Diezel VH4S

2009 VH4S with 6550 tubeset, brand spankin'. Amp has 4 channels and does EVERYTHING. I would say nothing is perfect, but I'd be wrong - the VH4 was almost perfect... Now with stereo output perfect for panning FX in the studio recording environment, it's really perfect. Sick wattage too - the 6550's power delivery is almost double the old standard of 100W and is now between 160W to 180W total output. That's crazy!!

MIDI is so simple - plug'n'play. Columbus is the way to go...if you can get one (they're bringing them into the states/n.america again soon.

Versatility - the clean is sparkling clean...unreal. And it can go as loud as your walls can talk without breaking up. Crunch is wicked - brown and SRV to ACDC to the rest of the usual suspects, but very, very tight and refined. Channel 3 is nuts. And Channel 4 is just an experiment gone terribly right for anyone who wants to blow the doors of the "hi gain" department. Channel 3 is very versatile for modern metal and heavy, heavy rock - again - super tight and refined and toneful. Incredibly so. Channel 4 just takes it to another level, but I found is best for leads with some restraint...it's too crazy otherwise.

So - ridiculous versatility and stereo output to boot. Get it.

Hands down one of the best of all boutique amps - period.

Killer - studio amp so it's not abused. But I have a great working relationship with Diezel USA, Canada and even Peter & Peter in Germany, they're always going to be there if I need a hand.

As above - they're the best.

25 years, tons of different guitars, but mostly ESP and Gibson Custom LP's. Active pups as well as hot PAF style pups. If it were stolen I'd do something very evil to the thief and then buy 2 more :)

They're probably the most expensive amp out there that's pretty common, but you're getting an amazing piece of technological art and craftsmanship with this amp. It's the best in so many ways... And stereo just makes it that much sicker!!

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I just wanted to ammend my last review on this for Channel 4:

Channel 4 sounds AMAZING with the gain below 9 o'clock. it's got a classic cranked marshall sound... throw a tube screamer in front of it and it's instant slash on steroids... pretty awesome. i just found my new lead sound...

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I would give this amp a 10 if it had reverb - it basically has its own MIDI switching system... you don't even need to calibrate a MIDI pedal like you do with most gear - i just plugged my midi board straight into the amp and it worked right away - phantom power too.

Ok, first off, I'd give channel 3 a perfect 10 - the thing is just ridiculous. it's got great body and bottom end, but the mids and highs are punchy and scream as well. basically, channel 3 will rip your head off. I've been trying to achieve the sounds i hear on my favorite records and in my head for years - i've gone through mesa dual rectifiers, tremoverbs, all kinds of marshalls, soldano, etc. and nothing can compare to the sound of channel 3. it's the only amp i've played that i've been completely satisfied with(although i haven't tried the bogner ecstasy).

Channel 1, despite what others have said on this, distorts(lightly) quite nicely. I'm not a huge fan of the crystal clean guitar sound, and if i do want that sound ill go to a fender combo or use an acoustic guitar instead. I'm more into clean sounds with a little grit, and the diezel does it perfectly - u just crank the gain knob up.

Channel 2 is great too. it's basically just a little bit more distorted version of channel one(they both have bright switches as well). u can get ac/dc and zep type sounds out of this channel fairly easily - kinda sounds like a plexi or pushed jcm800.

channel 4, to me, leaves a bit to be desired. i basically use it as a boost from channel 3 only for leads, but for some reason the tone of channel 4 seems a bit lacking, not quite as bad-ass as channel 3. it's much more compressed and a little heavy in the lower mid area, i tried boosting the treble and backing off on the bass, but that didnt help. I mean, it's a good sounding channel, but just not as cool as channel 3. before, with my soldano, i used a tube screamer to boost the signal a bit for solos and such, and it just made the sound better and more intense. however, channel 4 does not quite give u the same kick in the pants that a tube screamer will. frankly, i think channel 3 sounds a bit better for lead work anyway. however, i'll still use channel 4 live for the boost effect(slight compromise) because its easier than having extra pedals in front of you.

all in all, great sounding amp.

built like a freakin' tank

probably - never needed it.

totally awesome amp - channel 3 alone is almost worth the money

Hello, I'm from Belgium and please exuses me for my bad english. This is the best amp i ever had !! 4 Channels, midi, stereo seriel, and stereo programmable parralel effect loop. A mute button, also programmable, simply great

I use channel one, three and four. I'm a little bit dissapointed about channel two, the difference between channel two and three is to big for me.
I have also a problem with controlled feetback at lower volume......there is no feetback ?

Buils like a tank, super.

Peter is a great man. Have one time problem with the midi, and after i give hem my name and serial number....3 days later i recieved a new chip

Been playing for more than 35 year, and have got everything. The are only two amps i left over...my Diezel vh4s an my VHT combo.

I feel like Spinal Tap, but this one has TWO OUTPUTS!!! (read my VH4 review for my obsession with this amp's sound).

I toured with just one head, no back up. no problems.

WOW!!! Stereo VH4.... read my review of the VH4 and make it a double shot. Stereo imaging for any chorusing/delaying effects. WOW.

The VH4s is in fact a VH4 in STEREO! All features of the VH4 are present TWICE in the VH4s! This additional option enables the use of wide stereo effects for two cabinets or to use one cabinet "dry" and the other one "wet". Because of the stereo set-up the power output gets down to 50 Watts per side, therefore the sounds are even a little bit softer than the VH4, but the maximum volume is about the same. This amp has 128 programable presets!!!!
EQ gain, treble, mid, bass, volume per channel
add. bright switch on channel 2
insert FX ??? Loop per channel

Tubes 12AX7

Power Amp: Power 2 x 50 Watt

Tubes 4 x 6L6 or alternate type

Master Section 2 x volume / presence, deep, FX???return MX stereo

Speaker - Out 2 x 4,8,16 Ohm

FX ??? Loops: 2 sends stereo ??? 4 insert loops
parallel & serial returns stereo
2 switchable FX loops / Mix ??? mode stereo
midi in & thru / phantom - power

Finish: black, front silver
Stereo 4-tube power amp section. Accepts 6L6, EL34, 5881, 6550, KT66, etc.
Dimensions 74.0 x 29.0 x 28.5 cm

Weight 50LBS

The harmonic resonance of the amp and responsiveness is out of this world. This is by far the most ORGANIC Alive sounding amp I ever owned!!!!!! I'm using a Custom Brian Moore C90P-13 Guitar it features Seymour Duncan Pick Ups, with a JB in the Bridge, Alnico Humbucker in the neck and an Alnico single in the middle position an RMC Piezo system and a 13 pin midi out for connecting to guitar synths. I'm using a TC-Electronic G-Force processor with the VH4S. All 4 channels on this amp are brilliant! The harmonic range is infinite! From Pat Metheny to Allan Holdsworth,Larry Carlton,Sott Henderson,Shawn Lane,Eric Johnson,Brett Garsed,Eddie Van Halen, ETC! You could go from the most breathtaking cleans to Melting Skulls in one click!

The quality in the build is so obvious that Stevie Wonder could see it!!!! This amp works amazingly I highly doubt I'll ever have any issue's with it! These amps are expensive but you get what you pay for (100% reliability)

I've spoken to Peter Diezel and his partner Peter Stapfer a few times with some tech questions! The both of them were extremely helpful and gave me the best support possible! They make you feel like your'e part of the Diezel Family! And Uwe Salwender of Salwender International is a great guy that will go out of his way to give you the best support in the BIZ! on Diezel products and more (Checkout his Web page! )www.salwender.com

I've been playing guitar since I was 5 years old so that's about 31yrs now. I'm mainly play progressive Rock & Jazz Fusion as well as studio work. If this amp was stolen someone would have to FUCKING DIE!!!! I bought an extra one just in case but I doubt anyone is going to take my amp from me! If you get what I mean!

I would give the VH4S a 10 if it had reverb. But in order to get reverb you're going to have to by an expensive rack mounted reverb system or by a cheap reverb stomp box and smash your tone. Other than that it's got everything else you could ever want.

This is where she shines. I've owned both Marshall?s and Mesa/Boogies and their both great amps, but the mesa doesn't have that note for note clarity and the Marshall cant get that deep chugga chugga freight train type rhythms a mesa can get. But my VH4S can get both! It can push as much bass as a bass player but still keep that note for note clarity! F'N AWESOME!!! It eats Boogies and Marshall?s for lunch all day long.

I'm not going to get into what channel can do what, because that?s already been done to death here. But I will say, I can go from playing crazy train, to clean classical/jazz, to brutal death metal, to 80's hair band stuff, to Metallica, to nu-metal, to funk, to country... IMO, it?s the most versatile amp I've ever played... period. If you want to have ONE certain type of sound and you want to sound like everybody else go with Marshall or mesa.

This is where she destroys ALL other amps. When other amps blow tubes you're like, "WTF, it had to blow while I was on stage... f'n piece of sh*t!!!" And then finding out which fuse blew is a freaking nightmare. With any other head you're going to screwed on a gig if she blows a tube. You're either done for the night or you've got a back up head (not likely, unless you're famous musician who can afford to carry around extras). But when the VH4S/VH4 blows a tube... she keeps playing like a champ, with hardly ANY tonal difference? AMAZING!

