VMAX sound problems

[TRIPxCORE]

I just got my VMAX. I played a V2 a couple weeks ago at Guitar Center, plugged straight into it and got a nice sounding metal distortion out of it. I plug into my VMAX here and it sounds like crap to me. There can't be that much of a difference between the two amps. It just doesn't have any balls the way it sounds.

My question is that is it possible the tubes need to be changed and if so, what sort of tubes should I buy to get the best metal sound possible like Dimebag Darrell?

 

[RD/Rich]

The V2 and VMAX are two completely different heads even though the layout looks very much the same. The V2 has a totally different power section that uses a 12AT7 coupled w/ a mosfet power amp. Both of these combined together produce the massive low end you heard in the V2. Also the preamp sections are quite a bit different. I would suggest sticking w/ the V2 or scouring Ebay for one of the older RG series amps that Dime used. Also our Ultra XL module in the MTS series is capable of getting that type of tone.

 

[TRIPxCORE]

I can understand that these two amps sound differently but my VMAX does not sound this bad naturally. There is something wrong with it. No one would buy an amp that sounds this terrible. When I am using the tube channel for distortion, if you turn the distortion up at all it gets real scratchy, way too much treble and just sounds out of whack. A different distortion this amp may have but no way does it sound how mine is sounding. What I am trying to figure out is are the tubes bad in it and need to be replaced or is it something else?

Scott Ian from Anthrax uses the VMAX heads and he has a great sound. Granted he probably has lots of other things running with it but the main source of his distortion is coming from the amp.

 

[Panic]

Scott switched to the V2 awhile back. He did use the Vmax for a short time though.