Blue Angel thoughts?

[vitor gracie]

I am aware of the specs of the amp. I played one new in the shop in the early 90s once upon a time. I am just wondering if any Blue Angel owners or previous owners have any thoughts about the amp's tone/uses. I have a nice and loud rig, I tend to be extreme. I miss owning a smaller combo with lots of reverb. The lower power options seem to be usefull for driving it at quieter volumes. I just want to hear thoughts on it's sound and your experiences on it.

Is it flubby? Tight and crispy? Creamy? Single coils better then humbuckers or the other way around? Which is the better set up? The 2x10 combo? 4x10 or a Blue Angle head with X cab? Fendery? Old school Mark clean sounding? etc. Questions like that. Thanks guys.

 

[dudleydawson]

i've got nothin'. never played one - but had to bump this...
PLEASE - someone chime in here...
i'm sort of obsessing over adding either a DC-5 or a blue angel to my arsenal....

 

[94Tremoverb]

I had the 1x12" combo. It's a great-sounding amp, but not like anything else really. It's not like a Fender or a Vox, which some people assume from the power tubes - it's voiced like a Mesa (darker and more midrangy). It's deep and smooth clean, soft and very compressed when overdriven, and not *that* loud for its rated power - but just about right for small gigs. The reverb is outstanding.

The stock tube set is not ideal, and you will read complaints about background noise. Fit NOS preamp tubes with a 5751 or 12AY7 in V2 (which is the most important tube in the amp, not V1) and the noise goes away, along with a huge improvement in clarity and responsiveness. I also prefered it with a 12AT7 for the phase inverter (V5) and reverb driver (V3). If found it didn't really like attenuators, they made it go harsh when pushed for some reason, as well as too squashy with the 6V6s. You can also run 6L6-type tubes in the 6V6 slots if you want a bit less flub in that setting (old 6L6GBs or 5881 reissues are nice), or even *one* 6L6 if you want to try it single-ended (but *not* one 6V6, since it then won't bias correctly).

And if you wondered, the reason it's called a Dual Rectifier, even though it has nothing whatever in common with the other Rectifier models, is because there are two separate ones - a tube rectifier for the power stage and a solid-state one for the preamp, to make sure the preamp has more headroom than necessary to drive the power stage into distortion, so what you get is pure power tube overdrive. But it still isn't Pure Class A .

 

[vitor gracie]

'94, your the BEST bro! Very helpful. I kinda miss my Maverick and after talking to Monsta on the phone about both amps, if I did a lower powered boogie again I think I would just do the Maverick. I thought the clean was wonderful and I believe after getting my new guitar from Warrior that the issues with the dirty channel where from my PRS! lol I have some muddy high output pickups on the single-cut and it really slopped up the dirty channel of the Maverick. My new Warrior Isabella has a very very crisp clear tone that would most likely be perfect for a Maverick or a Blue Angel.

I never new how important it was to match your guitar to your amp/cab until recent years. It's odd, I'm always wanting to paint the picture with only one paint brush but you gotta have a few of them it seems.

Thanks again '94. BTW, My TOV head came back from the shop; 4 bad LDRs where causing the channels to "bleed" into one another and it stopped channel switching while in the shop. There where some other things too but it's back (repaired) and sounds kick-*** just like I thought it should. The rest of the work needed is just cosmetic. I'm gonna see if somebody here (on the board) can do the front grill on the head for me. The last owner screwed it up and it looks bad. I would work on it but I have no tools and live in an apartment.

peace out

 

[94Tremoverb]

When I had a Maverick 1x12" I noticed that the dirty channel hated my PRSs too... even after I changed the muddy stock pickups for Duncans ('59/Custom Custom in one, Pearly Gates/JB in the other). I just don't think it's a great humbucker amp, although it *loves* P90s - and Rickenbackers. Never tried it with a Gretsch but I bet it would be great.

The Blue Angel is more of a fat-single-coil/vintage-humbucker amp too. It also sounds good with a Strat, but I didn't like it at all with a Tele, it seemed to really bring out that upper-mid icepick tone.

My Blue Angel is only just sold - I will probably miss it, but in the end it was a bit *too* clean for me - I prefer the slightly dirty Tweed/Marshall clean sound (which the Tremoverb does perfectly) and actually too loud overdriven, even on the 6V6 setting, because I'm playing in a duo not a full band now.

I'm actually thinking of getting another Maverick .

 

[fluff191]

. My new Warrior Isabella has a very very crisp clear tone that would most likely be perfect for a Maverick or a Blue Angel.

Not to thread jack, but the Warrior Isabella is an incredible looking guitar. Does it sound as good as it looks?

 

[Monsta-Tone]

When I had a Maverick 1x12" I noticed that the dirty channel hated my PRSs too... even after I changed the muddy stock pickups for Duncans ('59/Custom Custom in one, Pearly Gates/JB in the other). I just don't think it's a great humbucker amp, although it *loves* P90s - and Rickenbackers. Never tried it with a Gretsch but I bet it would be great.

My McCarty sounds phenomenal through my Maverick, but it has Duncan Alnico II's in it.
My Custom 22 didn't like much on the lead channel until I beefed up the overdrive a bit. Now I really like them both with it.
It really hated my CE-24 when I had that guitar!

My Maverick is out on loan right now though. Can't wait to get it back so I can try it out with a Lonestar Strat I recently traded for!

I really think that tube choice has a lot to do with the whole equation too though!


