NAD - Runt 50 w/Hot Mod

[sahlomonic]

I regret selling the one I owned nearly a decade ago, and had to jump on this one. Bought from napalmdeath on R/T, and he tossed in the Hot Mod for pennies. I forgot how good these sounded out of the box, but man the Hot Mod is really something else. I think with the gain switch Off, and the amp gain around noon, it's perfect. I guess it's kinda like a poor man's BE-100 on the HBE channel. I recently sold my Friedman modded JCA20H and I was missing that style of tone, so this was good timing. I haven't pulled the chassis to see if it has the brand of caps that Dave said were semi-prone to failure, so I'll have to check that out soon.

Runt + Lynchbacks = good, but kinda dark
Runt + V30s = great, tight lows
Runt + Blackbacks = godly all around

I don't think I'm going to Billy this one

[Guitarbilly]

wow - this is weird. I JUST bought a Runt 50 today.

I came here to post a thread about it and saw this thread

Congrats man!!!!

[nightflameauto]

Congrats, man. If you found a godly speaker match, that makes it a keeper.

[spawnofthesith]

Damn runt season around here!! Have you tried it without the hot mod in to compare?



Edit: reading your OP again is the hot mod switchable?

[sahlomonic]

Damn runt season around here!! Have you tried it without the hot mod in to compare?



Edit: reading your OP again is the hot mod switchable?

Yeah when it arrived I ran it for a bit without the hot mod. I think the best way to describe it stock is:

touch more gain than a stock 2204 at full tilt
gain way more accessible at lower volumes
darker sounding overall
slightly more compressed sounding

All good things.

The hot mod is not exactly in/out switchable. With the gain switch in the off position it's still getting a healthy gain boost, but nothing extreme. With the gain boost on and gain of the amp on 10, it's definitely modern high gain territory, but it's crisp and not muddy at all.

It does make me curious to get my hands on the Lynch Mod/Mr Scary hot mod as those have a variable gain control. This one will do just fine though. My first go-around with the Runt years ago my only real complaint is I wanted it to have just a little more gain available. Now that's solved. Or I would have modded it anyway with at least a SAT switch

I think the Hot Mod would do well in a [non 20th] Bogner Shiva too. The Shiva and Runt to my ears have about the same level of available gain. Or toss this in a stock Jet City 20H and let 'er rip.