Diezel

This is the kind of amp that gets you familiar with the brand that eventually if things go right allow you to move into the flagship amp that amplifier companies sell for higher profit. This is a cool little amp that has some versatility but will always sound like a Diezel. I didn't find much use for it other than the higher gain channel/ mode. The first channel is a clean to moderate sizzle if you can call it that. The second seems more of options to fill the amp rather than make it usable. The third mode called Mega is where this thing really shines. It has a great and very forgiving gain staging...which is what I feel Diezel does best. There gain is world renown and it makes it hard to do much else with the amp. Control are as follows. Output: 100 Watt Channels: 2 independent channels. channel one with three modes (Clean, Texas, Mega) Loops: Serial and paralel Equalization: Each channel treble, middle, bass addtionally presence and deep for the output section UTILIZATION One thing Diezel is known for is making a very user friendly front panel layout. It could get intimidating if your used to plexi layouts but with just minutes you can pretty much figure this out if you have spent anytime turning on a computer. The first couple modes were pretty pointless to me. It didn't feel or really sound like something you would use for Texas blues or classic rock crunch. The high output gain really came alive when engaged and I felt like goofing around with this thing until I click this option on. I think Diezel could just save some money and make this a one channel amp with this function only. However, someone else may find the first two modes somewhat of use. I didn't use any manual because it was used and for me I am familiar with Diezels so I didn't think it was necessary. Tone really comes from playing around with your preferred settings anyway. So just playing around for a few minutes will have ample amount of amp discovery. SOUNDS I was using a PRS and a Strat for most of my playing with this amp and I pretty much stay on the Mega mode function. It seems most amps try to do many things but do one thing really well.....Mega mode to me is what it does really well. So I stayed on that function the entire time. The tone I was chasing was a saturated gain that would be present in heavy rock/metal. I didn't try any drop tunings with it. Not really the player that I am so just 440 and half step is where I generally stay. I would say that the EQ was very efficient and usable throughout the spectrum. For me I find that sweet spot and stick with it. Once I got to Mega mode I didn't veer to far from that point. OVERALL OPINION I think this amp is a little over priced for what it is. It is built very well but I just didn't find much use for the other functions. The quality and workmanship was done very well. I've played the VH4, Herbert, Schimdt, and the Einy. This one is a good intro into the Diezel club. I had fund playing it at lower volumes and stage levels as well. This is a keeper amp, unless you want to get a Herbert or VH4.

3 completely independent channels with: - Gain, treble, mid, bass, volume per channel - (+/-) Gain switch on Channel 2 - Switchable mid cut with adjustable volume Tubes: - (6) 12AX7s in the preamp - (6) Octal power tubes of any configuration, as long as they're in sets (2 EL-34s, 2 6L6s, 2 6550s, etc) @ 180w Master Section: - (2) Volume controls - Presence - Deep - FX – return MX 4, 8, & 16 Ohm speaker outs FX Loops: - 1 parallel - 1 insert loops - 1 switchable insert loop MIDI in & thru with phantom - power Bias Test Points (on the model I have) UTILIZATION This thing has TONS of options, and can be a bit daunting at first, but honestly, I don't think there's any way you could get a bad tone out of this amp. Simply set all the knobs to 12 o'clock (except the master volumes, unless you want your head to explode), and you have an instantly gratifying tone. Adjusting from there, it only gets better! The switches on the front are among the nicest I've seen. Everything on this amp screams quality. You will find absolutely no cut corners on this amp. SOUNDS From the first time I heard this amp 4 years ago, I knew I had to have it. Sitting in Guitar Center one night before they closed and seeing a guy walk in to pick this amp up, was a monumental day in my music career. What I heard come out of that amp was shear awesomeness. 