Home › Forums › Review Your EHX Gear › magnum 44
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April 12, 2011 at 7:26 pm #114998CryabetesParticipant
I’m talking in general. I used one briefly at a show, but that was with a keyboard rig. I didn’t notice any sort of low-end cut that I generally get with using a ‘guitar’ amp, so I figured it was more a general purpose PA than anything specifically tailored to an instrument.
And Ghost uses some pretty nice gear inbetween his signal source and his output source.
but yeah, this is just an EHX forum-goer opinion, not anything verbatim.April 12, 2011 at 7:58 pm #115003fmalitzMemberCry,
Low E on a guitar is a little over 80HZ. That ain’t deep! Bass guitar, around 40 (getting deep there). Synths can go REALLY deep–far deeper than 40 as you know. That’s why open back cabs are perfectly okay. Below that frequency, you’d have bass cancellations from the back wave “escaping” from the, uh, back of the open cabinet, coming around and meeting the front wave out of phase. I suppose the amplifier section manufacturers also take that into consideration. A wide-bandwidth output transformer costs more and one usually does not need it.I had no bass issues–only lower midrange (to prominent, congested and raw) and no chime up top. Ghost says he has top end so I’m eagerly waiting for a call-back from EH Tech support.
April 12, 2011 at 8:18 pm #115004CryabetesParticipantright, i’m saying guitar amps tend to have a midrange hump that buries the real low end, and that the typical guitar pre-amp will roll off stuff below 40-50 hz. synth bass [the patches I use anyway] has very few harmonics/is a very pure sine wave so playing through a typical guitar amp is less than ideal for me.
Also guitars have lots of harmonics in their signal. A guitar’s low E on the audio spectrum will have peaks at the E’s a few octaves above it and at the B’s on some as well. My synth bass doesn’t. It’s quite simply a sine wave and getting that to the same level as… pretty much any instrument that isn’t sine waves takes some gain.April 12, 2011 at 8:53 pm #115005TheGhostMachinaMemberNot that it will help, but you can check out my processed Mag guitar tracks, as well as my Mesa guitar tracks on a pre-release track from my upcoming album myspace.com/theghostmachia . All effects are EHX, including the Vocoder. Well, almost.. There’s a MXR phase 90 in there.. And a lil Crybaby from hell. Guitars aren’t hard panned, so it’s hard to tell one amp from the other. But the Mesa is a little more left, Mag a little more right. And there are a tone of layers a la Siamese Dream;)
Hope it helps.
TGM
April 12, 2011 at 9:40 pm #115006fmalitzMemberThanks for your input guys.
Just spoke to Rick at EH. Just like the Ghost-man, he says their demo unit has plenty of highs. He gave me a return authorization numnber and he’ll evaluate the unit himself. I’ll probably send it out on Monday. When it returns, I’ll fill you guys in. I don’t expect miracles–only an amp that kinda sounds like all the tone pots are at 12 O’clock. If I’m in the ball park, my technique will take care of the rest.
By the way Cry (geez, it seems like I’m picking on him), are you sure you ever play pure sine waves? If so, you’re the only cat around doing that. On certain Stevie Wonder records, he has six or seven guys who do nothing but program the synths to NOT sound like sine waves. The magic is always in the harmonics. It makes synths sound like musical instruments. I suppose you might throw out some pure tones below 60HZ or so. Can you even put out sine waves if you want? I have a tone generator for service but do not know what synths are capable of.
I downloaded an RTA ap for my iPhone to show my kid the difference between sine waves and musical notes on a sub-woofer–same idea. It’s a cool tool.
April 13, 2011 at 12:19 am #115009TheGhostMachinaMemberDef let us know how ya make out. It’s funny you mention the tone gen for service. I was looking at buying a Doepfer Dark Energy synth module. At the time I was trying to justify the purchase as a work related tool (I’m a sound tech by day). I eventually parted ways with my money on guitar pedals instead, but I’ve always wondered what the Dark Energy woulda sounded like setting the oscillator to 60Hz and side chaining it to the kick thru a Heritage 3K and a VDOSC pa.
TGM
April 13, 2011 at 1:24 pm #115011CryabetesParticipanti’m pretty confident I know what I’m doing on my synth. Not saying I never use harmonics [one of my favorite patches is a really harmonic-laden synth string that sounds like my bloody valentine when I move the pitch bar] but yeah, aside from an ADSR envelope, the bass patch I use is a sinewave. with enough gain to clip out my mixer so I suppose that’s probably acting as a bit of a limiter. but yeah.
April 13, 2011 at 4:10 pm #115012fmalitzMemberTGM,
I use an ancient signal generator that puts out any freq from 20HZ to 20kHz. I used to use it for measuring amplifier power and testing equipment. Now, I don’t care about “rated” power or even measured power. Even with HiFi, one must listen. Specs mean almost nothing.I still use it to test for slightly blown speakers, oscillating amps, etc. I can also use it for testing subwoofers. Unfortunately, it won’t do pink noise or white noise and it can’t play music! Just an old piece of test gear.
