Palmer PGA-04 and PDI-03 reissue

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skoora

skoora

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I've searched and not found any useful comparisons/field reports on these guys other than "it sucks" "it rules" and wanted to hear from folks who have used them for direct recording in particular.

I want to avoid a iso cab but need to be very quiet. Are these units truly the same as each other with the 04 having variable control over what's set by switches on the 03? ...Or are they night and day in reality. Thanks for any info/feedback.
 
What is you current setup? I can help ya out if ya need some.
 
'78 Marshall 2203. But I need feedback from users. I might still go with an Iso-cab if direct can't be done at least as good.
 
skoora":0b760 said:
I've searched and not found any useful comparisons/field reports on these guys other than "it sucks" "it rules" and wanted to hear from folks who have used them for direct recording in particular.

I want to avoid a iso cab but need to be very quiet. Are these units truly the same as each other with the 04 having variable control over what's set by switches on the 03? ...Or are they night and day in reality. Thanks for any info/feedback.
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Im pretty sure that Ed degenaro and Olaf have experiance with both units. You might want to hit them up.

Another thing that you might want to consider is slaving. I think it sounds better then any cab sim or ISO cab (I like iso cabs but the miced up slave rig sounds more natural IMHO)

You would take your 2203, plug it into a hotplate or loadbox of choice and set it for full load, crank the amp to taste and then send that signal to a poweramp and out to a speaker cab. Mic up the cab and control the volume at the poweramp. You can get really great sounds at TV volume.
 
I have been a user....I had a 04 back in 04...haha I didn't care for it at all. Made the signal sound terrible. Very digital sounding. I sold it after about 2 weeks.
 
They are not night and day. The 03 has switches where the 04 has pots and knobs - since the load-circuitry (a mix of resistors and lamps (!)) is identical, both can be set to sound almost the same.

Generally it depends if you like their sound - and they definitely (as all those units) have their own sounds. It is a mid-heavy sound, where you can add bottom end. Alex Flourus uses for his recordings a mix of the PGA04 and a miced sound, cause the PGA adds (when set up correctly) more bottom end to the sound. Their mids are a thing you need to get used to, very characteristical IMO. Either you like them - or hate them.

I had a PGA04 for several years and a PDI09, which is like the 03 without the load. I sold both over the time and kept my old trusty Marshall SE-100, which IMO sounds better than the Palmer stuff. In the US they are normally hard to find though . . .
 
duesentrieb":86339 said:
They are not night and day. The 03 has switches where the 04 has pots and knobs - since the load-circuitry (a mix of resistors and lamps (!)) is identical, both can be set to sound almost the same.

Generally it depends if you like their sound - and they definitely (as all those units) have their own sounds. It is a mid-heavy sound, where you can add bottom end. Alex Flourus uses for his recordings a mix of the PGA04 and a miced sound, cause the PGA adds (when set up correctly) more bottom end to the sound. Their mids are a thing you need to get used to, very characteristical IMO. Either you like them - or hate them.

I had a PGA04 for several years and a PDI09, which is like the 03 without the load. I sold both over the time and kept my old trusty Marshall SE-100, which IMO sounds better than the Palmer stuff. In the US they are normally hard to find though . . .
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The SE-100 is the power brake?
 
No John.

The Powerbrake is an attenuator like the Hotplate - its grandfather. The SE-100 was originally Groove Tubes circuitry and idea - a loadbox with attenuator and speaker emulator in a 2RU chassis. Marshall stopped selling it after just a few years because they had to pay too many royalties to GT. A lot of producers until today are using it though . . .

In europe not too hard to find (normally between 150 and 300 Euros), much much harder in the US.

SE-100 on top of an old Laney
laney.jpg
 
My pleasure . . .

Attenuation: -6, -12, -18 dB

Simulator: either open 1x12" or closed 4x12" with angles of 0°, 30° and 60°

headphone out, balanced and unbalanced out (ground-lift), uncompensated out, speaker out (but can act as a full loadbox) and line-out. Also input for preamps (which is ultra cool for me - the only unit which gives a good sound from a pre-out).

Supply: 15V AC 8like many other 9000 series units from that time - the preamps f.i. - just telling you, because a lot of units are sold without the adaptor, and its not that easy to find, but of course not impossible).

How does it sound? Well, like a Marshall. Seriously. Those typical upper mids are pretty present.

Rig-Talk users with experience: Jack Luminous (prefers it over the Palmers too) and Ralph (who most probably still has it sitting in his closet collecting dust, right Ralph :D )
 
Thanks a lot for the great feedback guys. After talking to Ed I think I might get an Iso-Cab after all. Slaving makes no sense as the difference in tone from my amp at 4-5 on the master and less than one is not that great in a recording so I might as well just mic the speaker cab from the head and have it very low. It's currently being modded by Soldano so it's now going to be a more preamp orientated sound anyway.
 
