Geeking out on rack preamps

[Riffraff]

I fell down the rack rabbit hole during the pandemic. There's no cure for this.

 

[Jeff Hilligan]

What's the verdict on the valve sonic?

 

[Riffraff]

I like it a lot. I set them to sound similar in this. The Rocktron responds really well to the volume control on your guitar. You can control the gain with it and it cleans up just like an amp. The Rockmaster is a lot less responsive to that, especially in the Ultra channel. When you wind the volume on your guitar down the gain stays pretty much the same until your volume is really low then it just falls off. The Rocktron does JTM45, Plexi, JCM800, JCM900 tone well. The Rockmaster is more modern sounding to me.

I used the Rocktron for the Ditto looper backing track, with the Ibanez in the beginning and the first part with the Tele in the neck position. The rest is the Rockmaster. I put an arrow next to the preamp being used in the rack pictures.

 

[Kordoba]

Great pair of preamps you got there, well done!

 

[Riffraff]

Thanks. A clip you made of your RM came up in my YT suggested video scroll yesterday. You were slamming a Classic 60 power amp (I think) down in the Butter Dungeon. It was badass as usual.

 

[Kordoba]

Thanks. A clip you made of your RM came up in my YT suggested video scroll yesterday. You were slamming a Classic 60 power amp (I think) down in the Butter Dungeon. It was badass as usual.

Thanks dude! I love the tightness/immediacy/no-sag of a power amp-preamp rack rig. Some heads come close to that feel but when I want to scratch that itch I go to my rack. And yes, it is the Peavey Classic 60 power amp.

 

[Riffraff]

I added a 3rd voice last night.

I bought a used AMT V1 pedal last year hoping to cop some Vox tones and tried it a few different ways but I wasn't feeling it so I threw it in a desk drawer and forgot I even had it. I found it while looking for something else and threw it in top and plugged it into the mixer. It works exactly as I hoped it would in this rig.

The box to the left of my Polytune is a DIY bypass box that I'm using as an A/B box to switch between the Plexi & Rockmaster preamps. I'm going to build a A/B/C box to replace that so I can switch between all 3 preamps. A quick search on the web uncovered a diagram a guy by the name of Al Heely posted on DIYstompboxes.com. I cropped the image to just show the A/B/C but he actually has diagrams for A/B, A/B/Y, A/B+X/Y & FEEDBACK/LOOP as well if anyone is looking to make a problem solver.

It's a simple passive design. My passive A/B pedal doesn't have any ground buzz so I don't think I need anything with isolation transformers unless I start running boosts or OD pedals in front of the preamps which I really have no need to do. I'm not playing out these days so I don't have any noisy venue concerns.