Silverwulf
Well-known member
I'm quite surprised that more people haven't favored this mode on Channel 2. Within minutes of plugging in, it was immediately my favorite mode on the Channel. It's very articulate and clear, not "too" thick, and also higher in gain than expected. It's not "high gain" by any means, but think more along the lines of Plexi with another gain stage added or boosted.
It's the one mode on the amp I feel like I can EQ like a "normal" amp, being able to crank up some knobs and not change the tone in a negative way. No EQ or Contour needed with this mode, IMO. I think it sounds great without either.
Set on the lower end of the gain, it cleans up nicely. You can dial in some AC/DC-ish tones pretty easily here. To my surprise, I could even crank up the gain and get into 80's hair metal territory with it on rhythms. It dived right into 80's RUSH like a champ and did a good job with it. If we dimed the gain, we even got close to that old Megadeth "Peace Sells" kind of sound. You could also easily use it for that modern sounding - "cleanly distorted, but not too thick" sound you hear on a lot of radio recordings these days. Think of bands like Hinder ("Lips of an Angel"). If I was in a modern pop rock band, I could live on this mode alone with my volume knob and my OD808.
Overall, it's one of my favorite modes on the amp. For anyone that wrote it off quickly, do yourself a favor. Go back and revisit it, tweak it some more. I think there's some great sounds in there you might be overlooking.
It's the one mode on the amp I feel like I can EQ like a "normal" amp, being able to crank up some knobs and not change the tone in a negative way. No EQ or Contour needed with this mode, IMO. I think it sounds great without either.
Set on the lower end of the gain, it cleans up nicely. You can dial in some AC/DC-ish tones pretty easily here. To my surprise, I could even crank up the gain and get into 80's hair metal territory with it on rhythms. It dived right into 80's RUSH like a champ and did a good job with it. If we dimed the gain, we even got close to that old Megadeth "Peace Sells" kind of sound. You could also easily use it for that modern sounding - "cleanly distorted, but not too thick" sound you hear on a lot of radio recordings these days. Think of bands like Hinder ("Lips of an Angel"). If I was in a modern pop rock band, I could live on this mode alone with my volume knob and my OD808.
Overall, it's one of my favorite modes on the amp. For anyone that wrote it off quickly, do yourself a favor. Go back and revisit it, tweak it some more. I think there's some great sounds in there you might be overlooking.