I Just bought a Mesa Studio Preamp. It's one of the ones that has no inputs on the front. The Serial # is SP087. Anyone know what that might mean as far as how old the preamp is?
I have a Carvin TS100 that I'd been using as the power source for several peices of equipment that I no longer own (Digitech RP500, Line 6 HD500). I was considering putting the amp on E-bay, but decided I'd try an honest-to-goodness, anolog preamp before I sold it.
I looked at the somewhat limited selction out there for new preamps in an affordable price range, and decided to go with the Mesa after reading a number of very positive reviews online.
After taking the time to learn how to use it, (Previous experiences with Boogie stff has been frustrating: Mostly Fender type guy) I'm quite impressed, to say the least. I can get an amazing array of tones out of it, many of which I don't think most people would associate with a Mesa product. I run it into two single 12" cabs: one with a Weber Silver Bell (Ceramic) in a closed back cab, and the other is a Tone Tubby (Ceramic) in an open back cab.
I play in a band that plays about everything except metal and rap, and so I have to cover a lot of ground. I'd been using amp modelers as preamps, but they everntually start sounding rather phony to me. The HD 500 was especially disapointing after all they hype about "realism". I've never quite tried to copy exact amps, so I don't care if a tone is a spot on replica of, say, an AC30: I just want it to fit the tune. We really don't do too many covers so the "exact" replica thing is never an issue.
Every day I discover some new sound and I've learned to take a digital photo of my settings, so I can go back later and recreate them, as it seems a slight turn of a knob can have a big effect.
In any case, I'd like to find out the "tribal knowledge" about this preamp from members of website: what tubes work best with it, and other things like that. I'm realy knew to all things Mesa.
I have a Carvin TS100 that I'd been using as the power source for several peices of equipment that I no longer own (Digitech RP500, Line 6 HD500). I was considering putting the amp on E-bay, but decided I'd try an honest-to-goodness, anolog preamp before I sold it.
I looked at the somewhat limited selction out there for new preamps in an affordable price range, and decided to go with the Mesa after reading a number of very positive reviews online.
After taking the time to learn how to use it, (Previous experiences with Boogie stff has been frustrating: Mostly Fender type guy) I'm quite impressed, to say the least. I can get an amazing array of tones out of it, many of which I don't think most people would associate with a Mesa product. I run it into two single 12" cabs: one with a Weber Silver Bell (Ceramic) in a closed back cab, and the other is a Tone Tubby (Ceramic) in an open back cab.
I play in a band that plays about everything except metal and rap, and so I have to cover a lot of ground. I'd been using amp modelers as preamps, but they everntually start sounding rather phony to me. The HD 500 was especially disapointing after all they hype about "realism". I've never quite tried to copy exact amps, so I don't care if a tone is a spot on replica of, say, an AC30: I just want it to fit the tune. We really don't do too many covers so the "exact" replica thing is never an issue.
Every day I discover some new sound and I've learned to take a digital photo of my settings, so I can go back later and recreate them, as it seems a slight turn of a knob can have a big effect.
In any case, I'd like to find out the "tribal knowledge" about this preamp from members of website: what tubes work best with it, and other things like that. I'm realy knew to all things Mesa.