It will blow a fuse and route the power to the other tube. So not only can you keep playing through your song, but when you?re done with that song, you can easily and quickly replace the fuse LIVE because the red LED on the back lets you know which tube blew! AWESOME, TREMEDOUS, OUTSTANDING, DO A BACK FLIP, KUNG FU ASS KICKING KICK ASS!!! I can not get over how fukin awesome this feature is... I'll NEVER BE DEAD AT A GIG AGAIN!!!

The best, period. When will the Company heads of Marshall or Mesa reply personally to your calls and e-mails? Thats right... NEVER!

I would give this a perfect ten if it had reverb, because she is the closest amp I've owned that comes close to a perfect 10. What a wonderful product!

You allready know the features by reading the other reviews! If I had to buy a new one I'd prefer to have second master volume... furtunately the mod had allready been done when I bought mine used!

I use a Fender Strat, Gretsch 6129 with modified bridge pu, Carvin Flying V. I play Grunge, Numetal stuff.

What about the sound of this tonal beauty?

Channel 1: Good clean, but a little lack of headroom or bass response to my taste.

Cahnnel 2: My favourite! Most people enjoy the sound of channel 3 and give a damn about the other channels! But I like low distortion rhythm sounds and this amp makes them sound open and fresh. Brilliant!
This is really a matter of taste, but I found my tone...

Channel 3: I use this one to get a more brutal sound. Cutting some of the mids turns the amp into a little beast. Good low end response, your lower notes will always sound very clear and tight - you have to love it!!

Channel 4: Some say, the amount of gain makes this one sound nearly "comical" or they don not use it at all!!! This is absolutely ridiculous: everybody that tells you stuff like this has wasted most of his money!!! This is the channel to go for if you are into high gain lead sounds without harshness or too much compression, but with a good response to your picking!!! I absolutely fell in love with this one!! Even if you push this one far into higain, it still sounds open like no other lead channel I heard so far...

Nothing happend so far...

Peter is always kind and responds very quick in case you don't get him on the phone...

It' a brilliant piece of art!!! It seems to me like a perfect mixture between a old school Marshall and Mesa, but with it's own character!
Finally, cause I own a "Herbert", a Vh4s and a "Triaxis" + 2:90, I am able to tell you one thing:

I found the Triaxis to be the only unit being capable to produce a comparable lead sound like channel 4 --- but the VH4 sounds more organic and alive and most of all --- quiet. The triaxis is noisy as hell, "waterfall" would be an adequat description!

This is the most versatile amp head and I found during my long journey on the search for "tone". I tried Marshall, Mesa etc and I finally arrived at Diezel and will stay with it...If you are into playing lead this amp is a must. If connected to a good stereo fx this one will warp you into another dimension!!

"Huh, but whats about the herbert?" some of you may ask. Don't worry, the second channel of the herbert is still the most brutal sound I ever listened to, but sorry Peter: the lead channel of "Herb" is hardly to compare to the brilliant channel 4 on the VH4: it has too much gain, too much compression (even at lower gain settings) and tends to get muddy on the lower strings!! It was little disappointing to hear the difference, when I made A/B testing at home...

So if you are a lead player I advise you to check the VH4(s) instead of the Herbert!

I think the amp is a 2003 model. This amp is so overwheliming versatile, that is the main reason why I hunted one down off of ebay. It play's soooooooooooooooo smooth. I think this is a great blues and Led Zep like amp, but with the most bass I've ever heard from a guitar head. Set the deep all the way and I can push as much bass as my bass player! It really freaks him out. Here's my one and only problem with the amp, it's a bit picky but, I really like to set my higer gain channels with a lot of bass (deep dial) it makes the sound very full and almost gong-like but I like the first two channels with thte deep at like 11 or 12. It's a bummer there isn't a deep and present for each channel. That and I would like to see reverb in her. What I do like is the head is very, very easy to use! Unlike some Mesa's...with all their crazy dials and switches in the back...I'm going to give her a 9...because it dosen't have those two things...but in my heart I should give her a 10...

10. This head is like the greatest head Marshall never made.

Just got it.

SO far I am impressed. I no longer need to take two or three amps to a gig, and i can do eveyting with her and blow everyone away. Oh, and this amp is loud! Watch out for hearing damage!

I just got her about two monthes ago. The features are well thought out. Everyone here reviews them pretty dam good, so that saves me some work! The only thing that I'm kind of picky about is the angle of the face plate on the head. It's dipped back a bit, probably so you do step on your cable and rip it out of the head. But The angle is so extreme I think it's putting pressure on the bent part of my cable and breaking the ground in it. But to fix that I just simply run the cable through the cab handle on the side and leave a bit of slack where she connects to the head. Oh, and she works great with all my effects beacuse of all the great ports on her. So far so Good...

At first the sound was kind of disapointing, I bought this head used with a Marhsall Cab. But I put some nos EL34's in her and paired her up with a Front loaded "Diezel" cab and wow it was like night and day! This baby really screams through it's Diezel cab!!! I was very happy with the tone after these changes.

Only had her for a short time...but seems good.

I've done most of my support through Tone Merchants...they are good though..

I'm really happy with her. This is the first head I've owned that "feels" like a professional head. Well worth the investment.

This is a 2004 VH4s 4 channels monster! I just got her any wow, that's all I can say, wow! The only thing I wish they would change is the master volume set up...I wish there was yet even another master volume (total of two master voulumes)...so that you can switch back an forth from for more of a lead use. But on the other hand, this amps is so sensitve, you can just play a bit harder and boom your in lead mode.

Everone here has covered the raw sound of this amp pretty well, so I'll just concure, yes it makes sounds from hevan all the way to hell!

I play her hard, and so far so good.

10...this company is almost to nice!

Yep...this amp is history in the making...the only thing that's holding it back is the mass public doesn't really know about it.

This is a follow up review. I've owned my Diezel VH4S for close to two years now. And I have to just say how impressed I still am with her!!! I've grown attached to all 4 channels, they are just so versatile! You do not need any rack equipment of any kind for this amp to sound totally phenomenal! You don't even need distortion pedals, the raw tone from this amps is perfect.

The main reason why I am writing this is to give advice. First and for most, which is better the VH4 mono or VH4S stereo. Well believe it or not I really think the mono has a tiny bit better response. The tone is the same between the two amps, but I feel the mono holds that true signal a hair better. The only problem is you'll need to buy "two" of them to get a true stereo signal. But again this is better because you'll have "real" stereo separation. And I do feel it sounds bigger than one VH4s, mainly because of the physics that take place when the two mono signals meet, traveling through real 3d space. But, the price is almost doubled...so that is a factor to keep in mind. And be careful that the P.A. you are playing through is stereo, if it's mono...what's the point. So price wise I'd go VH4S, as the better one. They sound identical.

Secondly, please if you buy a Diezel buy the Diezel Speaker Cab! Every time I hear a Diezel through a Marshal or Mesa it sounds totally different, a lot less ballsy and thin. The Diezel is just to much head for most cabs. And also seriously consider very high end cables that'll connect to the head and cab (why lose any signal). But this is the big one, get a really nice power chord! Wow, this makes a difference. It really thickens the tone up even more!
As for the sounds of the amp, I'm sure you have an understanding of the channels, but I was playing it today and realized (after playing an original pedal) the second Diezel Channel....it's distortion... sounds just like an original Ibanez Pro TS-808 Tube Screamer!!! Only I think the Diezel is better, it's more transparent, responsive, and has more """bass""".

The thing is a tank, point to point, period!

I can't say good enough things about this company. They'll go the extra mile, for everyone!

10, my overall rating is a perfect 10. I?ve played Bogners, Two Rock, Krank, Rivera, all kinds of Vintage Marhalls...Plexi's...Vintage Bassman's..Vintage Mesa...Vintage Fender, 1966 Fender Twin Reverb, a whole host of high gain boutique amps. And hands down this is the best sounding, best quality, and most """versatile""" amp ever. This amp is a legend in the making!

The features of this amp are numerous. Here is what comes to mind:

- Very well thought out MIDI implementation that enables more control than you might think possible out of a head.

- 4 channels. That alone is a major feature. You have sparkling clean to ludicrous gain. Each channel has its own bass, middle, treble, gain, and volume.

- Bright switch on first 2 channels.

- Serial and parallel effects loop. Quite useful since certain types of effectd are best wired serial and others parallel. Parallel mix knob lets you blend dry and wet signal to taste.

- Channel inserts. As if a serial and parallel effects loop are not enough, there are even channel inserts.

- Thru jack. You can output this to a tuner, which with the feature below is quite useful. You can output this to another amp as well, but you can expect ground loops in that case.

- Mute button. This is most useful if you have a tuner connected as mentioned above.

- Deep and presence knobs in master section. These knobs allow you to achieve so many tones. I love this feature on my VHT 2/50/2. Great to see it on the Diezel.

