VHT Special 6 Combo Owner's Club

[TeleJedi]

Originally Posted by gwjensen

TeleJedi, you're probably better off just playing straight into the amp. For one thing, you're saving alot of money. If I had put all the money I spent on pedals into a really great amp (Victoria?), I'd probably be better off and not gassing for pedals all the time. On the other hand, its a hobby and I have fun with them. Going forward, though, I think I need to get off the pedal kick and start putting all that money toward a Dr. Z, Victoria, or whatever and hope that cures me of pedal GAS once and for all. Probably won't, though...

You're right, I do prefer playing straight to amp, I've not used pedals for many years and currently don't own a single pedal. That doesn't rule out the possibility of me getting a delay pedal in future.

Sell all your pedals and you may cure your pedal gas, haha. Nothing can really cure gas but you can definitely keep it under control.

Gassing for this? 5112.....
http://victoriaamp.com/?c45a3258

This would be my choice, however, the shipping would add too much to the cost.

[gwjensen]

Oh yeah. I think any of the lower watt vics would do it for me.

[tjnugent]

I am no technical genius, but I have heard that you can use the VHT Head as a preamp for a more powerful amp. I have heard you use the Direct Out to do this. If you use the direct out, do you still have to have a speaker load on that head or can I hook my cab into a power powerful head to make that my speaker cab. I love the tone of my 6 Ultra, but it is not loud enough to rock n roll gig. How would you do that and what amp would be good to drive the preamp?

[gwjensen]

Originally Posted by tjnugent

I am no technical genius, but I have heard that you can use the VHT Head as a preamp for a more powerful amp. I have heard you use the Direct Out to do this. If you use the direct out, do you still have to have a speaker load on that head or can I hook my cab into a power powerful head to make that my speaker cab. I love the tone of my 6 Ultra, but it is not loud enough to rock n roll gig. How would you do that and what amp would be good to drive the preamp?

I have the basic S6 and there are only outputs for speakers and foot switch, no direct out... Maybe the Ultra has that, which would be cool feature as I have a 10 watt amp that is considerably louder (uses EL34 or 6L6 tubes). Yet another reason why I should consider the Ultra. Thanks!

[tjnugent]

Does anyone know how you would hook that up. I would go out of the Direct Out on the VHT 6 Ultra and what input would I run into with that? Straight into the amp though the input jack, or would there have to be an effects loop to go into the return?

Thanks,

TJ

[sirbergersworth]

Originally Posted by tjnugent

Does anyone know how you would hook that up. I would go out of the Direct Out on the VHT 6 Ultra and what input would I run into with that? Straight into the amp though the input jack, or would there have to be an effects loop to go into the return?

Thanks,

TJ

Either would work. Try both and see which you like.

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[tjnugent]

Sir, Thank you for the reply. How do the pro's do it? I bet that they would want to bypass the more powerful amps tone stack and go in through the return. That is my guess if that is possible.

TJ

[sirbergersworth]

Originally Posted by tjnugent

Sir, Thank you for the reply. How do the pro's do it? I bet that they would want to bypass the more powerful amps tone stack and go in through the return. That is my guess if that is possible.

TJ

I would take s6u effect loop send to another amps effect loop return. but, then again I am far from a pro.
I used to do this with a hot rod deluxe and a Mesa power amp.

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[Jupiter]

Got mine yesterday! Big fun in a little package.

[sirbergersworth]

Congrats. Welcome to the club!

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[peterk301]

Originally Posted by tjnugent

I am no technical genius, but I have heard that you can use the VHT Head as a preamp for a more powerful amp. I have heard you use the Direct Out to do this. If you use the direct out, do you still have to have a speaker load on that head or can I hook my cab into a power powerful head to make that my speaker cab. I love the tone of my 6 Ultra, but it is not loud enough to rock n roll gig. How would you do that and what amp would be good to drive the preamp?

You can do the preamp out to another amp whether you have the Ultra head or the combo, but it has to be the Ultra model. In either case you still need a speaker load or you'll fry the output transformer (it's a tube amp). If you're looking for more power than 6 watts, the manual says there's no problem daisy chaining one Ultra's line out to the return of another Ultra. But think about this: That's more than a $600 investment in combo amps to get you only 12 watts.

