I've seen something somewhere about a guy picking up one of those in the last couple of months.  He was very happy, but there were also some that had used a Verbrator that weren't.  I know, not real helpful without a link....

I went with a G-Major II through a C-lator AND a Suhr Minimix II (as soon as the Minimix arrives).  I hope to thin out the herd of pedals on the floor!!!

not to thread jack, but i was interested in this a few months ago and this was the consensus on the best way to run the mini mix with the c-lator for parallel mode and keep the c-lator as a global master


Preamp Out=>C-lator In=>C-lator Send=>Mini Mix in=>Mini Mix Send to effects=> Mini mix return from effects=>Mini Mix Out=>C-Lator Return=>Power Amp In


hope this helps!!

Gregg

I got mine a week ago. I'm happy but not thrilled. My previous amp was a DRRI. The cleans on the DRRI are definitely better, but the HRM comes close in some aspects.

As for overdrive, I like how chords are crunchy and single notes are smooth. To me it sounds very similar to my DRRI with a few good pedals, but smoother and better note articulation. I imagine it as how the Blackface overdrive should be but isn't.

Overall I'm happy but didn't expect it to be as similar to my other amp as it is (yes I realise it is based on the same circuit to some extent).

PS. I don't really see how it is that versatile. It can do rock and blues easily but I don't see how it's different in that respect to other 2 channel amps.

Like Homesick, I was thinking the same thing. If you just got this amp a week ago then you don't have a clue what this amp is about yet. I sat with it for a month on the bench tweaking at the internal trimmers. And then after that I took it out of the head and adjusted based on the break-in. But from the beginning and all along I new I had a special amp.

Getting the most out of it makes it not a "plug & play" type of thing. And also, the C-lator does add quite a bit of more sonic possibilities. It's been about 9 months since I built it and somedays I still think it's breaking in yet. Very likely changes in the tubes life. Which brings up another aspect. I have never had an amp that can react so differently based on the tubes in it. So if you haven't experimented with tubes yet, that's another aspect. I wouldn't do any of this until you get it broken in for a month or so.

I will say that if I would have owned an amp like this twenty years ago, I wouldn't have had a clue what to do with it. I just had not advanced enough in terms of my ear, playing and what I wanted out of my equipment to get what it was all about.

I've had the Fuchs Verbrator for almost 6 months now with my Son's HRM and luv it.
The parallel loop I think it's the cat's meow with delay and any time based effects in it!
 

I concur with the others - you need to break the amp in - and have patience.
The tones on most of the YouTube clips knocked me out, but I was quite disappointed with my OTS (non-HRM) at first.  After a little while, I noticed it seemed to sound better after being powered up for a couple hours.  After another little while, it was sounding pretty good without a long warm-up.
Then, when I thought it was broken in, I switched from Mesa 6L6's to JJ's and that made quite an improvement.
I haven't got a C-lator yet.  Instead, I wired up a 250K pot to make an attenuator. So I go Loop Out->my attenuator->Alesis Nanoverb->ART tube preamp.  To my surprise, this extra stuff in the signal path really improved things another notch.    With that extra stuff in the loop, the amp is smoother, and seems to want to go into that infinite sustain mode more readily than with nothing in the loop.
I've had my OTS for over 6 months now - played a bunch of gigs with it, and I'm still tweaking - experimenting with speakers, etc.  But I'm now very happy with the amp, find it very versatile and tonefull.   

Also, the gain structure is different from most amps. Nik says for max headroom, set the MV about noon and the Volume between noon and 2 o'clock.  Unlike most amps, the MV is situated before the Loop Out.  That's why, even with the MV down fairly low, but without my attenuator, the Nanoverb clipped easily - though the light stayed green.

On one hand, we all want amps that just sound great right away.  The OTS is not like that, but the reward for all the tweaking and patience is tone that you can't get from other amps.

The only way for us to get even a close understanding of what you're referring to is to explain in detail where all knobs are set, guitar and pups being used, type of speakers, tubes, etc. A sound clip or even better a video clip of these issues would be great also. Like when you talk about not being happy with the headroom. One persons clean is anothers not so clean. The HRM's clean channel is not spanking clean, but it's capable of getting a very nice clean tone. Once again how hard you're driving the amp is a big factor.

When you talk about "high pitch squeal" the first thing I think of other than a microphonic tube is when an amp is up so high with certain guitars/pups and in close proximity and the amp is clipping uncontrollably. A power tube that has lost its vacuum can go into intermittent squealing. I had an amp that had a bad tube due to shipping that would go crazy everytime I hit a low G.

How familiar are you with tube amps? The reason I ask is I recently realized that I have just been using tube amps all my life and know most all the little idiosyncracies of tubes and tube amps. While others are just becoming aquanted with them and not prepared for some of the issues.

It could very well be that something is wrong with your amp. Try to record some clips at different volume levels and post them. Or maybe taking it to a trusted tech in your area and get it assessed.