Tube Guitar Preamps

The ADA MP1 is programmable preamp in 1U rack format that features 3 channels. Originally it has 2 tubes dedicated to the clean tube and distortion channels. Personally, I had it modified into a 3TM (adding a third tube) by ordering a kit for about $200 from adadepot. That's all you need if you aren't too clumsy with the soldering iron! It is very comprehensive in terms of connections: 2 outputs, one line output, one headphones output, one mono FX loop. It obviously has MIDI connections (In, OUT and THRU). The only drawback is that it doesn't have any inputs on the rear panel. What are people who have very crowded racks to do? -1 in this regard!! Fortunately, you can modify it by converting the line output into an input (which is something I plan to do with a kit available at adadepot). UTILIZATION The setup is silly, provided you are used to fiddling with a rack, but, yet again, it's light years from the complexity of a lexicon and company... The manual gives clear and precise instructions, especially related to MIDI mapping, which may seem a bit arcane, but after that it does everything by itself! Regarding sound editing, if you buy this preamp (secondhand, unfortunately!!) it's because you like the "vintage" type, good old '80s metal, girls, beer,...but now I'm getting off topic. So, YES, you can easily get a good sound if you don't buy this preamp by chance and you know what you want! SOUNDS Does it suit my style of music? LOL, by now I think everybody has already understood that I got this preamp for the sounds it delivers: Metallica (from their good days!!), Iron maiden.......But with the 3TM you get dangerously close to modern sounds and I sometimes surprise myself doing some Dream Theater or even Symphony X (I'm still getting to know it, though.....but it will eventually happen!) My gear: Gibson SG + John Suhr pickups (SSH+ and DSV, a real delight, I used to have a tone zone and an air norton), MXR phase 90, Boss AW2, Boss DC3, MP1, TC Electronic G-Major, VHT 2/50/2, 1x12 VHT Fat Bottom, 1x12 Marshall with V30. Everything controlled with a Ground Control + GCX. To have a good sound you need good gear!! Strictly speaking, the sounds are excellent. The clean sound recalls Metallica in "And Justice For All...", but fiddling a bit with the knobs you can get a more twangy sound, too, without having the impression of playing a twin reverb, you have to be reasonable! I don't use much the Tube Clean channel, it's not my thing. Other people might be able to say more about it. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh, the distortion......it's truly wonderful!! Although too mids-heavy, the EQ (which is very effective) allows you to get a very broad sound palette. It's stunning! The 3TM plays a big role in that, sounds are more aggressive, with more harmonics, in short, a real joy!! OVERALL OPINION 3 years of MP1, and I haven't had enough. You could maybe criticize its somewhat limited clean channel in terms of sounds, but you have the triaxis for that, which is hardly within the same price point.....Because there's the small detail that this preamp costs ONLY $450. The first time I used it, I plugged it to the loop of an ENGL Savage and I can still remember my friend's face when he saw that the MP1 (not yet modified) could eclipse the Savage preamp. I've had the opportunity to test different preamps: Peavey Rockmaster, Rocktron Pirnha, there's simply no comparison — the MP1 is better. Excellent value for money, killer sound, and other than the input on the rear there's mot much to complain about.

