PREAMPS - What are your opinion on these?

[JiMoSiTY]

I'm looking into buying a new preamp, I'm interested in the Carvin Quad-X, Engl 520, Hafler/Bogner Triple Giant and the Digitech 2120 Artist...

Can you guys give me some opinions on these units?
I'm particularly interested in what you guys think about the 2120 and the Engl 520... I have a pretty good reference on what you all think of the other two....

[Inazone]

Re: PREAMPS - What are your opinion on these?

I know that Andy (metallibanger) posts here from time to time and has a 2120. As I recall from past discussions, he doesn't like it for a preamp, and only uses it for effects.

[P I K A]

Re: PREAMPS - What are your opinion on these?

I'm interested in the engl too. I've heard its more 80's gain sound and not as noisy as the 530 but I've never heard one live so I'd like to know too.

[pro-fusion]

Re: PREAMPS - What are your opinion on these?

I had the 2101, which was the predecessor to the 2120 (and pretty similar, especially in terms of the preamp). I thought the tube distortions on the 2101 weren't too great, but the solid state distortion kicked ass. There was a preset patch called "death metal grind" that--almost without alteration--was my basic rhythm guitar sound for a number of years.

Effects are great, if not at the sound quality level of an Intellifex or G-Major. The 2101 was really cool because you could design your own custom effects chain with any combination of effects in any order up to the limits of the machine's memory--including weird stuff like using multiple choruses or flanges. You could go into Robert Fripp soundscapes territory, if you wanted to, especially since the footpedal on the MIDI controller board could be used to vary fx parameters--my favorite was to use the footpedal to control the amount of modulation on the ring modulator effect, so that I could play normally, and then gradually juice up the modulator to sound like my guitar sound was mutating into an alien sound!

The downside was that programming the 2101 was a complicated pain in the ass, and I think that Digitech simplified the 2120 by limiting its programming flexibility. Personally, I would seek out a good used 2101 over a 2120, just on that basis alone. But that's just me.

[skarhead]

Re: PREAMPS - What are your opinion on these?

i will give you both some opinions on that engls ( 530 and 620 ) as i'm going to my guitar teacher and he had it and used his 530 with mesa 2:50 and his bandmate used 620 with the same poweramp . cu tomorrow [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[JiMoSiTY]

Re: PREAMPS - What are your opinion on these?

Actually, the 520 is what I'm interested (the 3 channel model).

[StuTDavis]

Re: PREAMPS - What are your opinion on these?

The 2120, being an all-in-one unit is tempting. I know, I had one for a while myself and REALLY wanted that thing to work for me but, in the end, it just didn't jazz me that much. If you are interested in preamp/effects combinations, you can find much better options in the Rocktron units, in my opinion.

After trying quite a few different preamps and different types of preamps, I've found that I prefer to have a really meaty tube preamp, use that for a basic tone, and then sculpt the sound with other units as necessary. My guess is, any one of those preamps you mentioned would be great--they just probably have a different basic flavor in sound. I'm sure other guys will chime in on what they think about each one to give you some idea how they sound. I haven't played any of those, but have heard good things about them all in general.

Stu

[JiMoSiTY]

Re: PREAMPS - What are your opinion on these?

I have a TC Electronic G-Major for effects (and a Digitech TSR-24S) so I don't really need a unit with built in effects.

I also have a Line 6 Pod Pro and a Behringer V-Amp Pro (which is great by the way).

I guess I'm tending to stay away from the 2120 now, I kinda thought in some round about way, when Digitech acquired Hafler, who teamed up with Bogner to make the Triple Giant, MAYBE they learned something about making a killer preamp, I guess my hopes were wrong.

[screamindemon]

Re: PREAMPS - What are your opinion on these?

520 kicks but , I have 3 of them. Very 80's hotrodded marshall tone. Clean is very usable too. [img]graemlins/headbang.gif[/img]