180w of power coming out of a V30 loaded Mesa 4x12 made me giddy with excitement, until I asked the guy how much he paid for it! I've been building up to it ever since, buying, trading and selling others to see if there's anything out there that can rival its sound, and there's not a single amp I've owned or tried that can even come close. I mainly play metal, and Channel 1 I use as my clean channel (though it can get some pretty cool lower gain tones with the volume cranked), the amp is surprisingly very versatile. This channel is simply beautiful, it's the clean tone I've been hearing in my head for years, that no high gain amp has been able to achieve. The cleans are bright, chimey and full of body and life. I tend to scoop my mids here, because I don't like warm clean tones, because they always sound sterile and lifeless to me. The cleans on this amp are second to only one amp I've ever played... an original 1965 Fender Super Reverb. Channel 2 is perhaps my favorite channel of the 3. It's super tight, and has a huge grind to it that's perfect for metal riffing. While it doesn't have as "big" of a sound as the 3rd channel, it's more defined and aggressive for rhythms. The + and - setting on the amp allow for a lot of versatility, the - setting being used for more mid gain settings and the + for all out destruction. Very articulate gain structure and with the mid cut engaged, can get a HUGE sound. Channel 3 is what I usually stick with for leads, or rhythms that require a little more oomph. It's thick and saturated with a TON of gain. It's great for aggressive leads on the bridge pickups (I can't stand the smoothness of most neck pickups I've had), and with the mid cut engaged, can really get a brutal rhythm tone. I tend to like a more searing tone, so I keep the Presence high on the amp, and the Deep around noon. The MIDI features of the amp are great, and allow me to control my TC Electronics G-Major, and Diezel at the same time with my Behringer FCB1010, which is great for setting up a ton of awesome patches to switch through. OVERALL OPINION Right now, I'm running this through an Emperor 4x12 with Celestion G12K-100s and Vintage 30s in an X pattern and it sounds MASSIVE! Before, i was using a Mesa OS 4x12 with Vintage 30s, and while it sounded great, the GK100s really push this amp over the top with awesome tone. Honestly, I probably wouldn't own this amp if it hadn't been for a great trade deal I got, which allowed me to sell the amp I had before it, and pick up the Herbert for only slightly more than what I got from selling the previous amp (Soldano SLO). While this amp does sound AMAZING, I'm not sure I would pay the amount of money that I did, had I not gotten the trade deal I got before buying it, while the amp sounds great, I would never pay the new price of $4600 for it. Don't get me wrong, I would certainly recommend this amp to anyone who has the cash to spend, because in all honesty, it is the best sounding amp I've ever heard, no competition... but in my experiences, after about the $1500 mark new, anything higher priced is really not a huge, drastic, change in sound quality. While this amp certainly sounds better than my 5150, I don't think it sounds $2200 better :P If I had to base just off of sound quality, I would give this amp a 10 out of 10 without question. Based on sound to price, probably more like a 7 out of 10, just because the price of these amps are so steep.

This is a FET preamp fitted with 2 individual channels (Gain, Treble, Middle, Bass, Volume). It also offers a presence and a deep control, and a master volume, All 3 knobs are shared by the two channels. The preamps comes with no manual and a somewhat cheapish power adapter. One may think that someone is trying to cut down costs and boost profit at Diezel... if we didn't know better!:-D The aluminium body is thick, sturdy and quite bulky, and yet the preamp is rather light (1.3kg). The Zerrer offers no less that 6 kinds of outputs so most situations should be covered! We have a "amp in", a "poweramp in" that can also be used as a "stereo FX loop" (send/return), a "compensated output" (w/ cab sim) for mixing desks, a headphones out (ofc w/ cab sim), an external footswitch control in case we want to trigger the Zerrer from a distance, and finally an "auxiliary in" with two independent volume knobs to plug in our MP3 player or other sources! The Zerrer is a true bypass preamp, but when activated sound only goes through when connected to the "amp in" output...which is obviously when we need it! Otherwise the bypass footswitch is used to mute the preamp. I'll be honest I think the preamp LOOKS pretty bland and common...knobs are not of the Diezel type and the overall design could easily be improved but, hey, aesthetic is only second to tone! And in that department the Zerrer delivers big time! If you're already familiar with Diezel amps, clean/crunch channel is from D-Moll and lead channel is VH4 (channel 3) If you're not, let's say that gain-wise channel 1 goes from a Fenderish or JC clean type tone to a big crunchy JTM or JCM800+. You can dirty the clean channel VERY progressively. Channel 2 more or less picks it up from there and brings us into high gain territories. Think VH4, Herbert or 3x Rectifier (the amount of gain, not the tone!). Tone-wise, the Zerrer brings us Diezel signature sound. It's extremely sensitive to attack and picking styles (just like a real good quality TUBE amp, no less!), and of course the guitar you'll plug into it will greatly influence the tone. Honestly it's so impressive to hear how responsive it is that I need to mention it once more! I've had many preamps and amps over the course of the last decades, and this one ranks at the very top for sure! Depending on how high you set the channel volume, EQs will be relatively or extremely sensitive. Basically if channel volume is full on, the tiniest turn of a knob has a huge impact on the