Kevster,
I play weekly in a contemporary praise band as well, and I feel for your quest for the ultimate tone setup.  I have a 50W HRM-OTS and am very happy with the clean and singing lead tones.  What i find I miss the most, is all of the lightly overdriven tones or those with a bit of hair around the edges.  As you know, that is a lot of the tones today in worship tunes.  I currently use a very nice TW Express clone.  It is amazing how it changes from clean to mean just by rolling off on the volume of the guitar.  The downside is that it doesn't have an effects loop and I end up running a wet/dry setup.  That's a bunch of stuff to haul around and the sound guy normally complains about board inputs, etc.

I'm on a quest to integrate the HRM-50 full time into my worship setup and have played around a bit with some overdrive pedals to use on the clean channel and cover the light OD sounds.  My OCD seems to cover that ground pretty good.  I also am finding that the Ceriatone is very sensitive to how hard you play and attack the strings, so with some work I think I can cover the broad range of tones.  I wish I could try out a HRM-BM as it seems to cover some of the in between tones pretty well but not sure how much of the liquid lead tones you give up on that model.

Just thought I would give you my 2 cents on the HRM50-OTS.  Good luck, and as others have stated, there probably isn't a really bad choice
sean

I have found my modded 50w HRM Bluesmaster to be quite versatile. The clean channel has pretty spot on BF fender sounds and can be pushed into nice smooth overdrive or crunchy overdrive depending on your guitar setup. I also had Nik install a switch to the PAB circuit which allows me to switch between the stock 68k resistor and a 22M resistor. This allows the PAB to act as more of a true boost, really pushes the clean channel to smooth creamy overdrive and pushes the OD channel nicely and gives a beautiful singing sustain to the OD side. I also have the HRM tonestack switchable, which really adds to the versatility and gives more gain to the OD side. This amp takes fuzz pedals very well too, if that is your thing. As far as the bass issues some have mentioned with the BM, they will mellow out and can be easily controlled by simply adjuating your bass control as you normally would adjust your TMB controls for higher volume situations. The c-lator really really helps as well.

Hope this helps!!

Gregg

Reply received from Nik...

It'll be the OTS 50 FM ME with C-Lator. My gut was right, but now I feel even more comfortable with it.

Package 1, assembled board, domestic cab, trannies, and tubes. C'lator as a kit.

Should order it in the next 10 days.

A freestanding reverb unit is off in the distance, but first I've got to get done with this amp.  Nik didn't say he had any reverb units in the pipeline, but he did say they might very well do one in the future.  I would love to have a unit right within a single cab.... I might just see about a custom cab with some extra space inside....

I sense that Nik might be coy about new products so as not to spoil a surprise.  If so, he might have a reverb unit available at any time...

I should be enjoying a new OTS very soon.... I JUST ordered it.  Nik says it'll probably be here in about two weeks.

BTW, I'm still looking at some options for an oversized head cab... I'm doing the C-lator in the cab, but I might get it large enough to handle two single-space rack units... One for the C-lator and one for a reverb unit.  The two I'm considering is the Lexicon MX200 if I go digital, or the Peavey Valverb if I go tube.  I've never played with a Valverb, but what I've heard sounded pretty good.  It's a tube reverb that fits in a rack slot...  If it works, I'd use it.

Anybody got any other suggestions or comments on either of these two reverb units?  Anybody ever done the two slot deal in the bottom of the head cabinet?

Thanks everybody!!!

FM 50 ME with C-Lator.  Nik agreed to do what we talked about before the suspension of selling kits.  I'm doing a quasi-kit.  No tubes, no cab, no trannies, but assembled/wired.  The C-lator is going to be complete.

The cleans are exactly what I want, but the OD is where there was any question... I like what I hear out there, but it sounds like the ME will have all the characteristics I want.  A shade darker, but hopefully still creamy.  That may be a matter of picking the right tubes. 

How's your amp burning in?  Pros/Cons?

What do you think about the extra slot/reverb idea?

Todd or Anyone Else,

I want to price out a cab, but I don't have all the info I need...

What is the clearance of the either the tubes or trannies and the bottom of the standard cab?? I know that the C-lator fits in the taller cab with little clearance from the amp components, but I wanted to make sure I had eonough inside clearance for an extra 1u rack space below the C-lator.

Anyone know the inside clearance on standard cab?

Thanks everyone!!!

Thanks Bro!!!