NAD! VHT Special 6 Ultra......

[BigSteve22]

My Fender Mustang I is a decent little amp, for what it is. Decent sounding, but not much bass response to speak of, (kind of a consequence of an 8" speaker). It takes pedals reasonably well, has 17 amp models, 24 presets, and various effects. Sort of a "Swiss Army" practice amp. It has served me well, but I need to move forward.

So, after 55 years of playing other people's tube amps, I decided it was time to buy one for myself. Played a bunch of different models, with different tube combos. Read a lot of reviews, listened to a lot of demos..... After much going back and forth, I pulled the trigger on VHT Special 6 Ultra.

Ordered from Musicians Friend, it was scheduled to arrive Wednesday, 3/13. Got home from work that day, and sitting on my steps was a large box. Lifting it, it seemed a little light for an amp with a shipping weight of 46lbs. Upon opening it, I discovered why: I found myself face to face with a shiny new, "Black Swamp Percussion", titanium shelled, snare drum! It was absolutely gorgeous, and as it sells for over $900, it would have been quite the bargain, since I paid less than $400 for the amp. Unfortunately, I don't play drums, and I'm too damned honest to sell it on Reverb for a tidy profit.  So, after 5 phone calls, to 5 different people, I finally got MF to admit that the error was theirs, and to ship me my amp overnight express. It arrived Friday.....

 

[BigSteve22]

I was off work on Thursday and Friday, and had planned to put the amp through it's paces then. But because it arrived Friday, (2 days later than expected), and the fact that I'm working everyday until next Wednesday, extensive testing will have to wait a couple of more days. (Can't really pump it up with the family home.)

But, first impressions are good. It's pretty quiet. In fact, first time I plugged it in, I let the tubes warm up a few minutes in standby before plugging my Tele into the clean input, I switched to low power mode, turned up the volume and didn't hear anything. I thought maybe there was a problem, but I strummed a chord, and it sprang to life.

On the clean input, the low power setting is a little dark, kind of "Jazz-ish". However the high power setting has plenty of treble to spare. I haven't had a chance to really explore the boost or the Ultra input, that's a job for Wednesday.

So for now, I've been playing the clean input, in high power mode, with the "Watts" set to 12 o'clock, the "Depth" at about 10 o'clock, "Tone" at 3 o'clock, "Volume" at around 12 o'clock, and the "Texture" switch set to center. The manual recommends setting the "Ultra" control completely clockwise when playing the clean input, to avoid noise. I didn't notice any noise with it on, but I have it set as recommended. With my pedal board plugged into the front, I've been using the EarthQuaker "Tone Job" for fine tuning the EQ. So far, so good......

 

[mayfly]

That's a great story about the snare drum!  I'd be tempted to keep it and take up drumming 

glad that the amp is working out for you so far...