FApril 17, 2011 at 10:23 pm #115036fmalitzMemberHey guys,
Yeesh. I’m an idiot. Here’s the story: I use two very small super-lightweight cabinets on stage–a true mini-stack but far superior to the Marshall version in every way. Having a bad back, I’ve been using lightweight stuff for the last few years. Here’s the rig: Each cab is made by me and they’re both made from thin 1/4″ plywood but reinforced at the joints. Being small and reinforced, they are quite rigid yet they are only a little larger than the 12″ drivers inside. One uses a Celestion Gold and the other, the slightly smoother and slightly more transparent Jensen Blackbird–two very fine (and expensive) 12 inchers. Since the cabs are actually too small for the drivers, they have an upper-bass and lower middle hump. Since my preamp has bass and treble pots and the amp (get ready), the incredible Crate Power Block, has bass, middle and treble controls (and lots of power), I’ve been EQ’ing the crap out of the cabinets for a cross between Fender Tweed and over-driven Blackface tone! It’s a rare gig (this iteration has seen over 100 gigs) that someone does not come up and comment on my tone. They also ask “Where’s the amp?” I love it!I actually made a plate that attaches to a mic stand and the Power Block sits on the plate so the amp is right next to me at elbow-level on top of a mic stand! When I change from humbucker to single-coil guitars, I can tweak the amp in a heartbeat without bending over and showing the audience my fat ass. Volume changes are a snap. It’s tube-sound heaven at 4 pounds! With zero maintenance. I leave my real Fender amps at home. By the way, the real deal does sound better but as I play a lot of lead and tend to stay on the 4 or 5 higher strings, the gigging tone form the Power Block class-D, solid state amp with mini-cabs is still, nonetheless, superb with plenty of expression and tone.
So here’s what happened: hooking up one of these dinky cabs, without the benefit of heavy tone manipulation (no tone controls), the cabs sounded lousy when driven by the 44. Once I hooked the Magnum amp to my P12Q in a larger, proper-sized cab, she opened right up. So, it was my own fault all along. It sounds fine. Not sure I can gig with it but it’s pretty darn close. How close? It breaks up a little too soon (I’d estimate it at around 22 watts RMS tops based on the other transistorized amps I’ve made that measured in that area) and it breaks up a bit too late for nighttime practicing! Overall, it’s still plenty cool, sounds decent, and I’m keeping it! Yes, I will try it at a gig.
Please accept my apologies and my thanks for trying to help me unravel the mystery. Now, I have to call my contact at EH and explain how dumb I am.
April 26, 2011 at 5:15 pm #115094fmalitzMemberOne final comment posting on the Magnum 44:
I like it–a lot! It has plenty of richness and chime as well. When you drive it harder, with no pedal in front, it gets a bit tizzy–kind of like a fuzz tone with some extra odd harmonics. This is endemic in class D amps; they do not usually clip as well as tubes. The bass is excellent. That said, it’s simply a miracle of engineering, sounds very good and I’m glad I spent the extra time to give it a fair chance. Using the Xotic RC Booster in front adds more flexibility and depth. Either with or without a pedal the 44 Magnum amp sounds a little better with single-coils than humbuckers but a bit of tweaking of the RC-Booster’s tone and drive controls is worthwhile. Your pedals will probably enhance its performance as well. I’ll try it louder at our next rehearsal but overall, I’m glad to have it. It’s not for sale.
Best wishes to you all,
Magic FrankMay 26, 2011 at 1:40 pm #115314MaikkeliMemberWould the Magnum (or 22 Caliber for that matter) work as an amp for acoustic guitars if plugged into a hifi speaker or 2-way speaker designed for delivering acoustic guitar sound? I guess it reduces down to the frequency response of the amp, has anyone measured this?
May 26, 2011 at 7:04 pm #115322fantomenosMemberGood question Malkell. Since the videos show a guitar plugged directly into the magnum, it can’t be just a transparent power-amp, there must be some pre-amp/eq-ing going on, and as a bass player I would be very interested to see what that is. I’ve been thinking about buying the 44 as a backup, since it can drive an 8-ohm bass cab, but I don’t know how it’ll work on bass.
July 3, 2011 at 12:30 am #115904DonnyJamesMemberHey there. Just discovered this thing exists, and I thought I’d post here instead of opening another thread.
What are the chances of a good result in using 2 of these things for a stereo power amp solution for a PodHD? Using a GT-8 for the time being, but will be making a move fairly soon. Of course the speaker solution will require more research, but how does the 44 handle straight power amp duties ? I’m not interested in the ‘overdrive’ on this, that gets done with the HD/GT-8. Is there going to be enough headroom for the gamut of clean to overdriven tones ? 44 x2 is enough wattage for what I’ll use it for, but is that ’44’ watts actual clean, unclipped tone ?August 3, 2011 at 5:22 am #110397DonnyJamesMemberWow. Thanks for the help.
November 8, 2011 at 10:45 pm #116299Led HendrianiMemberBUMP BUMP BUMP
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