Guitar amplification

Everything has been said already Just one defect: no input on the front panel. a pity UTILIZATION Very, very easy to use. Basic controls: bass, mid, treble, presence, and a bass boost that has a stronger effect on the fullness of the sound rather than the lows, which I love... Midi is very, very easy as well, once you find the right channel lol SOUNDS Well, I think people who say this amp is not for metal are wrong. There you go, I've said it lol I have long sought for the perfect distortion preamp... and I've had some, a rocktron and another one, I even have a jackson preamp (not lee jackson but the brand, jackson, like the guitars) but it still lacks that special something. You just have to look at the biggest bands and they all use or have used it: iron maiden, megadeth, metallica... but the most important thing is to find your own sound and I love the heavy metal sound from 1980, '85 and the early '90s. It's the perfect preamp. Clean 1 is the one I use, I have my own settings but it is very soft with a slight brilliance to it, but I think you can also achieve a very crystalline sound Clean 2 is more hollow, but the highs are too much, I personally don't use it od 1 I don't use either but it's a good crunch even if it lacks some power od 2 is perfect. I crank the gain all the way up and play with the guitar's volume for different styles. It's great and I can even manage to get a clean steve vai sound, it's awesome. With the mids all the way up I get a very tight sound that I love, and boy does it rock! OVERALL OPINION I've used it for a while and I can only say: thank you marshall. You can find it secondhand at very reasonable prices. On the other hand, new it's really expensive, but still less than a TriAxis... It's a petty good preamp, plus it's really sturdy (I know because the screws on my rack are too short and it's fallen twice already). And it works perfectly fine Seriously, if you love blues, rock, hard rock, heavy metal, and good ol' trash with a marshall sound it is perfect, for black and other genres with a change of tubes or a distortion before it, it should be good. Enjoy everybody!!

I paid $695 through Musician's Friend. Read several user reviews on the best overall processor for the bucks and I kept turning up Voodoo Valve. The unit right out of the box sports a very pro look. Incorporates a real 12AX7 tube in the preamp stage that really works. The 247 presets are good enough alone, but as you tweak the unit you discover a whole pallette of tweakable sonic landscapes. Loud output. Plenty of headroom. I cannot say anything I don't like about the unit. I would like to have seen a tuner built in and a footswitch come with the unit,(there is one availabel for very reasonable price @ Musicians Friend called "midi-mate". Very excellent quality and unmatchable sound. Should last for a decade or two. Rocktron has really turned out pro stuff in the past. Remember these guys once only sold to the big time pros, yet in the 90's began to offer their same dsp technology to the average consumer. While their gear is a little "pricy" for the average joe, remember you really do get what you pay for a Rocktron delivers! This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I bought it at my local guitar dealers shop after I read a lot of BAD reviews about it. I bought it new (which was stupid cause lot of people sell it because they don't seem to know how to make that thing kick asses....*g* This thing definitely RULES.I play everything from Jazz-a-Gogo,StadionRock,Pop, PsychoTwist,Surf,Beat,Metal,Experimental to the pure Sound of Malmsteen,Vai and Co.(Only the SOUND you see.....) I use a lot of multieffects Units in parallel and one of those is my GAINIAC. My rack is the only of this kind known to me...Me and a studio tech had a lot of work building it up... For guitar only sound I use a boss GT-5 parallel to a Rocktron Velocity and the GAINIAC.For heavy distortion i.e. I use a basic sound from the velocity and over this with an octaver or elsehow (?)pitchshifted sound from the GT-5.If I wwant to fatten up the sound I put a lower 6th or 3th (espec.MetalHeads OldSchoolSound) under the Velocity Sound.I can even have a wah or whatever effect over the constant Velocity Distortion Sound.(or I can do a quite dist.Wah over a Clean Sound at the SAME time live - ....) .To finally kick asses I switch on my Gainiac (what sucks but to this later...). This unit provides me with the ORIGINAL tone of the Instrument I use(mostly a Fender sometimes a Paula)and it crashes all walls down(with the knobs in the right places,.....)because it's a nonchanged pure fingers-and instrument-sound and its the only preamp(at this prize) that makes your TONE hearable over TWO (!!) distorted sounds without makin' a undefineable(?) noise outta the whole thing... I have a rack mixer to combine all my signals like some keyboarders do and then its all the way into a Peavey Classic 60/60---pretty heavy (UUgh!) Power Amp. The reason for using the Gainiac is simply that a guitar signal through a 24bit digital multieffect loses some of it's characteristics.So my signal goes straight into this preamp and then into the power Amp. I like the sound I am able to produce with my GAINIAC and it seems to fit perfect to my "special" Rack.Thanks,Rocktron.... Some things that really SUCK : 1.Wallwart. 2.No switch ON/OFF (forgot this guys?) 3.The Clean tone is so quite I can't make it hearable using only my mixer...maybe another tube for the clean tone would have put this nice signal a bit louder?So I use one of my other Multis for the clean sound... 4.Change the tube to a better one if you're into this technology.It's a cheap one...but for this price the sound is really OK. That'S it the thing is still the Pure-Tone-Crown of my Equipment! Usual 19" Rack mounted unit.No problems. Wallwart,no switch on/off---sucks... one tube.some knobs to be turned in the right(RIGHT...*g*)direction. Quite easy to handle... All in all that you should try out but try to find one used unit,many people don't seem to understand the concept of a PREAMP(thinking it's a Distortion Pedal or something...?)and so you could get a "Schnaeppchen"(Use your dictionary German/English for that....*g*) Always remind:This thing is called Gainiac (Not DISTORTIONIAC or so!)it produces a fine saturated overdriven tube preamp of your signal! NOT for clean sounds(Not loud enough this channel is....) If you wanna know more of my experiences with this or other units please feel free to mail to Alexander.Pohl@E-Technik.tu-chemnitz.de This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com