MicroPro Mach 2 HD 12

**rickshapiro** · 10-23-2015, 12:35 PM

So NGD for me, actually it was Tuesday. Some background may help. I play keyboards and guitar, keyboard being my main instrument. I play jazz guitar at home and sometimes attend local jazz jam sessions. A few times a month I play a rock/cover thing with a seven piece band where I do both guitar and keyboard work. Probably 70% keyboard and 30% guitar. The rooms we play are medium size venues, anywhere between 100-300 people capability.

I own a few amps; Orange Rockerverb50, VOX AC 15, Alessandro Working Dog, Champ XD2, Pico Valve and a Tech 21 Power edge for my modellers. I own a number of modellers as well; a number of Tech21 stuff, Avid Rack 11, Pod stuff and a few others. Depending on the gig and my mood I rotate amps and bring different pedal board configurations. Since I bring an excellent back-stage rig for my keys (JPL 2XPRX15), if I am feeling lazy I just bring a modeller and do my guitar through those speaker. We hire a soundman for all our gigs so my amps are always mic’d through the mains or for the modellers through my keyboard mixer to the house system.

Unfortunately my hearing has been significantly damaged and I wear earplugs that significantly impact the quality of what I hear on-stage. So basically I set my rig and sound at low levels before the gig and hope for the best when the gig starts. Basically any of amplification sounds like crap with foam plugs or musician plugs. May not be long for the rock thing.

Most of my jazz guitar playing is done at home. Very low volume, the amp I use depends on what is setup in the area I am playing in. Typically, I play through the Vox and Working Dog. Both sound good with my archtops. My main axe for jazz is an ES-175 an Eastman 307 or Comins CS. I have strats and tele’s and other solid bodies.

I’ve had serious GAS for a high quality “jazz” amp to use at home and possibly on some gigs. Contenders were Vintage Sound JZ, Fender Vibrolux or Princeton, Rivera, AE/RE combination, Evans and Henriksen.

I went to visit Lou at Guitar ‘n Jazz. Who by the way is a great resource and a stand-up guy. I played through the various Henriksons and thought they were great, really to my ear the quintessential jazz tone I like. Lou suggested I also pay some of the Quilters. I played the Steele and the MicroPro Mach 2 HD 12 inch. The Steel was wonderful but just a bit big for me, I was looking for something smaller and lighter. Immediately after plugging into the MicroPro I knew I was experiencing something beyond my expectations. The openness was unreal. Clarity, dynamics and depth were all there. This before I even bent over to tweak anything. All setting were just straight up. I played for a little over an hour and picked up a dozen guitars to play. All sounded great. I really did not spend any time playing with the different voicing.

I think I would have purchased this amp if all I was able to get was that single voice and channel. It was a hard purchase, being a bit of a tube snob, spending this amount of money on an “analog” amp kind of hurt. Kept on thinking of all the different used boutique amps I could get for the same cash.

Fast forward to home…. I set the amp up in my studio and went to town. That is of course after reading the manual.

I started with playing with the Voices. Every one of them was usable, nothing was a throw away. Needed perhaps a minute to allow my ears to adjust as I change voicing. It is truly like having 6 different amps. I swapped guitars in and out and played with the various voicing’s. Could not find a bad match! It brought life to some of the guitars that I do not play often.

Next I started to play around with the Boost and Select settings. All the Select functions do exactly what they say. The biggest surprise was the Cream and Crush settings. The first being an overdrive, the second more of a Fuzz. When engaged they act as pedals before the preamp. They are as good as any boutique pedal I own. They are musical throughout their gain range. Put just a little on for a bit of break or full-on for heavy gain. I really never expect this. I would use the Hi/Cut (works like a vox) to take off any edge, fuzz or coldness when using Cream or Crush.

The most effective method I found for finding the right combination of guitar, dirt and voice was to set all eq and hi cut settings to a neutral position, pick the Cream or Crush, then flip between the amp voicing until you find something that hits home. Cream and Crush definitely interact with the different voices in a unique way. Almost as if the “pedal” was created specifically for the selected voice.

After owning a Boogie Mark V, an amp with tons of options and something that took a lot of work to “dial-in” , the thing that struck me about the Micropro is that when everything is set to neutral, everything sounds really good, tweaking just makes it a bit better. Beyond that, it is designed in a way where it is really apparent what needs to be tweaked and the outcome of that tweak is what you would expect. Also, I never had to go to extreme positions to get what I needed, only a little movement here and there.

The reverb is good, perhaps not as good as a good pedal, but because of the dwell and tone there is really great control. The Surf voice with a long dwell is a lot of fun. I would think the reverb would serve most.

The limiter is available on some of the “Select” options. The effect is fairly subtle but pretty nice on a strat or tele on a clean setting.

Getting a good sound for an archtop is really easy, Select off and voice to Smooth. Adjust EQ to taste. This thing does not sound boxy.

All this and let’s not forget the second channel. Clean with a single tone knob. Again, this channel in itself could potential justify the purchase. It also takes an XLR for a mic.

I plugged my Martin Custom into this amp. It was as good as my acoustic amp.

Lou did not have an 8 inch but the 12 was so small I could not imagine the need to get something even smaller.

Some caveats, I have not played this loud and I am obviously in the honeymoon phase. I plan on taking it to my rock gig this weekend.

So how do I feel now about the cost and choice? If the Cream or Crush Select were available as pedals, I would easily spend $200+ on each pedal. Capability to use as an acoustic and mic amp for my acoustic duo gigs. 6 very unique voicings. Very lightweight and easy to use. No early remorse.

