.:: AMT Electronics - JFET Guitar Preamp Series / SS-30 ::.
I ordered one from Germany to USA it arrived yesterday. (~210 dollars)
I already have an SS-10 tube rack preamp by AMT which I like a lot and is my primary overdrive. It (the SS-10) voiced for guitar so that means you have to crank the bass EQ full to get a flat response for bass guitar. But it sounds great (smoother/more refined than the more ragged English Muffn for comparison). Then I run the SS-10 into an BDDI with blend on 40-50% for a bit of the 'goopy brown sound' then into a Carvin B1500 for final EQ tweaks.
The SS-30 is also a 3 channel preamp squeezed into a sturdy little foot pedal using JFETS instead of tubes.
Getting really good tube-like distortion in a pedal has been a big problem for me - the English Muffn's are v good (and were my mainstay previously) but I've had reliability problems. Running at higher voltages than 9v seems to be important to getting good tone as well so theres the power supply issue, especially when travelling abroad.
The ss-30 can run off two 9v bolt batteries, I think to make it 18volt.
Anyway --- it sounds great! Rich, present and 'lively', without that dull graininess or sort of one-dimensional sound that most solid state distortion/overdrive pedals have. And keeps sounding good at high volumes.
Low gain breakup qualities seem similar to the rack tube version (though I have to say the catalinbread SFT has incredibly smooth low gain breakup, best I've owned). Clean channel grunts very well, and the other two channels goto to high gain, a bit more in the lead. Lots of gain on tap - death metal territory no problem.
Its a preamp, you cannot turn it off, its on the clean channel by default.
Big thumbs up, for bass and guitar, AMT really know what they are doing.
The SS-30 is not going to get you massive surgical EQ cuts and boosts - its a broad musical EQ to shape the drive and tone. I've haven't tested its response curve with pink noise yet.
I'm clearly a big fan of high quality 'guitar amp' preamp distortion and this little box achieves it with batteries and without tubes: that really is something special. (as a comparison, the catalin bread SFT is too 'squished' and farty for me at higher gain settings).
So if you also like that sound, look into AMT.
AMT SS-30 "bulava" Solid State preamp pedal review 
