Background - The VM (not to be confused with JVM) is as 1 1/2 channel amp. It has two "dynamic ranges" - basically, the Low range is supposed to be modelled after a JTM45 (IIRC), and then with High range, you kick in an extra gain stage. It also has separate "frequency selective" preamp gain knobs, Detail (upper registers) and Body (lower registers). Your standard EQ knobs, a digital reverb, and a mid boost. Oh, and it has KT66s in the power amp.
Basically, none of that really means anything to me.
I've never played a JTM45, or been aware of any special, vaunted 60s/70s Marshall KT66 tone... So I'll try and describe how it sounds to my ears.The main selling point of this amp, for me, was the extreme responsiveness to playing dynamics. This is something I had personally found to be lacking on amps that I had played/owned that were geared towards high gain.
In my mind, it's almost like the concept of that Dyna Drive thing Boss came up with, except not shit (I'm simply inferring that those pedals were shit, I've never seen anyone actually play or even enthuse about one). On Low Dynamic Range (LDR), with the preamp gain knobs cranked up decently high (just can't help myself, even if it's not a gain monster
), playing with a light touch can get you a nice, warm yet crisp clean tone. Give an open chord a bash and you'll start to hear an AC/DC-esque snarl. Plugging in a single-coil based guitar and you'll get yummy crispy cleans without needing to tip-toe around on your picking hand. Kicking in the extra gain stage brings a hefty volume increase, as well as a bumping up the meaty snarliness and the gain. The tone here without the mid boost engaged is not exactly FAT, but kinda like a lean, mean fighting machine. To me, at this level you start to approach the rhythm tones of Slash on the Appetite album. Snarly and pretty bitey, but not as thick as his later tone on the Illusion albums. Gain here is decent, "hotrod" Marshall I guess, but nothing over the top.
Now kicking in the mid boost gives the High range a huge kick in the pants. Gain jumps up a notch, sounds gets faaaat, and you can start to get some chunk on the palm mutes. Wound up a bit on the master I'd say this would probably be good enough for classic metal.
Winding the volume back down on the high range, you can still get a pretty decent clean with a bit of hair around the edges. That's one of the things I really like about this amp. Winding the volume down heaps cleans up really musically, and doesn't seem to kill the tone much/at all.
I've briefly tried hitting the front end with boosts from my GT6, and it can certainly be wounded up to approach the "JCM800 on steroids/SD-1/TS9" type of tone. For some reason, due to the way it's designed, apparently you can't easily get a solo boost going for the High range. It just bumps your gain up instead. I've found this to be true, and the way to go would be to simply wind your volume down to 8 or whatever during the rest of the song, and open it full throttle for a solo.
Reverb is kinda dark, but it's there, and it's good enough for me not to worry about it.
That's all I can think of at the moment, oh, and if you try it at a shop, this is an amp that can quite easily be made to sound horrible! The first time I tried it through a stock Marshall quad, it sounded SHIT. Then I hit it up through the Greenback loaded matching cab and it sounded beautiful. Putting it through my V30 loaded 2x12 is not quite as midsy but tighter on the low end which is a plus for me.
All in all, a pretty cool amp (Currently on offer for a great price), with a lot of stuff I'm not used to that I'm keen to get a grip on!!
Hope that's useful to someone somewhere.
Edit: NZRS Matt and the Lower Hutt/Wellington RS guys were all pretty helpful in terms of information and letting me try out this, the JVM and various other things like that. CAB was also really helpful in answering my questions about the Splawn Pro Stock on TM, although in the end due to a screwed up sale my budget didn't extend that far anyway. Thanks guys! Don't think I've missed anyone. Oh well, we have the edit button back
