Tweet
hi folks
last weekend my bassist borrowed me his beloved sansamp psa-1 preamp...for those who don't know it, it's basically an analog all solid state preamp (midi capable).
so, i brought it home, hooked it up to my mesa DC tube amp using the fx return jack (although the sansamp is said to sound 100000times better using a solid state poweramp because it was designed with all solid state in mind) and BOOM. instant surprise. the factory presets don't suck ^^ well, some of them do, but even the mediocre ones are at least usable - something you canNOT say about for example the pod XT. the metallica preset is pretty far away from the real deal, so is the rectifier one (actually, i think the mesa style presets are the worst), but the plexi is more or less spot on, and the marshall style high gain patch sounds killer (just a bit too gainy though ^^).
by the way, don't get me wrong, it's NOT a modeling preamp!!! it just that it's really really versatile and covers a lot of sonic ground.
so far, so good. later i started building my own patches (didn't take me too long to figure the damn thing out, by the way. it's very straightforward) and i was completely in shock because of the insane amout of TIGHT as a virgin lowend you can dial in. really, it's like setting the bass on the mesa to zero tight, except for the fact that you can add as much bass as you want without having to deal with increasing mud. the key to that is setting the "buzz" control (controlling the amout of low end overdrive) low and pumping the lows up using the post distortion (active) bass control.
besides this (btw, i'm NOT a lowend fanatic) i'd say it's definitely best suited for speed to death metal sounds. to me it sounds very natural in this realm. you can dial in other sounds, but i think it sounds forced and artificial if you do....but well, i'm a thrash metal fanatic [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]
the cleans are great, too. not superb, but they definitely do the job very well.
i haven't tried the DI outs etc.....just sansamp -> mesa
pros:
-tight low end (very iced earth-ish)
-very versatile
-50 user patches + 50 usable factory patches
-lots of stuff on the back, such as di outs, poweramp outs, fx loop, a second input for rack use etcetc
-no tubes to worry about, but it doesn's sound like your typical solid state preamp
cons
-watch the treble. its easy to dial in too much piercing treble
-quite expensive (650€ new)
-it's not mine [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]
if i had 600€ left over, i'd buy it in a heartbeat, thats for sure. great for thrash metal without sacrificing the clean side of things
by the way, i got the MOST CRUSHING sound EVER by running the sansamp and the mesa's preamp in stereo using the fx mix on the back and an a/b/y box. i set the sansamp for a almost totally clean low end BOOM BOOM BOOM that was REALLY tight, and then i added mids and treble using the mesa. best of both worlds, really. smooth mesa tube highend, cutting tube mids, and tight solid state low end.....i have to try that again.
maybe i'll use it for the show i'll play this weekend, to see how it cuts through a full band situation.
greets
fragle
last weekend my bassist borrowed me his beloved sansamp psa-1 preamp...for those who don't know it, it's basically an analog all solid state preamp (midi capable).
so, i brought it home, hooked it up to my mesa DC tube amp using the fx return jack (although the sansamp is said to sound 100000times better using a solid state poweramp because it was designed with all solid state in mind) and BOOM. instant surprise. the factory presets don't suck ^^ well, some of them do, but even the mediocre ones are at least usable - something you canNOT say about for example the pod XT. the metallica preset is pretty far away from the real deal, so is the rectifier one (actually, i think the mesa style presets are the worst), but the plexi is more or less spot on, and the marshall style high gain patch sounds killer (just a bit too gainy though ^^).
by the way, don't get me wrong, it's NOT a modeling preamp!!! it just that it's really really versatile and covers a lot of sonic ground.
so far, so good. later i started building my own patches (didn't take me too long to figure the damn thing out, by the way. it's very straightforward) and i was completely in shock because of the insane amout of TIGHT as a virgin lowend you can dial in. really, it's like setting the bass on the mesa to zero tight, except for the fact that you can add as much bass as you want without having to deal with increasing mud. the key to that is setting the "buzz" control (controlling the amout of low end overdrive) low and pumping the lows up using the post distortion (active) bass control.
besides this (btw, i'm NOT a lowend fanatic) i'd say it's definitely best suited for speed to death metal sounds. to me it sounds very natural in this realm. you can dial in other sounds, but i think it sounds forced and artificial if you do....but well, i'm a thrash metal fanatic [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]
the cleans are great, too. not superb, but they definitely do the job very well.
i haven't tried the DI outs etc.....just sansamp -> mesa
pros:
-tight low end (very iced earth-ish)
-very versatile
-50 user patches + 50 usable factory patches
-lots of stuff on the back, such as di outs, poweramp outs, fx loop, a second input for rack use etcetc
-no tubes to worry about, but it doesn's sound like your typical solid state preamp
cons
-watch the treble. its easy to dial in too much piercing treble
-quite expensive (650€ new)
-it's not mine [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]
if i had 600€ left over, i'd buy it in a heartbeat, thats for sure. great for thrash metal without sacrificing the clean side of things
by the way, i got the MOST CRUSHING sound EVER by running the sansamp and the mesa's preamp in stereo using the fx mix on the back and an a/b/y box. i set the sansamp for a almost totally clean low end BOOM BOOM BOOM that was REALLY tight, and then i added mids and treble using the mesa. best of both worlds, really. smooth mesa tube highend, cutting tube mids, and tight solid state low end.....i have to try that again.
maybe i'll use it for the show i'll play this weekend, to see how it cuts through a full band situation.
greets
fragle