- Tube fault protection. Quite innovative. If a tube goes bad or a fuse blows, an led for a particular power tube will light up. The amp will reconfigure to use the good tubes. Of course some faults are not detected, so you can't assume that the absence of a light means all is well.

- With biasing, accepts variety of power tubes

I am into instrumental music. Sort of my own thing, but for lack of a better analogy, I suppose I can sound like Vai, Satch, etc at times. I play a Carvin DC127 with stock humbickers, and an Ibanez RG2820 Prestige with stock pickups. Both guitars are mahogany and so are very deep sounding.

The amp hums more than I would expect. It dooesn't have too much hiss though. Everyone tells me the hum is normal though. It is a mechanical hum through the input transformer.

As far as the sound quality, I think it is superb. I get a kick out of statements I read sometimes, when people will talk about the cream of the crop amps and say one smokes the other. Too each their own. I did have the chance to compre this to quite a few high end amps. I originally went to a music store ready to buy a Bogner Ecstacy. It had tons of knobs and buttons, but it took about 10 minutes for it to even start sounding ok to me. Like I said - to each their own. So I tried a Koch Powertone II and thought it sounded amazing right after turning it on. Tried a Brunetti, and liked it bette than the Bogner, but not as much as the Koch. Also tried a Framus and an Engl something or other. They were ok but didn't blow me away like the Koch. So I bought the Koch. Week later I played a Diezel herbert and wasn't too impressed. Next day played the VH4S, and like the Koch, it sounded superb right off the bat. So I bought it. I went through that spiel just to show how much stuff I tried out.

Channels:

Clean - the clean channel on the VH4S is very good, but not as good as the Koch. It also doesn't have that glistening quality like a Fender. But still very good. When I want great clean sound, I play my acoustic, so clean channels are not paramount to me.

Ch 2 - this is a nice dynamic channel. Great for blues.

Ch 3 - superb high gain channel. The variety of tones are incredible, especially when experimenting with the channel volume and master volume. With the master past 12:00, you are in power-tube saturation land, and that quality fits nicely with the preamp type of distortion.
At around 11:00, this channel has quite a bit of gain. Certainly enough for heavy rock. Low end is very tight, so heavy palm mutes don't sound rubbery - they are very focused.

Ch 4 - I don't use this channel much. At 8:00, the gain is huge, past 12:00, it is comical. I would never need that kind of gain. The amp still sounds clear at those settings, but all dynamics are compressed. This isn a fault. Any amp that is capable of producing the kind of gain that this channel spits out, is going to have extreme compression.

I should also note that this past weekend I visited Peter Diezel at his shop in Northern Bavaria, and he made a number of changes that suit my personal tastes (reduced some of the low end to accomodate my bass-heavy guitars, increased the transient response so that the pick attack occurs quicker and lasts shorter - that leads to a very crisp, tight sound). He also changed all preamp tubes. He put in the ones he is currently using with his new designs. To each their own. I love the new preamp tubes he put in. But the stock sound on this amp is great. I don't want to make it sound like I only like the amp because of the mods. It is great "out of the box."

In summary, this amp sounds as good as you would expect considering the level of quality with which it was designed.

My particular amp did not have the parallel loop wired up, so it was not functioning. It was fixed promptly. Also, some power tubes went bad because of a short. Peter noticed that when I visited and fixed it in less than a minute! I think I am a victim of bad luck perhaps. Reliability is always probability-based. So only place as much value on my comments here as warranted by other people's comments.

10 does not seem high enough. Peter is one of the most genuine humans I have ever met. My wife and I had a wonderful time visiting him, and he was truly interested in modifying the amp to fit my tastes (on a weekend I might add). In a world where so many people are driven by greed, it was refreshing to meet someone of such exceptional character. When I get back to the states I probably won't get that kind of service, unfortunately.

I have played for about 14 years. I also have a PSA1 preamp, a Hafler/Bogner Triple Giant preamp, and a VHT 2/50/2 poweramp. I don't use the PSA! anymore. The Diezel is my weapon of choice now. I compared it to many other products as stated above somewhere. If it were lost or stolen, I would definately get another one (or hold out for the 2x12 combo that peter is making...).

This review is for a Diezel VH4S Head, made in late 2002. I'm sure from reading all the other reviews on this product you have an understanding of what the channels have to offer. My personal opinion of this head is it "is" the best amp every made! That's a big statement but I'll justify why. First off the quality of this product is off the chart! This is not some assembly line product. This is hand made and wired! This is a professional head in all regards. I've had the head for close to two years now and I've never had a problem with her and I play her out and loud two - three times a week. Don't let people fool you into thinking a great amp will make you sound great, true tone comes from your fingers and what notes you play. But I do have to say, the tone from this thing is mighty! The head can very easily cover "any" style of playing be it smooth Jazz to the hardest Death Metal! There is no reason to bring two or three amps with you to a show, this baby can do it all.

There was really only three things that bothered me about this amp. One, no footswitch. I had to get advice (from the main man Sal!!!!). But I now know why they did not make one, the Voodoo Labs Ground Control Pro is the ultimate control system and it is almost unnecessary for Diezel to even try to make something better. The Ground Control pro just plugs right into the back of the head (midi based) and that's it...you can easily switch through anything with that be it channels, pedals loops, whatever. Second, on the Diezel site they have all this "stuff" about midi and junk you can put into your head, well as far as I know you do not need that stuff to use a foot switch, just get the Ground Control Pro and plug her in. Three the Instruction Packet is a bit thin and vague. It gives you the basic idea for everything, but not to many tips on how to really tweak her out, such as buying an "expensive power chord" that regulates energy flow better which will help articulation on extremely high gain. But don't get me wrong, this baby is clear and almost unforgiving on sloppy playing...but you can roll off on the mids for more of a loose feeling.

I use a Les Paul with humbuckers, and it sounds just perfect with the amp...nose is minimal to zero. Oh, one big piece of advice...when trying this amp out, play her loud! The amp has a totally different feel on a quiet setting (which she was not made for in any way) compared to loud. But again sound is elegant and breath taking. Mesa, Marshall...everyone needs to get off their high (corporate, profited minded) horse and look what has arrived.

Reliability is far and above what I could possibly expect. Of course the tubes must be changed every 5-6 months religiously. Don't go cheap on this aspect!

I can not say how awesome the Deizel company is! Peter Diezel will bend over backwards for his costumers! You can go meet him, he can tweak your amp anyway you want, sign it, buy you dinner...and I am not even exaggerating! And for immediate assistance www.salwender.com...this man, Uwe is just a saint! He will treat you the "same" way he treats Adam Jones.

I tell this to everyone, yeah the head is a bit expensive but look what you get. The eqivalant to four great heads all rolled into one and if you do the math, you end up saving quite a bit. This head is an instant "classic"! We all wished we owned a 1959 Les Paul or a 1954 Stratocaster, but who can drop 25-80 grand and buy those things. I garenty this head will be in that "type" of catigory within the next twenty years. This amp, this Company is the most significal thing to happen since Vox, Marshall, Gibson! I strongly aurge you to act now and get one of these puppies before they balloon in price.

Well, here it is: the king of all tube channel switching amps, The Diezel VH4S. Four completly seperate preamp channels, all individually voiced with seperate gain, volume, and equalization controls. Seperate effects loops for each and every channel, plus two masters, one serial and a programmable parallel. Switching is done by MIDI, as internal channel switching adds noise. You can program up to 128 MIDI commands in this thing. Active bass and active high end control(s) exist at the poweramp section. Master volume controls are there, too. My Diezel was purchased from Russ Reiser, a really great (and patient) guy who decided to go with the Herbert (thanks, Russ!!!). He already wrote a review for this paticular Diezel farther down the page. As such, this VH4 has a flip switch to either run the power tubes with a fixed bias, or a cathode one. VERY NICE. The only Diezel that I've heard of that has this feature. The amp will take any type of modern power tube (6L6, EL34, KT66, KT88, 6550, etc.) making it very easy to try different types of tubes. It runs a total of nine preamp tubes, plus an extra empty socket for an add-on feature (reverb, maybe?). VERY LOUD. If it had reverb with the ability to assign it to certain channels, I'd give it a ten.

I'm using two Gibson Les Paul Customs, a hollowbody Fender, and a Gibson Flying V with this amp. The Customs have Tom Anderson humbuckers, and the V will here pretty soon. I play a lot of rhythmic rock, with LOTS of changes (Mr. Bungle, King Crimson) and this amp is the only one out there that DOES what I want it to DO. I played several Bogner Ubershalls, Exctasys, Rectifiers, Riveras, some older Marshalls, and none of them had the streamlined feel and sound as the Diezel. SEPERATE EFFECTS LOOPS FOR EACH CHANNEL IS A GREAT IDEA!!!! I use a lot of pedals, and this keeps me from tap dancing on my pedalboard. The MIDI switching makes it sooooo much easier to switch to different channels with other MIDI processors at the same time switching to new programs.

