If you had $700.00 to spend on a Preamp..

[Strangletooth]

** If you have had "Almost every amp known to man"...then you have
had 1/3rd as many as HippiTim! :-)) Good to hear that the Quad X
is favored around here...it may go for $500.00, and since they are near
impossible to find anymore...this may be the one'.. Oh..the "One"!
Wonder how many times Tim has owned "The One"??

Ah, the knowledge of half of the equation... You don't know me bro and have no idea of what I've owned. But you're right with Tim, he's owned as much as I have, perhaps a couple more, but it's all relative, same as tone, it's all relative... It's all good!

[markD]

robert, PM sent.....the other option is the best in my opinion.

[horns666]

Ah, the knowledge of half of the equation... You don't know me bro and have no idea of what I've owned. But you're right with Tim, he's owned as much as I have, perhaps a couple more, but it's all relevant, same as tone, it's all relevant... It's all good!

It's all good baby...you gotta work dat chit!

[hippietim]

I wouldn't go for the Boogie. I've never liked any that I've played through.

I wouldn't go for the Carvin Quad-X without knowing a lot more about it.

For the money you are looking to spend I would look into a Voodoo Lab Preamp, Hafler Triple Giant, or a Randall RM4. The RM4 would be the most fun because you can swap modules. You should be able to find one loaded for a grand.

[hippietim]

** If you have had "Almost every amp known to man"...then you have
had 1/3rd as many as HippiTim! :-)) Good to hear that the Quad X
is favored around here...it may go for $500.00, and since they are near
impossible to find anymore...this may be the one'.. Oh..the "One"!
Wonder how many times Tim has owned "The One"??

I have never owned "The One". I don't believe it exists. My dream rig would consist of "The Quite A Few"

Not one thing out there is the best. There is only "good enough for now". And if you're lucky, "good enough" can be pretty fucking kickass.

[Strangletooth]

I wouldn't go for the Boogie. I've never liked any that I've played through.

I wouldn't go for the Carvin Quad-X without knowing a lot more about it.

For the money you are looking to spend I would look into a Voodoo Lab Preamp, Hafler Triple Giant, or a Randall RM4. The RM4 would be the most fun because you can swap modules. You should be able to find one loaded for a grand.

Th Randall stuff is VERY freakin cool! I've got an RM100c now with a handful of mods, sure not rack stuff, but good for what I need now. That's my noodlin amp for the moment.

My buddy Shaky, some of you know him from NAMM a few years back, is actually sitting right next to me now and laughing his ass off abotu the VHT comment, but again it's all relative. Anyway, he's teched for A LOT of bands for 20+ yrs and has never heard a rig like my old one, ever, in his words, that was the one, and I tend to agree. If I ever bought another rig of that nature, it would be identical. I have no regrets with any part of it and wouldn't change so much as a frequency on the eq.

Anyway, I agree 100% with what Tim said with Boogie, I've tried at least 8 or so of them, I've tried to buy several at various stages and they never lasted a week here, one thing about them is each and every one of them is different, it's like a Les Paul, every one you touch is a little bit different from the last and next.

But again, tone is ALL relative, it's all about you and what you find dialing it in. What DO YOU sound like?

What you need to do is find a guy/store, etc that has a bunch of rack shit and let you try some stuff out. (if you only have $700, it would be ideal if you can swing it) Some folks (Tim-lol) have the luxury of buying something, not liking it, buy something else and flipping the old or both, lol and going at it again. I remember when I had 4 or 5 pre's and a handful of heads, anything from old stock/mod'd plexi's to a few variations of the EVH's and a couple of VHT heads, never could find "the one" until I eventually built the one above.

Anyway, best of luck with your decision, no matter what it is, it will never "really" be the right one...

[hippietim]

I've had my moments:

[hippietim]

This was a fun couple days too:

[Strangletooth]

Tim,

What'd you think of the CAE stuff?

I wish I could dig out some pics, but they're all on some old scsi stuff and I haven't had a chance to get to them in a while. I've got a lot of old recordings of my rig as well on an older MAC I'll have to dig out, but that will probably be one of those yr old threads resurrected...

It took me a long time to dial my shit in once I had it all together and this should be the same for everyone at that stage. People think it's easy to find it, it's not in the least bit and may take months to finally get it. I know I gave up on a lot of pre's rather easy and people thought I was nuts for getting rid of half of what I did back then, but oh well, no time/patience.

And the most important thing is it's all relative to you and your tone (as Bill said somewhere else) I couldn't agree more! If you can't play, it's ALL gonna sound like ass! Randy, EVH, etc can make a solid state crate from 1980 sounds like the baddest rig anywhere, ever.

Find what you like and keep it, I noticed John has kept his CAE for several years now, I wish I'd have done the same, I'd kill for that rig now and could put another one together, but I don't need it. I haven't even touched a guitar for months now it seems, too busy with other things and have other "spending" priorities if you will.

Oh well, good luck with whatever you pick, just give it an honest effort to dial it in, even the smallest variable can make a HUGE difference.

[Strangletooth]

Oh and for God's sake, don't put a $5000 rig together with $1.49 cables!!!

[roodyrocker]

I've had my moments:

Thats all fine and dandy for your distortion channel, now show us what you use for cleans

[roodyrocker]

Oh and for God's sake, don't put a $5000 rig together with $1.49 cables!!!

I know what you mean Pat, I wanted to use Zaolla cables for mine but the $300 5' speaker cable made me re-think that. Think I'm going to look further into Lava.

[hippietim]

Thats all fine and dandy for your distortion channel, now show us what you use for cleans

What are these "cleans" that you speak of?

[joshulator]

I have been very happy with my Rocktron Voodu Valve, but I don't think it's nearly as favored around here.

[zeegler]

I would go with a Marshall JMP1

Me too.

In fact. I think I'm pretty much done messing around buying, selling and trading heads. I'll be keeping the 900 of course, but soon enough I'll be grabbing a JMP-1 and a Mesa 20/20.