Kitty Hawk (Shitty Hawk?) - Quattro Preamp - Advice needed

[ProjectHamsterdam]

Hey, guys!

I know Kitty Hawk gear is notorious for their lack of endurance and all, but I have the chance to get a hold of a Quattro preamp quite cheaply. If I decide to get it, I will definitely use it in my home studio only and incorporate it into my rack, which never leaves my home 'studio'.

I plan to use it for direct recodring with impulses or together with my trusty all tube 50W rack PA loaded with 6L6's and some Celestion Vintage 30s to recodr/reamp, etc.

I am interested in the quality of the high-gain tones. I am also looking for variety - I have a Dual Recto / SLO100 based preamp that serves me perfectly, but would like to have another preamp as well for versatility / layering / different voicing, etc.

Anyone ever used one of 'em? Would appreciate your opinion. Thanks!

*PS: If / when I get it I will definitely post some clips to make up for your troubles.

 

[LSD-Studio]

I haven't tested it thoroughly or anything, but the Kitty Hawk was the poor man's boogie and far from being shit.
you should get some nice mark-ish tones out of it

 

[ProjectHamsterdam]

Thanks for the reply, man!

I only used the sh*t reference because of what I read at the Reb Beach website:

Kitty Hawk pre-amps were great (only the green one) and I wish I still had mine. Kitty Hawk amps were pieces of crap. We brought six heads on the road and within three days only one worked. The crew called them "Shitty Hawks".

It's hard to find info on the web, so that was mostly what I got when googling. The Shitty Hawk reference is pretty common over the web, mind you. It's all a bit confusing to me, since I know most Kitty Hawks were hand-made in Germany.

I guess the sounds are great, but reliability is an issue. Which should not be a problem to me, since I know a good amp tech and won't be pushing the preamp around anyhow.

Looks like I'm going to invest in it. Only problem is the preamp is located at a town that's abt. 2 hours drive from where I live. . . I was hoping to avoid that and get it as a mail order, but after reading the horror stories on the web I definitely will be testing before buying.

Cheers!

 

[ProjectHamsterdam]

's me bugging you again.

Got a pic of the preamp's guts.

Looks sturdy enough. :Smokin:

Just found out driving there is not an option (turns out it's in a city that's 6hours away, not just 2 as I initially thought), guess I'll have to risk it by mailorder. Oh, well...

 

[StefTD]

I own one:
First channel: really nice clean
second channel: great for blues and so on
third channel: more old school rock, with a boost in front of it and some "drastic" eq settings (not really drastic but something like bass with 6/10, mids 3/10 and treble 8/10 or something like that) you can get a nice Opeth style sound.
forth channel: played it only once at the beginning, nice for solo stuff or older metallica, but my preamp felt down so the forth channel stopped working...I hate my brother...no money to get it repaired at the moment

I really like that preamp and I want to get a Soldano X88 sometime in the future, I like it way more than a Marshall JMP1, sounds more like a Mesa Boogie Studio Preamp to me.

If you can get it cheap, buy it!

 

[ProjectHamsterdam]

Thanks, Stef and LSD for the advice.

I will be picking this up soon. I have already ordered it, now it is just a matter of waiting for the parcel to arrive. The guy I'm buying it from is really cool, explained a lot of things about the preamp to me and sent me a shitload of photos. I am impatient to try it, so with any luck I should post some samples next week (damn the weekend and damn the postal services taking days off )

It's going to cost me 250 EUR, shipping included, so I guess it's not such a bad deal. It seems to be a kinda rare version of the preamp, made some time in the 80s. It might really be hand-made in Germany, who knows. . . although the power transformer looks kinda finicky and small to me on that picture.

Oh well, let's wait and see, shall we. Expecting tonal nirvana to give me a right kick.

 

[ProjectHamsterdam]

Finally, there are some clips here:

http://www.ultimatemetal.com/forum/...ey-rockmaster-kitty-hawk-quattro-garland.html

As well as clips for some other preamps. Check 'em out and tell me what you think.

Thanks a bunch!