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New Aguilar Tone Hammer preamp pedal
- Thread starter Ian774
- Start date
I've been using the THDI V1 on my bass worship board for months and am pretty familiar with settings, tone shaping, etc. Got the V2 in today and did an A/B shoot-out using the JHS Switchback. Worked to keep output volumes the same to be sure I was hearing tone and not a volume bass bump.
Observations:
1. The dimensions of the unit are 4.5" wide (just a 1/8" wider than V1) x 3.5" tall. Not the 5.5" wide x 4" stated on the website. Takes the same board space as my V1.
2. I believe the internal circuity is pretty much identical as I could get the units to sound identical at similar settings. To match the AGS tone, I had to adjust the V2's Gain and Drive as shown in the photo.
3. The volume bump when engaging the V2 Drive vs the V1 AGS was the same. I tested this numerous times, both solo and in a mix.
4. Tone controls seem tuned the same.
5. The headphone amp is not very good fidelity. My Rolls personal monitor is much fuller and high fidelity. I'll give this feature another go tomorrow.
I bought this 1) to eliminate the AGS gain bump (which I solve by running with the AGS always-on) and perhaps get a two tier drive preamp. I don't think it accomplished that. 2) get the headphone practice feature, which I really did not care for.
I'l fiddle some more, but my initial impressions are that the V1 and V2 are pretty much sonically identical, which I suppose is a good thing if you are Aguilar and just updating the enclosure and footprint like they did with their other bass pedals (they did not re-voice those pedals and controls when going to V2 as far as I know). The one difference is the gain control working with the drive knob on V2, whereas V1 has no Drive knob. Placing the V2 gain and drive at about 2pm gave me the AGS drive tones I use every day.
After this test run, I'm more than happy sticking with my V1. It's built more solidly, controls feel better, takes phantom power and I love it with AGS always on. But once the V1 becomes scarce, the V2 will get the same tone. That's good.
With the settings in the pic, V1 and V2 sounded identical to me.
Observations:
1. The dimensions of the unit are 4.5" wide (just a 1/8" wider than V1) x 3.5" tall. Not the 5.5" wide x 4" stated on the website. Takes the same board space as my V1.
2. I believe the internal circuity is pretty much identical as I could get the units to sound identical at similar settings. To match the AGS tone, I had to adjust the V2's Gain and Drive as shown in the photo.
3. The volume bump when engaging the V2 Drive vs the V1 AGS was the same. I tested this numerous times, both solo and in a mix.
4. Tone controls seem tuned the same.
5. The headphone amp is not very good fidelity. My Rolls personal monitor is much fuller and high fidelity. I'll give this feature another go tomorrow.
I bought this 1) to eliminate the AGS gain bump (which I solve by running with the AGS always-on) and perhaps get a two tier drive preamp. I don't think it accomplished that. 2) get the headphone practice feature, which I really did not care for.
I'l fiddle some more, but my initial impressions are that the V1 and V2 are pretty much sonically identical, which I suppose is a good thing if you are Aguilar and just updating the enclosure and footprint like they did with their other bass pedals (they did not re-voice those pedals and controls when going to V2 as far as I know). The one difference is the gain control working with the drive knob on V2, whereas V1 has no Drive knob. Placing the V2 gain and drive at about 2pm gave me the AGS drive tones I use every day.
After this test run, I'm more than happy sticking with my V1. It's built more solidly, controls feel better, takes phantom power and I love it with AGS always on. But once the V1 becomes scarce, the V2 will get the same tone. That's good.
With the settings in the pic, V1 and V2 sounded identical to me.
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I am having a similar experience.
While it has been a couple of years since I have had a V1, the V2 still sounds like a true tone hammer. I agree that it still looks to be an AGS always on pedal. I think the filtering on the AGS side (which I like) is missing when off, making the overall sound too different to be a two channel pedal for me. Headphone and aux are a nice addition.
While it has been a couple of years since I have had a V1, the V2 still sounds like a true tone hammer. I agree that it still looks to be an AGS always on pedal. I think the filtering on the AGS side (which I like) is missing when off, making the overall sound too different to be a two channel pedal for me. Headphone and aux are a nice addition.
After a second test of the V2 Aux In and headphone out, it seems to be a mono device. Thats the reason the fidelity sounded so poor. If anyone else manages to get stereo operation from the aux in feature, let me know.
Great review mate! I purchased V1 two weeks before they launched V2. I wish they would have adjusted the levels for AGS circuit, however, I’m glad I don’t need to sell my new box and buy a new one.
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