4-channel tube preamp (9 12ax7): Channel 1: Clean (1 preamp stage, 1st stage of tube 1), volume, low, mid, high Channel 2: Clean (1 preamp stage, 2nd stage of tube 1), volume, and low, high EQ, cloak shared with channel 3 Channel 3: Clean (5 preamp stages, tubes 2, 3 and 1st stage of tube 4), volume, crunch and low, high EQ, cloak shared with channel 2 Channel 4: called Sustain (and rightly so) (11 preamp stages, 2nd stage of tube 4, and tubes 5, 6, 7, 8, 9), volume, gain, low, mid, high Boost switch, bright, separate EQ for the master. Effects loop on the master and specific loops for each channel. True reverb that simply sounds. Good quality noise gate circuit. Ultra-comprehensive connection options (jack, xlr, stereo, mono outputs with separate volume controls), inputs on the front and rear, footswitch jack for each channel (on the non-MIDI version). USE The settings on each channel are fairly simple (volume, eq). Knobs are very responsive, you can get interesting sounds right away. The manual is very well-made and not mandatory. Do note that the status of the master graphical EQ is activated by channel, so you can activate it for channel 1 but not the rest and these settings will be saved. SOUND Channel 1, wonderful clean sound, crystal-clear, easily shapeable with the EQs Channel 2, clean sound, crystal-clear, EQ shared with channel 3, very handy to have a "clean" version of channel 3 Channel 3, it goes from a warm clean to a downright rock sound with a good amount of distortion (with boost engaged if necessary and depending on the pickups you use). Among the most beautiful crunch sounds (from smooth to really driven). Channel 4, from crunch to fat distortion. Ideal for lead sounds, as its name implies it has a huge sustain. Probably among the most versatile preamps I know. On the same level as a Soldano (X88), Mesa (quad or triaxis) or Bogner (fish, for example) OVERALL OPINION I use it mainly within a studio setup and record it via the direct output into a soundcard input, I then add a speaker emulation (like a Torpedo), and the sound is wonderful. Unbeatable value for money secondhand. Its only negative point is that it depends a lot on the quality of the tubes used and when you need to replace them, you need to break the piggy bank. I opted for a cabling mod that allows me to use Russian 6N2P-EV tubes of excellent quality, which only cost a couple of bucks (and sound way better than some $50 NOS ones).

This unit uses two 12AX7 tubes to produce some amazing tube overdrive / distortion tones. The cleans sound brilliant too. Does Overdrives, Distortions, EQ, Delay, Reverb, and Stereo (panning) effects as well as a bunch of other stuff like 'Quad Delay', has left/ right amp out mono jacks - and when used between two amps in stereo , does some pretty amazing stuff, like a rotary simulations / phasers and panning delays. Very cool. Upgraded mine to the 2120 with a really simple EPROM chip swap. Swapped out the stock tubes for Groove Tubes, and went to Ruby Tubes now. Sounds great with pretty much all. It's hard to tell, personally with tube swapping that your tone has changed ' a lot ', it's only a minor change. I think you could even use 12AU7's in here for less distortion , if that's what you were after and 'soften' things up a bit for blues, country, etc... UTILIZATION Even the presets on this thing sound GREAT, and are very useful as a guitar player - and maybe even a Bass player / keyboardist could use one of these to get some really cool stuff. I had a BOSS GT-6, and GT-8 but don't have anything good to say about those. They sound horrid compared to this unit, though it's older than both of those! Tubes are what make this baby really cook. It's one of the best FX processors I've ever used because it sounds 'analog', and not 'tinny' or 'digital'. SOUNDS I use the unit for Delay, and most of my distortion tones. I get both a Chandler Tube Driver tone, which I use most of the time for that Pink Floyd / David Gilmour sound. Cleans are AWESOME, and very useful. Quite a few blues tones to play with in there too, and everything is super customizable. One of my friends is a guitar player, and he ditched his BOSS GT for one as well. He plays metal, and Punk and gets a really authentic Mesa Dual Rectifier tone out of it through his twin after tweaking one of the stock 'mid scooped' distortion settings. He was also a 'purist' before owning one, always ragging on his digital equipment and using mainly analog stuff. Now the pedals are back in their box, and this unit has really simplified his rig setup. I don't like the 'noise gate' feature, and always turn it off. Distortions are OK, but the Tube sounds / overdrive modes are what really make this guy sound great. I love the Compressor, EQ, and pretty much everything about its sound except for some settings such as the Whammy, (which doesn't sound like the red whammy pedal), noise gate, and some other stuff I don't use. It's packed with features. If you're not getting a good tone out of this unit, yours is either defective or you're tone deaf! Controls take some time to get used to, and I feel like some of it's features are rather buried. I don't like that aspect of it. That's about it. OVERALL OPINION The thing I like the least about it? Well, the Wah tone is merely 'OK' , and the Pedal Board (control one) feels cheap and slides around on the floor because its too light if you buy that accessory. I broke quite a few MIDI cables because of that. I don't like the menus / sub menu crap to get to certain aspects of it because it's very complicated at first. Then I guess you kind of get used to it and it becomes easier to use. Probably one of the main reasons you can still find them used! I LOVE the sound. That's why I bought it. This thing is super responsive, and I can't see a guitar player not connecting with one and wanting to push it for hours. Lots of guitar player friends of mine have been 'lost in la la land' for hours playing through this thing on my rig.

