[Musikmesse] Bsm RPA (Ritchie's Pre Amp)

The RPA (which stands for Ritchie’s Pre Amp) emulates Ritchie Blackmore’s AIWA reel-to-reel tape recorder preamp stage plus the high-pass treble booster function from Blackmore’s hot-rodded Marshal Major amp, so as to deliver his post-'74 sound with virtually any standard amp.

The RPA is equipped with a gain control, to dial in the best possible balance for the use with different amps and pickups. The EQ control allows a tonal fine tuning for the use of the RPA with different pickups, amps and speakers for an optimum in versatility. Depending on the pickups, the sweet spot of the EQ control is located between 11:00 and 1:00 o’clock. Another highlight of the RPA was more or less created by accident: with the gain pot fully opened, and the EQ control completely closed, you receive the authentical Blackmore sound from Ritchie’s “Machine Head”-to-"Rainbow" era.

To complement the RPA, you can use any mild sounding amp with a good master control function. Plug it in front of the CLEAN or CRUNCH channel, but don’t use the high-gain or distortion channel ! Because of the EQ control, you can use all kinds of pickups, from the brilliant sounding low-gain Fender Custom Shop '69 (aka “Abigail Ybarra” pickups) up to the thundering Seymour Duncan “Quarterpounds”. The booster is true bypass and can powered with either 9 or 18 volts, by battery or with the external power AC jack for more headroom.

The BSM full guarantee periods are 1 year for all mechanical parts (including the switch, pots, jacks etc.), and 3 years for the electronics.

MSRP is 280€.