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art tube mp...incredible!!!!
- Thread starter misterCRUSH
- Start date
me too, I swapped out the tube it came with and put in a mullard. big difference in the warmth and overall presence in the sound.
I was just reading online and a 12AX7 or the like is interchangeable with a 12AX7A.
I kind of wish I had gone for a pro channel. The MPA gold has 2 channels but with simpler controls. It's solid but the pro channel doesn't cost much more.
I have been debating selling the MPA gold to fund a pro channel or just saving up and having both. Might be useful having a 1 and 2 channel pre.
I really liked my budget TCS comp.
I just read the MPA Gold and Pro MPA II manuals and neither one specifies what voltages they run the tube plates at. Where did you get the 100V/300V information? In fact, they call the lower voltage setting "Normal" and the higher voltage setting "High". I think they should be called "Starved" for the lower voltage setting and "Normal" for the higher voltage setting... for a company that uses quite a bit of starved plate designs, they sure do avoid using the term "starved plate".
-Frank
The 100-300v button is right on the front on my MPA gold, it has one for each channel so you can run one starved and one normal which is cool.
Calling 100v starved would be simpler but when you break it down starved just means low voltage anyways.
The button on your MPA Gold is labeled 100 - 300V?
Yes, starved does mean operating at a significantly lower voltage. If you had two tube circuits where one supplies 350V to the plate and another circuit where they supply the plate with 300V, you wouldn't call the 300V tube starved. Starved is crazy low plate voltage.
-Frank
Yes, I would post a pic but I am on my phone. Look up the MPA gold though the voltage button is right on the front. It's labeled "Plate Voltage".
Here is a pic of the model I have:
Last edited:
Yes, I would post a pic but I am on my phone. Look up the MPA gold though the voltage button is right on the front. It's labeled "Plate Voltage".
Here is a pic of the model I have:
Yes, that button is labeled NORMAL - HIGH, I am aware of that. What I am asking is where did you get the 100-300V specs?
-Frank
Hmmm, not actually sure where I read that. Pretty sure I saw that info somewhere though.
Found a thread on a DIY forum where someone says the high setting is 300v too but likely not actually that high, more around 200v while the low setting is supposed to be 100v but possibly closer to 50v.
Of course those seem like estimations. I also saw some modded Art MP's on ebay for 500-600$ where they claimed to have raised the plate voltage among other things.
I have only spent a bit of time with mine so far but there is definitely a solid difference between high and normal voltages. Would be interesting to see someone actually test the voltage at each setting.
So did a little more looking around earlier and I am not sure what plate voltage the Pro Channel uses. Interestingly it has 3 tubes though, 1 for the comp 1 for the pre and 1 extra I am not sure what it's for. Maybe 2 for the pre or comp.
Ahh apparently the EQ is tube based too, which is interesting... I am going to email ART and ask about the plate voltages for the Pro Channel and MPA gold as I am curious now.
I would say the MPA gold would be better for tube warmth perhaps with the plate voltage control but the Pro Channel has a lot of great tone shaping features. Hopefully I can compare them in person one day.
Completely agree with CaptSev. I have a MP/C which I love. I replaced the stock tube with a JJ tube - the stock tube was fine so long as I didn't overdrive it, but sounded awful when clipped. The JJ transformed the clipped tone to make it really musical. I tried a Groove Tubes tube and it wasn't as good clipped as the JJ. Find a tube that works for you and they are awesome. My is a little noisy if I run the gain too high, so I just make sure I have a strong signal coming into it.
I have the MP serie model and use it with my Ampeg B2 to pump up the preamp to the power amp with the preamp out and power amp in jacks. I push the Ampeg preamp gain at taste but I don't push to much the Art MP gain just to "tube" the singal to the power amp. This unit give a new life to my B2 and getting closer to an Ampeg STV Pro 3 and even better since I added a ScR-DI in my pedalboard. THhe Ampeg B2 has an Ampegy tone, but miss some horses to keep on in band situation, espacially with 2 guitars. But with an Art tube preamp in the middle and if you add a second 8ohm cab, you will have enough horses to keep the groove with 2 Marshall screaming arround.
Just got the fifty dollar version (two knobs, four buttons, and the swinging needle ..)
I honestly do find the tone a bit warmer and more musical, I'm trying to get that sweet spot where it will break up with a heavy hand and clean up with a light touch, it's tough as lower notes distort more noticably when I would prefer higher notes to. Oh well. I'll keep fiddling. Maybe a tube swap? Hmm.
I honestly do find the tone a bit warmer and more musical, I'm trying to get that sweet spot where it will break up with a heavy hand and clean up with a light touch, it's tough as lower notes distort more noticably when I would prefer higher notes to. Oh well. I'll keep fiddling. Maybe a tube swap? Hmm.
you could try putting a high pass filter before it. That should help even out the distortion behavior to an extent. The ART Tube MP/C has an HPF and a compressor built in.
I had one about 20 years ago. It sounded good tone-wise and the price was right, but the noise floor was not good. Were I to go down the same road today, I’d probably spring for the Pro MPA II.
I scored the Pro Channel II awhile back for a good used price and have been absolutely loving it. I've also got their MPA Gold which is fine for a simple 2 channel mic pre, but the Pro Channel II is a single channel + tube compressor and semi parametric EQ which is a ton of functionality for the price.
I use the MPA gold for a condenser mic and DI guitar amp signal but run everything through the Pro Channel II as it makes everything sound better and is easy to dial in.
A tube swap in my opinion helps a lot, the cheap Chinese stock tube is very brittle and when it breaks up it produce a fizzy overdriven tone, but of course there is also the possibility it is not what you are after.
I know I am very really satisfied with my ART Tube MP Project Series tube preamp, placed as the very last unit before the poweramp in my "ampless" setup, with it's fixed HPF @ 40Hz [Filter] activated, and the gain turned up to about 3 o'clock (about +24dB on this unit), to have the EHX 12AX7EH preamp tube, that I swapped the cheap crappy stock one out for, just reaching breakup point.
Identical to this :
I can warmly recommend the EHX 12AX7EH preamp tube as a replacement for the cheap crappy Chinese stock tube.
