List all PREAMPS you've owned, and do a brief review

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guitarslinger

guitarslinger

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I've owned the:

Mesa Triaxis - kick ass pre. Loved the Lead 2 and clean modes.

Mesa Quad - sounds awesome, but too big and heavy, ALMOST didn't fit in 3 spaces. no midi

Egnater M4 - The best, perfect. I wish the Vx stayed cleaner

Egnater IE4 - fucking killer, more mojo than M4 IMO. Smooth as silk. similar to T/DX + SL3/4.

Climax S3 - Killer, rare, looks sweet. wish ch2 had more gain. inspirational cleans. no midi

VHT GP-3 - Killer, very modern. Still connecting with it though. super clarity, allows good playing to shine.

Rocktron Piranha - Pretty damn modern and brutal. nice preamp.

ADA MP-1 - a true classic. still underrated among tone-snobs AND n00bs

ADA MP-1 Classic - awesome. can do everything an MP1 can do, plus more

Marshall JMP-1 - very nice preamp. operates like an MP-1. sounds decent

CAE 3+ with SE and Tranny mods - meh, overpriced, sounded fizzy next to the Egnaters, no midi. weighs more and goes back about 3 more inches than Egnaters

HK Access A - very cool. Function-wise, the best preamp ever. Unreal Midi and switching power. tone = decent 7/10

HK Access B - same as Access A, except sounds solid statey on CH3, better cleans than Access A

Rocktron Pro Gap Ultra - functionally awesome, tonally, not so great. has parametric PreEq.
 
I've played quite a few, but ones I've owned are as follows...

Marshall JMP-1 = very few usable tones, lifeless. Decent cleans, stale dirty, MIDI

VHT Valvulator GP-3 = Awesome everything. Very tweakable, tight, perfect balance of some saturation, but with a ton of clarity/articulation, thick. Capable of any style of music. More than enough gain. MIDI
 
Qweklain":3gg3l0ea said:
I've played quite a few, but ones I've owned are as follows...

Marshall JMP-1 = very few usable tones, lifeless. Decent cleans, but not enough gain, MIDI

VHT Valvulator GP-3 = Awesome everything. Very tweakable, tight, perfect balance of some saturation, but with a ton of clarity/articulation, thick. Capable of any style of music. More than enough gain. MIDI
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Oh fuck!

I forgot my VHT GP-3

back to the edit.
 
ive only had an rgp1000 and a digitech2112.
 
Peavey Rockmaster: Very brutal distortion....scooped as all hell. Not for me.

ADA MP2: A lot of features, just noisy without the noise gate engaged...but the noise gate sucked tone.

Rocktron Pirahna: Not that great. A lot of hype since Priest used them.

Rocktron Voodu Valve Online: Best one I owned...had to tweak a lot, but got great tones.

Behringer Vamp Pro: Kinda cool...more a toy though.
 
Marshall JMP-1: passable cleans, nice dirty tones and nice heavy tones.

Triaxis: amazing cleans, amazing dirty sounds, amazing heavy rhythm sounds, amazing lead sounds. :thumbsup:
 
Mesa V-Twin the rackmount. Nice cleans. Lead channel was ok. Cool feature was you could blend the two channels.
Rocktron Gainiac sucked.

I needed a better power amp. I was using a Marshall solid state thing. The whole rig was "lifeless".
 
I never got into rack stuff, but I've always wanted to try a JMP-1 just because Maiden uses them. :D :lol: :LOL:
 
I've stuck to modelers as far as preamps... not that I haven't WANTED to branch out, it's just curiosity always drags me in when I actually have money...

Digitech RP200 - good cleans, good modulation... everything else sucked.

Line 6 POD 2.3 - Could be "user error," but I never got much good out of this thing. Some cool lead tones, but the cab modeling was ass. Sucked as a preamp through a cabinet as well.

Yamaha DG Stomp - Good for recording, and good as a live preamp with some tweaking. Not for metal tones, but great for hard rock tones and clean tones.

Yamaha MagicStomp - Damn good for recording, bad for electric guitar live use due to the layout. Still great if you're running acoustic/electric and want to get rid of piezo harshness, and GREAT live for bass. If you have to switch patches though, I hated the delay.

