NAD - Fuchs Fullhouse 50 head

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jeremypodom

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Well, the long awaited day has finally arrived! Sadly, I didn't get to test it out till almost 10pm, which means I had to play it quietly.

It sounded awful =P

This thing is a monster and I'm certain it will sound good tomorrow when I get a chance to crank it up. At quiet volumes it was extremely bassy... also my cab is sitting in the corner. Tomorrow I'll crank it and move the cab around and try to see if I can get those tones I've been dreaming of for eight months now.

Also, it's making unusual humming and popping sounds.... I tested my speaker cable, power cable, and it even makes the noise with no input plugged in. Turning the volume up or down made no change in the volume of the humming and popping. Any ideas?
 

jeremypodom

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I called Fuchs and the tech guy right away nailed it to a noisy input tube. I see no reason to disbelieve him. He said they would mail me a new one right away.

I'll probably wiggle it around to see if maybe I could help it out too.
 

jeremypodom

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Nobody seems to be interested in my thread but I'll post a review anyways.


Clean channel:
It may be my cab, but I don't get the "Fender twin" cleans that a lot of people say they get with their Fuchs. It's got a good clean sound though, I can dig it. It's very full and round sounding no matter how hard you try to make it not be! Which is good, I would rather have this than overly bright and thin. I'm probably going to take it down to my local boutique amp shop later today and try out some other cabs.
I feel like the real secret behind the clean channel is when you turn it up though. It starts to break up around 10 o'clock just a little bit with chords, and it really becomes beautiful after that. When you switch the gain button on the footswitch at this point it's amazing. I was suddenly nailing a tone that I've been searching for two years for. If you want a good idea, look up Resolution by Andy Timmons. Crank the volume ALL the way up and holy cow, it's pushing out some ballsy hard rock tones.

I'm obsessed with twin clean tones though so I'll invest in another amp someday to go alongside this one. This head has some top-notch sounds but I don't think it's the end-all be-all of amps. It's a good one to have in the arsenal for sure though.


OD channel:
I'm still getting to know this channel and doing a lot of tweaking. Part of me wonders if maybe they should have given it an EQ section of its own, but we'll see. The OD section seems to be a bit darker than the clean, and I already found it maybe a bit too dark on the clean. Even with all knobs dimed it never stops being creamy and smooth, ever. It's such a sweet sound and I can't wait to get to know it a little better. I think maybe my cab might be a bad match so I will give a more fair review on the OD channel later once I know for sure.


Like I said, I really like this amp! I can see how it's going to be a delight to own.
 

jeremypodom

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Update:

I removed the FX loop and suddenly everything got a LOT better. I'm not sure if I'm using a bad cable or what, but every time I try the effects loop out it gets much darker and quieter sounding.... Another thing I need to trouble shoot at the store. I know the loop isn't buffered but I'm really hoping that's not the problem.

Either way, once I figured that out I'm actually getting the Fender twin sounds! The OD channel sounds oh-so-sweet too.
 

jeremypodom

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obligatory pic
 

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jeremypodom

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Very cool! Thanks for the review. I'm not up on Fuch's line up other then the D-amp style.

Thanks for finally giving me a response :rolleyes: lol

Anyways, yeah it's pretty darn awesome. I don't have my own microphone to record any samples with so I'll have to show you by example of other players.

Here's a few videos of players that I can get almost the exact same tone as now with the Fullhouse

Mattrach playing through a Fender Supersonic


Andy Timmons using a Mesa, I think he might be using his Lonestar here


That Timmons tone is one I have been lusting after for two years now. Someone about eight months ago pointed me in the direction of Fuchs and away from the mass produced Mesa's and I'm thankful for it, the Mesa's have the capability to sound good but it can be really tricky. I'm still trying to problem solve the effects loop, but as far as settings there's really no way to go wrong with the Fullhouse.

Here's a few other good Fuchs demos


The little brother of the fullhouse is the blackjack 21



I have to say, I have never played anything this touch sensitive.
 

hotrodkid

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I was so close last week to pulling the trigger on a slightly used 112 combo version of that amp (always get nervous when seeing an amp being flipped so soon) I ended up with a 50 watt Ceriatone HRM Bluesmaster combo. Still waiting for it to arrive and already thinking I could of saved a lot of money by grabbing a used Fender Super Sonic 22. FWIW, I thought the one youtube clip I heard of the Fullhouse sounded very Blackface/Fendery to me..??
 

uriah1

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nice review...tech analysis on issue

Buddy has one....very loud...dumblesque at big volume levels.
 

jeremypodom

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I was so close last week to pulling the trigger on a slightly used 112 combo version of that amp (always get nervous when seeing an amp being flipped so soon) I ended up with a 50 watt Ceriatone HRM Bluesmaster combo. Still waiting for it to arrive and already thinking I could of saved a lot of money by grabbing a used Fender Super Sonic 22. FWIW, I thought the one youtube clip I heard of the Fullhouse sounded very Blackface/Fendery to me..??

I've heard good things about the Ceriatone. I hope you like it! Yeah, I posted that initial review without playing with it for more than 20 minutes probably. I figured out later in the day that doing a 20ft both ways cable run in the passive, line level effects loop through guitar pedals was causing massive tone and volume loss. I've already researched what could help and I'm working on it.

Once I removed the effects loop from the equation, it suddenly became magical sounding. It's capable of very Fender-like cleans now, and I'm sure it would be even better if I still had a single-coil equipped guitar.

As far as the Supersonic 22, you could probably get similar tones from it... but I think in this case it's a matter of better vs best. The Fuchs is amazingly touch sensitive, well built, comes with great customer service, probably gets a little better tone (A/B test in order?), and IMO the digital reverb is the better than any analog spring reverb I've heard. Not to mention the tone shaping controls rock, and Fenders tend to have a problem with their volume pots going from nothing to loud-as heck instantly.
 

hotrodkid

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I drove myself nuts for several weeks amp shopping. I had some extra coin with a budget at around $1700 and there were just too many choices on the bay (I should complain having such a problem, right?) It originally started out as a search for a vintage 112 or 115 Fender, preferably a Brownface but Boutique fever slowly crept in. In the end I dished out $1185 for the Ceriatone (mint with an EV) The Fuchs Fullhouse combo was on my short list along with a Bogner Duende and an Allen Acompliance. I basically wanted something based on a vintage Fender with a few modern options. The Ceriatone kind of came out of left field I guess.

The Super Sonic after thought was more out of buyer regret as I know it would of got the job done. If for some reason the Ceriatone doesn't work out I'm going the Super Sonic route and putting a few pennies back in my pocket. Nothing sounds like a Fender, like a Fender.:)

Anyhow, I thought the Fuchs sounded killer with that Tele. Nasty, over the top distortion the way I like it!
 

jeremypodom

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Anyhow, I thought the Fuchs sounded killer with that Tele. Nasty, over the top distortion the way I like it!

Honestly, none of the demos show the full "nasty" potential! The gain knob allows you to get a ton already, but once you get the master cranked its literally too much to handle. It sound glorious on the OD channel with both knobs set at noon.

For a 50 watt amp, this thing has a surprising amount of breakup early on. The clean channel starts breaking up at about 1/3 volume. Maxed out and it's got nearly as much as the OD channel.
 
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