My little Tonehenge
I got the VT500 in the Thomann blow out. £159 + vat and courier charge. Amazing price.
Only had a 5 minute play to see if it all worked ok and it does.
It's very different to the Darkglass and the Markbass.
It actually has higher OD gain levels than the DG - gets a bit noisy when cranked fully and with the Character all the way to the right (and with a compressor in front) but it's a great sound.
The thing that really surprised me though was the almost complete lack of noise when using a clean or lower gain sound. No hum, no fan noise (reactive fan control! at last!), just quiet. Perfect for playing with woodwind instruments. I used to do that a lot before the plague.
Input gain appears to be very high so even on a loud passive instrument it's better with the Pad engaged.
I'm looking forward to going through the Sample Settings in the manual later on. Also hoping that my big band manages to start up again in September!