Having fun with a DV Micro Pro II 50

[Sigmund451]

GAS got the best of me. In the French classifieds there was a DV micro pro II 50 head. Delivered it as 120 euros. I figured as long as it worked it was hard to go wrong. Ive been working on dialing in a sound today. Its a totally different animal from my Quilter SBUS. Its darak pretty dry. It wants to be just a little boxy but with some adjustment it opens up. I may try my eq pedal in front of it for a slight boost. The EQ works fine but with less overall range than the Quilter. Its nice having the option of a cleaner less chimey tone.

The one thing I found was the tone opens up with a change in picks. On the Quilter I find Ultex a bit over the top in what I can only describe as a little bit of an overdrive vibe that exagerates quilters already chimey presentation. I use fender ex heavy on the quilter. On the more dry darker DV the Ultex add a nice color that isnt overkill.

In a perfect world Id have liked to get the little tube version but since the tube is soldered in I didnt want to go used. In the least this is a budget way of giving a different voice a try.

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

In a perfect world Id have liked to get the little tube version but since the tube is soldered in I didnt want to go used. In the least this is a budget way of giving a different voice a try.

Great little head! FWIW, those tubes operate at very low voltage and have an extremely low long term failure rate.

[Sigmund451]

Im very much liking it as I get a little more familiar with it. Im no eq wizzard but Im learning. Its odd how different amps behave so differently with the same Bass, Mid, and treble knobs. Its almost like makers have a completely different idea what each of those mean.

For low volume I might like this amp better with my eq box in front of it with a small boost but the jury is still out. It doesnt have a gain control on the clean channel and so far it seems like the hot channel is not very useful for jazz. I just messed with it a minute and it wanted to get cruchy from the get go.

Its a nice break from the Quilter. Once I get my practice room acoustics a little better I dont know what I will prefer but with all the room reflections the Quilter chime goes a little far.

[Gitterbug]

I have a long history with those amps. It's actually called DV Mark Micro 50 II, not Micro Pro. I've had the first version since the launch year 2016. The Mk II came a couple of years later, with somewhat different connectivity features. Before that, the CMT (Ciro Manna) version with tubes in the preamp. I tried that version around 2020 but didn't find a significant difference in sound then.

All Micro 50/60 heads share the same power amp and clean sound. The overdrive is an added-on circuit, like an internal Fx pedal, which is rougher (coarser teeth if it were a saw) on the black 50M (Metal) version. The whitish Jazz version doesn't have this second "channel" at all, yet it was priced on par with the rest if not higher.

I have always liked the sound, which is much darker than what Quilter typically offered around 2020. A/B against Quilter's 101R: I had to turn the DV's bass to zero and the Quilter's to maximum, to make them sound roughly the same. The DV is also loud for the wattage, however with increasing noise and distortion towards the hilt. The on-board reverb reverb draws criticism, sounding like a "drunken intellectual" according to a friend of mine. For me, it's ok on typical jazz levels, while the chorus-like undulation on higher levels makes the amp usable for acoustic guitars.

In a decade, Micro has become Macro in terms of dimensions and weight: 2 kg vs. 1 kg and less from a number of competitors. The revamped 60W versions in 2020 looked like a desperate badge engineering trick. In reality, only the cosmetics changed: it's still 50W to 8 ohm, 60W to 4 ohm. They just reversed the order. At 2020 NAMM, all the buzz seemed to focus on the Italian company's Markbass line of bass gear, with a constant flow of artists like Stu Hamm making so much noise that any serious discussion with stand personnel was out of the question. I've e-mailed the company several times with questions about their amps and speakers - the replies, if any, have been short and less than informative.

It's a mystery why DV Mark - one of the of pioneers of micro amps for guitar - hasn't followed up with a genuine second generation. Not enough potential on the all-important US market? The website has a long list of discontinued products. Looks like they're milking the current, very narrow, offering until it dries out. By contrast, MarkBass marches on.

[Sigmund451]

Yes, I realized after the fact that I didnt have the name quite right

The more I play, the more I like it.

It took an hour or so to wrap my head around how much different it is from anything the Quilter produces.
I have a suspicion that its probably a lot better match for my Eastman archtop than the Quilter. The Eastman, being brighter, benefits from the DV. I can crank on the treble knob and it barely gets a little harsh. In contrast, on the Quilter I tend to struggle if I look for a traditional jazz vibe. It can sound really good but its not interseted in sounding round on the high e string. Im tempted to try the capacitor trick/hack on my Quilter as some here have done.

At the moment I think the Quilter is probably more versatile. However, the DV does what it does better than the Quilter (at least with my Eastman). The DV takes my eastman with a single coil and offers great string separation and a fat, dry thuk through the range. Im really happy to have both.

Neither of my amps have the worlds best reverb but they arent bad either. Maybe I will invest in a nice reverb unit in the future. Right now Im not convinced its a worthwhile purchase becuase I use it so sparingly. I tend to put it where you really dont notice you have reverb until you turn it off and realize how stark it is without it.

As for how the company operates...I really dont know. Its very possible they are still selling plenty of their older tech items. Some companies dont move forward if the money is still there, the "If its not broken dont fix it" concept. This can especially be the case if their primary focus is on something else (like bass guitar).

With so many heading into the digital realm it might just not make business sense to pour a lot into old style guitar amp design. For all I know, they may be researching the next computer gizmo.