# Fender MH-500 (the Metal Head)



## Donnie (Jul 18, 2005)

So in light of my recent opportunity, I decided I need an amp that's a weeee bit louder. The Charlie Drown practice I attended was really freakin' loud! I didn't realize how loud until I plugged into Shannon's amp.  I'm use to everyone here telling me to turn down.  My Vetta is a great amp but I don't think it'll stand up, volume wise. Unless I had the 300 watt Vetta HD. But that's a little out of the price range with the move coming up and all.

Anyway... I've always wanted to try the Fender MH-500. They've had on in the local store since they came out and I just never got around to it. So I packed up one of the JP7s and headed down after work. I noodled around on it for a little bit at a fairly low volume until they closed down the store. We figured that would be best so I could really crank it. 
So I cranked it and proceeded to forge some metal. 

Holy crap on a pita, is this thing loud! It sounded good at a low volume but once I got it cranked it sounded like a whole new beast. I was running through only one Fender MH cab at 400 watts. I would be afraid of it with 2 cabs at 550 watts. I had the JP tuned to ADADGBE(low to high) and the low end at high volumes was no problem. Very tight and focused.
The clean channel was crystal clear. I couldn't get it to distort no matter how hard I hit the strings. Then again, it is solid state so the cleans are bound to be good.
Channel 2 is kind of Marshall-ish but with some oomph.
Channel 3 has that bad ass solid state distortion that I dearly love. It really reminded me of a tighter sounding Mesa Recto(be it Dual or Triple).

It also has built in effects that were alright but I doubt I would use them other than maybe the chorus effect. I don't think you can adjust the parameters on them either. Just the level. I would probably just buy some sort of outboard effects processor.

The main bad point that I found was that there is no master volume(That I could find). I'd hate to sit down for a nice low volume practice, fire it up and proceed to blow my head off because I forgot to turn the volume down on one of the channels.
The amp also has a handy, adjustable, lead boost.

I think that within the next few days that this amp might be coming home with me. I'll see if I can break some windows in my house.


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## VforVendetta00 (Jul 18, 2005)

u really liked it? i thought it sounded like crap, but then again i like to tweak and tweak, and i also didn't get a chance to test it at a decent volume. i might have to check it out once more.


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## Donnie (Jul 18, 2005)

Yeah, I thought it sounded great. I'm going to go back down tomorrow and play around with it some more.
My Vetta is a tone tweakers paradise and I love that but I think I want something now that has only a few sounds. I spend more time tweaking than actually playing.


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## Leon (Jul 18, 2005)

Donnie said:


> I think that within the next few days that this amp might be coming home with me. I'll see if I can break some windows in my house.


...new house or old house?


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## Donnie (Jul 18, 2005)

Old house. 
Shit, I should see if it'll actually fit in my car before I make a final decision.  I'd hate to go ahead and buy it and not be able to get it out to Tacoma. Although, I may be buying a new car soon.


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## Shannon (Jul 19, 2005)

Newflash....

When I tried out the 120w Ibanez TB100H last week, I A/Bed it against a 550w Fender Metalhead. The Ibanez BLEW IT AWAY in terms of tone and VOLUME! I'm telling you dude, try out a Toneblaster head before settling on the Fender.


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## Donnie (Jul 19, 2005)

But... but it says 'Ibanez' on it.
*ducks for cover*
 
Yeah, I still want to try one of those though. I wonder if I could get the store here to order one in quickly?


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## Chris (Jul 19, 2005)

Donnie said:


> So I cranked it and proceeded to forge some metal.



 True.


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## Donnie (Jul 19, 2005)

If you were there, you would have been proud.


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## Shannon (Jul 19, 2005)

Donnie said:


> But... but it says 'Ibanez' on it.
> *ducks for cover*
> 
> Yeah, I still want to try one of those though. I wonder if I could get the store here to order one in quickly?



The dude at GC said they would take 1-2 weeks. As you problably know, Chesbro (the Ibanez US distributor) is in Idaho Falls.


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## Christopher (Jul 19, 2005)

Donnie said:


> So in light of my recent opportunity, I decided I need an amp that's a weeee bit louder. The Charlie Drown practice I attended was really freakin' loud! I didn't realize how loud until I plugged into Shannon's amp.  I'm use to everyone here telling me to turn down.  My Vetta is a great amp but I don't think it'll stand up, volume wise. Unless I had the 300 watt Vetta HD. But that's a little out of the price range with the move coming up and all.
> 
> Anyway... I've always wanted to try the Fender MH-500. They've had on in the local store since they came out and I just never got around to it. So I packed up one of the JP7s and headed down after work. I noodled around on it for a little bit at a fairly low volume until they closed down the store. We figured that would be best so I could really crank it.
> So I cranked it and proceeded to forge some metal.
> ...