This amp is extremely quiet. I don't think I've ever played a high gain amp that was so damn quiet when you aren't playing anything (no hiss). As far as how the channels sound, I'll go through each one:

When running the amp with Groove Tubes EL34R's and a early/mid 90's Mesa/Boogie Oversized Rectifier 4x12 w/ Vintage 30's:

Channel One: Wow. What a great clean channel. It punches like a Bogner clean channel, but is smooth like a Rivera clean. I've heard this channel with a set of 6L6's, and it sounds soooooooo deep. Even with hot pickups, this channel is somewhat difficult to distort. My favorite thing to do with this channel is to run the gain and volume controls up almost all of the way (or all of the way) and play the drive.....man, what a great tone!!! Very Matchless sounding. With P90's, its heaven. The bright switch on this channel can make a huge difference, depending on how driven the channel is. Just a very lush, percussive clean channel. Sounds perfected with my friend's Echoplex.

Channel Two: This channel is more of the classic rock rhythm channel. Really crunchy, but not harsh. The drive here isn't as raw-sounding as the dimed gain and volume drive on channel one, rather more refined and smooth. Sounds really cool with a Maestro Fuzztone pushing it on the lower gain settings. All the way up, it sounds very AC/DC. Back it off a bit and run the power section hard, some Zeppelin tones can be coaxed out. Lower drive settings make the bright switch more effective, sort of like switching between an AC30 or a Plexi. Very, very nice.

Channel Three: This is my favorite channel. You can do SO MUCH with just this one channel. It cleans up VERY well when you back off of the volume knob; the clean is STILL percussive and smooth, and very usable. Full bore, this channel is IT. Very, very, very tight and crunchy, pushes air very well, and three-dimensional. I'm almost positive that this is the channel that Adam Jones has his Diezels set to. You can get VERY close to that tone here (minus the Marshall Super Bass). This is where the great feature of having a seperate volume and gain controls come in. With the volume knob set to the 9:00-11:00 position, the overdrive becomes more squishy and dynamic. With the gain knob in those positions and the volume knob at about the 3:00 position, the overdrive takes on a more percussive quality. The dynamics between these two controls is very, very impressive. Try different combinations with each and every channel; you'll be amazed at how many sounds you can get. Use the master volumes to compensate for loss of volume.

Channel Four: I hardly even use this channel. It sounds great, but more compressed and less open than channel three. Channel three sounds much bigger to my ears, whereas channel four is more suited to lead work (that's what it was designed for). In all actuality, I'd like to have this channel calmed down one day. It's usable, but the sound is a little too compressed. I'd like it to be more open-sounding. It also doesn't push as much air as channel three. The midrange hump makes it cut through the band nicely, and shred legato licks sound great through it. I just can't see myself ever using it until I can get Peter to take som

The VH4 has a tube-fault protection system in which if one of the power tubes goes out, the whole amp will not die. It will just take the matching one out of the line, and let you finish whatever you are doing with two power tubes. They each have indicator lights and seperate fuses, too. Really, really professional. As far as "does it still work after I drop it" type of reliablity, I wouldn't know. All that I can say is that it survived FedEx's shipping (well, once anyway......), so that's saying at least something. In all seriousness, however, this amp is built like a brick shithouse. I don't think that it will be breaking on me any time soon.

Peter is the coolest guy in the amp business. He's just a really helpful person to talk to. Uwe walked me through the biasing procedure, even though I'm not the original owner, and talked with me for a while about the amp, who's playing them, etc. Really, really nice people to work with.

I've been playing for several years, and I honestly think that this amp is really going to last me for a long, long time. I own a lot of other amps and pedals, but I won't bore you with that. If it were stolen, I'd just have to find the guy who took it; I can't afford another. It was either this or a Bogner Ubershall (or Extascy, damn that amp sounds GREAT.) and the Diezel prevailed for what I want to do. Here in the next few months I hope to get the matching cabinet, and post a follow-up comparing the differences in sound. A very pricey amp, but I didn't buy it new (I got a great deal on it, actually.....thanks once again, Russ!!!). If you get the chance to play one, do it. You may feel like you can't walk away without it.

This is a follow up review from my earlier one. I think everything is still pretty much the same as it was before, but after tons of different power tube changes, I've settled into this configuration: Groove Tubes KT66HP power tubes and the preamp goes a little something like V1 through V4 JAN GE 12ax7wa's, V5-V7 Sovtek 12ax7wb's, V8-V9 NOS Tesla EC803S's. This tube change makes a difference and gives the amp a lot more soul I guess you could say. If you have a VH4 and have a 100 bux sitting around, order a quad of the #5 Hardness Groove Tubes KT66HP's from Musician's Friend. Bias them up around 33 to 35 mA and enjoy.

The tones on channel one are nothing short of spectacular. The cleans are nice, round and fat in the normal mode and when you flip the bright switch, it's really sweet and brisk. It's Very NICE.

I had a hard time getting channel 2 to thicken up when I had EL34's in the power section. When I wanted to fatten that up, I would swap out to JJ 6L6GC's and they sounded all right, but there was just something that was lacking to me. The JJ's aren't bad tubes, but you know how you feel when something just isn't totally right and you think you can make it better. Since the KT66HP tube change, this problem has been solved. It's a nice, chunky, beefy crunch tone. Just sweet!

Channel 3..... This channel has pretty much been the main attraction of this amp for some reason. I've always liked it and thought it was awesome with anything in the power section, but with the KT66HP's, it's fatter, thicker and has a lively response. The amp just has a spring-like character that I love.

Channel 4....It's not quite as compressed as it once was before. I tend to like the overall voicing of this channel more than I do Channel 3 because there are a bit more mids. It's definitely a little thicker now and has the same, sweet feel that Channel 3 has.

I've had this thing for about 13 months now. No problems yet. I just want to clarify something though. If you are the original owner of your Diezel amplifier, the warranty is LIFETIME. Call or E-mail Uwe and he will say so.

I've e-mailed Uwe several times about stupid, silly stuff. He's answered all of my e-mails except for one. That e-mail was about how the VH4 Stereo Head's power section was set up. I dunno if he thought I was going to try to clone this thing or what, but I'm a banker and don't really have time to build amplifiers between making loans and playing guitar and I paid 4600 bux for this thing, so I should at least get an e-mail about how this thing works. I got confirmation that he received my e-mail also, but enough of the bitching there.

Anways, if anyone reading this knows how the power section is set up Uwe and Peter included, shoot me an e-mail. Do the power tubes push/pull like (X0 0X) - Outside Pair/Inside Pair OR (XX OO) Side by Side. The only reason why I would like to know that is simply for the fact that I might like to try one of Bob Pletka's Integrated quads where I'll be able to have an EL34 tone coming from One side and a 6L6 tone coming from the other. I know this is possible, but I don't know how the power section works.

It would be nice to be able to just turn down the volume and listen to a set of E34L's going at it and then turn those down and crank up a set of 6L6GC's. I could run those tones to different cabinets.

This amp is just SICK. The ENGL Powerball and Diezel VH4's are on the top of my list as of right now. If I wanted to buy a Herbert, I could do it. Why do that when I am happy with what I have right now. I'm sure the Herbert is a great amplifier and all, but here lately it seems like there are a few guys who are hyping the hell out of it and making comments along the lines like "It Crushes The VH4". If you're reading this, you know who you are. All I have to say is that you sound like the kids on the Amp forum who argue back and forth whether or not a Marshall TSL or DSL is better than the other. That's way too subjective. Maybe it works for you and that's fine, but I would've expected a little more class from some of you because the same guy who made your Herberts makes the VH4. Anways, that's a little rant. Feel free to e-mail me and speak your mind if makes you feel better.

Four distinct and useable channels. Many speaker and effects options. Full midi implementation.

From jazz to the heaviest 7 string noisefest, this thing does it all.

Seems solid as a rock, but only time will tell.

3 year warranty. No problems yet.

This is an expensive amp, but...If you purchased a vintage twin, a vintage marshall, a soldano slo and maybe a bruno underground 30 to cover the four beautifully voiced channels on the diezel, you're looking at way more $ and a roadies wiring, transporting and maintenance nightmare. I have been playing professionally for 30 years, so trust me when I advise you to save your money and buy this amp.

I have only been playing her for around 3 weeks now. So I will have to update later. Well she is a 2002 Diezel VH-4S. This amp is very versatile especially for ripping heads off. I play heavy groovin skull!@#$ music and this amp does it best. 4 Channels of endless possiblities. You can even use midi, a mute button, a light indicator if a tube bust, etc., etc., hey if you are already reading this you got to know all this info anyways, so on to the next subject.

I am playing an Ibanez RG570 with stock pickups(crap), and an old vintage univox. It suits my music style perfectly, I do not have a musical style whatever that is, so if this amp can pull it off (WOW). The amp is NOT noisy. Of course it can feedback or make noise if you crank all the nobs, or just can't downright play your damn instrument. What idiot would do either to an extroidanary piece of art like this. Well this amp can go from the cleanest to the dirtiest tones out there. You can get any variety of music out of this monster. The distortion is in my opinion the best out there. I have been playing for over 10 years and this is the ONLY amp I have been completely satisfied with. Of course NO amp is going to completely blow you away but this is the closest thing to it. A 10 would be the amp that the guy/girl plays once you meet the man/woman up above or the man/woman down below or what have you but the Diezel is so far right at the gates. Absoulutely amazing!!!