tone. When channel volume is set at noon, it is more what you'd expect from a standard amp or preamp. It is only my opinion but I believe the Zerrer needs to be plugged into a sort of poweramp. I use a torpedo and the combination of the two is terrific! I also tried to plug the Zerrer into Recabinet 4 and it sounded pretty good, though not quite as good as into the torpedo. The Headphones out in comparison sounds like plugged into an IR file. When I first used it I found the tone somehow lackluster. Mind you, it's quite decent and pretty usable and useful when on the road for sure, (and better than any mass-market modeler out there!) but still, we're a far cry from what a "fully fledged" (so to speak) Zerrer can deliver! My previous preamp was a Mesa boogie V-Twin (good tone, but definitely not as versatile as the Zerrer) The Zerrer is definitely as responsive as the V-twin, even more actually IMHO. I have also owned a Herbert for several years (the first models) . To very briefly compare the two, the Herbert is way more versatile than the Zerrer, and is also voiced slightly differently, so the Zerrer can only mimic a fraction of what the Herbert can do, but it's not all that bad, as with a bit of extra EQing, I can get close enough anyway ...and it's way more convenient to carry around than a 30kg head and a 4x12!! But Peter, if you read me, we also need a Herbert preamp! :-D All in all, I'm very pleased and satisfied with the Zerrer. It is a frigging great piece of gear that delivers an awesome tone, plus, it's portable and very versatile. Once more Diezel puts out an excellent product on the market and above all one that should disappoint none! It's small in size but delivers big time! If you're looking for a high quality and portable preamp at an affordable price, just grab one, you just can't be disappointed! you can hear it on my souncloud page (mostly metal stuff though): https://soundcloud.com/chaosbuilder

The Diezel VH4 is an all-tube monster amplifier that can deliver between 90 and 160 watts of power, depending on what tubes are in it. Over the years the amp has come stock with different tube complements as owner/designer Peter Diezel worked through reliability issues with tube manufacturers and tone requests. It's my understanding the amp used to come with 6550s, then was switched to EL34s for quite a while, and now ships with KT77s. The thing is, it doesn't matter. Any tube in this amp works equally well, it's just all about the tone you're looking for. The VH4 has four channels that go from spanking clean to brutally-saturated over-the-top gain madness. Each channel has an independent Volume, Gain, Bass, Middle, and Treble control, and are also global "Deep" and "Presence" controls. The VH4 has both a serial and parallel effects loop, as well as a channel insert for each channel. All of these are controllable via on-board MIDI, including a global Mute function. Both channel 1 and channel 2 have a "bright" switch to further shape your tone. UTILIZATION It's actually hard to get a bad sound out of this amp. Go ahead, try. Once you get used to the diagonal layout of the knobs per channel, the amp is fairly straightforward. Set your channels where you want the sound, program the MIDI if you want, and go play 'till your heart's content. The Manual is clear and simple, and Diezel customer service is second to none. Peter Diezel himself will personally answer customer service questions and help people, even those who have purchased second-hand, get the best tone possible out of their Diezel amps. The manual goes into fairly deep detail, for example, going so far as to point out in what frequency ranges the "Deep" and "Presence" controls work and affect (80Hz and 4Khz, respectively). SOUNDS I mainly play Dimarzio equipped Neal Moser guitars, Ibanez guitars, and George Riszanyi custom guitars through all of my amps. This amp is simply a monster. Channel one is the "clean" channel and can get you warm jazz tones to country spank, all based on how YOU decide to set the amp, and with the gain cranked starts to get you into the dirt. Channel 2 can overlap with the lower region of channel one but as you increase the gain you run the gamut from gritty blues to 70's rock to 80's metal. Once you hit channel three you've entered the signature "Diezel" sound and the amount of gain on tap is staggering. With the gain lowered, you can keep the 70's/80's vibe and have the signature Diezel sound, or you can push the gain up and have saturated bliss. Channel four is simply over the top. Fluid high-gain is what's on the menu here--punishing rhythms and singing leads are nearly effortless. Whatever sounds you want, the VH4 can serve them up, including everything you want to hook up. OVERALL OPINION This is one of the most well-made and sturdy heads I've ever owned. It also weighs a ton. Make no mistake--this is a serious piece of hardware and the price tag reflects it, but if you're looking for that "all-in-one" amp the Diezel VH4 just may be the last amp you'll ever have to buy. If something were to happen to mine, I would without a doubt have another. This is definitely an amp you don't want to be without.

