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Heritage Owners Club

NAD - the 633 Drive King has landed!


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Posted

Today was the day! A visit to Cliff Brown at 633, and hour or so trying out the amp, pay the balance and then home. Some pics...

 

Heritage H150, Paulman Tele, Drive King and a rather smug me...

 

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Boutique amps for boutique guitars!

 

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Front panel - pretty self explanatory. The "Voice" switch adds a bit of presence to the left, neutral in the middle, a bit of mid boost to the right. "Select" is for selecting the drive if not using the footswitch. "Headroom" basically changes the power, though I understand it also changes the power amp configuration in some way. In the pic it's at its lowest setting, which gives some nice power tube distortion and a power of about 15W. All the way up gives 50W of clean power.

 

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The rear panel. Again, pretty straightforward. The "Trim" control on the FX loop can be used to boost the level - around 11 to 12 o'clock gives unity gain. The Pedal/Bypass/Rack switch is used to match the loop to pedals or line-level effects, while Bypass removes the loop from the circuit. The footswitch is connected via a 4-pin XLR.

 

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The footswitch.

 

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The amp comes with a Roqsolid cover.

 

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So what does it sound like? Cliff was keen to try out the Barden-equipped Tele...

 

Posted

Nice Snatch!

 

Boutique amps for boutique guitars! Harrumph.

 

Love the (English?) oak face plate. She's beautiful.

 

Smile :)

 

Congrats

Posted

Congrats. One of the things that seems to unite many of us fans of Heritage is that we think having a human relationship with the maker of a piece of gear is important. Great gear comes out of it, but it is also a way to honor the tradition of craftsmanship. Cool amp, cool story.

Posted

Great story Bob. That 633 looks and sounds fantastic. Play it with all the love you can muster.

Posted

Congrats. One of the things that seems to unite many of us fans of Heritage is that we think having a human relationship with the maker of a piece of gear is important. Great gear comes out of it, but it is also a way to honor the tradition of craftsmanship. Cool amp, cool story.

 

This! Great looking package there, Bob! Those two guitars and that amp should just about do it, I'd think! Congratulations!

Posted

Agreed about the relationship with the maker - Cliff's advice was to use the amp for a month or so, get to know it and bring it back to him for any necessary adjustment. There won't be much to do, though I think the reverb might need some tweaking to get it exactly how I want it.

  • 1 month later...
Posted

So, one month on and I made the trip down to Cliff's place for a couple of minor adjustments. The (digital) reverb was made a little darker and the maximum reverb time was reduced. Cliff had also modified the tone stack on his prototype Drive King, giving it a slightly warmer character, and after a comparison with mine, I had that done as well.

 

I've also made some revisions to my effects setup. Previously I had a Peavey Valverb (giving reverb and tremolo) in the loop of the Ceriatone, along with chorus and delay controlled by a Gigrig Remote Loopy 2. I've now added a second Remote Loopy 2 and put a Strymon Lex and Voodoo Labs Tremolo into the loop as well. Having these effects on the top of the amp makes adjustment easier - no bending down, something of a benefit for the more mature guitarist - plus the remote switches take up less floor space. Some pics...

 

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From R to L - Ernie Ball Wah, EH Soul Food overdrive, Gigrig Remote Loopy 2 footswitches, 633 Drive and FX Loop f/s, homemade f/s for Strymon Lex, Ernie Ball volume.

Posted

That is a pro-level rig you've got there.

If only my playing was pro-level... :laughing7:

Posted

Beautiful!

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