OK, here is my long story. So if you are not a dedicated envelope pushing musician DO NOT read!!! Well I have been searching for the ultimate amp for a good while now. I always thought the Mesa Dual/Triple Rectifier was the closest to the best. When I finnaly got one I wasn't even that satsified. It ripped but I had to tweak it more. Plus by the time I was able to buy one everyone else had one which completely sucked. So I decided to wait for the Mesa and just do the 30 day thing with GC if I had a show and take it back after. So I finnaly found out what Adam was playing with, which was the Diezel VH-4 so I looked into it. I was either going to get the Bogner Ubershall, The new JCM 800, a new guitar, or THE DIEZEL. I set out to find one. The Diezel and Bogner's were harder to find which they should be becuase they are definitely a prize. One place said they would have to custom order, I said I want to play it to see what it can do. So I found another dealer in Atl. GA, my home away from home. I went there for the holidays and plugged into her. This beast ripped!!! I was getting sucked in by the tone. It was hitting me in all different places, notes were ringing that usually never ring. This amp had me sold eventhough I didn't have the cash right than. So crazy words were coming out of my mouth with this dealer, I had to have it. The dealer was a great help, thanks George Coates at Atlanta Discount Music. So I said I would come back tommorow with a down payment. The next day I bought it. This is where the story takes a twist. So I got it sent it back to CA, and through shipping one of the tubes had been knocked loose causing it to somewhat break. Peter told me this is why he gets a bad rap sometimes. Tubes break when they are thrown around and it has nothing to do with the amps reliability. So anyone that has ever said any bad comments about this amp is very confused about music, life, or whatever. If they have something better please contact me ASAP and tell me what planet do I have to get it on. So I played on it with my band with a bad tube because the indicator light was flickering but not all the way on and I didn't even know the tube was busted because she still ripped (amazing). So I called Uwe Salwender and he was so helpful, he said Peter is in town for NAMM why don't you come down and meet him and he will personally fix it and do anything else on the amp that I want. So my lady and I went to the shop and Peter was the only one there. This guy was the coolest, nicest, most brilliant, entertaining, person in this amp busniess. We talked for around 2 hours about some incredibly powerful information. He put in one set of tubes and asked me what I was looking for. I told him, tight and percussive, thick and heavy with fast tracking. So he put in some phat 5550's and it was massive. He checked everything and showed me how to work with different things on the amp. Peter is considered a great friend to me now eventhough I have only met him once.
This amp is built like a tank and I think it is going to be very reliable. So I have been playing the amp for only couple of days, but damn this thing sounds so incredible that if it doesn't break down it is by far the best amp in the world. I will have to update on how long this thing can take my guitar rippage. By the way did I mention great amp.

Read my reliablity and see how great the Diezel peeps are. They were by far the best amplifier company around.

I have been playing long enough to know that this machine can put out some serious tone. I also play through a Marshall JCM 900, and a Mesa Triple, but the Diezel adds so much more ingredients to my cake(rig) that I could just play her and be satisfied. If she were stolen the person that stole it better be ready for some heavy duty pummeling. I would get it again because it is insured. I love everything about it. I hate when people blantantly steal or take advantage of someone elses ideas. The only close thing would be a Bogner Ubershall which only has two channels. I don't think the creator of the Bogner is as easy to personally work with like Peter Diezel but who knows.

This is a 2002 Diezel VH4 Stereo head. I'm sure everything has been described below as far as what all this thing has and what not. I don't use effects so the 2 parallel loops and 4 channel insert loops aren't used. I just plug straight into the amplifier and play because that's mainly what I've always done in the past and don't plan on changing that either. I'm not hear to boost the rating of this amplifier, but I have to give this thing a 10 because it is by far the best amplifier that I've ever played. I has 4 channels. Channel 1 and Channel 2 have bright switches to give them more of a high-mid voicing. The clean channel shimmers when the bright switch is engaged and Channel 2 takes on a Marshall-esque type of quality, but the amp still behaves in it's own Diezel-like manner which is super tight no matter what tubes you are using.

I mainly run a Gibson Les Paul with a Seymour Duncan JB bridge pickup and Seymour Duncan Jazz neck pickup through this thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah....call me an Adam Jones copycat, but I don't think I've nailed his tone nor do I plan on doing so. Also, I have a Custom Handmade Telecaster w/ Bill Lawrence custom wound Telecaster single coils. This amp reacts well to power tube changes. I've had Electro Harmonix and Svetlana EL34's (I favor the EH's). Also, I've played Sovtek 6L6's and Svetlana 6L6's. I like both the Sovteks and Svetlanas. They are just different in the power section. The Svetlanas are just smoother to my ears. They don't have huge amounts of low-end, but they are nice, smooth and thick. Channel 2 likes 6L6's to my ear because it seems to fatten up a great deal when running those type of power tubes. The highs seem a bit more airy with the Sovteks. Some people will say the Sovteks are crappy tubes and I might agree in some aspects, but this amp surely does seem to like them. I plan on trying some JJ 6L6GC's and some NOS Phillips 7581A's in the near future.

I've ran this thing through 2 cabinets. I first had a Marshall 1960A w/ Celestion G12T-75's. The 75's are really clear. They may have a little bit of a harsh top, but that can be dialed out with the Dual Presence knobs. The 75's will fart out if you push the bass too hard, but again..that can be dialed out using the deep switches. It's like having total control over what you want to hear. The 2nd cabinet I use is a Mesa/Boogie Recto Standard 4x12 w/ Celestion Vintage 30's. This cab will totally change the character of the amplifier completely. It makes the amp crunch more on the dirty channels. The clean is a bit warmer as well. The amp just gets a lot fatter w/ V30's in my opinion. Channel 4 is only useless as a lead work channel for me though. I don't recommend using it for high gain chording because there is just too much going on. I didn't have that problem with the 75's though. The V30's just make the amp sound different, but it's all good. The amp still remains extremely tight with each cabinet. This thing will go from a heavenly clean to a satanic dirty and everything in between with it's own voicing. It' just nice.

It hasn't broken down on me yet. I've e-mailed Uwe several times asking him various questions and he always gets back with me on the next business day.

Again, Uwe does a good job at answering my questions.

I don't claim this amplifier to be the best in the whole world because that would be an ignorant statement. I think this amp covers a lot of territory in what it does and how it does it. I've owned various amplifiers that did certain things better than this amplifier does, but they didn't have near the versatility this amp does on the fly. It's just an excellent piece of equipment. I just recently tried running this thing with a 2 channel Triple Rectifier at the same time and the sound is thick and huge. I shoot for a dirty tone that is fat and responsive to my pick attack. Both of these amps combined produce a real fat tone that I really like. I would love to try out some Bogner stuff to see what's going on there, but I'm happy right now to say the least. I don't ever plan on parting with the VH4. It does everything that I want it to do and that's all I can ask for it to do. Many people have e-mailed me several times and asked the question, "Is it worth the money?" and I tell them that I really don't know. I had the means to purchase this amp and I've heard other VH4 owners state this: Just think of it as a $1000 dollars for each channel with each channel doing a wonderful job at what it does. I'm not hear to hype this amplifier up in any way, shape or form. I just wanted to write a positive, honest review and that's all I wanted to do. I like this amp and it's not going anywhere. I don't think there is another 4 channel amplifier out on the market that can do what this thing does and have the total control and flexibility this thing has. If there is, I haven't seen or played it yet.

My Diezel was made in late 2001. It is a VH4S. I got it and a Diezel Rear Loaded 4X12 Stereo Cabinet to compliment it. It has (2) Master volumes for each side. I wired Vintage 30s on one side and GH12s on the other side. I mix the volumes of the (2) masters for a further more ballsy a exacting sound. It has individual inserts for each of the (4) channels as well as a master stereo send-return. Each channel has Bass, Mid, Trem, Volume, and gain. There is also a Presence and Deep controls for each of the stereo outputs. I also got a Voodoo Labs Ground Control for it(NOT INCLUDED), since it uses a midi box for remote switching. It is heaven sent!! I can switch between channels as well as channels with or without assigned sends. I can communicate with the sends from my foot switch!! That is soooo cool!!!! Basically, this amp is "the Godfather" of options. I do not consider Line 6 and things of that nature to be amps. They are toys.

Lets see. My experience for this department... I have a few Dumble Amps. A few Soldanos. Old Marshalls, old Fenders, a Komet, a Trainwreck, Mesas, etc. I use (5) different Private Stock, (1) Dragon 2K, and (1) 1985 PRS guitars, as well as, a 1959 Les Paul, a 1956 Strat, etc.

The Diezel is the Amp we have all been waiting for!!! It does almost everything well!! It has allowed me to shring my amp collection from 43 to 10. It eliminated my need for that many amps!! See below!!!

Ch 1. It is no Dumble Overdrive Special, but it is not at all shabby. It sounds as good as any old Fender. ANY!! That is good enough for me in 99 oyt of 100 applications. Absolutely awesome. It does break up when cranked, but that is why there are different settings for each channel. Set it up right and you will never have to worry about anything!! It is a dream come true when you swictch channels!!!