I tried daisy chaining my Ultra's preamp stage through the guitar input of another 20 watt tube amp and also tried it through the "power amp in" of the 20 watt amp (same thing as an FX loop return), and there was too much noise and hum. I don't know if using two Ultra's will yield better results (in terms of impedance matching), but I'd still say you're probably better off with another amp in the 20 watt range, not multiples of a 5 watt single-ended amp.

Here's my take on the very Special 6 Ultra combo (all hype aside):

Cons:

Noisy at loud volume, even with humbuckers (likely because it's single ended). VERY noisy if you think you're going to dime the pull boost on the Ultra channel for distortion.

The wattage selector, tone control, depth, and boost switch are so interactive that it makes duplicating a setting a bit annoying. It got very time consuming for me to have to work with all the tone controls in tandem, but maybe I just lack patience. The 11 position depth switch only really needs 3 positions (bass cut, off, and full bass). You're forced to mod the amp if you want an adjustable B-M-T tone stack.

Not loud enough to gig with. So, you'd need additional sound reinforcement to get your volume loud enough (another amp or mic/line out through a mixer). Gotta think twice before you spend $300 for an amp that may not be loud enough for a gig.

Through the 12" VHT Chromeback speaker the overdrive tone can get thin and squishy. There's not much bottom end there (at least at lower volumes) for a 12" speaker even with the depth full up.


Pros:

Line out and FX loop for signal processors. Also allows for daisy chaining more than one amp.

Impedance selector switch makes for easy matching of speakers and external cabinets.

Single-ended class A design with a "sweeter" type of distortion and a bit more touch sensitivity than what you can get with a typical push-pull Class AB design, but this might also account for the "squishy" and sometimes thin tone.

Hand-wired, but I doubt this does anything advantageous for the tone of the amp. What it allows for is easier modification of components, but most guitarists aren't buying an amp to start pulling it apart to get it to sound better (and work of this type can be quite dangerous if you don't know about the need to discharge components).

You can spend a lifetime swapping a variety of tubes to see what change in tone it creates without the need to rebias the output tube. However, this approach can get counterproductive after a while and expensive. I tried an Electro-Harmonix 6v6GT in place of the original Chinese tube and heard no significant sonic difference.

Attractive and solidly built cabinet construction.

You get quite a bit for your money, so it's easier to justify the purchase rather than critically judge the sound and performance.

[sirbergersworth]

I just picked up a jet city picovalve off of craigslist for $75. I cannot wait to try this next to my special 6. The Pico has a JJ E34L and JJ 12ax7's in it. I run a 6v6 and 5751 in my S6. They should compliment each other well. I hope so anyway.

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[tjnugent]

Sirbergersworth, What a great score... Someone must be late on the rent to get such a fantastic deal. The combination of amps will be great... Congtratulations on the score of the month!

[crazyivan]

I just buy my Special 6 combo... great sounding amp! my volume pot is looser (easier to turn) than the tone pot... is this common?

Sorry on my bad english :)

[tjnugent]

That kind of thing is pretty common with mass produced anything. I would just take a wrench and hand tighten it. Don't make it too tight, because you don't want to break it or strip out the threads.. Just hand tight is the what I think is the norm.

TJ

[crazyivan]

I mean tighten the pot to get more resistance on turning?

[tjnugent]

If the problem you are having is the volume pot has come loose from its mount to the chassis, then all you want to do is to tighten it so it isn't lose. You shouldn't do anything that will restrict its movement.

[crazyivan]

Originally Posted by tjnugent

If the problem you are having is the volume pot has come loose from its mount to the chassis, then all you want to do is to tighten it so it isn't lose. You shouldn't do anything that will restrict its movement.

Mount is ok, but its much easier to turn that volume pot than tone pot... Tone pot have more resistance when turning, like one is new, and one is turned about 1000 times... Hope we understand each other... :)

[tjnugent]

I see what you are saying. That is something you should take up with the warranty service people who sold you the amp, unless you don't mind it having a different feel. Obviously, it bothers you, or you would not have written about it. At first I did not understand what you are saying, but now I do. If you want to try to tighten it to have more drag, that is something you could try, but I would contact the store you bought it from and discuss your options. I know that doesn't help, but you can only do so much in writing and not in person.

Regards,

TJ

[crazyivan]

Thanx TJ, I will try it... But its strange, amp was from the box...