Mezzabarba SKILL v1.3 eng
SKILL
ser man al
6/10
Ba ic ound
The SKILL wa conceived to deliver the wide t po ible array of ound . Ever. Thi wa achieved through an original,
innovative engineering of the Equalizer ection.
Equipped with EL34, the SKILL is inspired by British sound, which it reinterprets in a bolder, aggressive, yet elegant fashion.
Dedicated to all of you who love vintage sounds co bined with a odern a p.
Drive channel: Ideal for clean to ediu -saturated, rock rhyth sounds. Thanks to the SKILL’s incredible dyna ic response,
you will be able to obtain an i ense variety of overtones just by controlling your guitar volu e, with no sound degradation
whatsoever. Switching on the Boost will add a just enough gain to achieve a ore aggressive sound, both for lead as well as
rhyth guitar. Tip: try etting a clean ound ju t below the break-up thre hold, with the Boo t on, and low Drive.
Overdrive channel: Ideal for heavy rhyth and lead guitar. You will be a azed by the unusual richness of the har onics and
the fat, spacious, sound your SKILL’s Overdrive channel is able to deliver. Incredibly reactive to your picking, it will yield a
heavy yet “liquid” sound with a bunch of sustain. All of this, with no co pro ise whatsoever on clarity, definition, and
usicality.
Aside for the prea p controls, the front panel also features the Depth, Pre ence and Power pot , all of which are co on
to both channels. The Depth para eter controls the speed of response and the richness of the bass frequencies. The Presence
para eter allows you to open and add “freshness” to the id-high frequencies. Finally, the Power control is a proprietary ge
that we are particularly proud of. The Power pot scale runs fro a axi u value of 0 to a ini u of -10. When you don’t
have any particular volu e constraints (e.g. neighbors, late hours, etc.) you can keep the pot at 0 (i.e. axi u level) thereby
utilizing the a p at its full power. Should you however be forced to play your a p at lower volu es, by reducing the a ount of
Power, you will be able to “scale down” the SKILL’s power a p. The result? You will be able to achieve the war th, countour,
and kick of a high-volu e saturated a p even when playing at low volu es!
Usage and periodical aintenance
Your SKILL does not require any ore precautions and aintenance than any other tube a p. Make sure you do not obstruct
the air cooling grids located on the top, front, and back of the a p, in order to allow for opti al cooling.
When turning on the a p, it is of crucial i portance to wait for at least 2 inutes before deactivating the Standby switch in
order to allow the power tubes to reach their ideal te perature.
The external chassis can be cleaned with a clean, da p cloth. The paint is resistant to nor al cleaning products but not to
aggressive solvents (benzene, acetone, etc.) which should therefore be avoided.
If you are using your SKILL ostly in a studio setting, you will si ply need to periodically replace the tubes, especially the
power ones, just as you would in any other tube a p. If on the other hand, you use your SKILL ostly on the road, it is advisable
to periodically (once a onth when using intensively on a daily basis) check that all of the internal co ponents are properly
connected and functioning. Given the heavy-duty build quality of your M ZERO, this ight be necessary as little as once a year,
and in any case only if you use the a p on the road every day.
