Fryette PS2 & preamp question

I haven't used mine w/ the bass setup (yet), but for guitar it gives the distinct auditory impression of the line out being pre-power amp so far.

It's been a super useful piece of gear for me so far.

 

I'd likely use the FX Return to run lo Z preamp signal straight into the power section. That's what I've done plugging unbalanced -10db stuff into mine so far anyway.

 

That's what I'm reading from that block diagram yeah. Should be good plugging into the Line In if the diagram is to be trusted as well (which I don't have any reason to believe it wouldn't). Guess it's just a really clean power section &/or I just need to crank it up more to get some power section compression/break up

 

Hehe, your post just inspired me to plug this guy into my PF cab stack & my bass board into the FX return to see what it was doing for me on bass.

The EQ options seem a bit more subtle than some amp tone stacks but initial 15 minute spin seems like it works pretty well when you want it to & is really transparent when you don't. This maps pretty directly to my more extensive experience using it w/ my guitar stuff although maybe a bit less subtle there. My impression was they primarily designed the tone stack to offset the lower power pushed through the speaker(s) when used as an attenuator, but my brief spin w/ the bass board leads me to believe I could get by pretty darn well w/o an extensive EQ on the preamp/board & use just the PS2's tone shaping w/ highly satisfactory results. YMMV of course

 

Will do. It's been on my to do list to check it out w/ the bass stuff for a bit (mostly to use the post OT lead from my PF50T feeding it so I'd have an FX loop available), but just hadn't got around to it.

If it existed at the time & I had the foresight to know I'd want to use it for bass, I think I'd have gone for the 100w one they've got now, but it seems like the 50w PS2 is likely putting out enough volume to get by pretty well for me so far.

 

I've used with a Demeter bass preamp directly to the line in. Does not sound bad, Also I have a Frenzel preamp that has a 1 watt output using a 12AT7 as a power tube (not a typo) and that definitely is a less sterile sound. I plug it to the amp in. I have also done it with a THD univalve (both line and speaker) and an Emery bass baby (not mine). The amp in rather than the line in always sounds better. That's what it was designed for. If you are just going to do recording - I would use a TwoNotes Torpedo or an Apollo UAD unison plugin

 

Wait, so with this little guy, you could turn a pf50t into an SVT? ...output wise?

 

Finally mounted up my PS2 in a case today & spent some time playing around w/ it this afternoon through my Eden EX112 w/ this board hooked up to the line in & figured I'd report in:

Not the most representative test, but it seems like it'll have some pretty good potential so far at least & the bit of time I had it cranked to ~1:30 it seemed to be giving a pretty nice tube saturation & w/ a hint of breakup & delivering what strikes me as enough volume to keep up w/ a drummer that wasn't Captain Caveman, FWIW. The cab didn't seem to be up to much more than that, but from what I could tell, the PS2 might have been.

It's a bit round sounding, but I'm planning to swing some stuff around board-wise to further explore what I think w/ some other stuff in front of it, some more precise EQing, & going through my other cabs. I've liked the Tone Hammer a lot more than the B7K in the past so I'm excited to try it here. The Bass RC Booster seemed to do an excellent job by itself though for hot clean sound tone shaping & tube goosing though

 

I have both the PS1 and the PS100. You can use the Line in or the effects return for a preamp in. The Amp in will not work properly for a preamp input. It is designed for the output stage of a tube amp. There is a self attenuation feature that allows for running the output of the unit into the amp in so you can run the PS power section hard and get that over driven sound at the line out of the amp. I've never tried it but there is a video of how to do it that Fryette has. The power section was designed to run cleaner and with as little color as possible for a tube amp. It's a great sounding power amp.