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

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Let's see... :confused:

Rocktron / Egnater IE4 - thick, but very grainy. Nice cleans
Peavey Rockmaster - just OK, but for $80, a lot of bang for the buck.
Engl E530 - I liked this one. Tight and very crunchy but a bit thin sounding.
Engl E570 - loved it at first, but the disconnected feel bugged me.
Groove Tubes Trio - One of my faves. 3 great channels and some of the best cleans from any pre. Run in stereo with the Engl E530 it sounded massive.
Mesa Quad - a noisy pain in the ass to dial in.
VHT GP3 - Too tight and dry for me. Sterile. Would be good for heavy rhythm playing.

That's all I can remember for now, but I know there's others....
 
I have only had two

Digitech 2120 - integrated F/X, basic. dated. Very sexy comparitively when new. Tube overdrive. Very usable. Deal breaker for me was delay in switching patches.

Mesa Recto recording pre - again, very usable. All the Recto mojo vs. love/hate. Have not figured how to record with it direct with pleasing results (not gonna blame that on the unit). Very nice, dare I say, Underrated cleans.
 
Oh boy... not all these are rackmounts but they are all preamps. :)

Mesa Quad - 4 channels of mesa mark series goodness. Love it.
Mesa Studio - half a quad, basically.
Mesa V-twin - Own two. Not necessarily a recto tone, but a decent enough three channel gizmo.
Budda Zendrive - cool one channel all tube medium-high gain preamp. Much better sounding than most overdrive boxes.
Tech 21 PSA-1 - Super cool for solid state. Didn't like how lacked traditional names on the controls though.
Jackson JX1 tube preamp - modded mine, but pretty cool. Two channels with a 'burn' mode on the drive channel.
Randall RM4 - put in 4 of your favorite MTS modules. Sweet!
Kitty Hawk Quattro - four channel preamp, was like a modded marshall but noisy as hell.
Peavey Rockmaster - for awhile, the king of the hill for value. scooped mode was too scooped though IMHO... but with some tweaking you could get some good results
Hafler preamp (wasn't a triple giant) - was a total turd. tried to forget this one ever existed.
ADA MP1 - if you love the 80s, you should own one. Very nice budget preamp, and flexible as hell!
Digitech 2112 - lackluster tonal coffin. Hated it.
ART giant preamp that looked like paint was spilled on it - kinda sucktacular.

Shit, forgot I had a JMP1 marshall. Was ok, but the ads where it showed every marshall ever made up to that point 'living' in the JMP1 was bullshit.

Pete
 
Marshall JMP-1, once in the 90's and once recently. Thought it had a few decent high gain tones. Cleans were sterile but passable. Impossible to get a gritty, just breaking up crunch tone that worked well. Tried twice, as mentioned. No longer own one, which I suppose says more about the unit than the previous 315 keystrokes.....

ADA MP-2. Noisiest thing I've ever heard. Sounded like a heavy downpour was always happening behind the tone. Unuseable. Thanks, but I'll pass.

ADA MP-1. Whatever. More of the above 2.

Boogie Midi Quad Preamp. The midi functionality really pushed this one ahead of a standard, non-midi Quad. Sounded killer and was easy to integrate into a midi system (provided one of your other processors had midi mapping). Only real complaint was the size and weight. I know I'll always miss it, but I refuse to hold on to everything.....

Egnater M4. Wow, what a breakthrough. Unbelievable preamp. Killer tones, midi capable and easier to program than that clock on your VCR (wow, I think I just dated myself :lol: :LOL: ).

Bogner Fish. Four absolutely killer channels. The 'Brown' channel slays. Tone to DIE for. Only knock on it is the two-jack latching switching system. What was Reinhold thinking? Anyways, easily oversome with a GCX/Patchmate/RG-16.

Winner? NONE. Tie for the Fish and M4! :rock:
 
Oops! I forgot my very first preamp.

Digitech GSP-21 w/floorboard

I'll sum up my review by way of a paraphrase of one of the better scenes in cinematic history.....

Marty: The review you had on 'Shark Sandwich'...which was merely a two word review - just said "shit sandwich." Umm....

Derek: Where'd they print that, where'd they print that?

David: Where did that appear?

Nigel: That's not real, is it?