Vox Tonelab LE - GREAT for live use, but haven't gotten great recorded tone through it at this point. Through my live rig, however, excellent cleans and heavier tones. The problem when recording is the cab sim - the preamp itself is damn good.
 
crwnedblasphemy":307wmltt said:
Peavey Rockmaster: Very brutal distortion....scooped as all hell. Not for me.

ADA MP2: A lot of features, just noisy without the noise gate engaged...but the noise gate sucked tone.

Rocktron Pirahna: Not that great. A lot of hype since Priest used them.

Rocktron Voodu Valve Online: Best one I owned...had to tweak a lot, but got great tones.

Behringer Vamp Pro: Kinda cool...more a toy though.
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sounds like a 100% acurate review to me !

(or maybe we both owned the same crappy Pirahna and Rockmaster :D )

BTW, Did your Pirahna basically have 1 TONE ? It had 3 seperate channels - each w/ a 100 different levels of gain, for that 1 TONE !!

It did take certain pedals EXTREMELY well (cough,MT-2,cough)

Did you ever try the original blackface rocktron chameleon ??
not the later green/blue ones - those have a hard stiff feel to them !

but those original blackface chameleon (its got the cheezypic of a chameleon on the face plate) have a distinct Tube-like sag to them

IMHO same vein as Voodu Valve, but "tighter", the I'll never sell mine :rock:

I just wish I had the schems so I could fix the broken one sitting in my spares closet!
 
I first started gigging out in 1990 with an ADA MP1 with a Mosvalve preamp and an Alesis Quadraverb. My friend was using a JCM800 halfstack and i always thought he had the better tone. I liked the rack at home in the bedroom but it never had the balls in a band situation. Once i started using real amps i never went back to a rack setup. All my friends at the time switched from the ADA MP1 to amps and everyone had better tone once they switched. It was such a fad at the time to own an MP1.

I think the only preamp i would be slightly happy with is the Boogie Quad with a tube power amp.
 
danyeo":28ejew9l said:
I first started gigging out in 1990 with an ADA MP1 with a Mosvalve preamp and an Alesis Quadraverb. My friend was using a JCM800 halfstack and i always thought he had the better tone. I liked the rack at home in the bedroom but it never had the balls in a band situation. Once i started using real amps i never went back to a rack setup. All my friends at the time switched from the ADA MP1 to amps and everyone had better tone once they switched. It was such a fad at the time to own an MP1.

I think the only preamp i would be slightly happy with is the Boogie Quad with a tube power amp.
Click to expand...
mosvalve vs JCM800 pwoer section = your problem.

the ADA through the fx return would've been SWEET :thumbsup:
 
ADA MP-1 both stock and Mk II Mod 4 modded - Just wasn't for me. Modded, it sounded better, but I felt it was always lacking something

Rockmaster - Nice preamp, but the controls didn't seem to be too responsive, especially the presence knob. Started developing the standard solder issue as well.
 
Jakem":2mbtle9r said:
Qweklain":2mbtle9r said:
Marshall JMP-1 = ...but not enough gain...
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Not enough gain??? :confused:
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I guess I need to edit. I shouldn't say "not enough gain" but maybe just not my type of gain.
 
guitarslinger":2qjn9y85 said:
trey85stang":2qjn9y85 said:
ive only had an rgp1000 and a digitech2112.
Click to expand...

reviews NOW! :gethim: :rock:
Click to expand...

:D

rgp1000 kicks ass, has a great chorus and clean and the famous randall crunch. I dont recall much about the digitech.. been way too damn long since I had it and I didnt use any effects just the tube distortion preamp part.
 
guitarslinger":4ey0ahan said:
danyeo":4ey0ahan said:
I first started gigging out in 1990 with an ADA MP1 with a Mosvalve preamp and an Alesis Quadraverb. My friend was using a JCM800 halfstack and i always thought he had the better tone. I liked the rack at home in the bedroom but it never had the balls in a band situation. Once i started using real amps i never went back to a rack setup. All my friends at the time switched from the ADA MP1 to amps and everyone had better tone once they switched. It was such a fad at the time to own an MP1.

I think the only preamp i would be slightly happy with is the Boogie Quad with a tube power amp.
Click to expand...
mosvalve vs JCM800 pwoer section = your problem.

the ADA through the fx return would've been SWEET :thumbsup:
Click to expand...

You know i picked up a Mesa 2:90 so i can do a W/D with my Fortin, but i may just dabble around with some Tube Preamps. Is the Randall stuff worth looking at?
 
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