Slow burn modules

Not every module wins you over right out of the gate. Some take a little time to sink in. But just like wine or Scotch, once you acquire the taste, it can be a richer experience than the easy pleasures. What module took its time winning you over? For me it was the Salvation Stoner AD. It wasn't quite what I expected it might be, and I even put mine up for sale a couple of times. Rest assured it's a keeper now, though. I just spent an ecstatic evening firing off riffs and licks through it.

Probably my Sacred Groove Fisch. Just didn't seem to suit my playing - until I turned the gain down. This combined with a single coil neck pickup sounds just fantastic. And it took me a while to figure that out - just seemed kind of counterintuitive I guess.

Similarly, though slightly off-topic, I also find my Salvation Mash-All + to be one of my favourite clean modules. Great high-gain tones, too, but what really took me by surprise here was the clean tone.

Salvo Terrier II

The JF Mark X was the first module I got and didn't instantly love. Usually I can get a great tone from any mod from the moment I plug in and just tweak it to perfection. The Mark X took me awhile to dial in and in the process I got a lot of unpleasant tones. After the initial couple hours of tweaking and finally getting to where I liked it, I pulled the mod from the RM4 and let it sit on the bench with the other mods. After a couple weeks and some possible trades, I plugged it back in and thought it was pretty good. All this was thru a RM4 into the RM20 power section into two Bogner Cubes. After thinking this isn't too bad, I plugged the RM4 into the RM100 EL34 power section into a Randall Warhead 4x12 V30 cab. Man, the mod came to life! It was thicker, juicier, and just sounded like what I think a good Mark metal tone would be (...And Justice For All be the ultimate reference for amazing Mark tones, in my opinion).

Anyway, I know this is long winded but wanted to share my experience. I'm glad I dialed it in initially, gave it a couple week break and let my ears rest from the piercing tones I originally got, and came back to it to fully understand and appreciate the tones it was giving me. I've never owned a Mark amp, or Mesa in general, so I didn't know what to expect but am satisfied with what I'm getting from the Mark X.

I will say though, this is the first mod that I wish Jaded Faith had a manual for.

I'll chime in with another observation that's relevant to this. The rig that a player uses has a massive impact on their perception of a module. Going on the road the past 2 years and meeting hundreds of you was a total eye opener for me. The hours spent discussing tone and watching/listening to many of you play my mods was priceless. The same mod can sound completely different depending on who is playing it and which rig the mod is in.

The main variable that speed2dirt pointed out is the amp and speakers used. This is as important, possibly even more important, than the module used. I have had countless discussions where someone was disappointed in a module only to hear it in a different amp and have an epiphany. That's the blessing and curse of the MTS line being as broad as it was. The number of amp/tube/speaker variations make it impossible to account for every scenario. I try to fill that void with customer service and making myself as readily available as possible. That and keeping a wall of amps and cabs here to test things in.

Manuals are on the way and being worked on as we speak.

I'm still trying to figure out the ERECT and MARK X. :? I'm not giving up, but it's confirming I'm not a Mesa guy.

Speaking of, Max, I still need to have you over. It appears my schedule opens up mid August.

Cool! That should work for me.

Currently it is the QuickMod GT. Although to be fair, since I have the dual QMGT & no M4 yet, I have only been able to mess with OD1. Once I get the M4 I will hit up Rob for some setting help, if I am still struggling with it. Prior to that it was the custom Judge/Beast mod. The Judge side was fine, but it took me a while to find the right EQ, Gain, Boost on/off settings. Eventually I got it setup though.

Hamner1 said:

Currently it is the QuickMod GT. Although to be fair, since I have the dual QMGT & no M4 yet, I have only been able to mess with OD1. Once I get the M4 I will hit up Rob for some setting help, if I am still struggling with it. Prior to that it was the custom Judge/Beast mod. The Judge side was fine, but it took me a while to find the right EQ, Gain, Boost on/off settings. Eventually I got it setup though.

Click to expand...

No GT but I found the second gear with the gain noon to 1 is about as hot as I could get the quick mod. Still a quite awesome module when tweaked in properly

I am finding that the Wrecked is one of those modules. At first I was kind of "What is all the praise of this amp?" I persisted and now I am loving it. It is kind of like guitars. I have a Music Man Silhouette that I have been playing for ten years now and it is my go to guitar. When I first got it, I was going to retire my old strat as I didn't want to beat it up it any more. I kept going back to it until I finally committed to the Music man and refused to bring the strat along to any gigs, forcing me to play the Music Man. Now it feels just right to me. Amps are like that too.

I was going to post a mirror of speed2dirt's post. MarkX was the one that made me say hmmmm.. I put it in the corner for a while to think about what it's done.. Now it's my favorite module.. :?