Mini Preamp Shootout on Acoustic Guitar, listen inside.

[Rob King]

So I have a few preamps I wanted to listen and compare. The acoustic is a Takamine miced with Neumann 183's. The 3 Preamps are

Martech MSS-10
Manley Slam!
Aphex 1100MK2

We used a Jellyfish Guitar pick to hear that as well. Kind of a cool 12 string type sound on a 6 string.

Just wanted to hear feedback on the pre's. Like - Dislike..

Cheers

[piano]

I like the Marteck - nice ballanced sound but it could be louder.

I liked the Manley at first more but then I realized it was a bit louder and less balanced.

Aphex - is clearly not in the same league.

[MooWahmBah]

I thought the Manley sounded more ...Manly .Really ! More charachter like the wooden body of a guitar as opposed to the glass sound of the Martech .Of course that bizarre pick is an unknown in the tonal basis ...1 or 2 could work depending on how dense the arrangement is ...I prefer 2 for basic tone ...3 is not an option

[Koed]

The previous posters seem to think the files marked A,B,C correlate directly to Martech, Manley, Aphex.
Might be. but that's not what I'm hearing...

A: Nice balance in high,mid,low .. a bit wooly
B: Less mid than A, slightly tighter lows
C: A bit thin...sounds lowmid hyped..smeared.

My solo choice would be A, but I think B would sit tighter in a mix so that would be my overall preamp of choice.

Overall I'm not too impressed with the recording, sorry, but good for comparison.

[Rob King]

Oh yeah the order of the mic pre's are:

A - Aphex 1100Mk2
B - Martech MSS-10
C - Manley Slam!



Rob

[Koed]

lol..like I suspected.

Just shows you how the name of a piece of gear will taint your perception of it

[Baz]

I'd like to have heard these with a normal pick. There's this odd phase that seems to be occuring on all tracks, prolly due to the pick..But as far as these go, I liked A most.

[Rob King]

Originally Posted by Baz

I'd like to have heard these with a normal pick. There's this odd phase that seems to be occuring on all tracks, prolly due to the pick..But as far as these go, I liked A most.

It was sort of a last minute 12:00am thing..I had the MIcs in the studio setup for something else and we had a couple pres setup. We also just grabbed the pic and I just wanted to hear the transients more than an acurate recording. I had like 3 min to do it. lol I thought The Aphex sounded pretty damn good actually, I have never used one before. It worked awesome on the Percussion session I had earlier that day. Well, it was just for fun...

[chandlersonic]

That martech sounds great! I really like the vibe of it, it seems like it could sit in a mix right away without any eqing.
I don't like the mids on the slam on this particular guitar, though on another one it might sound great.
I'm impressed with the Aphex.

thx Rob!

I'm gonna have to check out these Martechs one of these days? It never ends...

[monkeyxx]

I thought they all sounded pretty great, agree with the comment about the martech sounding like it will sit in a mix well. the aphex got my attention out of left field, that must be a sleeper piece! the manley I dunno, I guess was third place for me.