SWR Marcus Miller Preamp - feedback?

Lorenzini · #1 07-18-2010, 11:53 AM

I'm in the market for something like this and it looks nice.

I have read reviews and so far I can't see any cons whatsoever. Also happy it would provide 2 channels, fully parametric mids, and a high quality compressor.

Any feedback from those who have tried it, I would greatly appreciate that!

If someone suggests something else, my ears are wide open, too.

Thanks

datsaxguy · #2 07-18-2010, 02:35 PM

I've been thinking about getting one of these and have been checking out the threads on TB. Hope these help:

Marcus Miller Preamp

Problem with the SWR Marcus Miller pre-amp

SWR MARCUS MILLER PREAMP

bassguppy · #3 07-18-2010, 02:48 PM

I have one. Love it, check the threads datsaxguy referenced. My only wish it had a bit more tube grindiness but I also haven't swapped tubes so that may rectify it.

Audiomarkj · #4 03-19-2011, 11:37 PM

I own one. BEWARE !! There are tubes in it and they don't respond well to hard transporting. Take care in moving it around. Reasonable care should do fine. I love mine. Well worth the cost... :>}

I Forget · #5 03-20-2011, 12:49 AM

I'm happy with mine. I was initially interested in the feature set but I was surprised how good they sound when I got to try one. It's clean, low noise, quite transparent and extremely flexible.

The eq is comprehensive and powerful - you don't need to twist the knobs very far at all. I'm generally not much of a fan of compressors but this one is good, I find the adjustable attack nice. Makeup gain would have been nice but the footswitchable boost/comp feature kind of makes up for it I guess.

The bass boost surprisingly is great. With a bridge pickup, it's easy to dial in depth to a cutting tone or fill out the low end if you have an effect that is bass shy, like some autowahs for example. Watch out for the enhancer, off is not the same as bypassed (pull the pot), you lose quite a bit of gain with it just turned off compared to bypassed.

Downsides - by far the worst is all the markings for the controls on the faceplate are completely invisible in low light. It would have been nice to have the enhancer foot switchable too (the option to choose between it or the effects loop would have been cool).

So I'm satisfied and plan to keep mine for a very long time. I paired it with a crown xls2500 which makes for a light, loud and flexible rig.