Duncan Powerstages

Findthetone1

Findthetone1

Well-known member
Looking for some opinions on these in terms of tone and feel. How does it react compared to tubes? I'm redoing my music room this spring and am looking to possibly created a rig using one with my Friedman pedals and my Bogner OS 2x12 instead of a head. I'm not concerned with cleans. I have a 65 DRRI that I plan on running A/B for cleans (why not?). So just classic rock to 80s high gain tones for the Powerstage.
 
Are any of the friedman pedals you have preamps? You may find if they were designed for front of amp, that they may not be bright enough when used as a preamp.

Also if you are getting all your gain from the preamp than the powerstage should work great. If you need to get a pushed power tube sound like with a plexi preamp, than the powerstage would not be the best choice.
 
blackba said:
Are any of the friedman pedals you have preamps? You may find if they were designed for front of amp, that they may not be bright enough when used as a preamp.

Also if you are getting all your gain from the preamp than the powerstage should work great. If you need to get a pushed power tube sound like with a plexi preamp, than the powerstage would not be the best choice.
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Designed as preamps? That's a good question. I think they were designed as such but I'll pop into that section and ask Dave. The gain would indeed be preamp so that's not an issue.
 
The Duncan Powerstage is a class D poweramp, totally flat response. Basically it's a solid state poweramp.
Word is the build quality is solid and it's a very good, loud, clean poweramp. Also the onboard EQ is very powerful and sounds good.

Like any solid state amp, it doesn't follow the impedance curve of the cab it's plugged into so if you're using a rack preamp or pedal for your tones, it's not going to sound as good as a tube poweramp. But you can't beat the Powerstage if you're using a modeler or reamping a tube head with a reactive load, where an impedance curve has already been applied to the signal.

Personally I'm waiting on Duncan to make a stereo rack Powerstage like the 700 but with the new EQ controls of the 200. They haven't released any info that anything like that is coming but it would make sense to update their flagship Powerstage 700 by applying their already-developed EQ tech of the newer 200 model, so it follows logic that such a product might be released at some point. That would be perfect for me and my setup and I'd buy it on day 1 if they ever release it.
 
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I found the PS170 to be very strident and piercing sounding. It’s sounds very “solid state” for lack of a better way to describe what I mean compared to other solid state poweramps I’ve used. I later found out that the EQ at noon is NOT flat and it does have a hyped high-end. I was never able to dial out the annoying frequency. I mostly paired it with an HX Stomp but tried a handful of other preamps and it just didn’t sound good enough to keep for me. Some dudes love it though, so YMMV.
 
Btw, my search for a pedal-sized amplifier ended with BluGuitar. If what you’re after is a great compact amplifier that does Marshall-based tones like Friedman, then check out BluGuitar. It’s seriously impressive.
 
Spaceboy said:
Btw, my search for a pedal-sized amplifier ended with BluGuitar. If what you’re after is a great compact amplifier that does Marshall-based tones like Friedman, then check out BluGuitar. It’s seriously impressive.
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I have thought about it. The clips I hear are damn impressive. I wish the new one with built in FX would drop.
 
For what the Duncan amp goes for I would look into a Matrix Mosfet Power amp or an old Peavey tube power amp, 50/05/ 60/60 or 100.
 
The Duncan PowerStage 200 is fantastic. I use it with my Fractal FM3. It sounds great and the onboard EQ is very useful/powerful for dialing in tones for different cabinets. I highly recommend it for modelers or preamp pedals.
 
Ksr has a tube power amp that they are starting to ship. A bit bigger than a PS but tubes...

This is mine that's hopefully shipping this week
 

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ClintN667 said:
Ksr has a tube power amp that they are starting to ship. A bit bigger than a PS but tubes...

This is mine that's hopefully shipping this week
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I am keeping that option open too. I’ll be curious to hear what you think. KSR is pretty much a local company for me so supporting them would be nice.
 
I love Kyle and tend to buy from him without hesitation cause I know he is very particular. I know he wouldn't put something out unless he had something new to offer. Hopefully I will have mine this week and I will post back
 
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