Thomas Blug demostrating the Amp1 vs his Marshall

Tatosh Guitar

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxdNsSqYi7s

I am as big a cork sniffer as the next guy, but this sounds great. Dave is using one, Nick Layton is using one, Jay Parmer is using one.

I'll probably follow suit at some point. I usually never sell gear, but i could see parting ways with my Fender for this setup if I can't afford it otherwise.

mr_crowley

I've sold my stack and big 50w head and if I ever start gigging I will definitely consider one of these. It's like the perfect middle of the road. You can still hook it up to one or two cabs to move some air on the stage (and it looks kinda of cool, even bring prop heads ) but you don't have to lug around those heavy fuckers... If I understand correctly you can also feed the FOH guy his own output of sound that he can do whatever he likes with. So you don't have to mess around with mic'ing stuff and having the sound guy telling you to turn down and everything.

Is the one in the video a new one? It sounds fantastic!
Telling the difference is more or less impossible. I would so much like to play one to see how it feels... That's kind of the most important thing to me. The sound is there but it has to provide the right response to the playing. It seems to do that but I would like to try it myself...

Dinosaur David B

FWIW, Uli Roth is using one, too.

mr_crowley said:

Telling the difference is more or less impossible. I would so much like to play one to see how it feels... That's kind of the most important thing to me. The sound is there but it has to provide the right response to the playing. It seems to do that but I would like to try it myself...

It feels right. Like a real amp. But obviously, you should demo it yourself.

Tatosh Guitar

mr_crowley said:

Is the one in the video a new one? It sounds fantastic!
Telling the difference is more or less impossible. I would so much like to play one to see how it feels... That's kind of the most important thing to me. The sound is there but it has to provide the right response to the playing. It seems to do that but I would like to try it myself...

Yes, that's the new Mercury edition. Am not sure what exactly is the difference with the old, regular version, but i would be a happy camper with either one if I could get my hands on.

YouTube is (in)famous for compressing the hell of sound waves, so I find making an accurate assessment of music gear thru their platform to be quite difficult. The way the amps compare in the video makes it look like they are almost identical, but things might be different if you were standing in the same room. I will jump at the chance of trying one if I ever find one close by.

Dinosaur David B said:

FWIW, Uli Roth is using one, too.

As if I needed any thing else to lust for this thing...

bourbonsamurai

that Les Paul sounds incredible

eduardoritos

Reading Blug's site, Mercury's more gain, more compression, more high gain, so, for me, better the regular one (discontinued). If I want more, I can put an OD pedal on front end.

Sirion

I've occasionally been considering it myself. My biggest gripe is that there doesn't seem to be any simple way to use it as the basis of a W/D og W/D/W rig.

Seven Moons

Really impressive. I'd seriously consider one if, for whatever reason, I had to get a new amp. 

Dinosaur David B

Sirion said:

I've occasionally been considering it myself. My biggest gripe is that there doesn't seem to be any simple way to use it as the basis of a W/D og W/D/W rig.

Those types of rigs require two for w/d or three for w/d/w amps. You don't run them in mono. So why is it different from any other amp from that standpoint?  FWIW, if I were committed to running a stereo rig, I'd just get two of them. They'd actually be pretty great for that because you could set them to different gain stage combinations, and adjust them from your toes on-the-fly. 

Tatosh Guitar

eduardoritos said:

Reading Blug's site, Mercury's more gain, more compression, more high gain, so, for me, better the regular one (discontinued). If I want more, I can put an OD pedal on front end.

That's what I thought. On paper, I should like the original more, as I don't like modern sounds. That said, the one on the video I posted is the new one and it sounded great. So what do I know?

Disciple83

but the amp1 is very loud, right?  It's rated 100 watts, so does that mean it is comparable to a real 100 watt amp?  If so, that might be a bit overkill for most venues, no? (especially considering if you want to the power amp section cooking) 

Dinosaur David B

Disciple83 said:

but the amp1 is very loud, right?  It's rated 100 watts, so does that mean it is comparable to a real 100 watt amp?  If so, that might be a bit overkill for most venues, no? (especially considering if you want to the power amp section cooking) 

It is ABSOLUTELY a 100w amp with all the associated volume problems.  You either need an attenuator, or just to be cool with the preamp gain. What I've found is that for normal "mere mortal" rooms, you volume range is between 0 and 2.

That doesn't mean it ain't usable -- I'm using it!  But it IS why I wish he'd do a 7/15 watt version.

Nick Layton

I've been able to crank mine up to around 5-6 for Q5 rehearsals and it sounds great. Just got the Mercury edition ordered up. Needed a back up just in case, plus it sounds like there have been some improvements made in tightening up the low end. Should have it next week to test out. 

MAdX

Dinosaur David B said:

Sirion said:

I've occasionally been considering it myself. My biggest gripe is that there doesn't seem to be any simple way to use it as the basis of a W/D og W/D/W rig.

Those types of rigs require two for w/d or three for w/d/w amps. You don't run them in mono. So why is it different from any other amp from that standpoint?  FWIW, if I were committed to running a stereo rig, I'd just get two of them. They'd actually be pretty great for that because you could set them to different gain stage combinations, and adjust them from your toes on-the-fly. 

Actually, it's great for that! I run a Marshall JMP and an AMP1 in stereo. My AMP1 is always on my pedalboard, hooked up to my reverb and delay and a Lehle Little Dual so that the only thing I need to do to set up is to connect my Marshall to one of the outputs of the Little Dual. It's also an almost completely fail safe rig, since you always have a second amp running if something happens to one of them mid gig.

 I've also seen guys with two AMP1 (and even three) on their pedalboards running a WD or WDW setup!