Successor wanted for my Mesa studio preamp

Bas Kapitein · Post by **Bas Kapitein** » 17 Mar 2023 8:39 am

Suggestions wanted for a Successor to my Mesa studio preamp.
Recently my studio preamp needed a major overhaul. €350 later my technician warned me that he could fix all problems but next time I might be not so lucky. When I asked what the problem was he said “old age”. Parts are hard to come by (in Europe) and there is a lot of labour involved.
I mostly play C6th and I love the warmth of my Mesa. Selling it while it is in good condition seams wise but what compares the best. I have the mesa in a rack with a TC Electronic M-OneXl with recording out to a mixer. I might be interested in a good modeling preamp that can reproduce the warmth of the Mesa clean channel and has the reverb/delays on-board. But reusing my M-OneXL might be simpler because there is nothing wrong with it.

Greg Cutshaw · Post by **Greg Cutshaw** » 17 Mar 2023 9:47 am

You might want to consider the ToneX pedal:

https://www.gregcutshaw.com/ToneX%20Ped ... Pedal.html

It has a nice warm tone and tons of easily selected and modified amp and cabinet sounds. Built in room and plate reverb is very good but there is no built in delay.

Jim Kennedy · Post by **Jim Kennedy** » 18 Mar 2023 7:52 am

You might want to try the Mesa factory repair shop:

https://mesaboogie.zendesk.com/hc/en-us ... aintenance

If you are really attached to that preeamp, it may worth to you to have a factory overhaul.

I had my Mesa 50 Calibre serviced their several times. Great service with quick turnaround.

Bob Hoffnar · Post by **Bob Hoffnar** » 18 Mar 2023 8:07 am

I would find a more local builder. Some of the best pro level audio equipment is built in Northern Europe. Don’t worry that it is not built for the pedalsteel steel. Your mesa was not built for pedalsteel. Check out pre amps built for bass or for studio quality DI work. Filtering through the massive amount of gear built for the metal guys will be a hassle but there are probably a few gems in there too.

I have never owned or used any of the digital modeling gear but it seems like some of it is getting really good.

I’m pretty sure Milkman has European distribution now. There “the amp” is worth a look. It sounds fantastic and is built for working players. Extremely versatile.

Post by **Dave Mudgett** » 18 Mar 2023 10:44 am

I think it is important to know the range of use cases for which you're using your Mesa Studio Preamp. There is a very wide range of sounds available using it, from clean to slightly pushed-tube crunch to distorted. I think, historically, it is pretty unique in the tube guitar amp world.

There are some modelers out there that I like for clean sounds. But I haven't found anything I really like for pushed-tube types of overdrive/distortion sounds yet. I admit, I haven't tried some of the high-priced spreads like a Kemper, and maybe someone has figured it out. But I'm not into dropping thousands and then having to spend spending a bunch of time to tweak to find out. Also haven't tried the recent ToneX that Greg mentions.

For clean sounds, I haven't found any preamp I prefer to Brad Sarno's Revelation tube preamp. It's basically a slightly extended Twin Reverb preamp in a 2-space rack configuration. I just use an overdrive to push the tubes to the edge, or a distortion pedal to present it with a distorted sound - I think there are some very good overdrive pedals out there. That is different approach than the Mesa Studio Preamp takes. But that is still the approach I use with my tube amps, which are mostly old Fenders and Gibsons, with a Marshall, old Magnatone, and a few others thrown in. I use the Rev for recording and also with either a Furlong powered cabinet or a 50 Watt Fryette Power Station, which can act both as a power attenuator and a standalone 50-Watt tube power amp.

As far as I know, Brad still makes these - https://www.sarnomusicsolutions.com/pro ... eamp.html. And they do turn up on the forum and/or on reverb.com periodically. In fact, there's one on reverb now. Brad has other preamps - the Tonic, the V8, the SMS Classic, and there may be other variations. I know I saw a Revelation with octal tubes recently for sale here on the forum.

I know that Synergy makes a housing for tube preamp modules - both a single and double preamp version. I haven't tried these at this point, but I think most of the preamp modules are more geared for high-gain applications - for example, Bogner, Diezel, Engl, Fryette, Friedman, Soldano, and so on. More here - https://www.synergyamps.com/. I think there may be one or two of them that give a late 60s Marshall Plexi type of channel, which, as designed without the typical mods people make to make them distort more, actually stays pretty clean until pushed pretty hard.

Honestly, for a long time, I don't think the tube guitar amp world was really quick to embrace tube preamps. I guess there were some in the 1980s, when there was a bit of a trend to rack-mounted gear. But I think integrated pre/power amps - traditional combos and heads - pretty much took over after that. I think this is largely because a really important part of the 'tube amp sound' comes from the power tubes being pushed.

Bas Kapitein · Post by **Bas Kapitein** » 19 Mar 2023 2:51 am

Thank you all for your thoughts.

Jim: shipping the unit twice from Europe to the US only for service is out the question, simply to much time and money.
Bob and Dave gave a few good suggestions. I found a tube preamp builder only 70 miles away that specializes in bass amps. Looks promising. This is an older unit https://www.luthiersaccessgroup.com/pro ... ey-va-615/

Greg; your review of the ToneX pedal combined with some posts earlier on the Dream 65 was the reason I put up this post. But the sound examples you put up show your preference for a bright steel sound. I like a more warmer darker sound like my Gibson arch top produces.
The ToneX looks like a challenge to the dream65 and the iridium. If it also can deliver that warmer sound, I might even switch from real tubes to models.

Brett Lanier · Post by **Brett Lanier** » 19 Mar 2023 8:50 am

The Quilter tone block 202 is also worth considering. It's smaller and lighter than all the preamps mentioned, even though it has a 200 watt power amp in it. You can use it anyway you want; as a preamp, power amp, line out with or without cab emulation, or headphone amp. Most of the amps I use are from '65 or earlier, but I'm digging this little box. I can get it to sound nearly identical to my favorite amps, but with with zero noise floor.

Tal Herbsman · Post by **Tal Herbsman** » 19 Mar 2023 12:19 pm

If you're looking for preamps in pedal form I'll throw this in if only for completeness sake :

https://www.effectrode.com/products/eff ... be-preamp/

It's currently my favorite tied with the Sarno V8. This one has a few more tones on tap w/ more flexible eq and distortion available but they both sound like $1M.

It's hard to overemphasize that the v8 has NO bad settings or sounds. It is absolutely gorgeous and a bit mellower than the BF boxes.

I also have an ethos clean ii that I like a bunch as well:
http://www.customtonesinc.com/preamps.html

can sound fabulous as well but way too many tone shaping options and unlike the v8 easy to get some shrill and dead sounds out of it. my guess is that it no longer competes with the likes of the UA/Tonex.

Bas Kapitein · Post by **Bas Kapitein** » 22 Mar 2023 7:53 am

Brett and Tal, thank you both for making it more difficult! All of your suggestions are for sale in Europe so I will be busy.