GAS got the best of me.....again!

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singtall

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I have been really enjoying my eleven rack (as everybody knows). i recently made some presets that took the 11R to a new level for me. so why the GAS? i made a winger pull cd preset that i really liked...a lot...and it got me thinking "how much better would the actual rig he recorded with sound if i could play it?"

some research lead me back to the Kittyhawk Quattro preamp that several guitarist used around that time. i looked into getting one of these in the past few years, but they were scarce and plagued with overheating issues (flawed design). well, i just happened to be looking at the evilbay doing a general search for "preamp" in the guitar section and i ran across a preamp by Soho called a "QTR1". turns out that the Kittyhawk guys split up and one of them in america started up Soho and made the Quattro preamp (minus the issues from overheating). of course, like all good things...that came to an end over copyright issues. Soho stills make some good (and expensive) gear. so i went ahead and bid on the preamp just for fun.

turns out that no one besides me knew what that preamp was, so i won it! oh yeah!

hmmm, good thing i didn't sell off that 12 space rack i have. but this preamp only takes up 2 spaces? might as well think about what else i might need to go with this preamp.

BBE? sure, why not...they were used A LOT during that time period. that's 3 spaces in the rack.

gotta have a noise gate of some type.....right? why not stay true to that time period and get a Rocktron Hush IIC? that's 4 rack spaces taken.

now i got a nice clean, dry signal. maybe get a Tung Sol 12AX7 for V1 right? mo money! done.

gotta have at least a decent reverb/fx unit right? how about a Lexicon MX300? done. that's 5 rack spaces filled.

wait a minute....how about a power amp? gotta be able to hear it. i went this far, gotta finish the rig. after checking into several big tube power amps, my aching back decided that it just wasn't worth the pain to have the extra tube tone. so i looked at some small amps for awhile. then i happened to be staring at my rack and noticed a Crate power block sitting up there. there's my solution; i already own that one and it is a nice stereo power amp with the added bonus of having a decent sounding preamp section (should my preamp go south). so it's not a rack head, a bunch of velcro could solve that problem.

so far, only the Hush and Lexicon have come in....but the rest should be in by early next week.

stay tuned for the rest of the GAS adventure!
 
:lol: :LOL:

Me too. :doh:

I'm back to rack as well. Picked up a used TriAxis for my direct rig with my G-System; wanted a bit more so picked up an Engl E530 preamp for a smaller direct rig next thing I know I have a power amp and 2 2x12 cabs to go with it.

Two Notes Torpedo CAB on order for the G/TriAxis rig...

I've acquired so much gear since I sold my Axe-Fx Ultra a few years ago (2009?) that I wonder if I should have kept it and been ahead $$$-wise....nah. I dig what I have, but stuff happens, and bamm, I have more! :confused:

:scared:

:no:

:aww:
 
i had the Engl 530 a few years ago and really liked it....i wish i wouldn't have traded it off.

i want a triaxis so bad it's crazy. i can never find a super deal on one when i have the money to buy it.
 
hell, while i'm in the GAS mood....are there any other inexpensive preamps that i just NEED to buy?
 
singtall":2g0rjj5w said:
hell, while i'm in the GAS mood....are there any other inexpensive preamps that i just NEED to buy?


I got a JMP-1 I'm sellin??
 
Hey Bro, feel like sharing your 11R presets? I have one in my live rig and I'm always looking for other presets to try out... :D
 
here is a link to my preset collection:

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/5622773/Singtall.rar

many presets were made by me. some were done by others, then tweaked by me. a few might have been good without my tweaking...either way, it's a pretty decent collection.

another guy just posted his collection of low/mid gain presets; here is the link:

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/5622773/11R-and44.rar

and if you don't already have Benoni's collection of massive metal presets, you can download them here:

http://elevenrackusers.blogspot.com/...rack-rigs.html
 
i got everything but the BBE in today. i put it all in the rack and played it through a 2-12" cabinet loaded with old 1986 celestion G12T-75's. yeah, i know...probably time to upgrade my speakers. but these are so warm...

clean is ok, not really sparkly, but still really nice. i haven't changed out the V1 tube yet, so i'm just listening to what the Sovtek tubes sound like.

crunch is really plexi sounding. maybe a little more gain than a plexi, but not quite jcm800. rolling down the guitar volume control will clean it up, but it doesn't get chimey. still very nice.