Ch2. This is the Stones/AC DC channel. Awesome and very responsive. Not quite an AC30. More of an AC30 meets a Fender that is ballsy and crisp. A wonderful combo!! A++

Ch 3. This is modern in a vintage way!! You can be Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Godsmack, Alice In Chains--- all in the same channel!! Great for leads and Rhythm. I LOVE this channel. It is worth it's weight in gold!!!

Ch 4. Satan would be please with the gain on the puppy!! Insane. Good for death metal. Far cry from channel 1!!! I do like it for solos. Rhythm is only for the heaviest guys on this channel. It does sound awesome!! If you like that kind of thing.

No Problems Yet!!

These guys will talk you through, fix for you. Spectactular. They really care. They are only a hand full of people, and they will go far beyond the call of duty. I couldn't be more happy! No real pressing issues so I left the rating blank. They have not been tested(which is a good thing!!)

This is the desert island amp!! The most essential amp ever!! I love it too much!! I would take it over any amp. It has the most features of any multi channel amp and IT IS THE ONLY MULTI CHANNEL AMP WHERE EVERY CHANNEL SOUND AMAZING IN A DIFFERENT WAY!!! Get it and you will be enlightened. It is the best investment. it is like 4 great amps in 1 with lots of routing. The only downsides are.... it is a little heavy. Of course it is though, with all that stuff in it! The other is that you have to buy a midi foot switch to have remote switching. It is great when you have it though!! The ground Control Pro is the way to go!! Awesome. If you want one call Gene at Ultra Sound in NYC. He is such a good dealer it is like and added bonus! In short... it is as close to perfect as we will ever know. A dream come true. Thank you Mr. Diezel and friends!!

P.S. Any owners who want to discuss tricks and whatever else related, e mail me. My address is below.

This is a 2002 Diezel VH4S head, powered with EL34 tubes.
I use it for Death Metal in a band context, and more progressive stuff when I'm playing on my own. It copes very well with both styles, which is why I bought it in the first place.
Feature-wise, this is one of the most complete heads in existence. The only way to do better is to build a rack system - in fact I bought this head because I got tired of lugging around my rack. I'm probably repeating what everyone else has said, but here are the important features:
- 4 discrete amp channels, with separate volume, gain and three-band EQ. These channels are almost completely separated, there is no overlap - that's why there are so many preamp tubes. Channels are clean, dirty, heavy and lead.
- Stereo Deep and Presence controls for very high and very low frequency sounds. This amp can go REALLY deep, be careful not to annoy your bass player!
- Stereo master volume and stereo parallel loop mix.
- Stereo power section with 5 speaker outputs each. There aren't many heads that I know of that are stereo. The poweramp in this head is top-notch, and VERY loud. Mine is 70Watts per side.
- MIDI in and thru for channel switching. This amp does not use a normal footswitch, it's controlled through MIDI. Very easy to program.
- A global stereo serial FX loop, global stereo switchable parallel FX loop, and switchable mono insert loops per channel. Switchable here means programmable through MIDI.

Currently, I do not use the insert loops, because I've never been a pedal man. I use a TC Electronic G-Major in the serial FX loop and it sounds great, but I have gigged several times already without using any FX at all - the amp sounds great on its own.
The only feature that I could think of to add would be a by-passable serial FX loop. The manual seems to suggest that this is possible, but using the switchable loop output in the serial loop actually breaks the circuit causing the amp to mute. If you want to switch FX in and out of the loop, you need to use the parallel inputs, and the G-Major does not particularly like being in parallel (NOT a gripe with the Diezel!)

One might say that 70Watts per side is overkill, but one of the nicest things about this amp is that it was designed to sound good at lower levels, around 85dB. Granted, that's probably still a bit loud for your parents, but you won't have ears bleeding before you get to the "tone of the gods".

I play a stock Ibanez Universe and a Jackson Kelly with EMGs through this amp. The EMGs give a lovely clean, dirty and lead sound, but the heavy crunch sounds are a little sterile. The Blaze pickups in the Universe make the heavy crunch sounds come alive, and with the added deepness of the low B-string really makes the amp punch your lights out if you're not careful.

This is without a doubt the quietest high-gain amp I have ever seen. There is practically NO noise if you're standing more than a foot or two away from the amp, even on really high gain settings. You can get some musical feedback if you want, even at quite low volumes, but it's not uncontrollable and you can easily avoid it. I feel no need to use a noise gate with this amp at all - which is a VERY big difference from my previous rack rig.

On to the sounds, per channel.

Ch.1 is the clean channel. It has a bright switch, which I currently keep off because I like to have a darker sound. The channel does a lot of different types of clean: chimey and sparkly to dark and moody. It's equally suited to chord work as it is to jazz leads. Ratchet up the gain to about 75% and you start noticing a slight breakup if you hit the strings hard. I really like this sound because it's dark and moody. Keep the gain around half or less, and it will not break up, even at very high volumes.

Ch2 I use least of all. It is the light crunch channel (also with a bright switch), and while it is very good, it doesn't really fit in the context of the band. Blues leads and gritty rhythm come from here. AC/DC would be proud to have this channel, as would the Stones. With low gain, you have a second clean channel. With high gain and a heavy pick attack you're in hard rock territory.

I use the 3rd channel for my rhythm work (Death Metal), and I keep the gain quite low, around 12 o'clock or slightly higher. When playing alone, this may seem a bit weak, but this way it has a lot of punch yet also a lot of crunch. It works perfectly in the band, where there is another guitarist and a bass player. Adding more gain gives more compression - this channel could easily be used for lead work, but I use the fourth channel for that. The sound is somewhat like a Marshall, but really it has a character of its own. It's a very "big" sound and you can't really hide behind the amp - if you mess up, the audience will know about it. This is THE heavy rhythm channel as far as I'm concerned. I will never need another.

Ch.4 is amazing. How did they get so much gain in a channel without ever losing definition? Around half, it's enough gain for ANY normal situation. You can use more gain for a wall of sound, such as you can occasionally hear in Tool or with the Smashing Pumpkins.

This amp is a tank. It weighs about as much too. The only thing that will break is the tubes. There was a factory mistake with my cab, causing it to be labeled with the wrong impedance. I played the amp like this for a week or two, not knowing the problem but realising there was something odd with my sound. Do this to most other amps, and you will kill the output transformer. Not this amp, it happily goes along with you. I got the problem sorted out and then the amp sounded marvellous.

I gig without a back-up. The only thing I'm worried about is people running off with it because it's so good and hard to get.

This is where Diezel shines. I've e-mailed with Peter Diezel and Peter Stapfer to figure out the impedance issue mentioned above. There was also a mistake with the type of power tubes in the amp (I ordered EL34 but got 6L6 instead) - and Peter changed the tubes and rebiased it himself - tweaking the amp to sound even better in the process. He also signed the back of the amp :). All this without charge!
The people at the shop where I bought it are extremely helpful too. I will never lose sleep over any problem with this amp. Oh yeah, there's a 3 year warranty on it.

I've been playing for probably around 15 years now. I've gone from Marshall Valvestate in the early beginnings, over a Fender Hotrod Deluxe with pedals, to a rack system with a Marshall JMP-1 and Peavey 50/50 poweramp (having also had a TriAxis, a Mesa Studio Pre, an ADA MP-1 and a Mesa/Boogie 50/50 poweramp). When I heard this amp, my search was over, all the amp I'll ever need and not nearly the tweaking and transportation nightmare of my rack system. I had been looking for another amp for a while, playing a Marshall TSL60, Laney VH100R, Peavey 5150, H&K Duotone and Line6 Vetta, and this was better than all of them.

If it were stolen, I'd get another one, no question about it.

Overall, a 9 - there is no perfect ten, and the manufacturing errors should not have happened with an amp this expensive, but they got solved quickly and painlessly.

Diezel VH4 Stereo 4 channel 150/180 watts depending on tubes.This is one of the most versatile amps ever.4 channels with 4 bass,mid,tre,gain,and volume.Then 2 master volumes,2 effect mixes,2 presence,and 2 deep controls.Also for tone junkies like myself a send and returns for each channel.For all those stomp pedals that like to eat tone before your signal reaches the amps input.10 12ax7 preamp tubes and 4 power 6l6 or in my case kt88.The VH4S also has 16 midi and 128 program changes.10 speaker outputs and send1,send2,parallel and serial returns.I think thats it!

PRS artist cu22 dragon 1 pickups ,PRS singlecut 7's pickups,7 string universe 2000 evoultion pickups.I play jazz,funk,acoustic,rock,hard rock,METAL and lots of SOLO'S.This amp does it all!!!!! Channel 1: fender clean sparkle (bogner, dr.z,and fender's new stuff don't come close) Channel 2:Marshall plexi to AC/DC classic sounds Channel 3: Van halen brown to TOOL, in fact this is what Adam Jones is using this same channel to get most of Tool's sound Channel 4:Hi-gain to it's purist form it don,t get better than this.The tightest,heavyist,deepist sound I've ever heard.I've owned Mesa recto's,Triaxs,DC-10,50+Calibers,Marshall TLS 2000,koch and played through everthing else peavey XXX,5150,bogners X and Ubershall.Nothing sounds this bad ass!!!!

