Studio preamp, more gain than Mark III?

[edgecrusher]

I just a got a Studio preamp and Recto 2:100 poweramp last month and was wondering about the absurd amount of gain it has. On my Mark III (red stripe), I keep the gain at 7, but on the Studio preamp, I need it at about 3 because it has so much gain. Does this seem about right? It's also a bit noisier than the Mark, and does'nt quite cut through as much. I think I like the Mark III's preamp just a bit more; the Recto poweramp kills though!

 

[chipaudette]

I'm not a Studio owner, so I can't answer your post. But, it is certainly possible that your Studio was modified by some previous owner.

Chip

 

[bartchamdoh]

I had a studio pre amp and thought the clean channel was amazing as was the reverb!However i didn,t like the gain channel and for me my mark 3,s had miles more gain so it sounds like yours has been modded(since there seem to be a couple of mods for the gain channel to increase gain this would also point to this being the case)

 

[tonefreak25]

Sounds like the C+ mod, at least what I have heard about it. I own a pre and my gain usually hovers around 6 + or -, so if you are keeping it in the 3's and getting huge gain, it sounds like a mod. I'd love to know for sure which mod it is, if it is.

 

[Meson Boogie]

Same here, I have my high gain tones between 2 and 3. Four and above is pretty useless.

I'm pretty sure mine hasn't been modded though. If it was done at petaluma wouldn't it have some sort of record of the mod inside, like many mesa performed mods? I have it open at the moment and there's nothing like that, and it all looks as neat as the day it was made. I'd be very interested in undoing the mod if there is one though, I'd like a more useable gain range. I've tried things like swaping out a 12ax7 for an at7, but it affected the tone a little more than I'd like.

I wonder if perhaps the circuitry varied a bit in production? Mine was made in early '92, serial number in the low 6000s, if anyone fancies looking for a correlation.

 

[chipaudette]

Have you guys looked at the settings in the manual?

http://www.mesaboogie.com/manuals/StudioPre.pdf

If these settings are totally unusuable, then maybe something is indeed wrong (or modded) with your Studio.

Chip

 

[JT_Marshmallow]

I own a '92 Studio Pre. It does sparkling fender raunch, to brown sounds, to semi-Petrucci lead with ease. Mine is not modded and I think it has enough gain. Don't forget to tame the "Volume" knob also if you want less gain.

Also, don't forget that Lead Fat and Lead Bright also add gain. When I'm looking for a crystal clear dirty Fender kind of sound, I turn those switches off and start real low on Lead Drive and go up a bit from there to find the right amount of gain. Between those switches and the two gain controls (Volume and Lead Drive) I can get so many sounds out of it.

Never tried a Mark III btw.

 

[tonefreak25]

I own a '92 Studio Pre. It does sparkling fender raunch, to brown sounds, to semi-Petrucci lead with ease. Mine is not modded and I think it has enough gain. Don't forget to tame the "Volume" knob also if you want less gain.

Also, don't forget that Lead Fat and Lead Bright also add gain. When I'm looking for a crystal clear dirty Fender kind of sound, I turn those switches off and start real low on Lead Drive and go up a bit from there to find the right amount of gain. Between those switches and the two gain controls (Volume and Lead Drive) I can get so many sounds out of it.

Never tried a Mark III btw.

Agree here, I can get a great range of tones, and like I said I really don't turn my gain up to much, the two switches and the amount of treble you introduce will indeed affect your gain.
Just a note my pre is from 1986 with no mod.(she's an old girl, but has lots left in her)

 

[Dr.StrangeNote]

I just a got a Studio preamp and Recto 2:100 poweramp last month and was wondering about the absurd amount of gain it has. On my Mark III (red stripe), I keep the gain at 7, but on the Studio preamp, I need it at about 3 because it has so much gain. Does this seem about right? It's also a bit noisier than the Mark, and does'nt quite cut through as much. I think I like the Mark III's preamp just a bit more; the Recto poweramp kills though!

If you are refering to the Lead Drive, then both my studio pre and quad are set at about 6 or 7 for really punchy petrucci-like gain.

Let's see some settings of your studio pre with the lead drive set at 3. I'd like to experiement with mine.

 

[JT_Marshmallow]

I forgot to mention that the Treble knob is also very tricky. You will have a very saturated sound with it all the way up. Back it down to 6 or so and the gain will ease up. Then if you need more treble, boost the highest slider on the eq.

 

[Whoopysnorp]

My rig is a rack that contains both a Studio Pre and a Mark III blue stripe, and I do find that the Mark III has more gain available. The overall gain and tone are of a different flavor to my ears, although that might be because I keep lead fat engaged on the Studio Pre at all times. The fact that it's noisy makes me wonder if it's a tube issue.

edit: Although, now that I think about it, I do find that the rhythm mode starts to break up at lower settings on the volume knob than the Mark III does (seems like the III was designed to stay clean longer). Perhaps that's what you mean? I do keep my volume knob on the Studio down around 3ish, while on the III it's around 6 or 7 (though that's because I try to get a little crunch out of the clean channel, which is actually rather difficult to do).

 

[edgecrusher]

Well the manual's suggested metal settings also have the lead drive at 3 now that I see them, so everything seems to be normal. Those settings are pretty close to what I use, though I keep the input volume much lower at around 6 to keep the clean channel balanced, which does seem to breaker up a bit sooner than the Mark III.

I also forgot to mention that I'm boosting the Studio pre with a TS808 with the drive all the way down to get it nice and tight like the Mark III. The Mark III doesn't really need it since it's already so tight, but the Studio Pre/Recto 2:100 rig really benefits from the slight bass cut/mid boost of the Tubescreamer.

It's a sick sounding rig with huge balls, but I think I kinda like the Mark III a bit more at band practice since I'm the lead guitarist. I let my rhythm guitarist use the Studio/Recto rack last practice while I used the Mark III, and we sounded better than ever, everything sat in the mix much better.

 

[mglenn]

Hey, I think that might have been my Studio Pre! If so, then I didn't mod it in any way other than swapping out all of the preamp tubes. They were pretty old when I got it. I think the one that I traded you for the DC-5 (if I'm even talking to the right guy here...haha) had a mixed set of tubes in it. If it did, you might want to try moving some of them around to see what a different combination would sound like. I started with the Marco Sfogli settings to get a great lead tone, but the clean won't sound very good in that setup. I ended up with 2 Studio's so I could have one set to clean and one set for lead/rhythm. I couldn't find a good mix.

Marco's settings, from left to right:
9, 3, 7, 2, 7, 5.5, 10, 0 with a regular V in the eq., bright and fat on. He bumps the lead drive to 7.5-8 for leads. This setting is a bit noisy...

My settings, left to right again:

7, 6, 7, 2.5, 7, 4, 7, 0 with both bright and fat on. My GEQ is set pretty much like Petrucci's, so the middle slider is either on, or just above, the bottom line, the two bass sliders are a little above the two treble sliders to make a slightly bass heavy V shape. Again, this one is for a good rhythm tone, so the clean may suffer. It is more balanced than the Marco setting though.

The DC-5 sounds amazing now by the way. I switched out the tubes with a new set of JJ's (6L6's and preamp). It is like a little 2 channel Mark head now! It is pretty close to the new DT album currently... and that is good enough for me.

 

[edgecrusher]

Hey man! Marco's tone on his solo album was the main reason I wanted to pick up the studio pre, sounds amazing! Glad your liking the DC-5, it's a great little amp.