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The mailman had a huge box for me...look what was inside Pretty dirty...would be an understatement This sucker must have all its original dust So you might recall that I had scored two Boogie preamps within a couple days of one another. The first was this Studio for $200 and the second was the Quad for $400 :thu: I've wanted to try out both of these for awhile now, so I jumped at the chance of being able to have both.

I hooked up the Studio from its main outs to the fx return of my Tremoverb and dialed in a clean tone with my Jackson guitar. This guitar is the one I mainly use for my bluesy stuff, really clean, etc. Although it has two humbuckers in it, I have both of them split most of the time and that's how I use it.

So I fired it all up and lemme tell you, when you hear people say this can get an AWESOME Fender style clean tone, they aren't kidding The low end was tight and thick, it held together no matter how hard I hit the low E. The mids were nice and smooth, as were the highs. Chords had a real sense of feeling, you could really *Feel* it when you play. It's just a great, warm, ROUND, thick in your face tone. And this was just with my bridge humbucker! This was with the rhy bright on and the EQ engaged made it stick out a bit more too.

Now the lead channel is a little different story. With the same exact settings, same guitar, it didn't sound too good. It's got some decent sustain but it's really raw sounding, not too smooth. So I went and changed the settings. That helped a bit. Taking the EQ out also helped to smooth things out. So naturally, dialing in the clean tone means the clean sounds best and the lead is suffering a bit, so I'm gonna work on finding a good compromise...maybe.

Now I also tried the recording outs and I flat out didn't like them. The cleans sounded thin and weak, the lead was a bit smoother but more quot;Coveredquot; sounding/feeling.

I also tried a few other guitars real quick. another superstrat style with duncan distortion in the bridge and dimarzio breed in the neck. The clean tones were a bit more jumpy sounding and it broke up much easier. The lead tone was better though, due to the higher output pickups. It was pretty smooth, good amount of sustain, etc.

I tried my explorer with EMGs...didn't like it at ALL. But then again, this particular guitar has a really dark, almost dull sound to it. The strings are also very dead, so maybe that's to blame. I'll try it again in a few days when I get new strings. But as it was, the clean was useless and the lead was crunchy.

Last guitar up was an Ibanez 7 string with an emg 81-7 in the bridge. Clean was so-so since I only have this one pickup in it...The leads were pretty good, fairly smooth and warm. Still gotta play with it some more.

Other stuff...the board isn't seated firmly anymore, the little tabs are broken underneath so it kinda just sits on the chassis. Because of this, the LEDs had come out of the front panel, so I pushed them back in. As you can see, it's also extremely dirty. I gotta clean it up later (suggestions?). Some of the pots were very scratchy too, particularly the MID pot. It was scratchy and making the volume cut in/out while I was messing with it. Output B's volume control is totally crapped up, gotta buy a new one.

So other than those little things and possibly a new set of tubes, this sucker was a great buy! Since I have a few other preamps, amps, and I have the Quad coming, I'm thinking I could just use this for clean tones...I really dig em a lot :thu: Of course, I gotta try and get my guitars in similar conditions so I can really test it out and see if any work better than others. That might change this a bit, haha...

MJ

If I talk candidly, I don't want it to bum you out. Both those pre's were Mesa flops. They kind of came from the MK series vibe, and definitely not the Rec or Triaxis vibe. When they came out, everyone was excited to hear them, then hated them. The gain is just awful on the Studio and Quad, and the cleans have that real 80's studio sound, like a Mk 1.

My advise is to try and turn them around for a slight profit ASAP, and buy either the Mesa Triaxis, VHT Valvulator, or Marshall JMP-1. At the time they Quad came out, they were just starting to grasp the idea of rack setups, but they perfected it AFTER those models. The most famous player that used a Quad preamp was Kurt Cobain, as a trivia tidbit.

Again, I don't want to get you bummed about the purchases, but you're finding out for yourself what everyone thought of them. If you mentioned them on here, before buying, you probably would have gotten a thumbs down from most who know about them. The Triaxis is great though.

No worries Honestly though, everything I've heard has been pretty positive, even here. I haven't heard too much of the Studio's distortion tones, but I've heard plenty of the Quad's and personally, I dig it I'm not really going for the Recto (have one) or Triaxis tones (still wanna check one out though), and in my mind these are a good mix in between a few tones I like.