Diezel amps first became known in the industry in the mid 90s when they started showing up in the back lines of many big name metal players. Now they are most known for their super high end high gain amps. This amp has more of an old school feel to it but it still has tons of tone. This is one of their smaller amps but it is still pretty complex. This amp has 3 channels controlled by 2 sets of eq controls. There is a set of master controls that control the gain and the volume. There are two independent preamps. The first one being a clean channel the seccond one being a dirty channel. The last channel is a super high gain channel but shares settings with the dirty channel. The guts of the amp are built around 5 12XZ7 tubes with a 30 watt Class A power section that has a couple EL34's. You can swap out the EL34's for 6L6s is like. The Schmidt can also run on 5881, 6L6, 6V6, KT66, KT88, EL34, and 6550 power tubes. UTILIZATION Although these heads may look pretty small compared to other Diezel amps they are still pretty heavy. This one is around 50 pounds. This is mostly due to the Class A power section that the amp has. It looks a lot like the old Mesa MK heads which were pretty small. SOUNDS This is the most important part of any amp. The clean tones are huge on this amp once you dial in a bit of reverb. It is very easy to get a good clean tone from this amp. The clean tones just have the slightly hint of breakup. I like this in a clean tone as it makes it sound more organic. If you crank the clean channel you can even get a usable distortion tone. You can get a nice loose stoner or doom metal tone with the clean channel cranked and maybe a bit of drive on it. The eq controls are super responsive on this amp. The overdrive and dirty tones are what Diezels are known for. With the EL34's that this amp comes with stock you get more of the classic British overdrive sound. All the tones have a smooth quality to them. You can turn up the treble without it becoming harsh and painful. The overdrive channel has a nice clean tone to it as well as it cleans up very well with an adjustment to the volume knob on your guitar. Lead tones are nice and smooth like a high gain amp but they still have a bit of bite to them and crunch. OVERALL OPINION While this amp may not be a fire breathing monster like other Diezel amps it can still hold its own and it does it with a more vintage British vibe. It has a looser less compressed feel to it which is nice. If you want a good rocking high end amp but want it to have more of a classic feel the Diezel Schmidt is a good option if you can afford it.

This is the kind of amp that gets you familiar with the brand that eventually if things go right allow you to move into the flagship amp that amplifier companies sell for higher profit. This is a cool little amp that has some versatility but will always sound like a Diezel. I didn't find much use for it other than the higher gain channel/ mode. The first channel is a clean to moderate sizzle if you can call it that. The second seems more of options to fill the amp rather than make it usable. The third mode called Mega is where this thing really shines. It has a great and very forgiving gain staging...which is what I feel Diezel does best. There gain is world renown and it makes it hard to do much else with the amp. Control are as follows. Output: 50 Watt Channels: 2 independent channels. channel one with three modes (Clean, Texas, Mega) Loops: Serial and paralel Equalization: Each channel treble, middle, bass addtionally presence and deep for the output section UTILIZATION One thing Diezel is known for is making a very user friendly front panel layout. It could get intimidating if your used to plexi layouts but with just minutes you can pretty much figure this out if you have spent anytime turning on a computer. The first couple modes were pretty pointless to me. It didn't feel or really sound like something you would use for Texas blues or classic rock crunch. They can do those tones some what but for me Diezel is all about the crunch that they do so well. The high output gain really came alive when engaged and I felt like goofing around with this thing until I click this option on. I think Diezel could just save some money and make this a one channel amp with this function only. However, someone else may find the first two modes somewhat of use. I didn't use any manual because it was used and for me I am familiar with Diezels so I didn't think it was necessary. Tone really comes from playing around with your preferred settings anyway. So just playing around for a few minutes will have ample amount of amp discovery. SOUNDS I was using a PRS and a Strat for most of my playing with this amp and I pretty much stay on the Mega mode function. It seems most amps try to do many things but do one thing really well.....Mega mode to me is what it does really well. So I stayed on that function the entire time. Though this combo comes with a Celestion K100 speaker I think it might do a bit more justice it is have some sort of greenback speaker. Since it has this Texas tone thing going on I would like a lower wattage speaker to get those early speaker distortion tones. The tone I was chasing was a saturated gain that would be present in heavy rock/metal. I didn't try any drop tunings with it. Not really the player that I am so just 440 and half step is where I generally stay. I would say that the EQ was very efficient and usable throughout the spectrum. For me I find that sweet spot and stick with it. Once I got to Mega mode I didn't veer to far from that point. OVERALL OPINION I think this amp is a little over priced for what it is. It is built very well but I just didn't find much use for the other functions. The quality and workmanship was done very well. At new this amp is $3800, which is a lot of money. I know that there is a lot of freight added coming from Germany, so if you want this amp I would suggest getting it on the used market and let someone else take the hit for you. I've played the VH4, Herbert, Schimdt, and the Einy. This one is a good intro into the Diezel club. I had fund playing it at lower volumes and stage levels as well. This is a keeper amp, unless you want to get a Herbert or VH4.

