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mesa boogie studio preamp


MichaelYoung

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I don't have the studio preamp, but I have the V-Twin preamp pedal, which I use in the studio a lot as a front end for recording guitar into ProTools. The clean channel on it is fantastic, and it's what I use it for the most. And from what I hear the rackmount studio preamp is even better.

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YES.

 

Instrumental part of my sounds since 1990 or so. Hugely valuable piece of gear. Wide range of tones. Built like a tank and I can't say enough about it.

 

When I first got it, it had been damaged by falling face first out of a rack onto a stage during a live performance and despite the reverb failing the entire thing was still functional despite some pots being sheared off and the front panel dented.

 

I sent the thing to Boogie and they refurbed it and made it BETTER than new. They replaced the front panel, the pots, and restored the reverb and it's great again.

 

Tones? Well OK. Here's clean, then dirty with a little delay. Well maybe a lot of delay.

 

DmPVJNBvpAU

 

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There's other tones it can get too, tons of them - Metallica scooped mid, fusiony tones, metal tones, country tones, rock tones, etc.

 

Who used these? Pete Townshend, Kurt Cobain, mid period Metallica, "Nomad" era Scott Henderson, early John Petrucci etc.

 

Also check out http://www.reverbnation.com/aliensporebomb and listen to my tunes, most them were recorded with the StuPre.

 

Pssst. Pro-tip: Use the recording outs.

 

Over at the http://psychopompos.proboards.com/ board there's a whole group of us with Studio preamps. They're great!

 

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thanks, i got it home and have played it some thru one of my cabs. the clean is absolutly amazing. I'm floored by the amount of smoothness it has. Im in love. I actually traded to get it and a marshall 9005 el34 power amp. yet again, im soooooo amazed

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This is the preamp to the IIC+, correct? Or is it the preamp from the III?

 

I've heard that's the case, but also heard it's closer to the circuit of the Studio amps (which would make sense I guess, given the name of the preamp). Given that I know people have sent their Studio pres to Mesa to have them modded closer to the IIC+ circuit though (although apparently it can never be dead on the same), evidently they're certainly not the same thing stock. They're definitely in that same kinda family of sounds though, and that's no bad thing at all. :)

 

The Quad was two channels, one based on the Mark II (again I don't think IIC+) circuit, the other based on the Mark III circuit. Don't remember which channel was which off the top of my head. Have never owned a Studio myself, but did own a Quad preamp for a while. Love the Mark series sound... wasn't such a big fan of having a 3U preamp that alone weighs the best part of 600kg. :lol:

 

Now I get all my Mark series tones from an Axe-FX. :o

 

I liked the sound of my old Mark III more than the Quad though. The tones could get real close, but just something wasn't quite right. But then again, I wasn't using a Mesa poweramp, and was using different speakers and cabs with the Quad rig. :idk:

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that might be it.... right now, i'm using the sliders for the lead tone. i really cant get it like i know it should sound.... should i be using both the sliders and the other eq functions to dial in the tone?

 

 

Definitely. The GEQ will shape the overall sound more. The knobs are pre-gain EQ though, which you don't see much of in high gain type amps. Because of this tonestack location, rather than having a dramatic effect on the sound, it has more effect on the gain and the character of the sound. Think of it like running a boost or an EQ in front of the amp to shape the sound a bit. So if the tone is too loose and flubby, roll back the bass knob and then you can bump it back up post-gain at the GEQ. If you want a sharper character, bump the treble knob up more. The treble control will have a big effect on the gain of the lead channel, as will the volume (as in the rhythm channel gain control).

 

You should be able to get the manual off the Mesa site, but if for some reason the Studio isn't up there, the Quad or Mark II/III manuals should give you a pretty good idea of what's going on.

 

That's of course not to say a retube is completely unnecessary, but maybe you can get what you want or at least closer to it just by getting a better understanding of how the controls work.

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i got it figured out.... and ohhhhh muuuuuuiiii.... i really don't have the words to describe. Now let me remind you that i'm running this preamp into a marshall 9005 50+50 el34 power amp. The tone clean tone is incredible. the lead tone is incredible and very very warm and tight. It really sounds like a lower voiced mid bassed marshall. very very warm and very very thick. I'm very happy with this combo. thanks for your information on the eq. I was afraid that i would mess up the clean tone by adjusting the preamp eq too much but, that didn't happen at all. I'm very impressed.....

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thanks... some of the things i had to learn on my own.... Like how the mid knob is actually like a low mid voicing, the bass really just adjust the loose to tight, the treble is more of an upper mid voicing. then i could dial in my tone using the eq sliders. this preamp seems to have a load of midrange, which is great because guitar tone lives in the mid. I have never ran my eqs in a scooped fashion. All my other amps have the mids really really boosted. This pre is completly different though. I had to scoop some of the mid out to get a thick and smoother tone.

