Musicians Roadhouse

So I stop at guitar center between errands at work today to futs around for a few minutes and tried the Haze 40 combo. Ive tried the Haze mini stack before and found it a bit too bright and harsh imo, and didnt care to much for it for what i play (and i cant find anything close to my VM). But i was suprised when i played the Haze 40...it was almost the complete opposite. Its bizarre but to me it almost sounded like a different amp entirely. The combo sounded almost muffled when on overdrive and the OD2 channels. Very middy and bottom endy. It almost sound like more of a fuzz than a crunch distortion and just really threw me for a loop. Is it just me or has anyone else noticed this?

Contrary to the name of both amps they are pretty different animals. One has 15w with 6V6 power tubes and the other is 40w with el34 tubes. That alone would make a big difference but then there are some differences in the control layout etc.

that'd make sense, i did know the tube configuration of the amps and my local guitar center peeps couldnt tell me much on them

They are slightly different animals. The Haze 40 is a bit more complicated, and is designed to have a clean and overdrive channel, with a switchable boost for the overdrive channel (so it's kind of a 3 channel amp). There is a 4 button footswitch available for the Haze 40 that makes it very versatile.

You are right on the overdrive channel muddiness, they have cut the highs quite a bit. This can be tweaked with a few capacitor changes though, and the amp sounds much better after that. If you do try one out again, make sure the Bright switch is engaged; although it is near the clean channel volume, it makes both channels brighter and is required to make the overdrive channel sound good (before the mods at least).

Both the Haze 15 and 40 can be thought of as basically a JCM800 2203 type Master Volume amp arrangement with a series of mods that are switched in and out with relays. Most of the operational tweaks you do with a 2203 work well with the Haze amps. Plug a Boss Super Overdrive into the input of a Haze and switch it to the overdrive channel with the boost off, they sound very nice like that.

I played both amps, and bought a Haze 15 head... I nearly played it and sold it back!!! I found the Haze series is realy crap!!! Sorry for this, but the sound is realy heavy, not harmonic and not easy to control!! Even on a low volume it's too screamy!
No, for me there are far better alternatives than the Haze, In my opinion Marshall did not a good thing with this series! A Class 5 sounds much better!!!

Vinny wrote:I played both amps, and bought a Haze 15 head... I nearly played it and sold it back!!! I found the Haze series is realy crap!!! Sorry for this, but the sound is realy heavy, not harmonic and not easy to control!! Even on a low volume it's too screamy!

One other thing I forgot to mention; the Marquee speaker in the Haze is bright and harsh sounding until it is broken in, but after that it sounds extremely good. That might be the reason for the screaminess you heard.

I have a haze 40 and absolutly love it. It has a really warm sound on all the channels - 4 if you count the boosts on each channel.
The clean channel unboosted offers undistorted clean tones all the way up. If you then switch the boost on it becomes more crunchy the louder you go.

The overdrive channel is great for blues. Perfect in fact with no end of tones available from your guitar volume control. Add in plenty of reverb and a bit of the excellent built in vibe effect and it's pure Jimi. Push the distortion to max and you've got that really nice beano sound.

Click the boost on and the overdrive really thickens up. Classic rock tones that also clean up nicely with the guitar volume. This isn't a metal amp but you can drop the mids and raise the prescence for a decent imitation.

The bright switch is essential if you use a les Paul. No bright switch equals awful muddy washy tone simples.

I'd recommend the haze 40 over the head. There is an optional 4 way pedal that remembers effect settings, so you can have the clean channel with chorus and reverb, od channel with vibe then od boost with delay and it remembers it all!

The tones are a little muddy at low volumes but can be helped with the prescence control. Turn it up and it brightens nicely and can easily deafen the drummer. I use an original guvnor pedal to help with distortion at low volumes.

I can't get enough of the haze 40, I play it everyday and would buy another if this one got nicked. An excellent value fir money blues amp.