Voodoo Amps witchdoctor rocks!!!

Just got a 50 watt witchdoctor head from Voodoo Amps the other day. It is teh rokk.

I have a gig on Saturday, I'll report more after the gig.

 

I can tell you right now that this isn't one of the production model witchdoctors. It's an earlier prototype that I bought 2nd hand. It's got EL34s and 6SL7 octal preamp tubes. They have about as much gain as a standard 12AX7 from what I'm told. Mercury Magnets OT, and your standard bass,mids,treble,gain,master knobs. Single-channel.

It's at our band's practice spot right now, and I've been sick the past few days so I really haven't had a chance to put it through it's paces yet. From the little bit that I did get to play through it, it seems to have a quite a few neat characteristics from many different amps I've tried. It's got low-end that sounds very Uberschall-ish and the sweet midrange of a Hot Cat. I'm still kind of undecided on whether I like the top-end or not though. I think I need to try out some different preamp tubes and see what I can come up with.

The cool part is - NOS mullard 6SL7s are still pretty cheap.

 

It's a single-channel non-production head. Backing off the guitar's volume yeilds quite a surprising clean! What's amazing is that you can have the gain on 10, and still be able to clean it up to pristine sparkle with just turning back the guitar volume. It sounds way better than the clean on the old Laney GH50L I used to have. For whatever that's worth.

 

I used to own a Hex pre-prod as well. Same deal, 50 watter, EL34s. It was Black Sabbath on some SERIOUS steroids! Very cool sounding head. Big sound-spectrum and unforgiving. It doesn't compress much either, so you really have to have your chops up to be able to sound good through it. It's quite a wake-up call!

 

Okay, just got done with the gig, and I think my head has stopped ringing enough for a small review.

I've played through a ton of amps, but I really don't know what to compare this thing to. It literally doesn't sound like anything else I've ever played. It has a TON of gain, but even when you have it dimed, it doesn't have that static-ish "metal zone plugged into a TV" kinda fizz or hiss like say a 5150 would. It's a strange thing because the gain really rips, yet every note remains strikingly clear. I think as far as gain goes you could compare it to a Rocca HG100. The voicings of these two amps are of course wildly different however.

The witchdoctor has this REALLY cool midrange voicing that sounds like it's boosted in both upper AND lower mids. I don't know how in the world it does this, but the sound stage is just humongous. We didn't mic the guitar amps last night (thank GOD) so I got to REALLY open it up loud. Lemme tell you, this thing is WAY loud. Rhythm playing was extremely tight and note attack is clear and transient. Low end is truly a thing to behold with this amp. I had the cab setup next to our bassist's 8x10 cab and you could still distinguish the difference in low end between the guitar and bass. They mixed really well together. The high end slices nicely without sounding overly harsh also.

Cleans have that signature voodoo chime and sweetness. Every amp from voodoo I've played have it in the clean channel. It's very unique. It's a single-channel amp but the gain sweep is amazing. You can dime the gain, and still go to pristine sparkle by turning down the guitar's volume knob. I have a Les Paul w/ separate volumes for each pick up so I just switched between the two p'ups to simulate two channels.

My only gripe is that my Teese wah sounded a little bit honky through it which it really hasn't done through any other amp. It could be that the midrange on the amp was set a smidge too high though, and the wah was accentuating that further. I'll have to play around with that a bit more.

Other than that - COLOR ME IMPRESSED!!!


p.s. - we have some video of this gig, so maybe if the sound quality isn't too bad I'll post up a video clip here later.

 

This one was a total steal. It was one of the earlier prototype models built inside a Challenger PA head. The casing covering the tubes and transformers is metal. Pretty cool.

I paid $500.

 

bump for the day crew.