Most people think of Bogner they think of high gain quality and goodness. This preamp made its way onto the market back when nobody was doing anything like this exact Mesa Boogie. High quality preamp are now a thing of modern use. This is the same preamp as the blue one that was mass produced. I think this one made it's way into the Japanese market but very few here in the US. Same great features and tone as the blue face model. These units were first introduced in the early 90's and artists such as Alice in Chains and Megadeth. Jerry Cantrell from Alice in Chains has used this preamp since the first album. Many other artists have come over to the Fish and many more came back when they reissues them not too long ago. This is a fantastic unit that has a ton of versatility in tonal operations. You can go from blues rock all the way up to metal tones. There isn't much you can't do with the Fish as the possibilities are really endless. Features: 4 Channel all tube design with master volume and presence controls (back panel) Eight 12AX7 preamp tubes. Blue Anodized Front with white Chicken head knobs One front and one rear input, parallel dual outputs on back. Country : Volume, Treble, Middle and Bass controls, 3-position bright switch Sparkling clean sound for all musical styles. Shark: Balls (Gain), Treble, Bass and Volume controls , 3-position bright switch Lower gain very open sounding vox meets fender. Strato: Gain, Volume, shared Treble, Middle and Bass controls with Brown channel High gain aggressive, tight Brown: Gain, Volume, shared Treble, Middle and Bass controls with Strato channel Sound wise you can take a guess what Brown means, fat high gain. UTILIZATION This thing is full of preamps tubes. Here is the layout. V1: 1st stage for Clean channel, 12ax7 V2: 1st stage for Strato channel, 12ax7 V3: 1st and 2nd stage for Brown channel, 12ax7 V4: 2nd stage Strato, 3rd Stage Brown, 12ax7 V5: 3rd stage Strato, 4th Stage Brown, 12ax7 V6: 1st and 2nd stage Shark channel, 12ax7 V7: 3rd and 4th stage Shark, 12ax7 V8: Output, 12ax7 The control knobs are a little bit confusing and it will take some time getting used to the way they interact. If your used the the overlapping thing Bogner does with their faceplates then you won't have any problems. SOUNDS The sounds you get from this unit are very warm and thick. It you need an amp that has juicy thick gainy tone than this is a good unit for you. The tone from the unit is distinctly a Bogner tone. It has brwon sound to it but is really stands out uniquely to the sound Bogner is known for. Whether you play a Strat or a Les Paul or humbucker style guitar you will have no problem pulling off great tones from this unit. My personal favorite is the brown setting. I like the high gain and tone that it has. OVERALL OPINION I wouldn't put this amp at the top of the Bogner heap, but it is a cool unit. I would say the best Bogner amp is the 20th Ann. XTC and the next been the new Twin Jets. He has new Twin Jet coming out this year hopefully that is quite the best Bogner amp I have ever heard. These units generally float around the $2500 and really hold their value quite well. For this particular white one though you might pay a little more since the look is hard to come by. I would recommend this amp to anyone who needs a solid preamp and knows the Bogner tone. It is quite expensive for just a preamp, but they do sound fantastic.

