What is the general consensus on these Cesar Diaz mod CS Vibroverb’s?
I have one but years ago put it away mostly, because it didn’t sound ‘special’ to me. But……it’s so loud I never played it over 3 on the volume. It occurred to me this is hardly hitting the preamp stage hard enough and I started thinking about getting a Rivera Rockcrusher so I could find the sweet spot without it being too loud..
Before dropping over $600 on the Rockcrusher though, I decided to put the amp through it’s paces. I set it up in my studio, cranked it to 8.5 and stood outside the room while recording it. SM 57 into a UA Apollo 8P into Pro Tools. 4 passes……Modified/Tube Rectifier…..Mofidied/Diode Rectifier……Stock/Tube rectifier and Stock/Diode Rectifier.
I did not find anything special about the tone, in fact the feel sucked. Way punchy but also with almost harsh, brittle and sometimes shitty overtones etc. No rich, creamy overdrive. Nothing special…….not much different to my 70’s Silverface Twin Reverb. Loud and dirty but not a tone you go aaaaah yes!! Not a tone that makes you want to play it for hours and get inspired by it.
I honestly was expecting something in the realm of an SRV tone……seeing as Diaz was his amp tech and licensed his exact mod to Fender. Plus it’s a handwired faithful repro. Of course I wasn’t expecting exactly SRV’s tone because I’m not him. But something in the same general vicinity would have been nice. I didn’t hear it. I came away disappointed.
So it’s possible a Rockcrusher will not magically transform this amp, because I’m not sure it has a truly special sweet spot to begin with. Yes I could run my Tube Screamer into it or any one of the many distortion/overdrive/clean boosts I have. I was really hoping the VV would not need that though. Straight in…..killer tone…..done deal. Show up like that at blues sit in’s etc.
Maybe I need to look at other Fender amps.
The 2nd guitar player in my band bought a Blues Jnr. It’s small and light and has a great tone. Way creamy……roll the volume down for a bit cleaner rhythm tone……full volume for a nice lead tone. Nothing else needed unless you want your pedalboard in the rig. Surprisingly it shits all over the Vibroverb in that respect.
But back to the Cesar Diaz Vibroverb…..what’s the word on these?
You can be totally honest. And sorry for the long post.