Studio Pre + 20/20 Power

[zenabI]

Tell me everything about this combo?

I have a Studio Pre so I know all about that one but how is the 20/20 poweramp in conjunction with the Studio Pre? What type of **** is it capable of? Tell me

 

[JT_Marshmallow]

I've never tried the 20/20 but I've read a lot about it. From my understanding, it is meant to give you power-amp breakup at reasonable volumes. I have also read that it has a natural boost in the mids. Just make sure you like the EL84 sound. Its similar to that of EL34's. Currently I'm using an EL84 Peavey 50/50 poweramp with my Studio Pre and its a great combo, but I am in the process of tracking down a real Mesa 50/50 that uses 6L6's. Before I got the Peavey power amp I was running the Studio through the power section of my Revision F Dual Rectifier. Now THAT was a good combo...

If you're going to push the 20/20 into breakup maybe you'd want to back off the gain on the Studio a bit to compensate. The Studio is supposed to have all the nuances of a gained-out stack all in one preamp, but combined with more saturation from a pushed tube power amp must be some great tone!

 

[zenabI]

I'm looking for a Rock/Fusion type of sound. I saw a video at YouTube with it and the guy had it modified because he thought the higher register was to trebly or something, so thats a concern for me, I don't want that. I want a thick sound in the upper register.

There's one thing I don't fully understand, I'm not an ampfreak... Why does a poweramp have preamp tubes like 12AX7?

 

[francm]

I'm looking for a Rock/Fusion type of sound. I saw a video at YouTube with it and the guy had it modified because he thought the higher register was to trebly or something, so thats a concern for me, I don't want that. I want a thick sound in the upper register.

There's one thing I don't fully understand, I'm not an ampfreak... Why does a poweramp have preamp tubes like 12AX7?

The 12AX7 is the phase inverter tube, which is needed in a Class AB amplifier.

I have the 20/20 and use it with my Studio Pre. I like the sounds I can get from it. It is plently loud but if you want to drive it into power tube breakup, get some ear plugs or a power attenuator. I always felt that with Mesa gear, power tube breakup just doesn't sound good. The Mesa sound is best with a clean power amp, but that's just my opinion. Marshalls on the other hand handle the extra grit and sag really well in terms of tone.

I find that the Studio pre sounds better through the 20/20 that through the power amp section of my Marshalls (via the effects return jack). Its just a little smoother on the high end via the 20/20.

If you want to get an extra stage of distortion, you can always blast the input section of the 20/20 to kick the input 12AX7s into overdrive and control the final volume with the 20/20's master volume. I used to do this with my Tube Works Blue Tube II. It sounded sick!

I removed the high pass filtering (applied the deep mod) on my 20/20. It sounded like absolute crap without the mod. Its real easy to do, totally reversible and I can send you pics if you need 'em. The high pass filter basically cut some of the bass frequencies out. In the future, I'll probably get a 50/50 to accomodate a second rack setup: V-Twin Rack & ADA MP-1 and switching unit with the 20/20. I'll move the Studio to a different 4 rack unit with the 50/50.

 

[CoG]

I used a 20/20 for a while. It's a great power amp for lead playing because it really cuts and when you crank it, the EL84s really sing and are quite full-sounding and smooth but very defined. Cleans sound awesome, as you might imagine. However, not much bottom end, even running a Rectifier preamp into it.

It's pretty loud, but not if you need it to be super clean. It's a loud 20W but there's very limited headroom. I got rid of mine partially because of the lack of bass (my main project is pretty heavy) and partially because I just needed more loud.

 

[zenabI]

Thanks for your input guys.

I'm not looking for a Metal sound at all, I don't need power amp breakup which I have never liked for anything other than Classic Rock to be honest.

I'm looking for a Fusion sound, with other words, Blues/Jazz/Rock - low gain type of sound.

Does it sound good at low gain?

(With low gain I mean no more gain than Andy Timmons have when he has maximum gain.)


francm, how exactly did it sound before the mod, was it to bassy or had it too little bass? Was it tight or was it flabby? And how was it after the mod?

I definitely want a tight bass, not fuzzy at all. The Studio Pre already have tons of thick bass. You know...

 

[francm]

(With low gain I mean no more gain than Andy Timmons have when he has maximum gain.)


francm, how exactly did it sound before the mod, was it to bassy or had it too little bass? Was it tight or was it flabby? And how was it after the mod?

I definitely want a tight bass, not fuzzy at all. The Studio Pre already have tons of thick bass. You know...

The amount of gain is variable but its definitely a compressed high gain sound. I set the master and lead gain at 5 and its plenty. Depending on your guitar's pickups, you'll get more or less gain but the difference won't be as dramatic as on a Marshall because of the high amount of gain and compression. You really lose picking dynamics and volume control from the guitar.

Does it sound good at lower gain settings? Yeah. You get a little more note definition. The trick seems to be to even out the gain controls over the two channels so you spread the gain across more tubes.

As for the 20/20 deep mod, I found that without it, it was lacking bass and it was very nasal sounding. Simple to do. You could even turn it on/off with a small switch. With the deep mod, the cleans are much nicer and the lead has more "ooomph". Flabby? not at all, unless you go crazy with the bass control on the EQ.