This amp popped up at my favorite semi-local guitar shop - Jimmy’s Vintage Music. This is where I bought my 2008 Splawn Quickrod as well as my Marshall JCM800 4x12 cabinet. He is local only - no shipping or online sales, which means he has some really cool trade-in gear and great prices.
I’ve been interested in acquiring a Diezel for a while, and this amp has a particularly amazing sounding demo by Ola Englund on youtube (12 years ago!) that I actually downloaded as an MP3 and listened to in my car back in college - that’s how much I liked the tone. That’s a long time to wait for an amp, but I just never could find one for a great deal, and I kind of moved on to looking for a Herbert or a VH2 in my budget range. Once I saw this, only an hour’s drive away, I knew it was the right time to grab one.
Unlike most of my deals, which are all outright purchases (that result in the selling of something else I own via Reverb/Ebay/etc), I took my 1984 Kramer Floyd Rose Signature guitar with me as a potential trade option. I wasn’t sure if it would be something that Jimmy would be interested in, since 80s shred guitars are a bit of a different demographic from his usual selection, but we were able to work out a fair deal that I think benefited both of us - I’m sure a metal amp like this Diezel was just as weird for him to have in his shop.
I played it only for a few moments in the store, since I knew I wanted it anyway - so I brought it home and really let it rip. Wow! What an amp - the 3 different modes on channel 1 are superb in their own ways, and the lead channel may as well just be the 4th mode on that switch - the transition is seamless. That also means when playing, you’ll always have that thick sounding high gain sound available, but you can choose your second sound from anything clean, crunch, or an alternate high gain sound. All of the tones are excellent so far, and I’m very impressed with the sound and how tight the low end is despite the full sounding bass frequencies, even with a guitar tuned to A standard. I’m looking forward to spending some more time with it, and especially comparing it to some of the other high gainers in my arsenal, especially other German made amps like my ENGL’s. I’d like to add a Herbert to the collection still, but this has definitely dulled my need to do that since it seems to have very similar tones, just lacking some of the Herbert’s features (like the adjustable mid cut) - although I’m sure once I play a Herbert I’ll understand the differences more clearly.
