VHT Pitbull 50CL or 100?

[budda]

 

[CentaurPorn]

I'm not your guy buddy!

ps..If you want a UL I have one for sale..and @ a very good price

 

[blackrobedone]

Only problem is the K Tre is going to have a sac-load more nut than the VHT. VHT has no balls, and I'm speaking from my ownership of a Pittbull UL and a Sig X. Sure, you can get one or two guys on the forum to tell you otherwise, but buyer beware. Check out some sound clips of both - you'll hear intense, detuned metal riffs exploding out of a Tre, and turn the other cheek to find EVH riffs and cleans pooting from a VHT.
Don't settle. It'll be a pain to have to resell the VHT once you are not satisfied.

Check the classifieds and ebay: VHTs galore. Tre's . . . not so much. Hmmm.

 

[CentaurPorn]

Only problem is the K Tre is going to have a sac-load more nut than the VHT. VHT has no balls, and I'm speaking from my ownership of a Pittbull UL and a Sig X. Sure, you can get one or two guys on the forum to tell you otherwise, but buyer beware. Check out some sound clips of both - you'll hear intense, detuned metal riffs exploding out of a Tre, and turn the other cheek to find EVH riffs and cleans pooting from a VHT.
Don't settle. It'll be a pain to have to resell the VHT once you are not satisfied.

Check the classifieds and ebay: VHTs galore. Tre's . . . not so much. Hmmm.

I am sorry dude. I realize tone is subjective but to say a vht is lacking balls is fucking insane. I have had Framus, Mark IV, Marshall, 5150, XXX, and the list goes on and the VHT has a fuck tonne more "BALLS" than any of them.

Are you the guy that compared a VHT tone to Brian adams?

 

[kazE]

Thanks for the input Centaur, I will ask the owner how many KT88's it has.

If it indeed is one of those prototype-UL's it'll probably go for it.

 

[budda]

VHT's excel at dry tight tones, and they are capable of more then that.

 

[onefingersweep]

Only problem is the K Tre is going to have a sac-load more nut than the VHT. VHT has no balls, and I'm speaking from my ownership of a Pittbull UL and a Sig X. Sure, you can get one or two guys on the forum to tell you otherwise, but buyer beware. Check out some sound clips of both - you'll hear intense, detuned metal riffs exploding out of a Tre, and turn the other cheek to find EVH riffs and cleans pooting from a VHT.
Don't settle. It'll be a pain to have to resell the VHT once you are not satisfied.

Check the classifieds and ebay: VHTs galore. Tre's . . . not so much. Hmmm.

VHT no balls?

I have to ask, what do you mean with "balls" then?

I bet you just want a wetter sound?

 

[JJ Rodriguez]

Some people perceive "dry" tone as a lack of gain, that's probably what was going on. That's the reason that Steve Fryette came out with the gain mod on the GP3 pre-amp, which has similar (or the same, depending on who you talk to) preamp. It adds more saturation to the gain.

That or he uses a 0.01 mm pick and picks super lightly. The VHT is so responsive to picking that without adjusting the amp you can go from damn a bit gritty to balls out death metal, all from controlling your picking hand.

 

[zimbloth]

Haha, I've had Rivera K-TRES and Pittbulls in the same room at my store and it's not even close. The Pittbull DESTROYS the K-Tres for all things metal. It's really not even subjective if you had them side by side, it's beyond obvious. That dude obviously had a defective unit or is just batshit crazy.

I'm a Rivera dealer so I have no agenda here, just the truth. The K-TRE is cool but it doesn't compare to the Pittbull, or even other Riveras like the KR7. BTW the Pittbull really isn't 'dry' at all if you know how to set it up and what to run into it. It's just tight and clear, but it has loads of balls and low-end.

 

[JJ Rodriguez]

It being dry is what I like about it I mean dry in that it's saturation doesn't really sound super wet like a Mark IV.

 

[kazE]

Ok so I got this info from the owner:

He says it has 2 KT88's and 7 12AX7's.

Here is it's serial number:

H920042


I just sent the info to Fryette to see what they say, crazy stuff.

 

[sepherus]

That guy really doesn't know what he is talking about. I had a Deliverance and only the 60 watt model (read as channel 2 of the Sig:X with less headroom) and it could do low gain stuff, and sounded great for that, but it was as good or better than my Mesa Triple Rec, or my old 6505+ when it came to metal. Sure I wanted a touch more saturation, so I turned the volume down on my TS and turned the gain up a little. TADA!

Super tight, super articulate, gainy and mean as hell. If that amp had an effect loop and played like 10 DB lower, I'd have never gotten rid of it. Or if I were in a giging band, then I wouldn't have cared.

Did I forget to mention that it cut through my Recto with ease? It obviously didn't bury it. Any one who has ever played one set up well knows thats really hard. However, once a Recto is set up properly, they tend to bury everything else.

 

[zimbloth]

That guy really doesn't know what he is talking about. I had a Deliverance and only the 60 watt model (read as channel 2 of the Sig:X with less headroom) and it could do low gain stuff, and sounded great for that, but it was as good or better than my Mesa Triple Rec, or my old 6505+ when it came to metal. Sure I wanted a touch more saturation, so I turned the volume down on my TS and turned the gain up a little. TADA!

Super tight, super articulate, gainy and mean as hell. If that amp had an effect loop and played like 10 DB lower, I'd have never gotten rid of it. Or if I were in a giging band, then I wouldn't have cared.