This is a tube preamp pedal by mesa boogie, meant to deliver classic boogie cleans and classic boogie distortion. * Handbuilt in the USA * 2x12AX7 * 2 Channels, 3 Modes (Clean, Blues & Solo) * Mode Assignment Switches * Gain, Master, Bass, Mid, Treble and Presence (Universal) * Bypass Switch * Clean Gain Adjustment Control * Record/Headphone Out * External Switching Inputs UTILIZATION Like an amp or a slightly more complex pedal, there's a few EQ options. There's also 3 modes, clean blues and solo. Solo would be the one having the most 'gain' while blues is just like a mild overdrive and clean of course is clean. The headphone out is useless everything sounds like static crap coming out of that. The pedal itself is big and heavy! Comes with it's own adapter to provide proper power. You can use clean or ONE of the distortion modes, you can't layer them together, nor can you switch between the two with the footswitch. Which, hinders it's versatility in my opinion. You can use this as a front end amplifier for whatever combo/amp you have backing or as an overdrive or boost to your original amp's tone. I've found using it as the boost was WAY more useful than as a standalone front end preamp. The EQ is a universal EQ for all three modes, so it's simple yet not super versatile. You have to settle on one EQ setting for all your modes. There is also a control for changing the clean's tone making it break up earlier or not via a trim pot. SOUNDS Cleans: These are your classic boogie cleans. Not too shimmery, not muddy but smooth. I was never really a big fan of boogie cleans to begin with but this is usable and doesn't break up. Blues: Offers a slightly bluesy crunch to your existing sound. Sort of like what a regular blues overdrive pedal would provide except with the preamp being tube, it's more compressed and smoother in tone. A little bit more organic sounding and not sterile or bitey like a blues driver for example, would sound like. Solo: This is the supposed high gain channel in which, it's really not. It's more of a classic rock gain structure. For some reason when I bought this somebody suggested that it was a dual rec in a box. This is simply WRONG. The V-Twin is designed to achieve CLASSIC boogie sounds and by that I mean the NON-metal amps, PRE mark IIC+ era. And so the distortion is not high gain, it's full of mids and very smooth, for rock or smooth blues leads. As a front end amplifier, I didn't like what it had to offer. The blues mode was decent, though I found more tone in the solo mode for blues. And when I wanted a rock sound I struggled. However, upon my frustrations I tried to use it as an overdrive, boosting the amp after setting it for medium gain distortion in solo mode, and WOW. Now THIS is what i'm talking about! What came out was HUGE distortion, dynamic, clear, high gain, thick, everything one can possibly imagine wanting for high gain purposes! It was huge! And I couldn't believe how thick the distortion was! Possibly due to the preamp tube design as opposed to regular non-tube overdrive pedals, but it was just overall WAY juicier! OVERALL OPINION It's decent as a preamp pedal, but even better if treated as a tube overdrive pedal for high gain stuff. That's where I was really impressed, although the design may not have been intentionally made that way. That's how I used it and that's how I liked it. But as for what it was designed for, I guess it was decent. I would recommend it as an overdrive but not as a preamp pedal for anything else. There are better tube preamp pedals out there offering more variety in sounds and more flexible EQ options. This was a pretty limiting pedal. If it was designed with just the solo mode and it's EQ it would be an awesome overdrive pedal. But it's not enough to serve as an actual 3 mode pedal since the controls are so limited. So i have to review it quite low as I didn't like anything about it as how it was designed to work, but instead sounded great as something else.