(Originally written by tubart/translated from Audiofanzine FR) I bought this amp head to a dishonest Audiofanzine member who sold it broken to me. I've been owning it for almost one month. UTILIZATION Rather easy to use. Four channels and ideal rear connections. Check them all before connecting speaker(s). Comprehensive but not so complex like a Mesa amp for example. SOUNDS Diezel has a strong identity and a very unique gain, which is difficult to explain in words. The four EQs are effective but extremely versatile. The amp faithfully reproduces what your playing... I play a Les Paul Custom Orville By Gibson with Gibson HB-L and HB-R pickups. I get a vintage full sound. I played it with an Epiphone Les Paul Custom and it sounded different. It's a high-quality amp because I tested both guitars with another system (Marshall JMP1 + Mesa 20/20) and it wasn't as easy to tell the difference. Wide dynamic response (I connect the VH4S to a 16 ohm, 2 x 12" ENGL speaker cabinet with V30 speakers). The stereo effect is really good, the sound is rich, thick and wide (perfect if your band has only one guitar). The attack is incredibly well-defined regardless of the gain setting and the channel you use... Even the fourth channel reproduces every note of shred licks accurately. _ Channel 1: the clean sound is wonderful, certainly the best among current amp heads (although my best experience was with the clean channel of a tube Koch combo). You can give it a modern touch with a brilliance switch. It's perfect! The guitar sings like with a Fender amp. With a Les Paul, set the gain to 9 o'clock to get a mellow sound. At 12 o'clock, the sound gets very punchy (funky licks become powerful...). With higher settings, you get a nice blues rock distortion perfect for blues, rock or even punk rock, depending on the guitar. As a summary, with this channel and the volume control of your guitar you'll have lots of sounds... _ Channel 2: With low gain settings this channel sounds a bit fatter than channel 1, and it crunches with humbuckers. The sound reminds me of old Marshall amps (see Plexi...) and it is very warm. With higher gain settings you get a boosted JCM800 distortion... A bit more violent than AC/DC. Once again, this channel opens a vast field of experimentation! _ Channel 3: Even with the gain set to the minimum you'll hardly get a clean sound except (maybe) with single-coil pickups. Depending on your playing the sound varies from clean to crunch. When the gain control is set to 12 o'clock (I don't turn it beyond one o'clock) the amp provides an excellent distortion for power rock and 80's heavy metal with much brilliance and a strong character. This channel is currently my favorite. _ Channel 4: The "mega" channel! Amazingly powerful! Huge gain headroom: you won't need to turn beyond one o'clock. This channel is conceived for people who feel limited with channel 3... It's a delight for hi-gain fans. Update from 03/08/2009: I've been playing the VH4S one week with a Fender Telecaster Baja. This mid-range guitar sounds great with this amp... The clean channel sounds wonderful with single-coil pickups, channel 2 is made for blues and channel 3 is great for rock'n'roll rhythm and solos. I also want a Tele... OVERALL OPINION I've owned many amps (15 watt solid-state Fender, Marshall Valvestate 265R stereo, JCM2000TSL100 head, Marshall JMP1/Brunetti Mille/Tech21 Sansamp PSA1, Peavey Classic 50-50, VHT 2/50/2) and I've tried out lots of gear. I was looking for an amp head that combined the vintage Marshall sound with modern sounds. I thought about buying a Bogner Ubershall but I'm used to playing with a stereo setup so I don't like mono heads anymore... The VH4-S provides all features I was looking for (including Midi control) and it has a strong sound character. You'll love or hate this amp! The sound "sings" more than the Mesa rectifier Series (I also thought about buying a Dual Roadster) but the sound character is so exciting... If I ever buy another amp it would be because I want another sound character (not a better one, only a different one) and less output power –if you want to use this amp to its full capabilities you have to overdrive the power tubes, which means you must play at loud volumes (when I play in an apartment, the sound is very different...). It's just an premium amp, try it...