M@tt C
Well-known member
I picked up a slightly beat up (missing a couple of knobs plus rack rash) Peavey Rock Master pre for a whopping $50 at Guitar Center today. I wasn't expecting much- I was gonna be thrilled if it basically worked, let alone if it sounded decent. Figured it would be a fun project to rehab and move along.
Stuck some Amazon knobs on and I ran it into the power section of my Runt 50 to see what was up. It was really quiet at first, and the EQ was all wonky. Hmmmmm.......Hoooold up- I remembered reading the FX loops would get weird and jumpering the sends and returns would fix the issue- and lo and behold I was in business!
Holy smokes- this thing rips! Definitely had a hot rod Marshall vibe, but the clean channel was surprisingly decent. WAY more gain than I ever need on the Ultra side, but overall a really cool, great sounding unit. It had some old Groove Tubes in there, and for fun I swapped in a ARS/JJ into V1 and a EH7025 in V2- and it sounded even better!
Finally got a great crunch dialed and after a buch of A/B ing with the Runt and tweaking the voicing and gain I was able to get it in the ballpark of the Friedman. Not exact, but it sounded really good. Took my OD pedals like a champ (Wampler Tumnus and a Rockaway Archer) too.
Bottom line- for what I paid I'm beyond stoked with this pre!
Stuck some Amazon knobs on and I ran it into the power section of my Runt 50 to see what was up. It was really quiet at first, and the EQ was all wonky. Hmmmmm.......Hoooold up- I remembered reading the FX loops would get weird and jumpering the sends and returns would fix the issue- and lo and behold I was in business!
Holy smokes- this thing rips! Definitely had a hot rod Marshall vibe, but the clean channel was surprisingly decent. WAY more gain than I ever need on the Ultra side, but overall a really cool, great sounding unit. It had some old Groove Tubes in there, and for fun I swapped in a ARS/JJ into V1 and a EH7025 in V2- and it sounded even better!
Finally got a great crunch dialed and after a buch of A/B ing with the Runt and tweaking the voicing and gain I was able to get it in the ballpark of the Friedman. Not exact, but it sounded really good. Took my OD pedals like a champ (Wampler Tumnus and a Rockaway Archer) too.
Bottom line- for what I paid I'm beyond stoked with this pre!