I had the PDI-03 RI for about a year. It didn't work out very well for the stuff I do. I could never dial out the inherent graininess on heavy rhythm parts. Having said that, I can never pick out the Palmer on Ed D's comparison clips. It obviously works well for the stuff he does as well as clean guitar.
 
skoora":7551c said:
Thanks a lot for the great feedback guys. After talking to Ed I think I might get an Iso-Cab after all. Slaving makes no sense as the difference in tone from my amp at 4-5 on the master and less than one is not that great in a recording so I might as well just mic the speaker cab from the head and have it very low. It's currently being modded by Soldano so it's now going to be a more preamp orientated sound anyway.
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Well the slaving idea was to re-amp a cranked Marshall. The theory is that you will get the sound of the cranked amp at any volume because it is being controlled with another power amp. The trade off is that you wont get the cranked speaker coloration/interaction but you can get some killer tones.
If you are telling me that its not going to make a difference in tone then ther goes that idea :D

With that said, if you are getting the amp modded by Soldano then that will probably change a few things and you might not need some stuff ;)
 
argonaut4":25459 said:
I had the PDI-03 RI for about a year. It didn't work out very well for the stuff I do. I could never dial out the inherent graininess on heavy rhythm parts. Having said that, I can never pick out the Palmer on Ed D's comparison clips. It obviously works well for the stuff he does as well as clean guitar.
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Freaking Ed owned the shit out of me with that clip test a couple of months ago :lol: :LOL:

He said I sucked :lol: :LOL:
 
Gainfreak":e7573 said:
Well the slaving idea was to re-amp a cranked Marshall. The theory is that you will get the sound of the cranked amp at any volume because it is being controlled with another power amp. The trade off is that you wont get the cranked speaker coloration/interaction but you can get some killer tones.
If you are telling me that its not going to make a difference in tone then ther goes that idea :D

With that said, if you are getting the amp modded by Soldano then that will probably change a few things and you might not need some stuff ;)
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Yeah, unfortunately anyone here in an apt. knows that even the quietest guitar at night seems to bother someone. Even if you use an attenuator to get the master up you're not getting the speaker coloration you mentioned so it somewhat negates the benefits of getting the master up in the first place. Obviously on SL's, Hiwatts, non master Fenders, Vox AC30's etc. an attenuator is a must, speaker movement or not.
 
Digital Jams":ee25e said:
argonaut4":ee25e said:
I had the PDI-03 RI for about a year. It didn't work out very well for the stuff I do. I could never dial out the inherent graininess on heavy rhythm parts. Having said that, I can never pick out the Palmer on Ed D's comparison clips. It obviously works well for the stuff he does as well as clean guitar.
Click to expand...

Freaking Ed owned the shit out of me with that clip test a couple of months ago :lol: :LOL:

He said I sucked :lol: :LOL:
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I heard a big difference between Ed's Iso clip and the Palmer clip on overdriven tones. The Palmer was a lot less open and dynamic, almost compressed.
 
skoora":5ccff said:
Digital Jams":5ccff said:
argonaut4":5ccff said:
I had the PDI-03 RI for about a year. It didn't work out very well for the stuff I do. I could never dial out the inherent graininess on heavy rhythm parts. Having said that, I can never pick out the Palmer on Ed D's comparison clips. It obviously works well for the stuff he does as well as clean guitar.
Click to expand...

Freaking Ed owned the shit out of me with that clip test a couple of months ago :lol: :LOL:

He said I sucked :lol: :LOL:
Click to expand...

I heard a big difference between Ed's Iso clip and the Palmer clip on overdriven tones. The Palmer was a lot less open and dynamic, almost compressed.
Click to expand...

Did you post your guess? Sorry if I missed it, I threw better judgement out the window and tried and suffered the rath that is Ed :D
 
I have the PGA-04 and it works well. I use it in my live rig as a load box. What I do is take my clean Tri-axis signal straight into one channel of my 2:ninety and push it hard to get the power tubes for that channel cooking really well, just to the edge of distortion. Then I take the signal from the palmer and send it into my Rane mixer which keeps a clean signal going and sends a seperate signal out to my effects units. The return from my effects units get mixed back into the clean signal and sent to the other channel of my 2:ninety which powers one or two cabs. That way I get my cranked amp tone and any volume level.
 
And what about using the basic model PDI-09 guitar DI box & speaker simulator > sent into audio card to be processed with software?

Anyone knows the difference in tone between Palmer PGA-04 or PDI-03 (which are very similar) and this?

The amp is a Bogner Shiva head El34, which I mostly use for boosted cleans and light crunches.
 
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