Cobain used the Studio...Pete Townshend, Mike McCready, Hetfield, and HAmmett too

MJ

At least they're worth money, so you can give them the benefit of the doubt with some highgain tubes first. Maybe, just keep the one you like the most, and sell off the other. Also, if you don't use both ADA's, you could part with one of those too, and buy something like the Triaxis, JMP-1, VHT, Soldano/Caswell pre, or the Mesa recording pre. As long as you've got spare stuff to move around, you can always have fun trying new ones. It looks like you've got a good collection of rack gear already, so you may as well keep going. So much of the older rack gear has depreciated so much, that you can always find a good deal on stuff.

Yeah that's true, I've been doing that with pedals and guitars recently, just flowing in and out, haha. Both MP1s are modded and have different tones, so I'm keeping those for awhile. At least until I can find a rackmount Recto. Then I might sell the 3.1 MP1. The 3TM is cool though, super thick and heavy, a lot better than the stock versions

MJ

I can only touch on the cleaning part. It would be ideal if you knew someone with a small compressor. (The quot;airquot; kind.) Just blow the thing out - carefully.

For the pots, get some Caig Labs Deoxit. Radio Shack sells it as do some on-line vendors. Spray some in, and rotate them back and forth a few times. Best stuff there is.

Artie

btw - Nice score.

The Studio and Quad are both great sounding preamps, but they don't sound like a Recto or even vaguely Marshall-like. If you like the older Mesa mark series sound (think Mk IIC or Mk III) these are the preamp to get as they do that sound much better than the Triaxis does. On the other hand, if you like Marshalls or Rectos, you should stay away as they're a very different animal. Dialing them in is quite difficult as the knobs are very interactive. My recommendation is to set the volume and lead drive around 7, mid and treble 6-8, and bass 3-4. Dial in your clean sound, then switch to lead EQ and go from there. If you remove just enough mid (these amps are VERY mid-rangy) and don't boost the bass and treble too much, you can get a great high gain sound. It will also do mid-scooped thrash if that's your thing.

The other guitar player in my band uses a Studio Pre into a Marshall 9005, and it complements my Triamp really well. My only wish is that it had a 3rd or 4th channel, but the Keeley TS-9 makes a great lead boost for it.

P.S. Kurt used the clean channel of the Studio Pre with a Boss DS-1.

Those are almost the exact settings I have just dialed in, haha Yeah aside from Hetfield and HAmmett, the main reason I wanted to check it out was Cobain's use. I like that clean to he would get from the studio...

Ok, so yesterday I didn't really have much of a chance to let everything run wide open, so a little while ago, I spent some time with the studio pre and tried to compare the guitars again.

My jackson with split humbuckers still sounds the best for that thick, Fenderish, blues tone. And with the reverb, it's seriously like the Wicked Game tone. It's lush, thick, shimmery, and smooth. The other guitars sound pretty good too once you tweak the settings, but not quite as clear. Maybe it's just the dead strings. This time around, I concentrated more on the heavier side of things and I was not disapointed

Once again, I have the preamp running into the power section of my Recto and I have the rhy mode setup for cleans with the bright engaged. The lead mode brings in the EQ and also uses the fat and bright switches. I plugged in my explorer and tried it out for about 20 minutes, tweaking away. The graphic EQ works wonders! It's heavy, heavy, heavy, captain crunch is alive The leads were pretty good too, very smooth with a good amount of sustain. This has more quot;tone gainquot; than quot;distortion gain,quot; if that makes sense.

Next up I plugged in an Ibanez 7620 with an EMG81-7 in the bridge. This guitar has a fresh set of strings on it, so it felt and sounded much better than my others. I'm still waiting on my shipment of new strings to arrive, so the Ibanez was the one I've played the most with the Studio. This took the crunch and tone up a few more notches for sure! Now I'm not gonna say I can nail this tone or that tone, but I can say that it really does remind me of Petrucci's older tone. The crunchy rhythm tones have that huge 3D punch, raw but strong breakup, etc. The leads are again, pretty smooth and full of sustain. I was gonna try to boost it a bit with my tubescreamer, but my batteries are dead.

So after the second day, I've managed to dial in a pretty good clean tone AND a great crunchy rhythm/lead tone that can be used together without needing to tweak the settings. I'm sure I'll refine it as I keep messing with it, but bottom line is it sounds great

Clips coming up soon...