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thanks... some of the things i had to learn on my own.... Like how the mid knob is actually like a low mid voicing, the bass really just adjust the loose to tight, the treble is more of an upper mid voicing. then i could dial in my tone using the eq sliders. this preamp seems to have a load of midrange, which is great because guitar tone lives in the mid. I have never ran my eqs in a scooped fashion. All my other amps have the mids really really boosted. This pre is completly different though. I had to scoop some of the mid out to get a thick and smoother tone.

 

Yep, all that Mark series type stuff has a heap of midrange in the sound, so dropping the mids a bit at the EQ isn't a bad thing.

 

Once you really get your head around the controls, you can do a lot with that pre+post EQ set up. Very flexible control set up. :)

 

One of the best tones I've played through was with my Mark III. Not sure if it'd work the same on the studio, but basically I ran the clean channel with the volume control cranked, I think the treble up fairly high, so it wasn't really clean at all. Then slam the input with a cranked TS-9. Was one of the fattest and most responsive tones I've ever played with. For cleaner sounds, TS-9 off and roll the guitar vol back a bit, maybe some coil splitting or something. Never managed to get quite the same out of my Quad pre though. :(

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how do you guys use effects thru this amp? are you using the fx loops for pedals or are you using a rack mounted unit?

 

 

With my Quad I generally had rack mounted pedals that went in front (ODs and boosts and whatnot) and then rack units afterwards (or in the loop... can't remember the difference) for things like delay, chorus, etc. Used a GCX/GCP combo to switch things in and out. Pedals in front were just in series, and from memory the rack stuff was run in parallel and into a line mixer before going to the poweramp.

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I'm thinking of getting an effects unit now. Any opinions? I seen a 2112 digitech unit for a decent price locally

 

 

You might like the TC Electronic G Sharp. It's clean, clear sounding studio chorus/flange/phase/delay/reverb unit that sounds decent in the effects loop of the Stupre. Last time I checked it wasn't very expensive either.

 

Here's some demonstration files of the G Sharp with the Studio except the acoustic guitar demos which are just with the G Sharp:

http://pod.ath.cx/gsharp/

 

The "various sounds" clip is both clean, dirty, chorused, flanged, reverbed, phased, sometimes just a little reverb, sometimes chorused, sometimes

flanged. Just messing around.

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There used to be 100+ user reviews(95% positive) in Harmony Central for this, but seems to still be missing at this stage. I've had one for about 10 years. Still happy with tone overall.

They can sound great, ONCE you know you have a strong set of tested preamp valves, and learn how to tweak the best sound out of it, which took a while.

The Lead drive pot is finicky/ painful to adjust due to over-sensitivity/ volume change. 

Adjusting the 5 band EQ, got me there in the end, actually by CUTTING 10+Db for a 'strangled' Marshall crunch type sound. 

The clean sound is round, full and glassy, but a little dark sounding on the top end, typically old school Mesa, so bright speakers seem to match better for that. Prefer the Mids set to 10 for clean, as anything less and your actually cutting due to the nature of the FMV Tone stack. Helps with not getting lost in the mix.

Personally, I set Volume at 6, Master at 8, and throttle back on the recording out Pots to get max. headroom, otherwise you lose dynamics and choke the sound. Also prefer using the Main Outs (with toggle switch set to HIGH) for Live, as the Recording Outs use a resistor network to roughly compensate/simulate a dummy speaker Load with a SM57.

For something that is nearing 30 years old, it's extremely robust. I still changed all the electroytic capacitors, and 1 dirty potentiometer for 'peace of mind'. Wish the effects loop was valve driven, not transistor. Probably it's weakest link, but still o.k. sounding.

I did blow a transistor after accidentally earthing a lead from the effects loop. Avoid hum by patching all jacks, including footswich and EQ, with Microphone cable, shielded at one end(usually the signal source end), floating at the other. Otherwise, it can be a nightmare to eliminate hum. Do not try a 5751 in V1 as you'll blow a plate resistor, unlike other amps which can be interchangable. Stick to 12ax7's, 12at7 in the reverb. I use JJ in V1, Tung sol in V2, and JJ in V3. For the last 2 years, my amp tech. throws away 40% of new JJ preamp tubes, because they test low on his Amplitrex AT1000. Tung Sol 12ax7 are more consistent, but still bins 15% of brand new tubes. I re-iterate, to get tubes tested to avoid dissapointment.

Seem to hold their value quite well on the secondhand market, so worth a try. You can always resell it if it's not to YOUR personal taste. Better to use it in conjunction, with a decent valve poweramp amp using good tested strong rated tubes , IMO.

All I can suggest is try one. There's a lot of different preamp manufacture's to chose from. For the price, the Mesa has a lot of features which others don't. Depends what type of sound you personally like. For me it's Fenderish clean, Marshall crunch, Mesa Lead. Wish I could switch between all 3 sounds, as each has it's own thing.

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