I've been using a Palmer PGA-04 for the past year, & just bought the Sequis Motherload, so I thought I'd post some quick impressions. Direct tone is VERY important to me, since I live in an apartment building & can't really play through my cabinet... unless it's relatively low volume. Caveat: In comparing the boxes, I've only used one amp (Dual Rectifier) and I can't compare to the sound of a mic'ed up cab given my volume constraints.
Firstly, both boxes are very good and produce very respectable results. I don't think there's a hugely obvious "winner" -- as I play with the Motherload more, I think I'm concluding that it's better, but they each have their own sound and each might be better suited to different people, or for different uses, etc. One advantage of having both is I now have more tonal options, & I've gotten great sounds by splitting my amp signal through both, panning one hard left & the other hard right.
The Palmer requires way less tweaking, and is more of a "set it & forget it" sort of box. You can tell that from the front panel. You basically get one sound of it, maybe two -- with your amp providing all the tonal variation. But you can get a very good sound from it with little effort.
The Motherload, on the other hand, has way more settings, making it much more flexible, but requiring way more tweaking to get the sound you want. My first ten minutes with it, I thought "Ok -- this is a piece of crap." After a day or so, I thought "Ok -- this is pretty decent", and now I really really like it. I find that, no matter how the knobs are set, there's too much top end & fizz. However I used a parametric EQ to kill that, keep the treble knob at zero, and can now get a great sound.
Vs. the Palmer, I think the Motherload stands out most for rhythm sounds -- my rhythm parts now sound quite a bit meaner and more authentic than the Palmer was able to pull off. I think my rhythm tone through the Motherload is very convincing & probably 95% as good as I'd be able to get with a mic'ed cabinet. The Palmer's not bad, but the Motherload is better.
For leads, though, I think the Palmer might have a slight edge. As others have said, the Palmer has a more processed, compressed sound, which I like for lead parts (but I can get very good lead sounds from the Motherload as well).
I'm still forming my opinions (have only had the Motherload for a week), but if I had to choose one I think I'd take the Motherload. By playing with the filter & resonance knobs, you can really get a lot of very different sounds out of it. It has some other advantages like not making an annoying buzzing sound when you play through it (which the Palmer does), and having line-level inputs (so you can do stuff like plug a Triaxis or JMP-1 directly into it, without a power amp). I still do like the Palmer enough to keep it for now, rather than put it up on eBay.
Anyway... maybe I'll post clips when I get a chance.
Firstly, both boxes are very good and produce very respectable results. I don't think there's a hugely obvious "winner" -- as I play with the Motherload more, I think I'm concluding that it's better, but they each have their own sound and each might be better suited to different people, or for different uses, etc. One advantage of having both is I now have more tonal options, & I've gotten great sounds by splitting my amp signal through both, panning one hard left & the other hard right.
The Palmer requires way less tweaking, and is more of a "set it & forget it" sort of box. You can tell that from the front panel. You basically get one sound of it, maybe two -- with your amp providing all the tonal variation. But you can get a very good sound from it with little effort.
The Motherload, on the other hand, has way more settings, making it much more flexible, but requiring way more tweaking to get the sound you want. My first ten minutes with it, I thought "Ok -- this is a piece of crap." After a day or so, I thought "Ok -- this is pretty decent", and now I really really like it. I find that, no matter how the knobs are set, there's too much top end & fizz. However I used a parametric EQ to kill that, keep the treble knob at zero, and can now get a great sound.
Vs. the Palmer, I think the Motherload stands out most for rhythm sounds -- my rhythm parts now sound quite a bit meaner and more authentic than the Palmer was able to pull off. I think my rhythm tone through the Motherload is very convincing & probably 95% as good as I'd be able to get with a mic'ed cabinet. The Palmer's not bad, but the Motherload is better.
For leads, though, I think the Palmer might have a slight edge. As others have said, the Palmer has a more processed, compressed sound, which I like for lead parts (but I can get very good lead sounds from the Motherload as well).
I'm still forming my opinions (have only had the Motherload for a week), but if I had to choose one I think I'd take the Motherload. By playing with the filter & resonance knobs, you can really get a lot of very different sounds out of it. It has some other advantages like not making an annoying buzzing sound when you play through it (which the Palmer does), and having line-level inputs (so you can do stuff like plug a Triaxis or JMP-1 directly into it, without a power amp). I still do like the Palmer enough to keep it for now, rather than put it up on eBay.
Anyway... maybe I'll post clips when I get a chance.
