound and pull up the volume for lead, then hit the boost for a little more punch - nice.
All of my testing was done on the 15 watt side - going to 50 is louder -with a bit more girth but I wasn't comfortable and didn' have my earplugs! It's Loud.
This amp will make a crappy single coil - even a $1200 crappy single coil sound bad, It will make a $3000 guitar sound like it should from dark smoky Jazz tones to crunchy blues to you name it.
I need to grab my guitars - an american strat with noiseless pu and an EPI Elitist 335 to see how they work. If they work this is my new amp!
Cheers, Mark.
ps also need to see how it sound on Axis - I can't stand the YCV50 on Axis. This is how I need to play in the small room I tend to play in.