lead is everything from plexi to mesa rec. tons of gain. crisp tone. almost anything is possible.

hot channel goes all the way up into 5150 territory. way, way crazy hot...but the preamp never gets buzzy, ever.

overall fairly quiet even on highest gain settings. the minor noise is easily killed by the hush IIC.

i will be changing out the first tube to a tung sol for a little more chimey tone asap. but overall, this preamp is pretty much everything i hoped it would be.

and i though i would mention that most all testing was done with the tone controls set near middle position. this is the first preamp i've owned that sounded pretty good without major eqing.

i will be trying it into the eleven rack to see how it plays with the cabinet sims for recording.

more to come.
 
i changed out the first tube (v1) of the Soho preamp and put in a Tung Sol 12AX7 and the tone just opened up. the Sovteks were just a little too dark....not bad mind you, but not as clear and nice as a Tung Sol.
 
this preamp responds well to different pickups. i find some pickups pretty good sounding, while others are phenomenal. brighter pickups bring out a marshall tone, while darker pickups sound and feel more mesa.
 
singtall":1q2f0p90 said:
here is a link to my preset collection:

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/5622773/Singtall.rar

many presets were made by me. some were done by others, then tweaked by me. a few might have been good without my tweaking...either way, it's a pretty decent collection.

another guy just posted his collection of low/mid gain presets; here is the link:

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/5622773/11R-and44.rar

and if you don't already have Benoni's collection of massive metal presets, you can download them here:

http://elevenrackusers.blogspot.com/...rack-rigs.html
Thanks! Much appreciated... :thumbsup:
 
well, the BBE came in today. slightly underwhelming with this setup. when i used BBE on a carvin quad-x preamp years ago, it made that turd come alive....not so much with this preamp. maybe it's the BBE model i'm using. i thought that they all sounded the same, maybe not. anyways, to use BBE i basically have to make the preamp dull as crap, then add BBE to get my presence back. kinda dumb if you ask me. i'll experiment with it some more and report back later.
 
You need one of those Rocktron compressors or the DBX. Those were in all the racks back in the day.

I loved the sound of those Kittyhawks. I almost bought one back in 88 or 89. I'm glad I didn't since they had so many issues. I can't wait to hear what this rig is gonna sound like though. You must post clips.

Scott
 
singtall":24zgehnb said:
well, the BBE came in today. slightly underwhelming with this setup. when i used BBE on a carvin quad-x preamp years ago, it made that turd come alive....not so much with this preamp. maybe it's the BBE model i'm using. i thought that they all sounded the same, maybe not. anyways, to use BBE i basically have to make the preamp dull as crap, then add BBE to get my presence back. kinda dumb if you ask me. i'll experiment with it some more and report back later.

The carvin quad-x preamp needs a GOOD power amp and fresh tubes. I just didn't like the shared Hi/Low 2 channel eq on channels 2-3. I used a BBE in the loop of my Mesa Mk III until it broke, now I don't use them.
 
i got a marshall footswitch in today. i hope it works on this preamp because getting a footswitch from Soho or kittyhawk ain't gonna happen.
 
i got a Marshall footswitch today and just tried it out.....it works! you have to hit the button on the front of the preamp that says "remote" (i wondered what that was for) and then the footswitch works....LED's and all.

now i can channel switch with perfect timing with no midi pedal. but i can't change effects settings on the Lexicon without a midi pedal. no matter, one thing at a time.

the preamp does have a Mesa tonal quality to it....kinda Mesa meets Marshall...then eats it...then poops it out! lol. pretty mean, but doesn't clean up as much as i would like when the guitar volume is rolled down....too much low end before the gainstage possibly? Marshall rolls that stuff off before the gain stage i think. i may be losing my mind, but i'm considering adding some switches to give me more eq options. maybe a bright switch or low cut to get more into Marshall territory.

i think i may try playing around with the circuitry on the clean channel and see if i can make it a little more chimey/glassy sounding next....then move into other mods. the clean could stand to be more chimey and the crunch could stand to lose some low end before the distortion.

any ideas on where to begin tweaking the clean channel? and will that effect the other (lead) channels at all?

http://www.prowessamplifiers.com/schema ... quatro.pdf
 
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