Chapter 4
Pre-Amp Section of the VH4/VH4S
4.1 Layout
The Diezel VH4/VH4S comes equipped with 4 different and totally independent preamps.
This allows the artist to play through nearly all musical styles without having to make
major changes to his amplifier. The preamps are voiced to deliver the 4 most wanted
guitar tone flavors: 1-Clean, 2-Crunch, 3-Heavy and 4-Lead. The Concept delivers 4 stellar
guitar sounds with excellent playability, warm dynamics and razor sharp equalization
possibilities. The tone controls work in an unusually wide range, so a little adjustment
goes a long way. As with so many other things - less is often more.
We suggest you start exploring the channels with all controls set to 12:00 o’clock, and
the master volume just slightly cracked open. ( to avoid hearing damage)
4.1.1 Channel One ( Clean )
This channel was designed for clean, undistorted sound with high power and good
harmonics. With it’s gain control to the upper third, it sounds soft and warm, gain at lower
settings produce more percussive and penetrating clean sounds. Full gain setting makes
crunch sounds possible. The tone reminds of a cross between a twin and a Hiwatt® 100,
but with better overall dynamic response.
4.1.2 Channel Two ( Crunch)
Channel 2 is a blues guitarists closest friend. It’s dynamic spectrum is especially beautiful
in the lower frequency range. It’s gain range goes from clean to distorted.
Due to it’s different voicing the 2nd channel will sound a little softer than channel one in
clean mode ( gain 2:00-3:00, and approaches channel 3’s tone in high gain mode ( gain
3:00-4:00, but with softer midrange and less compression.
“Raw” probably best describes this channel.
4.1.3 Channel Three ( Distortion)
It’s concept is heavy rhythm guitar. The distortion is noticeably tighter than in channel 2.
The side effect of this added compression is that he signal gets somewhat limited in it’s
dynamic range. This limitation hits mostly the lower frequencies. This loss is corrected by
a negative feedback loop to the power amps, which adds fat low end to this tone without
muddling up the tone. The control for this low end is in the master section and bears the
“Deep” designation.
The gain structure of channel 3 is designed to deliver great distorted sound even with
guitars that have relatively low output, like many vintage guitars. The side effect here is
that guitars with very high output (active EMG® etc.) might overdrive this channel too
much and become too compressed. The guitar loses it’s punch in the band sound and
becomes very undefined. In this case, a radical gain reduction is the cure. The guitar
sound will clean up a little bit, and the overtones and harmonics will once again sparkle. It
is best to start with a 12:00 o-clock gain setting and start to feel your way to the point of
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