Guitar (pre)amps for studio use?

Empathy

Empathy

Bulging Member
Mar 6, 2008
944
0
16
Perth, Western Australia
Morning gents!

Long story short: I want to buy myself a guitar preamp for dedicated studio use, and it's clear as fucking day that everyone here has plenty of combined gear experience in that regard. What I'm basically chasing is something relatively versatile within the metal genre; cleans, low/high gain rhythm and lead sounds.

I've been looking at all sorts of stuff; the obvious choices like Peavey 5150/6505 heads and Mesa Dual Recs haven't been crossed off entirely, though I'd rather just have something I can rackmount and leave there nice and cosey. I'm liking the look of the Mesa Recording Pre, and the ENGL E570 seems pretty damn neat too. I like the sound of the ENGL E530's, but I always get the impression that they're a one-trick pony.

Rambling aside, the point is I'm looking for ideas from the rest of you. What have you had good experiences with, particularly when it comes to mixing and versatility?

Cheers!
 
MindMunch said:
Is Axe-FX an option?
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I guess so, but I'm still not sold on it. Everything I've heard it used in just sounds really digital to me. Just a personal preference, but it seems like a great unit nonetheless.

lolzgreg said:
peavey rockmaster
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Must mean a lot that I'd never heard of these until now. Sounds preeeetty damn good from what I've found on pootube. Are they particularly scarce?

viralz said:
I loved my rockmaster so much until it died on me :cry:
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Not exactly filling me with confidence here :lol: - is it a common thing for them to shit their pants?
 
The Rockmaster is a beast of a preamp and definitely the ultimate for serious Metal besides the Engls that I know of.

I have seen a few crap out though but bear in mind there's nothing digital in there, no displays, eeproms and membrane buttons like on the MP-1. They go for 300-400 used and aren't all that common on the bay but I've seen tons with Metalheads in the States. It's the preamp from the Peavey Ultra if I'm not mistaken, which is to say it shares some lineage with the Butcher/Ultra/XXX lines if I'm not mistaken. I certainly would prefer the rockmaster with a decent poweramp like a 2:90 or a Marshall to the XXX, but it may easily end up costing more in the end.
 
kvoid said:
I have seen a few crap out though but bear in mind there's nothing digital in there, no displays, eeproms and membrane buttons like on the MP-1. They go for 300-400 used and aren't all that common on the bay but I've seen tons with Metalheads in the States. It's the preamp from the Peavey Ultra if I'm not mistaken, which is to say it shares some lineage with the Butcher/Ultra/XXX lines if I'm not mistaken. I certainly would prefer the rockmaster with a decent poweramp like a 2:90 or a Marshall to the XXX, but it may easily end up costing more in the end.
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Costs could be significantly more than that, taking into consideration that I live in Australia. Postage, conversion to 240v, refurbishment if necessary. Could end up costing as much as an E570 or a Mesa Recording Pre.

That said, it certainly sounds on par with those two.
 
I just bought an E530 from thomann for $630 ish shipped to Aus. No conversion or adapter even necessary.. just a standard Aussie 'kettle cord'.

Worth trying it out IMO. To be honest I doubt you'd lose money if don't like it and decide to sell it here. The Australian ENGL distributor doesn't even bring them in... couldn't even get a price from billy hydes.
 
Benny H said:
I just bought an E530 from thomann for $630 ish shipped to Aus. No conversion or adapter even necessary.. just a standard Aussie 'kettle cord'.

Worth trying it out IMO. To be honest I doubt you'd lose money if don't like it and decide to sell it here. The Australian ENGL distributor doesn't even bring them in... couldn't even get a price from billy hydes.
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Yeah I was actually thinking about doing the same thing a while back, but decided not to go through with it and bought an SM7B instead. I've already had good experience with Thomann and buying amps from Germany - I've imported a series one Powerball and a Fireball 100 for about half the cost to buy each one new from Billy Hydes.

I just did a rough calculation with Thomann's current prices and the 50 euro flat shipping... $730 for the E530. Sound right?
 
Peavey Rockmaster
Engl 530
ADA MP1
Marshall JMP1

Those should cover just about anything you need.....

If you are REALLY lucky you can score a used 94 Dual Recto Rackmount! But they are PRICEY!

I think Andy may still have his for sale. You may want to ask him.
 
guitarguru777 said:
Peavey Rockmaster
Engl 530
ADA MP1
Marshall JMP1

Those should cover just about anything you need.....
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Thanks for the input dude. Out of curiosity, is there any relation between the ADA MP1 and the JMP1? I think I came across some people talking about the similarities in the two, but I was just skimming through info on the MP1 at the time so didn't pay any attention to it.

guitarguru777 said:
If you are REALLY lucky you can score a used 94 Dual Recto Rackmount! But they are PRICEY!

I think Andy may still have his for sale. You may want to ask him.
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Oh I'd kill for one of those, I loved the clips another user posted of theirs not long ago with a TS in front of it. Way out of my budget though! Maybe one day...
 
Empathy said:
Yeah I was actually thinking about doing the same thing a while back, but decided not to go through with it and bought an SM7B instead. I've already had good experience with Thomann and buying amps from Germany - I've imported a series one Powerball and a Fireball 100 for about half the cost to buy each one new from Billy Hydes.

I just did a rough calculation with Thomann's current prices and the 50 euro flat shipping... $730 for the E530. Sound right?
Click to expand...

Did you forget to take out the tax? Take 20% of the price shown then ad the 50 flat shipping ;) I said what I paid already!
 
No worries man, it's fresh in my memory as I've just gone through that experience! (a week ago I was constantly checking my account waiting for them to adjust it.. because initially they automatically take the VAT inclusive amount)

As far as rating the E530 I'm probably not the best to say whether it's appropriate for broader studio use, not yet anyway. And I'm really mainly wanting it to do that "one trick" for me.
I'm shooting for something with a older school Meshuggah 'djent'ishness when digging in to palm mute chords, but also with a hint of that almost under gained clarity I hear on Necrophagist - Epitaph.
Seems to have potential... I'm just enjoying playing it at the moment without worrying too much about trying to get THE recording tone down. I'm coming from PODXT and a Randall rh100... so loving the TUBES :D
 
You could try looking at the Mesa Studio/Quad Pre. I got a Studio Pre on ebay for around $350 and I don't think the Quads go for much more than that. I will say that the lead channel definitely needs a TS in front of it to get a good metal tone, but other than that you can dial in most anything with ease.
 
I don´t really like JMP1, in fact I can get better tones from a POD than JMP1. Never used the Mesa Recording Pre myself, but I´m yet to hear something that I liked from it. In terms of versatility (high gain, cleans, leads, fx, etc) and rackmount I would give a better look on Axe-FX. Some amazing tones on this forum.
 
As I already said highjacking someone else's thread, I'm selling my Mesa preamp + poweramp, but again the shipping cost would be crazy for you.

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