HOVERCRAFT amps...real talk

[wildebelor]

I have the occasional visit in the doom room but not a full time poster!
I'm in melbourne now man, was on the sunny coast / brisbane.

Nial is a weird cat - super busy and sometimes gets hard to email, but he is a good guy.
I never had a problem ordering and mine was an order outside of the run.
I would just try and chase it up again if your friend was keen.
Falcon would cost about 250-400 to ship here as opposed to $150 for the dwarvenaut.
And I'm not sure if it does 230/240v?

[TheStevenLasombras]

And I'm not sure if it does 230/240v?

Seems to vary, but he usually mentions it in the descriptions he posts on the FB page.

[birthofsound]

Basically I bought one and had it shipped to Australia. Arrived in 9 days and was excellent out of the box.
Here is the thing, after playing for a while I realised that I should open it up to check what's under the hood.
Not a whole lot is different!
1 or 2 cap changes and lifts, depth mod (very common jet city mod), "vintage / modern voicing" control (seems like a presence control), FAC would be more useful with a rotary switch of 6 caps and the voicing option is really just a filter.
The voicing option is, from what I gather after playing for about 3 weeks, a switchable filter with each position modelled on a how a sunn, orange or hiwatt react etc etc etc

HOWEVER!

I played this head live without being mic'd, with a full band…. it was very very loud. Loved it. Kept up with doom very well.
It does cleans incredibly well (with a strat it is epic).
Overall, if I was just listening to this amp without any other knowledge or bias - I'm impressed.

Talk to me about the clean tones! What would you compare them to? I really like hiwatt type cleans but have no idea if lt would get me in the ballpark.
How soon did it break up?
Last thing lol. What model did you have?

[whiskey_face]

belor, have you checked into the doom room yet?

Also, how was your buying/ordering experience?
I live in Brissie and a mate of mine was gonna get a Dwarvenaut on a run they did a few months back. So he emailed Hovercraft and they teed it all up. The next week or so, they announce they sold that run out, so mate asks, "did you hold me one then?" and all he got was, "nope". That was it. No apology, nothing about the next run. Nothing.
I was keen on a Falcon a while back but....fuck that. That shit shakes confidence.

fuck that prick.

[wildebelor]

Talk to me about the clean tones! What would you compare them to? I really like hiwatt type cleans but have no idea if lt would get me in the ballpark.
How soon did it break up?
Last thing lol. What model did you have?

It cleans up surprisingly well!
It's definitely similar to hiwatt and orange cleans.
Sounds great with single coils!
But if you're planning to play live with a SUPER loud band, you're not going to get the cleanest of cleans out of it.
20 watts just doesn't have enough headroom for that application.
However, if you're in studio - this amp is incredibly versatile.
I put the new heavy modified rat I built in front of it and it just tightens it up and makes it a chug machine.

[Iommic Pope]

I have the occasional visit in the doom room but not a full time poster!
I'm in melbourne now man, was on the sunny coast / brisbane.

Nial is a weird cat - super busy and sometimes gets hard to email, but he is a good guy.
I never had a problem ordering and mine was an order outside of the run.
I would just try and chase it up again if your friend was keen.
Falcon would cost about 250-400 to ship here as opposed to $150 for the dwarvenaut.
And I'm not sure if it does 230/240v?

That is brutes on the shipping.
I haven't been to Melbournia in ages. How do you like it?
My mate ended up with Minimat.
It is tits.

[birthofsound]

Talk to me about the clean tones! What would you compare them to? I really like hiwatt type cleans but have no idea if lt would get me in the ballpark.
How soon did it break up?
Last thing lol. What model did you have?

It cleans up surprisingly well!
It's definitely similar to hiwatt and orange cleans.
Sounds great with single coils!
But if you're planning to play live with a SUPER loud band, you're not going to get the cleanest of cleans out of it.
20 watts just doesn't have enough headroom for that application.
However, if you're in studio - this amp is incredibly versatile.
I put the new heavy modified rat I built in front of it and it just tightens it up and makes it a chug machine.