Honesty from a feature perspective, Henrikson, Evans and AI do not compare. The Micropro can wear many hats and does them all well.

I am going to give it some time but I suppose a number of my amps and pedals will be for sale shortly.

I think this amp is a game changer.

Regards,

Rick

**Woody Sound** · 10-23-2015, 12:45 PM

Originally Posted by rickshapiro

All this and let’s not forget the second channel. Clean with a single tone knob. Again, this channel in itself could potential justify the purchase. It also takes an XLR for a mic.

I plugged my Martin Custom into this amp. I was as good as my acoustic amp.

As good as your acoustic amp? (Which is what?) Even with the single 12" and no tweeter, it really sounds as crisp/clear/defined in the highs? They're not muffled? Interesting.

Nice review, thanks.

**Klatu** · 10-23-2015, 01:14 PM

How many of the settings would you say are appropriate for clean jazz playing?

**KEOKI** · 10-23-2015, 01:21 PM

Rats. Now everyone on this forum knows how good they are.

**uburoibob** · 10-23-2015, 09:59 PM

The cool thing is the 12" HD and the 8" have virtually identical sound and, to me, are both great. The standard 12" on the other hand, has a sound more like an amp with a Celestion - more like a regular guitar amp (and they do this on purpose, I am sure, to make skittish traditionalists happy).

Great amp. I LOVE my Mach 2! The surf voice is very similar to the best blackface Fender amp, to me.

bob

**rickshapiro** · 10-23-2015, 10:47 PM

Originally Posted by Woody Sound

As good as your acoustic amp? (Which is what?) Even with the single 12" and no tweeter, it really sounds as crisp/clear/defined in the highs? They're not muffled? Interesting.

Nice review, thanks.

What will blow your mind is the speaker in the HD is designated as a bass speaker.

**Max405** · 10-24-2015, 12:03 AM

Great review Rick.
I'm glad for you buddy.
Joe D

**jads57** · 10-24-2015, 03:04 AM

Incredible amp! I already have both an Aviator 1x12" Combo and a Tone Block 200 and love them. But the Micro Pro Mach2 HD is even better!

**mad dog** · 10-24-2015, 12:46 PM

Really want to try this amp!!
MD

**MaxTwang** · 10-25-2015, 03:49 PM

Another Micropro Mach 2 owner and these are pretty surprising amps. With the 2 button footswich, and only plugged into the 'Guitar' input, the Boost works on both channels. While I'm mostly playing clean these days the Boost is good enough to have retired the pedals and just use the MicroPro.

**MaxTwang** · 10-25-2015, 04:52 PM

Originally Posted by Klatu

How many of the settings would you say are appropriate for clean jazz playing?

All Voices on Channel 1 go from clean to breakup, Channel 2 is clean. I've found all Channel 1's voices to be usable for jazz, depending on the tone you're going for.

The first 3 settings on the Boost are just differently eq'd boost (Scoop, Bright, Loud). With the gain set low for a clean sound you get a clean boost (maybe a little bit pushed to OD at higher Boost settings); the last 2 Boost settings (Cream & Crush) function like an OD pedal in front of the amp. If you have the Gain set for OD then Boost will be louder and push you into more OD.

The Limiter's effect is minimal on clean sounds but it does cut some highs and thicken the upper mids a bit. The Limiter is supposed to cut out power amp overdrive - allowing you to switch between the sound of a cranked amp (preamp and power amp) and the sound of a master volume amp (preamp overdrive only).

Update: The Scoop and Bright settings on the Boost can be used to alter the voicing of the channel without actually boosting the volume. i.e. you can set the Channel 1 Surf voice for a full Blackface tone with the tone controls, then use Boost to Scoop or Bright'en that Blackface tone - and switch the Boost on/off.

**jads57** · 10-25-2015, 10:23 PM

Another amazing thing about most of the Quilter Amps is on Aux 1 Channel you can use an acoustic instrument/ a syntheziser/backing tracks via ipod or iphone/ even a vocal mic and it sounds excellent! Good luck w/ doing that on a tube amp,lol!

**rickshapiro** · 10-27-2015, 12:02 PM

We'll, I did my first rock gig with the MPM2. I should have spent more time at home playing at stage volume prior to gigging with it. I did not realize increasing the gain, on channel one, in any voice would result in dirt. I thought everything would be clean until I used a "boost". So at stage volume, with the gain up and master volume up and the boost on, I had way to much distortion. So again, there is way more flexibility then I thought in this little amp. So now I can get the following: Using the gain on channel one, I can make any of the voices have dirt; Using the boost I can modify the type of gain and add more dirt; Using the second channel, I can get complete clean; Using the second channel with boost on provides another option for dirt.

This amp is crazy flexible and well thought-out. Cannot wait to play out live again.

By the way, all the voices can be used for a clean archtop sound. It depends on the flavor you are looking for.

Regards,

Rick

**Woody Sound** · 10-28-2015, 10:24 PM

I'm wondering what the specs are for the HD speaker. Sensitivity, etc.

**Woody Sound** · 10-28-2015, 10:28 PM

For channel 2, I REALLY wish they would have used the tone controls from the 101 Mini (with the high-cut), rather than from the ToneBlock.

**MaxTwang** · 10-29-2015, 12:20 PM

The Hi Cut is shared between channel 1 and channel 2.

For cleans I don't view the Hi Cut as a tone control as much as a way to take the edge off or to tame/enhance the highs for the room you're playing in. For overdriven sounds the Hi Cut has more impact.