Advance info: STUDIO PREAMP's release date is early 2010
Price: $3000
Why you need STUDIO PREAMP:
STUDIO PREAMP is an unrivaled tone design tool!
Guitar preamplifiers fall into five basic patterns - called "topologies" - and bass preamps fall into even fewer. Within these basic forms, designers tweak values and subtle details to create variations of tone. There are common design features found in, say, early Fender amps, and then different common features found in later Fender amps. All early non-master-volume Marshalls fall into a design shared with early Fenders, but master-volume Marshalls fall into another form - which takes in all the hotrodded and high-gain preamps of modern times. Dumble amps and early Mesa amps fall into yet another form.
Even within a given topology, the range of values designers have used is fairly narrow. Everyone wants there to be a "safe" range of proven, accepted tones within their new "wildly different" design.
What STUDIO PREAMP will do for you:
STUDIO PREAMP gives you real analog control over two distinct real analog preamp paths. You can go from mild to wild and then have the convenience of two independent sounds on the fly - sounds YOU created.
Within each path, STUDIO PREAMP has four gain stages that can be configured as required or bypassed. Four gain stages gives access to the most extreme levels of distortion saturation! Sure, you could add more stages but that would merely add noise. With four stages operated "wide open", you could add a fuzz pedal in front and not be able to tell if the pedal was on or off. So, copy your favourite high-gain sound or create a totally new one.
Of course, you don't have to use all four stages, nor do you have to use any stage wide open. You can set the gain of each stage from unity (no loss, no gain) to the maximum allowed by whatever tube you have in that position. Yes, each stage can be changed independently as it has its own tube. This provides the ultimate tuning and control over the character of each stage, and thus for the entire path - an option not available in any production guitar amp.
STUDIO PREAMP gives you control over the idle conditions of each stage: how the tube responds to your guitar; if it boosts/cuts bass/treble/mids, and how much sustain it has. Notes can ring forever or they can be compressed asymmetrically for super fatness. They can be saturated mildly or extremely. You can create "early" distortion or "late" distortion. You can dial up "sustain from heaven" or "distortion from hell".
Amp designers describe preamps by the number of gain stages ahead of and after the EQ. For example, a modern Fender preamp would be a "1 + 1" meaning it has one gain stage, then EQ, then another gain stage. A Dumble over-drive would be described as a "1 + 3" as it has one gain stage ahead of the EQ and three stages after the EQ. STUDIO PREAMP can reproduce all modern gain structures AND ones that never existed. Why be limited to a single EQ?
You can't slam the next stage with the full output of the preceding stage - that just leads to "flatulent" sound that cuts in and out - not very musical! So, interstage attenuators are necessary and most designers use them to shape the sound from one stage to the next. During development of the STUDIO PREAMP, we had a swappable EQ that could take the place of any of the interstage attenuators. This allowed any topology that was ever built to be reproduced. But... one of our tone and feature consultants, David Espinosa, suggested making the attenuators directly switchable to EQs. In attenuator-mode, maybe the treble and bass emphasis would be mild, but in EQ-mode the frequency effects would be more dramatic. We took David's idea a step further. We made each frequency range of the attenuator/EQ independently controllable and scalable. This means you can set up toplogies that have multiple EQs, or multiple partial EQs - preamps that have never existed until London Power made it possible in the STUDIO PREAMP.
Each stage within the STUDIO PREAMP is based on our broadcast-quality gain-cell technology. Super quiet and super linear when you set it that way - the way it is used in Coolohm Audio's microphone preamps - but super gnarly when you dial it that way as in the STUDIO PREAMP.
Pristine clean. Warm clean. Sustained clean. Tweed to ultra-tweed. Mild overdrive to banshee wail. A tone architect's paradise!
Using STUDIO PREAMP:
STUDIO PREAMP's independent audio paths can be configured for whatever sounds are needed, as described above. The player/operator can then use the preamp as a 2-channel switching preamp, or use both paths simultaneously - even for different instruments! - with the outputs mixed or indepenetly assigned. The channels can be mixed together or assigned their own main output using the Out-A1, Out-A2, Out-B1 and Out-B2 controls.
A master switch selects Alt for "alternate" or switching mode, or Ind for "independent" mode. In alternate mode, pressing the A or B channel switches selects that channel and cancels the other. Independent mode allows the A or B buttons merely to mute or unmute that channel, while not affecting the other. On each channel's master area, switch M changes the muting mode to be for the entire channel or to turn the post effects loop on/off. In these modes the foot-switch functions vary between either being its channel's mute, its channel's effects on/off, or one foot switch becoming a master mute and the other performing A/B selection.
'Pre' Effects Loop:
There is a main input plus independent channel inputs. The main input feeds buffered 'pre' effects sends - a front-end effects loop, one per channel - so that independent front-loaded effectes can be used with each path. If nothing is plugged into the related loop, the main input signal passes through to the channel. If the individual channel input is used, the signal from the main input is blocked from that channel.
'Post' Effects Loops:
The output of each preamp path can be sent to its own 'post' effects loop (Send-A and Send-B), with related signals coming back through stereo return jacks. These returns are mixed with the "dry" signal of the respective source path using the "series" switches on either channel (two each of S1 and S2) and the Return-A1, Return-A2, Return-B1 and Return-B2 controls. With these controls, the output of either channel can be fed to either/both/neither main outputs, with the effects returns mixed into either/both main outputs.
When the channel mode switch M is selected so that its foot switch is used to control the effects loop, loop control is achieved by way of muting the send signal. The effect output is allowed to decay naturally while the dry signal of the channel is passed to the respective outputs via the output level controls for that channel.
Stereo Mixing Outputs:
The main outputs are called Output-1 and Output-2. These have their own master level controls. The effects sends, effects returns and main outputs are fully buffered and transformer isolated, and have individual ground-lift switches. The returns are always live, so you can use them to mix unrelated signals into the guitar sound.
You can even use the output section as an independent mixer. Select the "isolated" function via the Iso switch. This over-rides other switch settings - whether they are set correctly or not - and breaks the path between the channels and the mixer. Take each channel's output via its Send jack. The mixer itself now has two live inputs per main output (Return-A1 and Return-B1 into mixer-1; Return-A2 and Return-B2 into mixer-2).
For the ultimate versatility, use the STUDIO PREAMP with our STUDIO POWER AMP.
Four dual-triode preamp tubes per channel provide real tube sound.
STUDIO PREAMP's circuitry is super low noise, using active hum filtering and extensive decoupling. The 4U chassis provides ample air space for the tubes, and affords easy access for maintenance and repairs. STUDIO PREAMP has universal mains compatibility and is auto-ranging - no user switches to set! - so you can take it on tour around the world or use it at home or in the studio.
See the list of features common to the new line of London Power instrument amplifiers.
Drawing of STUDIO PREAMP control panel layout - click to enlarge
Interested in purchasing a STUDIO PREAMP? We are now taking new orders! Please contact us at amps@londonpower.com, or 807-473-0952, and we can inform you on lead-time and shipping costs.