Any chance you could make some recordings highlighting the cleans? Pretty please

[themeanreds]

I had for a few months a Hovercraft Baltar, which is a tweaked Peavey Windsor (100w, 4x6L6).

I'm not sure how extensive the mods performed are, but the amp was certainly a good bit removed from the stock Windsor's JCM800 2203-gone-meh vibe. It had a very different personality; not an Orange/Matamp clone, but it was certainly in the ballpark. The amp was not a good fit for me-its bread is buttered with super dominant low midrange; too much for me-but I thought that, what it did do, it did amazingly well. The amp was loud; it certainly moved some air.

As for the company's business model: Nial was very up front about not wanting to share information about the amp. Before I bought, I asked for a schematic (I'm not a tech, but I do like to be able to get the amp fixed without sending it across the country), and he told me that he would not send me one, but, rather, would share such info with a tech on a need-to-know basis.

Such a practice did not stop me from buying the amp. I'm not touring or gigging very much, however. Were I, then I don't think that I would have opted for a Hovercraft amp. If my amp shits the bed in the middle of a 3-week tour, I do not want to bring it to a tech, only to say, "I would like this repaired, rush job, please. The guy who sold me this amp said that they would send you a schematic."

I would still love to try a Dwarvenaut and a Falcon, and I recommend the amps without hesitation for studio or light-gigging. As Hovercraft operates now, however, they are not the sort of amps I would feel comfy taking on the road.

[wildebelor]

I'm in the middle of doing demos of all the pedals I make so I can get a hovercraft demo online within the week.

I wouldn't:
a) be afraid of these amps breaking (there just isn't any reason why, the mods are done very well - Nial used to work for a very good tech / amp company)
AND
b) if for some reason it did need servicing, it's not going to be a hard fix - why would it be? it's not as if the circuit is unknown? and the mods are very apparent - the tech would just have to replace whatever is wrong.

These are great amps and super affordable.
I love the idea of recycling and improving and making them unique and custom - it needed to be done and of course there will be naysayers… but I say YAY

[Wes Mantooth]

Ill be doing demos of my Andromeda this summer for sure, mostly doomy shit but if anyone wants something specific let me know.

[birthofsound]

Ill be doing demos of my Andromeda this summer for sure, mostly doomy shit but if anyone wants something specific let me know.

If you could also show off the clean tones I would be in debt to you for eternity.

[birthofsound]

I'm in the middle of doing demos of all the pedals I make so I can get a hovercraft demo online within the week.

Much thanks brother!

[Ancient Astronaught]

I may not like his amps, or business practice with them.... but I gotta admit his new 6x12 cabs look pretty freakin beast. Wouldn't mind one for my Matamp.

[Wes Mantooth]

Ill be doing demos of my Andromeda this summer for sure, mostly doomy shit but if anyone wants something specific let me know.

If you could also show off the clean tones I would be in debt to you for eternity.

Will do

[themeanreds]

I'm in the middle of doing demos of all the pedals I make so I can get a hovercraft demo online within the week.

I wouldn't:
a) be afraid of these amps breaking (there just isn't any reason why, the mods are done very well - Nial used to work for a very good tech / amp company)
AND
b) if for some reason it did need servicing, it's not going to be a hard fix - why would it be? it's not as if the circuit is unknown? and the mods are very apparent - the tech would just have to replace whatever is wrong.

These are great amps and super affordable.
I love the idea of recycling and improving and making them unique and custom - it needed to be done and of course there will be naysayers… but I say YAY

The gut work looks good, and the amps modded are very solid to begin with. I would be about as afraid of a Hovercraft amp breaking as I would be of any other amp. Amps, even if well-made and used properly, break. Sometimes it's an obvious, easy fix; sometimes it's a more squirrely issue that can take a bit more time to track down and fix if a tech does not have a a schematic easily at hand. If my amp breaks in Bloomington today, and we have a show in Columbus tomorrow, I would much prefer to not be taking something like a Hovercraft to an unknown (to me) tech for a rush job.

Still: that Baltar sounded incredible, and it did have the kind of sound that is awfully tough to find without shelling out 3x the bread for an old Orange.