These units were first introduced in the early 90's and artists such as Alice in Chains and Megadeth. Jerry Cantrell from Alice in Chains has used this preamp since the first album. Many other artists have come over to the Fish and many more came back when they reissues them not too long ago. This is a fantastic unit that has a ton of versatility in tonal operations. You can go from blues rock all the way up to metal tones. There isn't much you can't do with the Fish as the possibilities are really endless. Features: 4 Channel all tube design with master volume and presence controls (back panel) Eight 12AX7 preamp tubes. Blue Anodized Front with white Chicken head knobs One front and one rear input, parallel dual outputs on back. Country : Volume, Treble, Middle and Bass controls, 3-position bright switch Sparkling clean sound for all musical styles. Shark: Balls (Gain), Treble, Bass and Volume controls , 3-position bright switch Lower gain very open sounding vox meets fender. Strato: Gain, Volume, shared Treble, Middle and Bass controls with Brown channel High gain aggressive, tight Brown: Gain, Volume, shared Treble, Middle and Bass controls with Strato channel Sound wise you can take a guess what Brown means, fat high gain. UTILIZATION This thing is full of preamps tubes. Here is the layout. V1: 1st stage for Clean channel, 12ax7 V2: 1st stage for Strato channel, 12ax7 V3: 1st and 2nd stage for Brown channel, 12ax7 V4: 2nd stage Strato, 3rd Stage Brown, 12ax7 V5: 3rd stage Strato, 4th Stage Brown, 12ax7 V6: 1st and 2nd stage Shark channel, 12ax7 V7: 3rd and 4th stage Shark, 12ax7 V8: Output, 12ax7 The control knobs are a little bit confusing and it will take some time getting used to the way they interact. If your used the the overlapping thing Bogner does with their faceplates then you won't have any problems. SOUNDS The sounds you get from this unit are very warm and thick. It you need an amp that has juicy thick gainy tone than this is a good unit for you. The tone from the unit is distinctly a Bogner tone. It has brwon sound to it but is really stands out uniquely to the sound Bogner is known for. Whether you play a Strat or a Les Paul or humbucker style guitar you will have no problem pulling off great tones from this unit. My personal favorite is the brown setting. I like the high gain and tone that it has. OVERALL OPINION I wouldn't put this amp at the top of the Bogner heap, but it is a cool unit. I would say the best Bogner amp is the 20th Ann. XTC and the next been the new Twin Jets. He has new Twin Jet coming out this year hopefully that is quite the best Bogner amp I have ever heard. These units generally float around the $2500 and really hold their value quite well. I would recommend this amp to anyone who needs a solid preamp and knows the Bogner tone. It is quite expensive for just a preamp, but they do sound fantastic.

The Matchless Hot Box is a 'classic' tube overdrive preamp pedal that I've used with an electric guitar. It's definitely meant to be used with electric guitar, but like all pedals it can be used with any instrument that has proper connections for it, which in this case would be 1/4". It has two 12AX7 tubes in it for the preamp. This is an analog pedal that isn't rack mountable in any way. UTILIZATION The make up of the Matchless Hot Box is really simple to understand. The pedal has two channels - a clean and an overdrive one. The clean channel has only a volume knob, while the overdrive channel has parameters for gain, bass, treble, and output level. You don't need to know much to work the Hot Box, but knowledge of other overdrive pedals will certainly be helpful. A manual isn't something that will be necessary with this pedal. SOUND QUALITY The tone of the Matchless Hot Box is truly awesome. It's one of the fullest sounding preamp/overdrive pedals that I've heard, and after having used a ton of overdrive pedals, I think that this is really saying something. It isn't just your typical overdrive pedal as it's really it's own preamplifier between the two different clean and overdrive channels. The Hot Box will undoubtedly sound good no matter what type of guitar and amplifier that you're using with it, but I've tried it with a Gibson Les Paul and a Fender Vibro King amplifier. OVERALL OPINION If you know anything about Matchless, you know that they do not compromise on sound quality. While they aren't known for making pedals, the Hot Box is really a great sounding pedal in it's own right. Matchless is primarily known for the top tier amplifier that they make, but it makes sense that a preamplifier/overdrive pedal would sound awesome from them as I'm sure that it is a similar make up to what they have in many of their amplifier. If you're looking for a top notch preamplifier and overdrive pedal, the Matchless Hot Box is just about as good as you'll find one.