It's funny! I sold my BA because it wasn't clean enough! :lol:

 

[94Tremoverb]

I agree it doesn't have very much headroom, even in the Simul setting - it's just not a very loud amp for its rated power, because it's so compressed when you overdrive it, so it seems to break up very early - but at low volume, the clean is really very clean (at least to me!), and that's what I didn't like so much, I found it beautiful but a bit sterile (although not cold). My ideal clean tone is that sort of rich British clean, something like a Marshall Super PA mixed with a Hiwatt and a bit of Vox AC50 - not like a BF Fender.

The Blue Angel is very tube-sensitive. Perhaps I should have left it with the stock all-12AX7s... but I found that too noisy, and somehow 'spiky', overly-touchy and exaggerated. (But I find Mark series cleans like that too - do you like Marks?)

The Maverick dirty channel is extremely tube-sensitive as well, I know. I think it's because it gets all its gain from a very low tube count, so each stage is running the tube near maximum gain, which always tends to bring out the tube characteristics. The Blue Angel is a bit like this as well, which is why it's so noisy - the controls all come after only the first gain stage, and the amp is then basically wide open after that point.

 

[Monsta-Tone]

I love the cleans on the Tremoverb, but really like the Maverick cleans better. But, then again, I grew up on Fender tones.
I really like the Mark III because it seems to be the odd Mark. The Blue, Green & Red stripes are awesome amps, but I hate the shared EQ thing.

I did try a 12AY7 in V2 of my old BA, after reading some of your suggestions and it really helped a lot. I thought that bypassing the loop and Mojo Module was the real ticket to making this amp sound as beautiful as it could.


For the Maverick, I changed the tone stack up quite a bit on the lead channel and went with Twin Reverb values, .1, .047, 250pf and a 100k resistor.
This has really opened the amp up considerably! Now the lead channel has much less of the fizzy character and a more ballzy ZZ Top type of distortion. I really like it a lot! I left the Mid pot at 25 K though so I could get a little more gain out of it.

 

[KH Guitar Freak]

Blue Angel=sexual...

 

[Gwhsge Shhe]

I agree it doesn't have very much headroom, even in the Simul setting - it's just not a very loud amp for its rated power, because it's so compressed when you overdrive it, so it seems to break up very early - but at low volume, the clean is really very clean (at least to me!), and that's what I didn't like so much, I found it beautiful but a bit sterile (although not cold). My ideal clean tone is that sort of rich British clean, something like a Marshall Super PA mixed with a Hiwatt and a bit of Vox AC50 - not like a BF Fender.

Hello friend
If you're looking for a deep British clean sound with character, the amp's clean tone may feel a little too sterile. Continue to experiment!freefire name

 

[woodbutcher65]

What makes the Blue Angel work for me is its extremely smooth transition from clean to overdrive. There's a range in mine that gives me such a subtle transition, it can be hard to tell at certain settings if the tone is clean or a bit dirty. That's one of the things I value highly.

If there's one thing about it that I can criticize, it's that it's still a bit too loud even at the lowest output mode setting. At least for practice at home in a bedroom. Because that's the range where that overdrive transition occurs.

 

[green_henry]

What makes the Blue Angel work for me is its extremely smooth transition from clean to overdrive. There's a range in mine that gives me such a subtle transition, it can be hard to tell at certain settings if the tone is clean or a bit dirty. That's one of the things I value highly.

If there's one thing about it that I can criticize, it's that it's still a bit too loud even at the lowest output mode setting. At least for practice at home in a bedroom. Because that's the range where that overdrive transition occurs.

It's too loud for me to get to where it's dirty. I tried an attenuator once and didn't care for it. But that's perfectly fine for me because it takes pedals so well, and it's more like a 2-channel amp with pedals. Sounds great with a Flux Drive or an Xotic SL Drive.

 

[woodbutcher65]

I run mine with a Marshall Power Brake and any of my external cabinets (1x12, 2x12, or 4x12) according to my desire of the moment. It works well like that.

 

[Gwhsge Shhe]

I had the 1x12" combo. It's a great-sounding amp, but not like anything else really. It's not like a Fender or a Vox, which some people assume from the power tubes - it's voiced like a Mesa (darker and more midrangy). It's deep and smooth clean, soft and very compressed when overdriven, and not *that* loud for its rated power - but just about right for small gigs. The reverb is outstanding.

The stock tube set is not ideal, and you will read complaints about background noise. Fit NOS preamp tubes with a 5751 or 12AY7 in V2 (which is the most important tube in the amp, not V1) and the noise goes away, along with a huge improvement in clarity and responsiveness. I also prefered it with a 12AT7 for the phase inverter (V5) and reverb driver (V3). If found it didn't really like attenuators, they made it go harsh when pushed for some reason, as well as too squashy with the 6V6s. You can also run 6L6-type tubes in the 6V6 slots if you want a bit less flub in that setting (old 6L6GBs or 5881 reissues are nice), or even *one* 6L6 if you want to try it single-ended (but *not* one 6V6, since it then won't bias correctly).

And if you wondered, the reason it's called a Dual Rectifier, even though it has nothing whatever in common with the other Rectifier models, is because there are two separate ones - a tube rectifier for the power stage and a solid-state one for the preamp, to make sure the preamp has more headroom than necessary to drive the power stage into distortion, so what you get is pure power tube overdrive. But it still isn't Pure Class A .

Thank you for details