Do you have the Vetta combo? I can't imagine having problems with it not being lound enough. Maybe add a 4x12 under it and you may be set. I have a really hard time believing that either the Toneblaster or the Fender would sound better than the Vetta.


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## Jason (Jul 19, 2005)

Hey donnie what about sending your line outs or your effects sends out into a power amp then into your cab?still have the line 6 tone but more power!!


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## Shannon (Jul 19, 2005)

xtranscendedx said:


> Hey donnie what about sending your line outs or your effects sends out into a power amp then into your cab?still have the line 6 tone but more power!!



good idea.


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## NiMH (Jul 19, 2005)

Donnie said:


> But... but it says 'Ibanez' on it.
> *ducks for cover*



 
*starts throwing Ibanez guitars at Donnie*


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## Donnie (Jul 19, 2005)

NiMH said:


> *starts throwing Ibanez guitars at Donnie*


Damn pointy guitars!  

Anyway... Yeah, I've considered "slaving" out to a power amp and then to a 4x12 cab. Actually, my thought was to slave out of the Vetta to 2 cabs(either two 2x12s or two 4x12s) while also using my Vetta extension cab. It would be big and loud a hell and I would still retain everything I love about the Vetta. But, the main problem here is money. I need most of my cash for the move out to Tacoma in a couple of weeks.
Maybe tonight I'll piss of the neighbors a bit more by really cranking the Vetta.

If you guys have any more suggestions, keep them coming.

My buddy down at the store really wants to get me into a Mesa Dual or Triple rect but I don't really want a tube amp. Plus, I don't really care for their sound. *ducks for cover again*


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## Christopher (Jul 19, 2005)

Donnie said:


> Damn pointy guitars!
> 
> Anyway... Yeah, I've considered "slaving" out to a power amp and then to a 4x12 cab. Actually, my thought was to slave out of the Vetta to 2 cabs(either two 2x12s or two 4x12s) while also using my Vetta extension cab. It would be big and loud a hell and I would still retain everything I love about the Vetta. But, the main problem here is money. I need most of my cash for the move out to Tacoma in a couple of weeks.
> Maybe tonight I'll piss of the neighbors a bit more by really cranking the Vetta.
> ...




Good God what kind of volumes are you needing? I never had my Vetta up more than half way up (with a 4x12) and it got painfully loud!

At extreme volumes the Mesa stuff will be sweet as hell but if you ain't into it...

So, correct me if I'm wrong here, you're having problems with your Vetta 212 combo with 212 extension keeping up volume wise? Damn man, wear ear protection (not very metal but you're going to need it!).


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## Donnie (Jul 19, 2005)

Well, I will say that it's probably not a power issue as I know the vetta is loud. In most of my bands I just brought the combo itself to practice and it was fine. 
The main problem I think is that it's open backed and when the volume starts going up to loud the speakers start to flub.


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## Shannon (Jul 19, 2005)

Yeah, in order to play at these volumes, you need something with lots of headroom (i.e. wattage) and a cab with TIGHT bass response.

For those who don't get what Donnie's trying to say....
Charlie Drown demands a lot of power from the guitar. He's competing with a loud-as-fuck John Bonham style drummer & a cranked PA that plays the ADAT sequence (yes, they play to a tape). He has to be heard because unike traditional bands, the ADAT doesn't budge. Everyone has to be able to hear everyone else clearly or a trainwreck is inevitable.


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## Drew (Jul 20, 2005)

*starts catching Ibanez guitars*


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## Donnie (Jul 20, 2005)

Well, I cranked the snot out of my Vetta and I think it'll do volume wise no problem. We're going to close up the back of the amp and the cab this weekend and see if that tightens it up some. I've heard that closing the backs does wonders for these.
Besides. I can't really see myself parting with my beloved Vetta. If all else fails, I'm just going to buy the Vetta II head and Shannon's Behringer cab. 
The Vetta seems like the ideal industrial metal amp anyway.


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## eleven59 (Jul 21, 2005)

Donnie said:


> Well, I cranked the snot out of my Vetta and I think it'll do volume wise no problem. We're going to close up the back of the amp and the cab this weekend and see if that tightens it up some. I've heard that closing the backs does wonders for these.
> Besides. I can't really see myself parting with my beloved Vetta. If all else fails, I'm just going to buy the Vetta II head and Shannon's Behringer cab.
> The Vetta seems like the ideal industrial metal amp anyway.


Yeah, I've seen industrial bands that use the POD/POD Pro 2.0 and Flextone II still as well. 

If I could afford a Vetta II head I'd get one. Right now, though, I'm happy with my Flextone II HD and Behringer 4x12 (an awesome match if you turn off the cabinet sims for the distorted patches, I find they sound better turned on for clean stuff for some reason, even semi-distorted stuff).


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## Donnie (Jul 21, 2005)

I did upgrade the software to Vetta II specs so it is basically the same. It's mostly just cosmetic differences now.


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