Diezel Herbert Review -- a year later (new thread)

[oasgomez-is-banned]

Though I promised my last post last year, I could not but help my enthusiasm for the Diezel Herbert.

A year down the road, I have not been able to test the Herbert at a medium size venue with a guitarist that none of you here would question.  Opportunity knocks at the door.  Thanks to Steve of Exile for the opportunity.

The Diezel Herbert was used by Mr. Wally Gonzales last Friday, January 5, 2007.  Wally used the Deizel Herbert Clean channel on his 2nd set which was by far extended from 10pm - to 1 am in the morning.

His verbatim comments: "Galing ng Amp, Matindi, its a good amp and nakaka gigil."  He personally went to me to give those comments.  For the 1st set and his jam with the Soul Benders, he used a Marshall Super Lead Plexi Re-issue head and was blown away when his roadie insisted he use the Diezel Herbert with the prodding of Steve Labaw. 

Now, if you guys know at what volume Wally plays then you will start to appreciate the capabilities of the Diezel Herbert.  The clean channel of this amp hang in there with Exile's PA.  In fact, the Herbert into a normal Marshall 4x12 amplified the clean signal way above the loud drummer of Wally.  Let me emphasize again, clean sound that can compete with the a drummer and an external PA.  The Exile guys were so shocked with the amps capability.  Way more shocking was when Wally realized that the setting on the Herbert was only 50% channel 1 Volume and 50% on master volume. 

Wally was suppose to end at 11pm but was so into it that he decided to finish at 1pm with Wally's Blues.  Some of the songs he covered were from: Aerosmith, Led Zep, Allman Brothers, Rolling Stones, Juan dela Cruz, etc.  He just kept on going nonstop.  This is the magic that I am speaking of and I don't need to be a musician to say that.  What was amazing is that after three hours of high decibel music,  your ears still sounded fresh because of the amp. 

Now is it worth the price -- a resounding yes.  I believe so.  Arie and Lito believe so.  So do the Exile guys -- the have never heard an amp that sounded so good. Take note that we had barely cranked this amp, we had barely used the other channels and its flexible EQ voicing.  I will repeat that nothing by the major manufacturers sound this good as has impressed the most particular people who play guitar as well as the Herbert.  If you guys can save up, even for the lower priced Einstein, please do so and forget all the stompbox crap and mass marketed brands.  I believe Peter Diezel and people like him are the ones we should support and not the established brands and other people trying to give you tone at a cheaper price.  For me, US$3,000 worth of amp does not sound like anything else.  By the way, both the retailier and Peter only make an additional US$1,100 on the top of the cost.

Wally first plugged into a MARSHALL SLP re-issue but when he plugged into the Herbert Clean channel the sound just became bigger in terms of soundstage.  Parang naging 3d ang tunog.  Ang laki ng increase ng clarity.  You can ask the Exile people and Wally's roadie who immediately noticed the difference.  Also, I noticed that the Herbert takes on the character of the guitar.  Again Arie's tele sounded like a great woody sounding tele and not his usual twangy sound which balanced out Wally's lead on his Eric Clapton thru the Marshall.  You could hear Arie's vibrato clearly with his clean chords while Wally ripped on his compressed Marshall Lead Tone.

Kung payag si Bert, paki post lang comment ni Wally.  Thanks.  He seemed to be more excited than I because he wrote the review earlier like maybe a few hours after 1am in the morning?  Not sure though. 

I, Lito, Jingle and Arie were just so blown away with Wally's sound and his playing that we needed two days of rest to digest what had happened.  It was really a memorable experience and the jam with the Soulbenders was just so bluesy. 

Just to benchmark, I fired up my old 1972 Super Lead and I will tell you the Super Lead still has its thing going for it but a different vibe from the Herbert.  The Super Lead has to be supertweaked in terms of pedals, pickups and guitars but the Herbert is just plug and play all night long -- its voicing is just so pleasing to the ear.  The Super Lead will definitely tire your ear while the Herbert will keep it fresh to keep you playing and playing.  You can lose yourself with Herbert but with the Super Lead you have to be guarded because its brash, loud and stiff.  Herbert sounds malambot, musical and the clarity was awesome.  Arie was so impressed when wally hit a broken chord and all the strings were so clearly separated and defined on top of the PA and the loud drums -- and this was on the clean channel.

p.s. I had to repost the thread because OLOC and CHITO started name calling on the old one.

[titser_marco]

Wally was suppose to end at 11pm but was so into it that he decided to finish at 1pm with Wally's Blues.  Some of the songs he covered were from: Aerosmith, Led Zep, Allman Brothers, Rolling Stones, Juan dela Cruz, etc.  He just kept on going nonstop.  This is the magic that I am speaking of and I don't need to be a musician to say that.  What was amazing is that after three hours of high decibel music,  your ears still sounded fresh because of the amp. 

Have you tried this amp in another room? Don't you think that it was also because of the room's quality? I don't know but some bars that I've gigged in have a tendency to amplify the irritating high frequencies more than the pleasant ones.

[mikep]

Thanks, Abyss and Dantuts for the names of bands and artists using Herbert in their recordings.  I am going to start looking for them.  Thanks again.

[abyssinianson]

good review of the Herbert in a live context. i agree that the Super Lead does have a storng tendency to be glassy, in fact, this was why I sold my Marshall JCM 2000 and Soldano SLO because it had a strong tendency to lean towards a treblier, aggressive tone that did not suit what I was looking for out of an amp.

If possible, I would be very interested in hearing what Wally, an old school style guitar slinger, has to say about the Herbert's contemporary approach to guitar tone.

@mikep: no prob. There are prolly more people out there that use the Dizel's different models but I can't see any one artist relying on the Diezel a lot except Billy Corgan and Adam Jones. More often than not, these guys have the Diezel in some part of their setup to build towards "their"sound. If you are familiar with the Jap band Dir En Grey, I remember their guitar player, Kaoru, playing through Diezel Herberts at Zep, a very small concert venue in Tokyo. I would say the size is similar to a House of Blues in the US so it isn't really that big, maybe 2000 people capacity max. The Herbert was loud on Kaoru's side of the stage and seemed to be able to cut through the mix really well.

[oasgomez-is-banned]

Titser Marco,

The Herbert has global depth and presence controls with a huge range.  It also has a 2nd global master volume that can be engaged.  More importantly it has a mid voicing with its own intensity knob that can be used to scoop or make your guitar sound fat.  This controls together and its 180 watt power section allow the Herbert to dominate any room. 

As I mentioned below, it was able to compete with PA and the loud drums on its clean channel.  It was not loud but it was distinct and it punched thru the mix.  The room itself was open with multiple sides in open air.  In fact 500 meters away from the venue, you could hear Wally's guitar with such clarity while the vocals which was PA amplified, bass and drums sounded muffled and weak.  Yet at the same time when you are a few meters away balanced pa rin ang tunog without the Herbert overbearing on the mix.  In terms of a painting, parating nasa foreground ang Herbert while nasa background ang iba pero para siyang centerpiece ng painting.