Derek: You can't print that.
rlord1974: Rig-Talk! :rock:
 
Only real preamp for me to speak of was the Engl SE preamp paired with a VHT 2/90/2. For metal it was pretty brutal, and had a very pristine clean channel, but got a little old after awhile to me because I grew a little tired of the engl thing. My $.02
 
Mesa TriAxis--Played it today for the 1st time in a long time--and remembered why its my favorite. Only con to this unit is that you have to be careful how you dial in your bass as it is warm and round and can get flubby if you don't watch it. EVERYTHING else about it is a pro! Clean, blues, fusion, metal whatever! Still have it obviously.

VHT GP3--definitely had its only sound going on and it was good but, extremely stiff to me so I just stuck with my Ultra-Lead 100 Head.

Voodoo Lab Preamp--dynamically not there. Supposedly great direct recording out was anything but. Crunch was okay. Cleans and leads were not for me.

Rocktron Chameleon 2000--For non tube, this unit was pretty happening!

Rocktron Piranha--could I dial in a decent tone after playing with the midrange control, yep. But, did I really like its tone. Nope

ADA MP1--the 1st time I played one back in the day I was playing less than 5 years and didn't think it sounded good. The next time around was about 5 years ago and I actually liked it and got good sounds out of it. Only sold it again because I didn't need it, not because it didn't sound good because I got it to.

Behringer V-AMP PRO--the cab sim circuitry in this is actually good. I like some of the amp models. One of the best direct recording preamps and rediculously low priced. Still have it.

Carvin Quad-X --Liquid Sustain, just like I wish the Mark IV's crunch channel had a little more oomph, I wish this did too but it has separate effects loops for each channel and with a Bad Monkey pushing channel 3, look out! I love the cleans and the 4th channel for leads. Still have it.

ENGL E570--Similarly stiff like the GP3 except I like the tone better with the E570. Especially sensitive to the power amp you match it with. Really a good preamp though.

Digitech GSP-21 --Unbelievably I have a couple of clips from when I was playing maybe 2 or 3 years where 2 or 3 songs came out sounding good. Everything else out there is better. This was just innovative in that you had a preamp and effects in one.

Digitech GFX-1 Twin Tube--Better than a GSP-21 but, not by a whole lot. Give me an ADA MP-1 any day of the week.

Digitech Legend II--Same as above. Innovative for come with an expression pedal on the included footswitch though.

Mesa Recto Recording Preamp--If you like what it does, I guess you'd love it but, I just like my Rectoverb and the Road King I used to own as far as rectos go.

Kitty Hawk Quattro--Hot rodded Marshall is right. Just noisy. Good tone though!

Rocktron XDC--Yuck
 
MESA Studio preamp: pretty good; tone controls did almost nothing except for the graphic EQ; missed the chugga of Marshall influenced preamps/amps

Soldano X88r: fantastic, simple

Soldano X99: more fantastic than the X88r


I still have both Soldano preamps.
 
JMP-1: lame clean, good crunch (OD1), good hot rodded sounds (OD1), lame lead (OD2 sucks IMO)
SP77: liked the lead, didn't care too much about the first channel, unbalanced levelling of the channels - had both versions (US and Jap)
HK Tubeman: not good
Studio: cult. I want one back to pair it with my own preamps.
Quad: nice, too big for me, too expensive, I prefer the Studio soundwise too
Rockmaster: very nice crunch and metal sounds
GSP1101: very cool unit for the price, eats the JMP-1 for breakfast. The mild crunch sounds are way better than the JMP-1, cleans are cool (Twin emu) and can do metal with the 5150 emu pretty well.
AxeFX: hard to beat soundwise
POD Pro: outdated

X88R clone (DIY): awesome crunch and lead sounds, I would build the clean channel differently (would? did :D )
 
I want a triaxis rig so bad!!!!!! Anyone wanna trade for a mark IV :lol: :LOL:
 
Behringer Vamp2 AND Vamp Pro - surprisingly good clean and useable high gain lead tones. low/mid/high gain rhythm not so much likey...used for DI recording

Line 6 POD V1...prefered the Vamp2

Boss GT3/GT6/GT8 - typical boss tones. got progressively better preamp modelling tones toward the higher numbers. overall average. used in fx return of solid state hughes and kettner amp.

Marshall JMP-1 - marshal cleans but on the blander side. liked the crunch rhythm tones (especially when used with the 50/50 monoblock...i also had the 100/100 monobloc)

Rocktron voodu valve - nice cleans and nice high gains. used in fx return of a TSL100

Line 6 Vetta - current...using it DI. liking it so far.only on day 2 of Vetta 2 upgrade.

AXE-FX ULTRA or Eleven Rack - will be mine ...soon.
 