Did I forget to mention that it cut through my Recto with ease? It obviously didn't bury it. Any one who has ever played one set up well knows thats really hard. However, once a Recto is set up properly, they tend to bury everything else.

Truth! Great review, my bandmate who also uses the Deliverance would agree with that 100%. Cuts better than any amp he's ever had and sounds incredible for the heavy stuff. Definitely a shame it doesn't get more love.

Ok so I got this info from the owner:

He says it has 2 KT88's and 7 12AX7's.

Here is it's serial number:

H920042


I just sent the info to Fryette to see what they say, crazy stuff.

And this is the 100/CL? That doesn't sound right.

 

[kazE]

Rofl I know. I bite the bullet and bought it, it'll be here today or tomorrow so I'll be able to take a look for myself.

If it's damaged or not as advertised then I can return it so I'm not really worried. I'm hoping I got a great deal, any Pitbull for $1200 is a steal.

 

[zimbloth]

Rofl I know. I bite the bullet and bought it, it'll be here today or tomorrow so I'll be able to take a look for myself.

If it's damaged or not as advertised then I can return it so I'm not really worried. I'm hoping I got a great deal, any Pitbull for $1200 is a steal.

If it has only 2 KT88s then it's not the 100/CL or UL. Also dude if it's a super old 'Pittbull Classic' model, that's not really as good as their newer stuff.

Hopefully what you get is awesome and it will operate safely.

 

[kazE]

Word.
I'm hoping he got the tube config wrong. I'm not worried though, either way it'll work out.


Fryette emailed me back and confirmed that it is indeed one of the older "One Hundreds".

But instead of this config:

Preamp: 1 Sovtek 12AX7WB, 3 Chinese 12AX7A.
Power amp: 1 Chinese 12AX7A, 1 Chinese 12AU7.

The owner has it setup with:

Preamp: 7 12AX7
Power amp: 2 KT88

Maybe my math is wrong here but I don't know it's fitting 3 more preamp tubes. I'll know more when it arrives.

 

[kazE]

Oh and I found one review on it!

Fryette Amplification Pittbull 100 Head: Harmony Central User Reviews

Seems that the ONE HUNDRED is still pretty sweet. I'll be able to post some pics and perhaps some recordings when I get it on Wednesday/Thursday.

 

[budda]

Nick, the CLX's sound just fine from my experience - and they were parked next to a D60.

 

[shockerate]

You might find this helpful:

The "One Hundred" was the predecessor of the UL. Basically configured from the pre of the Classic head, 3 channels, and one output side of the 2150, thus two power tubes, using an output transformer from a 2150.

Tube config was:

Preamp, 1 Sovtek 12AX7WB, 3 Chinese 12AX7A.
Power amp, 1 Chinese 12AX7A, 1 Chinese 12AU7.
Power tubes: 98 wattss

Svetlana began having troubles and we only had Chinese KT88 to fall back on which didn’t hold up well so we went to 4 power tubes and a modified output transformer to run 4 tubes.

This wasn’t intended to be a massive gain amp, although a lot by the standards of the time. As things progressed we responded to requests for more gain and power amp saturation. We tried making the driver tube (12AU7) interchangeable to help tweak power amp distortion, but ultimately it created as many problems as it solved so that idea was scrapped in favor of a softer sounding driver stage. The new tube config was:

Preamp, 1 Sovtek 12AX7WB, 3 Chinese 12AX7A.
Power amp, 1 Chinese 12AX7A,
Power Tubes: 4 Chinese KT88.
Output power: 105 watts.

This was met by our beloved VHT clan with either great enthusiasm or extreme anger. If you were in a band and wanted one just like the other guitarists, you either appreciated the difference and it worked well for the overall sound of the band, or you were pissed because yours was not as aggressive.

After a year of this, the UL went back to tow tubes in the drive/phase inverter stage, but with a difference. A new driver design using a 12AT7 in place of the 12AU7 for the driver. The idea being to restore the tightness and aggressive UL trademark but retain some of the fatness of the 12AX7 only style. By then the Sovtek KT88 became available and that became what is still the standard tube for the UL: New Tube config:

Preamp, 1 Sovtek 12AX7WB, 3 Chinese 12AX7A.
Power amp, 1 Chinese 12AX7A, 1 Chinese 12AT7.
Power Tubes: 4 Sovtek KT88.
Output power: 120 watts.

For those who liked the softer more saturated power amp quality of the 5 tube UL and wanted even more, the Classic head was redesigned using the 5 tube preamp config and renamed the CLX at the request of Mr. Hartley Peavey who owns the trademark for the use of Classic on guitar amplifiers. New CLX tube config:

Preamp, 1 Sovtek 12AX7WB, 3 Chinese 12AX7A.
Power amp, 1 Chinese 12AX7A
Power Tubes: 4 Svetlana EL34s.
Output power: 110 watts

Keep in mind that at the time all of this was going on, tube supplies were very erratic and unstable. The Tesla factory got bombed, or so they say, new 6550 designs were all over place in terms of quality and reliability, and we were constantly having to shift gears in order to maintain a performance level that depnded ontop quality tubes.

Obviously the tube scene has settled down and has been stable for quite a while now. As a result, there have been no major changes in the UL or CLX power plants since mid 97. Just some minor tweaking, because you ask for it, or I just can’t keep my mits out of there.

Have a good time!

 

[kazE]

That was posted on page 2 shock, but thanks anyway .