Allesis Q20 or Hall and Collins ?

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Allesis Q20 or Hall and Collins ?

Postby pauldb38 » Tue Jun 26, 2018 9:23 pm

Hi, folks, i have an Allesis Q20 but thinking of a smaller unit How does the HAll and collins unit stack up against the q20 for that sound? i cant afford to have both units so its a case of one or the other. Don't get me wrong I do love the sound of the q20 but i do like to play and new tech etc.

Paul
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Re: Allesis Q20 or Hall and Collins ?

Postby Tab » Wed Jun 27, 2018 2:34 pm

In my opinion the Q20 is far superior to the H&C (I assume it is programmed with EFTP)
Hang on to it!
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Re: Allesis Q20 or Hall and Collins ?

Postby David Martin » Wed Jun 27, 2018 6:26 pm

I've had them all, pretty well. Currently still have my Q2 an H&C and a Baby Blue. The Q2 was immaculate for stage use over the years with LEGEND. I was always happy with it. But at home, the H&C has remarkable sounds, is smaller and easier to use.

Anyone like to buy the Q2? :)
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Re: Allesis Q20 or Hall and Collins ?

Postby dave robinson » Wed Jun 27, 2018 9:05 pm

Like David I have had almost all of them and out of the ones connected to Charlie Hall including all the Alesis models, his Hall & Collins is the most authentic. Of the Alesis models only the GT allowed the guitar to sound as it should, simply because of mis-matched input and output issues on the Quadraverb Plus, Q2 & Q20, as they were not really designed to be used in the way we used them. It was when I realised what was happening that the sound came back.
I briefly tried a tape Meazzi which was quite authentic soundwise but the one I tried had the rgular head spacings and would really have needed major surgery for it to suffice. Same too the Dynacord, great sound but heads all wrong for Shadows patterns. The Binson was OK for some tunes and I bought the Catalinbread on the strength of this, it's an improvement on the real Binson as it has varispeed plus a couple more head combinations and is great sounding - I like it a lot.

As for the Zoom collection, there are some good ones there too. The G3 being my favourite, the BT-100 (which I have for back up) and it's smaller siblings and G7lut were all very useable.

I have two Copicats, one is a four head IC300 and the other a Varispeed IC400, bothe very useable.
My favourite is my Klempt Echolette, not perfect head timings but more useable than the similar Dynacord. I use that in my studio for fun, having parted with my ESE Echomatic, which was superb. I just didn't gig it because I had my Vox Tonelab all set up for our show, echoes, chorus, distortion, tremolo, reverb, compression - everything - it works best for me.
I recently retired the Vox Tonelab in favour of the Line 6 Helix, it does the same job but a lot better.

I also still rate very highly the eTap2 hw, which sounds as good as anything I've owned and yes I did own the TVS3 and moved it on.
So after all of that which would I have between an Alesis Q20 and the Hall & Collins ?
My choice is the H&C, but I still prefer my Line 6 Helix for my job. :)
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Re: Allesis Q20 or Hall and Collins ?

Postby Tab » Thu Jun 28, 2018 9:53 am

Hi Paul,

As you will gather from the above comments, its all about personal preference.

Personally, I'm not a fan of the H&C, especially for outside (gig) use. However, David and Dave clearly are.

My advice would be to try a H&C against your Q20 and see which you prefer.

Kind regards
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Re: Allesis Q20 or Hall and Collins ?

Postby pauldb38 » Fri Jun 29, 2018 5:52 pm

Thanks for all your comments I have my q20 going into the sends and returns of my Katana head and it does sound really nice however i can spot a tape echo a mile off they have that magic echo sound with depth that I haven't heard a modern-day unit replicate apart from the demo's using a TVS3 which is so highly priced I don't ever think I will own one. I think i will hold onto the Q20 until i hear something better lol.
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Re: Allesis Q20 or Hall and Collins ?

Postby scouserjoe2 » Mon Jul 02, 2018 6:59 pm

Hi Paul,

I own both the Q20 and the Hall & Collins units which I only use at home. To be honest I prefer the sound of the Q20 although I know I have heard it said that the H&C better replicates the sounds of the original units that it is intended to emulate. To my ears the Q20 has a 'cleaner' sound - which I prefer, but that's probably considered by others as its failing. My concern is about the longevity of the Q20 and what I can do when the back-up battery finally runs out. In the past you could send it back to Charlie Hall who could fit a new battery and re-install the patches, but I don't know whether that is possible these days now that he has handed EFTP over to his son Ross who only offers solutions for the Zoom G3 and G5. I did once own a TVS3 - which is an excellent unit in the right hands - but somehow I found it difficult to adjust the settings to achieve the sound I was looking for. Q20 owners need to know just who they are to approach when the battery dies .. Charlie Hall or Ross Hall ?

Cheers,

Ian
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Re: Allesis Q20 or Hall and Collins ?

Postby Stu's Dad » Mon Jul 02, 2018 9:55 pm

scouserjoe2 wrote:Hi Paul,

I own both the Q20 and the Hall & Collins units which I only use at home. To be honest I prefer the sound of the Q20 although I know I have heard it said that the H&C better replicates the sounds of the original units that it is intended to emulate. To my ears the Q20 has a 'cleaner' sound - which I prefer, but that's probably considered by others as its failing. My concern is about the longevity of the Q20 and what I can do when the back-up battery finally runs out. In the past you could send it back to Charlie Hall who could fit a new battery and re-install the patches, but I don't know whether that is possible these days now that he has handed EFTP over to his son Ross who only offers solutions for the Zoom G3 and G5. I did once own a TVS3 - which is an excellent unit in the right hands - but somehow I found it difficult to adjust the settings to achieve the sound I was looking for. Q20 owners need to know just who they are to approach when the battery dies .. Charlie Hall or Ross Hall ?

Cheers,

Ian


Ian,

If it's registered with Charlie Hall I think he's still willing to help.

Regards,

Len
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Re: Allesis Q20 or Hall and Collins ?

Postby scouserjoe2 » Wed Jul 04, 2018 1:52 pm

Thanks for that info, Len, I shall bear it in mind when the battery finally gives up.

Cheers

Ian
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