Marshall JMP-1 - OD2 Sounded pretty good, very versatile. Clean was meh

JMP-1 modded by Voodoo Amps - Everything was much better. Clean 2 was great. OD2 became clearer (more clear?) with great note separation. One of the few items I regret selling

Mesa Triaxis - I liked it, but not as much I'd hoped. Just not my tone.

ADA MP-2 - I had a problem with the manual. Nowhere did it explain how to make the unit sound remotely pleasant.

VHT GP3 - Very versatile. Like most VHT stuff I liked it, but didn't love it.
 
stratotone":3hwjc8es said:
ADA MP1 - if you love the 80s, you should own one. Very nice budget preamp, and flexible as hell!
Click to expand...
I'm trying - if someone would answer my "Want to Buy" thread... :doh:

First pre-amp: Digitech GSP-21 Pro. I still have it and still like it for some things. I like being able to hit a single button for a patch and then be able to engage/disengage certain effects within the patch. Pretty cool feature for an included footswitch on a device that old...

Eleven Rack: Sounds great, flexible, gives me an interface to Pro Tools. The downside is that it is mounted in my recording desk and would be a huge pain to use in the rack rig I'm building. Maybe I'll just get another - or get an Axe and have one of each :thumbsup:
 
engl 520
1990
3 channels clean/rhythm/lead
4 12ax7s
bright switches boost switches mid boost switches
stereo effects loop
aux in
stereo out
instrument/line out switch
stereo headphone out
foot switchable between all 3 channels
lead / rhythm channel share an EQ with presence
the clean channel has a dedicated EQ

This preamp smokes!
It is a very early model-one that i bought from bruno engl himself.
It does not have the operable midi in and out option ,though the jacks are plugged up on the back.
it has never broken down on me
and i bought it in 1990-i changed the tubes once and it still screams.
Changing tubes was an easy task.
I often wonder how it would sound with some tweeking from a name brand amp dude but i digress.
Bone stock this box shreds on all fronts and i find it very utilitarian/versatile like a sonic swiss army knife with tubes.
The clean channel is sweet and open like a twin and i have used it extensively.HArmonics chime and sustain is long and natural and QUIET!

The rhythm channel is very useable but overall is the least used channel due to my musical needs.
This channel has an organic growl and when you dig in its gets dirty and responds to attack and volume knob manipulation well,cleaning up the gain as you go roll off the volume knob.There is not enough gain to do the metallica/pantera THUNK CHUNK scooped mids thing-This channel is more akin to ac/dc sabbath zep purple tone
More of a "classic"vibe.

As for the lead channel-it really is a thing of beauty and smoked any ADA MP1 I have ever heard-[which at the time was "THE" preamp to have when i bought this}
The lead channel is liquidly singing,sweet,and vocal sounding.Its a rich detailed tone that cuts well in a mix.
It does the chris poland/uli roth/holdworth thing perfectly and suits my needs still for that type of tone.
I used this with a mosvalve, and it is good for the studio.When pumped thru a real power amp like a macintosh or a vht it takes on a whole other level of maturity and sophistication.

I prefer a real amp for live and used this preamp for studio work -in a rack
i haven't seen anyone else on the board list one hence my long winded review
I think I paid 500 for it new ....... and it was money well spent.:m17: :m17: :m17:
peace
Christian
 
Jmp-1 It was good.
ADA MP-1 I liked it. Wish I still had it.

Now... a Langner DCP-1 Creator with JCM 800 power section. Awesome '80s metal tone!!!


I win


:lol: :LOL:

Would love a duesentrieb modded X88R :rock:
 
holy threadbump.

add to the list:

Tech 21 PSA1
Groove Tubes Trio
Frenzel FM
Mesa V-Twin Rackmount
 
guitarslinger":2pm0xf89 said:
holy threadbump.

add to the list:

Tech 21 PSA1
Groove Tubes Trio
Frenzel FM
Mesa V-Twin Rackmount
Click to expand...


My fault. :D
 
ADA MP1 - I just couldn't dial the thing in how I wanted
Hafler T3 - I still think that was a great sounding pre. Very smooth - if I could find one cheap, I'd probably pick it up.
 
I might as well add to my short list too.

Brunetti original blue-face 'Mille!' - Very organic and musical. Awesome clean, crunch, and lead. Completely indepent controls for channels including volumes. Bright switches actually were very noticeable. Lead channel has a "Shine" button which is essentially an internal boost. Best preamp I have played/owned, but never played a Langer.

Tech-21 PSA-1 - Decent for a solid-state. Okay cleans and dirty with a good amount of tweakability, especially for the price. Noticeabley solid-state tone thuogh.
 
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