MJ

Gearjoneser my man, we're buds, and you know gear far more than most, more than me in many areas, but I gotta respectfully disagree with you on this one. Both the studio and quad preamp are pretty impressive. I gigged with a studio preamp/295 power amp for years, turned out to be the best road rig I've had. They're roadworthy as hell too, I've seen my entire rack tumble down a big flight of stairs, fired up like the day it was born.

Here's the thing, if you're not a tweaker, and I mean a really really patient person, then it's easy to not find the tone and get frustrated. However, the sweet spots are in there, you just gotta find em, and it took me some time. One thing to note, if you want the unit to sound best, always play your cleans with low output single coils, and dirty with high output humbuckers, otherwise you'll have difficulty making both sounds work. Put a boost pedal in the loop, and you got a very respectable 3 channel rig.

When you do find the sweet spots on it, do yourself a favor, WRITE THEM DOWN! No joke, it'll save mucho headache. One tiny change and man they're gone, the whole thing is interactive with the other controls, so you change one thing and you kinda change everything.

These things are all over many records, lots of studio guys used them, and many still do. Dan Huff used the studio a lot I believe, and that guy aint even human, sickly talented.

The reverb on the studio sucks though, no other way to put it. Granted these aren't the absolute best rack preamps made, if you want that, look for a bogner fish, or ultimately a Demeter TGP-3 (holy grail of preamps).

The other thing I'd add is that to get the most out of the rack preamps from the good old days, you gotta get a BBE sonic maximizer. Once you've had one, you realize it's integral to the rack operation.

Damn...makes me GAS. Let me know how that Quad is, I'm looking for the Mark III/IV tone in a preamp.

Fair enough Todd!! You do know your vintage Mesa gear a lot more than me. I had a Quad go through my hands fairly quickly, and found that it just wasn't my sound, and you're right, those interactive controls take some getting used to. And a lot of it has to do with the power amp. I also had the 295 power amp, and loved that tube monster!

I guess I was doing the same thing as Monty, in the early 90's, buying and selling different preamps. I found that you're right about BBE Sonic Maximizers, they really helped the early pre's, and even current ones, although most current pre's sound pretty darn good on their own. That new VHT Valvulator is probably the most impressive current production one I've seen lately. Another bargain classic is the Hafler Triple Giant. Todd, do you still have those 2 Demeter TGP-3's? Now, those were probably the best early preamps ever made, but it's not surprising, coming from Jim Demeter.
I wonder why Bogner discontinued the Fish preamp? Can you believe they fetch $2300 now?

Yeah the price on bogners went through the roof, I believe not many were made. So it's supply and demand, and with a really high quality product like those, the price will usually skyrocket. However I doubt they were cheap new.

Yeah I've got a couple demeter preamps, I dig em. Haven't really gone rack mount for awhile, but I know I will again at some point so I held them. For awhile I was using one at home as a practice rig with a little 20/20 power amp.

You're right, the boogie 295 is awesome. Just a real ballsy power section. I regret selling mine, and will probably buy one again.

I know it would be a drag to bring your stuff over, but when the studio is done, it would be a fun idea to do a total gear shootout with your stuff and mine. We could waste a day doing that easy. What do you think?

Absolutely, I want to record some tracks, so maybe we could bring in a drummer and do several tunes, featuring different amps. Your studio room is gonna be awesome when it's done. There's nothing like recording in a nice ambient wood room! I'm getting excited just thinking about doing a ton of clips with the Fargens, Bogner, Matchless, Demeter pres, and maybe some of your best Marshalls. Sorry, to hijack here, maybe I'll continue in PM's.

yeah my apologies, didn't intend to disrail the thread, back to the preamp talk

Studio preamp is a real value today, especially for the price you got it for. Usually you see them up over $400 used

One other mention on the studio preamp, I had issues with wearing out the input jacks on mine. There's one in front and back, so I always had an alternative until I got it fixed, but I went through a few of them.

Uh..Studio preamp...you're going to twiddle those volumes...alot!
As RevolutionMan says write the sweet spots down.
I had two of those back then, one set up for clean and the other for drive, into a big bad poweramp.
Dann Huff used the Quad and the Studio, and yes the man is sickly good!
And he does not even like to twiddle with gear
Anyways once dialed in....sweet units with their own distinctive style, but alot of time and trouble as well.

No worries guys, it's cool

Yeah I noticed the front input jack on mine is kinda crapping out too, gotta replace it. But the back seems to work well.

MJ