I've owned it about a year and no problems.I would use it at gig with no back up.Plus it has 3 year warranty which is really cool.

No problems,I've had to deal with the company,the mannel is simple and cut and dry to understand.I have heard that they give good support.

I've been playing 15 years and it's by far the best amp I've ever played.If it were stolen or lost I'd buy another with out hesitation but I don't even want to think about that happening (KNOCK ON WOOD).If you can get one of these amps buy it you won't be disappointed.It will be the last amp you ever buy.

No other amp IMHO is this versatile bar none! With 4 channels, 2 effect loops, inserts for each channel, tube fault lights warning you if power amp tubes are bad, switches for easy tube-type changes, stereo, master volumes which allow me to get great tone at low volumes, fully independent preamp and eq for each channel....need I say more?

I've owned or played Fender, Mesa, VHT, Twqo Rock, Egnater, and Bogner to name a few and while these amps in their own right are OK, the Diezel in not even comparable. I've heard others say it is not as "touch-sensitive" as say a Dumble, Bruno or Two Rock but and if that's true, it won't matter because the richness and definition of the tones is so awesome. Channel 1 is beautifully Fendery clean and rich but you can get good bite if needed, Channel 2 can deliver great breakover distortion like the Stones, ACDC, SRV, Channel 3 is a delight! Great distortion and low end crunch and slightly compressed. Channel 4 I was afraid of at first hearing all the descriptions, mainly because I don't play real heavy Rock/Metal etc. But I'm finding this to be a favorite. Very smooth and creamy distortion but with an edge capable of removing heads and other body parts!! As I said before, each channel resembles other GREAT sounding amps, BUT, the Diezel is an improvement on them all! And to top it off, idle noise and hiss, especially on the high gain channels is so low....what a nice feeling not to have a noise gate! I'll give channels 1-3 a 10 but I have to give channel 4 a 10+.....I'm just really impressed with it!

Too early to tell but most Deutsch-made stuff is as reliable as it gets! I may be a little biased here though ;^]!

Gene at Ultra Sound (where I bought the amp) is just GREAT! He will bend over backwards to help you make the amp choice of your dreams! And Uwe at Salwender is someone I know I can count on to help with any issue. He too will do everything in his power to make sure you are satisfied with the Diezel! Now if I could just say thanks to the brains behind the amp, Peter Diezel. I've never spoken with him but based on my experience with Gene and Uwe, I probably could if I really needed to!

I won't belabor the point here. I've never been so content with my sound after almost 30 years of playing. If I can one day afford another Diezel, I'll use it as my everyday practice amp! I wish I would have known of this amp a few years ago...I could have saved myself a lot of $$$ and frustration! BTW, I'm willing to answer any questions if you email me. One last thing, if you want to end your search for an amp, call Gene (212) 967 - 5626 or Uwe 714-538-1285!!!!

Hi people, I'm not gonna submitt any features cause they are already on the web. My opinion is the true 10. Someone can claim it doesn't have a reverb but who needs a crapy spring reverb in a head like that...

I'm not gonna be a micro-brain moron and list all my gear so you'll be jeallous, but the only thing I'll tell is that I have an YJM Strat which suits me like no other guitar on this earth. Low output DiMarzio's YJM and HS3, make this fantastic for blowing arpeggios.
Sounds unbeleviable. I was dreaming about that tone for years and finally got it. Think of Magnum Opus by Yngwie - The Only One has a monstrous sound to me. It has it. Pure heaven!!!

Excellent

Never dealt with them

Diezel plus YJM Strat is all I want. I won't say anything more.

Questa testata mi ha aperto gli occhi su cosa vuol dire avere un bel suono professionale, costituita da 4 valvole di finale 6L6 e da 4 sezioni di preamp indipendenti comandabili via midi. I 4 canali vanno dal suono piu pulito al suono piu grosso. Adatta sia per fusion, rock e metal (io suono metal prog).

Io suono con una ibanez Universe a 7 corde, con pick up di marzio, e sono riuscito ad ottenere suoni motlo caldi e dinamici che erano improponibili con altra amplificazione. Prima utilizzavo una pedaliera con compressore, riverbero, equal...etc.. ora non utilizzo altro che la testata ed ho una distorsione impressionante.

Non ho ricevuto libretto di istruzioni, e le regolazioni via midi sono complicate.

Suono da 9 anni ed ho provato molte soluzioni digitali e alcune valvolari tipo marshall, fender, laney, ma tutto questo risulta come un suono per principianti a confronto del Diezel.

Bought my VH4S in 1998 as replacement of my SLO-100, Hot Rod 50 and a Fender Tonemaster. 4 Channel vs. 5 Channel. One of the most important things to understand is the interaction of Amp and Speaker, especially closed and open back systems. There isn't any Amp around the world which really fits to anybody. It's always like in real life, experience, experience and spending a hell of money.
Conclusion: I'm using open back and closed back cabinets and I get the sound I really want out of a single box driven into different cabinets.

I'm using custom Charvel Tele with Tom Holmes PU's, Music Man Axys,
Hopf 1963. Non Tremolo. Style of music from Funky to Pop and Rock,
sometimes trashy.... The variety of sounds is more the typical british type, but customized in the right direction... no noisy bits..
Clean could be better but thanks god, we have EQ.... therfore oki doki. Distortion - warm, smooth, brutal, vital - whatever you want...

Backup always required. I never had an amp on tour which felt of the rig or broke down. Transportation always kills tubes. With all of my
amps I never had trouble, but my Diezel was the first one who felt of my tower of cabinets and did not stop or broke down.......

If Mr. Diezel would live in the U.S., he would visit you whenever you have a problem with your equipment.... is this common in the U.S. or with the dealers you buy amps ?
My experience; whenever a problem occurs - next day repair !!!!!!!!

...nothing more to say, because we need time to play and enjoy music.......

This is a followup to my last review. Peter Diezel read my review and called me from Germany. He gave me the data I needed to install a bias pot. I now can adjust bias with a turn of a screwdriver. He also had me change a few resistors and caps for channel two. I now have the Keith Richards style overdrive I was looking for in channel two. What more can I ask for! Great!

See previous review

See previous review

See previous

I changed this from 9 to 10 because of the changes I implemented from Peter as I mentioned above.

This amp was made in late 2000 . I have owned another and after selling it regreted it and after a wait of a few months got another. This is the most versatile amp that I have played. Four totally separate channels and since the amp is stereo it has right and left master controls. With 10 speaker outs (5 per side) set up for any ohm config imagineable, the possibilities are unlimited. I have owned a ton of multi channel amps but nothing compares to this in the range of tones to be found. The fact that each channel has gain, volume, mid treble and bass is like four separate amps. The master controls, presence, deep, volume, effects mix are so effective in further tailoring the individual channels that to find your tone is easy. Then add the channel inserts for adding individual effects to each channel , a parallel and series loop and full midi capabilities and you begin to see what the beast is capable of.

Sounds incredible. I use a John Suhr Strat, Callaham Strat, Anderson Hollow Drop top classic and an Anderson Cobra S. Each guitar sounds as individual as it should and the amp shows no prejudice towards single coils or humbuckers. I play hard rock, blues, fusion etc. and this amp easily handles every type of music. The amp is quiet compared to other amps of it's type and yet sounds as good as anything I have ever played but does more. The clean channel is capable of the chime and sparkle found in the finest boutique amps ever built. I run a TC reverb unit in the channel inserts for ch. one and two and access them via midi with a DMC ground control allowing me to select wet or dry settings. I have ab tested the clean channel with great amps and can only say that the clean channel on the Diezel is as good as any, it has a bright switch as does channel two.

Channel two is a great channel and with the gain and mids up is a great sounding blues lead tone. The response from the amp is amazing. This channel can be setup to have any mid gain tone you desire.

Channel three is a blast- has great higher gain tones and again can be setup to be anything from blues to metal.

Channel four can be the most punishing low end driven nastiness or with the gain almost off and the mids up bass and treble down, can even do a dumble type lead tone. I sometimes use channel one with some reverb and delay to get the EJ clean tones and by cranking the gain on #4 and turning the mids up a bit, treble at 12:00, can nail his lead tones. The stereo fatness and tube tweaks that can be had make this amp the best "do it all amp" ever made.

Well, I have had this one 4 weeks, no problem and my last one is still flawless over a year later. I sold it to Matte Henderson who reviewed it last year. These amps are built to last and a peek inside the chassis shows Peter Diezel's genius. The guy built the best swiss army amp ever made and the quality is unbeateable.

I have spoken to Uwe the US distributor and Peter Diezel a few ties and both are extremely helpful. I have had no need for repairs.

