AMT ELECTRONICS SS-11A TUBE PREAMP

Made in Siberia, RUSSIA

Been spending most of my life playing in an apartment with no tube amp, sounds coming straight to mixer in my home and hear all the sounds using headphones or cheap solid state amp. Digital effect board seems the only logical solution to my limited rig but digital world seemed to lack the tone that I praise so much. I've been longing for a very warm tube amp sound that has some nice smooth clarity from a tube with the ability to get multiple channel from my amp for quite some time last year. I finally got the answer: THE AMT SS-11A.

Tube Preamp?

Yep. Not just your average preamp stompbox, this one is meant to be a true preamp or even an amp replacement. This box packs two 12AX7 tubes that are usually used in the preamp stage of popular tube amps. 3 channels: clean, crunch, lead with the crunch and lead channel share the same EQ knobs; 2 output: regular output to an amp, cab simulator to mixer for recording; an FX loop for placing your sensitive chorus, delay or reverb pedals. GOSH, THIS PEDAL PACKS SO MUCH FEATURES I DON'T EVEN WANT TO CALL IT A STOMPBOX !!!! I truly love the fact that it has a nice cab simulator output, the sound is very close to a mic'ed cabinet.

This box wants to be placed at the very end of your signal chain because it replaces rack preamp, amp head, or any other preamp/amp devices that eats tons of space. Hence, don't ever think to use this as a boost pedal like Tube Screamer or BB Preamp; this is a densely-packed-feature-rich multichannel amp in a form of a stompbox slightly larger than an average MXR pedal, not your average distortion pedal with true bypass output.

The mighty tube amp classic sound

The clean channel: Sounds very great. You won't get break up sound by cranking the gain knob all the way though, this is strictly clean sound. Think of a Vox AC15 or something similar, you'll get the idea of how it will sound. Put some boost pedals or overdrive before this box and you'll get Stevie Ray Vaughan with some adjustment on the knobs.

The crunch and lead channel: Both sounded great, the lead channel sounds a little different although using the same setting, it has some kind of boost somewhere in the EQ that I haven't been paying attention. Sounds between cranked Fender and Marshall, not too much crunch but has enough warmth and sustain that I really want(think of AC/DC or Queen). Crank up even more with an overdrive and you'll get the tubes over the top producing warmest sound I've ever heard from a non full sized amp.

Different level and gain adjustment for clean, crunch and lead so you can choose which one is louder and which one has more saturation compared to the others, very flexible. Full gain knob with a mid scoop and the help of a distortion pedal will bring this amp to the hairy metal world, but it's not intended to achieve that(they have AMT SS-20 for that).

Seemed to like it so far.....

But I think it still has some problem. The tubes won't last forever and the site mentions that the tubes aren't just regular 12AX7, they are called 12AH7 and I don't know who sells these tubes either in U.S. or worldwide.

In addition, the form factor is also small and that is also problematic (aside from helping you to get extra space on your pedal board). The knobs and switches are placed closely to each other, and I am having some trouble hitting the right switch. Definitely practice your switching skill before using this box on a live gig.

Worth?

Price is around $399.99. Expensive and seemed overpriced, but considering how it sounds compared to a real tube amp, this thing is still worth every penny.

From 0 to 10

I will give this box a 9.0, price is definitely a big obstacle and for a stompbox with $400 price tag, this item won't be competing with other pedals. But once again, this is not your regular stompbox, this works as an amp replacement and you should consider that this thing works even better than what it's advertised for.

www.amtelectronics.com or www.amtelectronicsusa.com

Sound clip : http://dl.dropbox.com/u/12709731/sound%20demo/AMT%20SS-11A.mp3, it goes from clean to crunch to lead. They're not on their maximum gain setting but I hope you can sort of feel how strong they are!

Cheers and God bless :)

XOTIC BB PREAMP

Let me start by saying that I am recently digging a lot of Andy Timmons' stuffs. I think he is one of only few guitarists that has great tone. Surely he plays great too (check out his new CD called Resolution)

What is it?

Okay, let's start. BB Preamp is actually a gain box that has unique characteristics. It's made by the Xotic. I use this pedal for sometime now as my primary gain box on my signal chain.

Let me talk about the sound that it can produce. This thing is capable of producing a super warm fat overdriven guitar tone that is similar to a vintage cranked EL34 based tube amps, let's just say an old Marshall. Not too much gain, but quite flexible gain control that can beef up your guitar tone while you're still running clean channel of your amp.

Another gain box? Something unique?

Let's just say almost everyone that chases tone knows Tube Screamer and what it does. Well, this is not a Tube Screamer wannabe; it's far from being called a TS clone. This thing maintains the transparency of your original tone and adds warmth and impressive amount of room to your signal. I tested this pedal using a basswood Ibanez equiped with Dimarzio Cruisers(bridge) at the neck and mid, and an AT humbucker at the bridge and it works very well on all position. The single coils get compressed tone with fair amount of treble, the humbucker gets a very sweet mid based overdriven sound with no muddiness at all.

What can I do with this pedal? What's the limit?

This thing is quite flexible, when you set the gain to a very low level, it will act almost like a clean boost, something that you can step to play clean leads without saturating your signal. If you put the gain at maximum, it will sound like a pushed crunch channel of a Marshall. It's NOT enough for metal music(I used to play metal years ago, so I know what kind of metal tone that people usually want), but if you put it in front of an already saturated amp, this thing will help your guitar to cut through the mix much easier.

Word of caution?

Beware, if you are NOT looking for extra mid on your signal or even try to cut the mid, this box will not do that job quite right. The nature of this box is to add extra mid to make warmness to your tone.

Anything else you need to know

This pedal is an IC based pedal. I believe it uses op-amp much like any other gain box in its range. It's not the one that has 12AX7 or germanium diode or whatever fancy stuffs, this is just plain IC based. It's meant not just to recreate vintage tone, but it's also going to help you get more fat warm non muddy tone that every lead guitarists want. However, if you're more interested in getting a vintage creamy fuzz sound from the sixties, I suggest check out pedals that has tubes or germanium diode in them. They'll have different feel than this box.

I personally disagree with the name "preamp". It should be BB Boost or something similar. Preamp doesn't usually come with true bypass :D...(I'm talking about TRUE true bypass, not just some true bypass, that should make you happy)

Power comes from 9V battery or the usual adapters such as BOSS and MXR.

Was it worth?

Talking about price, I got mine for $170.00. Pricey !!! But hey, it's worth every penny I spent. I personally use it side by side with an original TS808 so I can switch back and forth between two overdrive tones that I want. My personal favorite configuration: Bass 1 o'clock, treble 10 o'clock, gain around 3pm and the output will depend on your signal path but mine is set at around 9am and it already balances with the rest of my signal chain.

From 0 to 10

I give this pedal: 9.5....It will be 10 if it's bit cheaper, say in the price range of the usual TS or little bit more but not too much.

check out http://www.xotic.us

for sound clip MP3: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/12709731/sound%20demo/bb%20preamp.mp3

Hopefully you find this post to be informative, I will update if necessary. Otherwise, stay tuned for more reviews. CHEERS and God bless :)

p.s: if you are a truly Andy Timmons fan, go get the AT BB preamp limited edition, it's sold out already but if you check Mike Analogman's site, you'll find it there. Just google analogman :p....Oh, you can also get BB Preamp plus too, check it out, it's a twin BB preamp in one box.