Randall amplification has been known for creating some of the coolest and most innovative rock preamps in the market. It's really taken hold of the whole preamp module market and got a huge niche of cool and very usable preamp modules. These are good for sticking into Randall amplifier that takes modules and has its own power section. These preamps can be interchangeable when you can pull one of them out just as quickly completed. If you don't like the tone you can swap it out for something that you might like little bit better. This gives the user or guitar player a lot of flexibility of his guitar tones. UTILIZATION This little preamp as five EQ control knobs consisting of gain, level, bass, middle, and treble as well as a bright switch to take it up a notch if you needed for playing a thicker mahogany based guitars. Is it pretty easy and preamp dial-in a good time with and it doesn't take a genius really figure out a good solid voicing for this preamp. It only takes two screws to slide it into your Rm 100 or another power amp module head. SOUNDS This is based off the Mesa boogie rectifier series high gain amplifiers. Some of the Randall MTS series modules don't sound exactly like the preamp they are emulating, but this one has a good recto feel in town. So if you're looking for a sick chunky and fuzzy type of distortion then this is good to be a good module that you would stick into one if you're Randall power amp or wavier Randall RM 100 power amp heads. OVERALL OPINION These modules come in just around $200 which is a pretty good price for such simple preamp you can swap in and out of your RM 100 amplifier. It's pretty inexpensive to challenge yourself on what you might like or dislike so you can really get your money back to you if you need to sell it

5 preamp tubes. 8 channels. 90 presets. midi. fx loop. And most any routing you could need. In terms of tube preamps, this is a fairly modern unit in terms of features. It's made to be used in conjuction with the most modern gear. Most mesa stuff follows this design concept, which is kind of a no corners cut philosophy. While it is technically a digital unit, the audio path is still all tube. This is really mesa's best effort to cram all its best amps into one preamp unit. And when paired with a good mesa power amp, this should theoretically get you all those sounds. UTILIZATION One thing I really like about this unit is the ease of control. Every parameter is controllable in real time just like a real amp and Mesa has taken every effort to make it feel like a real amp. There aren't any crazy menus to wade around in for hours. This isn't the easiest preamp to use, but given all it can do, it sure could be a lot more complicated. The manual is great, like most Mesa manuals. There's a lot of sounds in here and the literature reflects that. SOUNDS I'm using this preamp in a rig right now with a Mesa Strategy power amp and a VHT fat bottom 4x12. It's quite loud, obviously. But I reserve this rig for really big shows. I control the Triaxis with a Ground Control Pro. I feel like I should just go through each channel. R Green - This is really Mesa's shot at a blackface clean. They tend to do this very well, however while I really like this channel, I feel like the clean channel on the Studio preamp they make is better. R Yellow - Not a fan of this one. If you've played the Mark IV clean channel you know what I mean. It's just meh. Lead 1 - This is your early santana and overdriven fender sounds. You can get some good clean sounds out of it though. I play a lot of santana covers and this channel gets that tone in spades. Lead 2 - The Green and yellow channel are basically your Mark II through Mark IV sounds. Metallica and Dream Theater is your tonal pallete here. In my opinion this is the best sounds in the box right here. The high gain sounds of the Mark series are delivered with a vengeance. Lead 2 red - Recto tone. Plain and simple. And it's actually done pretty well. Although for anyone who's never played an older Recto, this does not sound like the new ones. This is based on revision 1 so it has more mid action going on. OVERALL OPINION The cleans on the triaxis are pretty good but not insane. The mid gain and high gain sounds range from great to amazing. Value is good but not cheap. This is not really a budget preamp and I would rather recommend the Studio preamp for people on short change. That said I really love this thing. It has the classic mesa sounds and does most of them really well. Unfortunately if you are looking for something other than mesa/blackface tones this will NOT do it. Forget about it. Go get a JMP preamp or something else. Otherwise, this is your guy.

On the surface this looks like a somewhat simple and dry preamp. 2 channels. Effects loop. Graphic eq. A few switches and such. Once you dig into the manual you realize the possibly versatility with this preamp. Yes, dialing this thing in is in reality the equivalent of driving a space ship, but this is Mesa and you shouldn't known that before you started. UTILIZATION Let's start with the clean channel. This is a bit less complicated than the lead. Basically it's a blackface circuit. It's best to treat it like that and take what you can get from it. Nice dark sparkly fender cleans are to be had here. Actually, besides maybe the Suhr 3 channel preamp, this is the best blackface cleans you will ever get from a preamp. That's really all there is to be said for the clean channel. The lead side is another story. It's very versatile. If it weren't for the manual, many players would be lost. Using the graphic eq as well as the various switches you can go from a classic rick kind of crunch to a Mark II Kirk Hammett style high gain sound, to a more modern recto/mark IV petrucci thing. SOUNDS I use it with a Peavey 50/50 power amp into a VHT 4x12. This amp is an odd fit in a lot of bands. It's not quite modern metal but it's not quite 80's hair either. It fits in great with 90's alternative. It can easily do the metallica thing. I expect a lot of people who use these don't spend much time on the clean channel which is a shame for how good it is. It's a stretch to say, but you can use this in a lot of situations. I have a friend who used one in a post rock band for years. If you do dream theater it can get that tone easy. It's basically a Mark clone after all. OVERALL OPINION This preamp isn't for everyone. But it's a darn good preamp. If you like American sounds, this is the preamp to get I think. Unless you have some huge budget. It won't do marshall or vox. But it will do fender and mesa without a hitch. The value is massive. Both channels alone are worth the price. Try changing the tubes around. They really do matter a lot.