I have been through a bunch of amps and love Bogners and lots of others. I owned several Ecstasy's and prefer the 100 series to the 101s but Bogners are great too. I have to say that the Diezel eliminated the need for my Ecstasy's and although the Bogner has great tones th range of great tones in the Diezel is much bigger. The features are amazing. The other amp I currently love is my Two Rock Emerald Pro, major mojo , absolutely killer but the Diezel is still the most feature laden tone machine I have ever played. If you need an amp that does amazing tones in every dept from clean to metal and like having lots of variety, you will not find a better amp.

Jan.2000 4 channel, midi switchable, 2 effects loops,and 4 channel inserts which are Midi programable. I play all styles except jazz and classical with a seven piece band. Stereo all tube 50 watts per side. It has 5 speaker output jacks per side for any combo of 4,8 or 16 ohm cabs. It has more than enough power for my needs

I use a 55 tele, a strat and Tommys Moderne with 2 of the new Bill Lawrence Humbuckers (I love these pickups). The clean channel reminds me of a mixture of a Hiwatt, a Twin, and a Matchless. It stays clean very loud. The other channels get progressively more overdriven. This amp is very quiet. I sometimes wish Channel two was more of a Keith Richards sound rather than a clean AC/DC sound but my solution was to put a Siegmund Micro Tube overdrive in Channel 1 insert and then I have a patch on my Midi controller that uses channel one with the overdrive unit and then I have 5 different sounds.

I've owned this amp since May of 2000 and never had a problem.I gig just about every weekend and more in the summer.

I've spoken with Peter the builder and Ove Salwender the distributer and they are both great guys. My only request is for a complete owners manual but I'm told it should be coming soon! It would be good to have a limited schematic that wouldn't give away trade secrets but could be used for possible repairs by local repairmen. Again this is built so well I don't forsee any breakdown and I've play in very hot weather and last week in a tent on the ice of Lake Winnebago using a generator.

I've been playing over 25 years and I've owned many good amps but I'd be hard pressed to find a more versatile amp. Old school blues players might want something a little more touch sensitive. I own a Warbler Juke 1210 that does that very well. I wish it had an outside adjustable bias but its easy to take out of the cab. It uses resistors for the bias so you have to change those if you radically change power tubes. Peter feels they are more reliable and safer but as technology advances it would be nice to have a good quality adjustable bias control.

Terrible. Died after about a month and could not be repaired. They did provide a new replacement, but that took months to get. I think for $4000 it should work. This amp was not yet gigged, this all happened sitting in my house. You MUST have a back up amp.

While I gave this high marks originally, I must revise. You can not have your amp serviced anywhere but in NYC by Ultra Sound or return it to Salwender in LA. So if you live away from those two cities, you must mail teh amp to CA for repair? They have no service centers otherwise. So using UPS ground, you can expect to be ampless for at least two weeks maybe more. Peter Diezel seems like a nice guy, and Uwe at Salwender was nice as well, but this policy of having to return everything to LA is bullshit. If your amp dies on Thursday and you have a showcase gig on Saturday, forget the Diezel, you'll have to dig out that old Marshall you hopefully didn't sell to help pay for the Diezel to get through the gig.

A great sounding amp that is unreliable, like a Ferrari, it is great when you can get it to start up.

Ok this is an update to my original VH4 review, now that I have had the amp for a while. Four descrete preamp channels, each has it own bass, mid, treble, preamp gain (volume) and master volume. Channels one and two have bright switches. Channels three and four share deep and resonance controls. Stereo output 50 watts per side. Two master stereo effects loops (mono send, stereo returns), one is serial, one is parallel, the late of which has mix function to keep your dry tone away from the digitalizing that effects cause. Each channel has it OWN mono effects loop as well. Five outputs per side for running any type of speaker configuration. Comes w/ 6l6 tubes, but can be changed to EL34s, or 5881s or 6550 or KT66s, if you so desire. Gong to anything other than the EL34 INCREASES the output and thus makes it even LOUDER, so unless you need to play Giants Stadium, not really necessary. Also, while each channel has it's own master volume, the entire amp has two master volumes (left and right) that over ride the channel masters. This is why the clean channel is so clean, run Ch 1's master on 100%, run the amp's masters around noon and then just reduce the diry channel masters to fit the volume of Ch 1.

Fantastic. Ch 1 is the loudest clean channel of any head I have ever heard. You can be super loud and super clean, however you can dial in a good low gain sound here as well, but who needs to with three channels to go? Ch 2 is the SRV zone, Rolling Stones, good old fashioned rock tones. Ch 3 does the Marshall thing, you can get almost any rock sound from the 1970's through 1980's here. Ch 3 sounds like a Marshall but with more bottom. Ch 4 is the VHT Pitbull zone, it can pummel. Scooped out death tones to the most singing Vai type tones imaginable.

Too new to say, but it made it from Germany in a poorly constructed box and worked.

Uwe at Salwender is great. Both Gene at Ultra Sound in NYC and Gary at Splash Sound in LA were very helpful as well. Gene can be reached at 212-967-5626, or Gary at http://www.splashsound.com/ or 818-817-9566.

It is the best amp out there, I have owned them all. Since comes stock with 6L6's, it does not have that upper end chime EL34's have, so Channel 3 suffers about 2% because of that. You can change to EL34's, but what effect that will have on the other channels, I do not know. Like all tube amps, it sounds better louder. Therefore, to get the tone, I have opted to get two THD Hot Plates at 8 ohms a piece to run teh head into so that I can rank the output tubes and get the tone, but use 8db of sound reduction to make the volume less overall. I have a Bogner 4x12 w/ vintage 30's use that I have wired in stereo, into 8 ohm parallel pairs. Still, with the volume reduced, you lose a little bottom since you are not producing enough cabinet volume, so Shawn at Bogner suggested I add an EQ in the effects loop and boost the 100hz to put the ommph back into the quieter cabinet, I have to try this this weekend. If you want the best, this is it. Ferraris cost over a $100,000 new, so if you are wiling to spend 3~4 as much on a car as normal people, then $3900 for an amp should seem reasonable.

The amp which I am reviewing is a 1999 Diezel VH4S head. This is an all tube STEREO, 4 channel head with separate serial and parallel effects loops as well as effects inserts for each channel. All channel switching and loop activation is controllable via internal MIDI switching. This amp has independent volume and tone controls for each channel, as well as having independent bright switches for channels one and two. Channel switching is also enabled from the front panel, via the channel designated LED's.
This amp also has presence and depth controls as well as parallel effects loop controls. The Diezel can run 6L6's, 5881's, EL34's or 6550's. This enables the amp to run at anywhere from 60 watts(EL34's) to 95 watts(6550's) a side.

I am primarily a 7 string player and I am using 2 Stevens LJ 7 string prototypes(see the 7 string LJ review in Harmony Central for more details), one with 2 strat pickups and an Alnico P90 in the bridge. The other LJ has 2 Humbuckers. I also have a 1986 PRS custom and a 1990 PRS studio(S/S/H) for my primary 6 strings. This amp covers more ground than any amp that I have EVER owned and operated. I have never in my life heard an amp that has so much bottom end. Not murky, boomy and undefined, but focused and punishing, like an SVT. This is the first amp that I have owned that amplifies a seven string with clarity, definition, from superclean to way over the top grinding
post industrial mashing DOOM! Each channel has it's own particular voicing. Channel one is somewhere between a Blackface Twin and a Hiwatt. Stunning ping and top end shimmer(via the bright switch), as well as beautiful late "50's fat clean humbucking tones can be found here. Tons of headroom.
Channel two walks the line between SRV/Jimi clean with a little hair to AC/DC crunch. Channel three is capable of picking up where channel two left off and taking crunch to another level. Roll off the guitar volume and the amp cleans up, nicely. Channel four is BRUTAL! This is what I always hoped for and never quite got out of any amp, with the notable exception of some custom built Bogners. This channel is SCREAMING even at low volumes. Controlled feedback is no problem.

All four channels are well voiced and I can't find one thing about this amp, both tonally and in terms of MIDI control, that I don't LOVE. The effects loops and inserts work flawlessly.

I haven't had the amp long enough to encounter any problems so I can't answer this question yet. I will be using this amp without any backup so I'll soon see how reliable the Diezel is. It's overbuilt and seems to be bulletproof.

Salwender is extremely cooperative and I believe that they will stand behind this amp. As I stated previously, I haven't had this amp long enough to have any problems. I don't know how long the warranty is but I know that expired warranties have yet to stop people from buying vintage Fenders, Marshalls, Hiwatts, Voxes, etc.

I've been playing guitar fulltime for 27 years. I have owned a number of amps, from Gibson Falcons, Magnatones, Black face twins, point to point Marshalls, JMI Vox AC 30's to Boogies, VHT's, Soldanos, Bogners, to the Line 6 POD. I have everything from a Univox superfuzz to a cock diesel G3 that functions as my hard disc recorder.

If this amp got vic't, I would replace it in a minute. There is nothing about this amp that isn't stellar! I can't think of any other
stereo tube heads with MIDI switching, so there is no point in comparisons. People WILL compare this amp to the flagship amps built by VHT, Bogner and Boogie.

To me this is the STATE OF THE ART in guitar amplification.

For more info, go to:
www.salwender.com