Alright you guys so how do you like yours tonewise compared to your other amps or other amps you've tried? I'm 20 years old and have been playing since i was 12, I've always been a big brand name guy, I've owned a Crate Blue Voodoo head, Fender Cyber Twin, Vox AC30, Marshall TSL100, Mesa Dual Rectifier, now a Mesa Stiletto. All have been sold or swapped in trades for the amp listed after it. So I know what tones are out there. I've played some Plexi's, I love the Fender Deluxe Reverbs I've played and Fenders new Super Sonic is decent, but how does the Overtone compare to everything else that's out there?
Im a huge blues/jazzy fan. Its almost all i really play anymore, the only reason i own the Stiletto is because i played in a touring hard rock band. Now that I'm done with that i want something smaller with a better clean tone for blues.....mesa stilettos aren't the best for that and along with that its 150 watts, I'm gonna be going to Berklee College of Music in Boston next year so i don't want something that loud....just isn't practical. Im probably the biggest fan of John Mayer's tone that i know of and I'm wondering how good you can hit that tone with this amp. I talked to Nik and he said some of his tones are in there but what do you all think? This will be my first amp that hasn't been something typical like Fender or Mesa or some huge big name like that so I'm being cautious.
Thanks in advance!
-Chris
I'm a huge John Mayer's tone too and I have a Overtone (I purchased the Overtone with the hope to approach his tone)
First time I plugged my Overtone I was impressed the clean channel is great (very fenderish) etc but past the excitement of a new gear I have to admit that the Overtone doesn't do the "John Mayer's Tone", I'm really disappointed with the OD channel !
Why ? Because the Overtone has so much highs and treble on the OD channel (it's sounds aggressive). I've already change the OD trimmer for less gain et a smoother sound but it's still to edgy.
The amp still need some tweak. I'm currently selling some gear to get some cash to buy some other stuff (other guitar) and to mod the amp with my amptech.
My amp have the actual layout from Ceriatone (which contain a big part of J.Zucker mods). But it's still to edgy. For those who's wondering I mainly play stratocasters through an old 4x12 Marshall Cabinet loaded with G12-65 or a 1x12 with a EVM-12L (these speakers are not "harsh/trebble" speakers !
I'm sure I can get closer to a Two Rock with a few tweaks for the OD channel I don't think it will sound like the real thing but I'm sure I can get close.
Keep in mind that John Mayer doesn't really use his OD Channel, he mainly use his two rock as clean amp and running his pedal through it (T808, Marshall BB-1, Keeley Katana, Keeley Blues Driver and Hermida Zendrive) for his dirty sound.
His Two Rock's signature is mostly a Clean amp !
For instance I'm also playing the Overtone on the clean channel and running my pedal through it (Fulldrive 2, a Xotic BB Preamp and also a Marshall compressor).
With the Fulldrive and a Strat I can get pretty close to "Good Love Is On The Way" type of tone. But if you want something more "liquid" / "cooler" / "smoother" it's another story. The only way I find is to roll of the volume knob of my guitar pretty low and dial with the tone controls of my strat. But when you do that you miss a lot of precision in your sound and it's doesn't sound very good.
I think that for a John Mayer tone, you can also go for a Super Reverb / Twin maybe a Bassman or a Pro Reverb with few pedals, and you will get close too.
I really dig the Two Rock Custom Reverb Signature sound but the Ceriatone doesn't do it (I'm not bashing the Overtone it's just doesn't suit my taste for the moment).
After the tweak were done (if you have any suggestion about tweaks / mods please tell me), I will make a review of the Overtone and I hope I will be 100% satisfied.
That was my opinion