The ENGL E530 is a 1U preamp made for people who need to save space but still want that signature ENGL sound. The preamp is a two channel preamp that features two 12AX7 tubes, independent EQs on both channels with a lo-mid and hi-mid knob on channel two, a bright switch, a contour switch to alter the mid frequency, hi/lo gain switch, clean lead switch, preamp defeat switch, effects loop, line out and even a headphone jack. UTILIZATION There's a ton of stuff crammed into this small 1U preamp. In some ways, it's great, but in others, I wish they would have added more. First of all, it's a very versatile preamp thanks to the various mini switches they implemented into its design. I'll help describe what they do later down the review. One big thing they're missing, however, is MIDI. MIDI is something that every preamp out there should have, in my opinion. It's one of the main reasons to go rack, and the lack of MIDI means you'll need to switch it with a separate MIDI switcher. I'd rather they took out the effects loop and added MIDI since effects loops aren't really needed with preamps. SOUNDS Most people want to know about how the gain sounds with this thing, and let me tell you, there's a ton of gain on tap. You can get brutal metal sounds no problem with this thing, and there's no need to boost it like certain other amps out there. The contour switch also gives it some extra versatility as it switches the mid frequency. This is great if you want a rhythm channel and lead channel all in channel two. The lo-mid and hi-mid knobs add additional tone shaping elements to really dial in the tone you're looking for without ever losing that signature ENGL sound. The clean on this thing is also really good. It's sparkles and blooms like a nice clean should. OVERALL OPINION If you're in the market for a high gain 1U preamp, this will probably be my number one recommendation. It's cheap enough to where you don't need to sell a left kidney to afford it, and it sounds good enough to where it'll probably be your main gigging rig. If you have a chance, check it out.

The Hughes & Kettner Tubeman II is a guitar preamplifier and 'recording station.' It is designed to be an all in one solution for recording guitarists. The Tubeman is of course as the name states driven by all tube power and consists of three separate channels. The unit has 1/4" connections of all types and isn't rack mountable. UTILIZATION Using the Hughes & Kettner Tubeman II isn't too hard, but it will take a little bit of practice to learn where everything is and what everything does. For setting controls, the first channel only has a knob for volume, while the second and third channels are a bit more in depth. The second channel has parameters for gain and volume and the third has those for gain, voicing, and volume. The Tubeman II also boasts a three band equalizer for all of the channels and a master volume knob. Each of the channels can be engaged with a separate foot switch. I don't think you need a manual for this one, but can't speak to it's make up since I haven't seen one myself. SOUNDS The overall sound of the Hughes & Kettner Tubeman II is pretty unbelievable. In addition to the basic features I discussed before, it also has amp modeling, so it really is an all in one guitar recording station. However, it can of course be used with an external amp or speaker cabinet, which is what I've mostly done with it. This will definitely work perfectly fine on its own for recording direct as well, as it has a great inherent tone that sounds full all across the board and offers up a whole lot of versatility. OVERALL OPINION I'm a huge fan of the gear manufactured by Hughes & Kettner, as they offer up only high quality products, and the Tubeman II is no different. While it won't be a cheap purchase, it is certainly a worthwhile one for those looking for an all in one guitar recording port. This definitely doesn't have the cheap sound that you'll get with something like the Line 6 POD, rather it offers up clarity and fullness without needing an external amplifier, and who wouldn't like that!