There is something to the speaker break-in for the Black Shadow speaker. It sounds less harsh than when I first plugged into the amp. I still get delicious chime and sparkle in the clean channel, but notably less harsh high frequencies in both the clean and drive mode. I'm not yet overly impressed with the high gain settings. I get plenty of gain from the drive mode. I should experiment with lower gain settings and mess with the EQ in the high mode. Maybe there are some tones to explore. The Fillmore 50 is a keeper for me!