Stop the presses!! As usual I think I put my foot in my mouth for giving my thoughts on Monique so soon. I'm probably going to take some lumps here for this but here goes. The following is obviously strictly my opinion and my tone taste.
So I finally got to do a comparison between Monique and my Read Purity Pre. Sometimes when you don't play a piece of equipment for a while you forget how it sounds. Just saying...
Here is what I used for the comparison:
-Fodera Emperor Elite II Passive Mode
-Puma 900 fx return for power
-Baer ML112
For those of you who are not familiar with the Read Purity Pre (its been a while), here are the pros and cons of it IMO:
Read Purity Pre:
-Pro-With the EQ byassed and the emphasis knob engaged (at about 11o'clock for me), it provides you with a mid punch, burp, and grind to die for. It truly is magical. But you do lose a little bottom which you can make up on your bass or an outboard eq pedal. The mids really jump out with authority.. Dare I say it but almost an ala Jaco type tone. I would say it has a nice balance of warm tube tone with a splash of HiFi tone mixed in.
-Pro- These arent that important to me but to some players here I know it is... Tuner out, FX loop, Mute for silent tuning, Deep switch, Bright switch.
Pro- Top notch quality components, all point to point soldered connections.. No PC board here.
-Con- When you engage the eq, you lose some of the magic tone this preamp provides. The EQ is not a slice and dice eq, and may not solve a problem in a acoustical troublesome room.
Con- And this is huge for me... The Tube DI out is a direct out. So that lovely sounding emphasis circuit is nowhere to be found at the DI output. However the DI output does sound round, fat, tubey, and warm. So if you are the type that likes to send your direct signal to FOH then I think you will be fine with it.
Con- This may be a con for some. Its a rack mount and does have some weight to it. It is obviously no longer in production and Jack no longer services them.
So after 2 hours of going back and forth and based soley on those 2 preamps and for my tonal purposes I would give a slight edge, and I mean very slight to the Monique. Only because it does sound a bit fatter than the Read, its compact, and the eq is fed to the DI circuit.
But to be completely honest, if someone brought over their Monique to my house and I got to do this same comparison with my Read, I dont think I would have dropped the coin to buy it. I feel the mids of the Read Purity are far better for my taste than the Monique. Obviously this is all subjective for the tone you are looking for, in my case I do like bottom, but I especially want that mid in your face burp too. I think Monique pulls this off well, just not as good as my Read IMO.
So obviously this got me thinking. I know the Reddi is a killer DI and it would probably sound great. Would I be better off using a Reddi DI in my fx loop of my Read to achieve what I am getting with Monique? Probably not totally due to having the extra eq capability with Monique. You see where I'm going with this....
So as I went back and forth there are things I love about both preamps. So I did the next obvious thing. Try both together.
So again, Fodera in passive mode, into the Read to get that nice emphasis circuit and punchy mid burp (eq out), then line out of the Read into the input of the Monique. I had to turn the line out of the Monique down to about 2 o'clock. I added a touch of mid and bass on the Monique, and the sensitivity about 9 o'clock, and then still using the Puma 900 for power.
The result for me... absolutely perfect. Going from the Read to the Monique gave me the mids from the Read I fell in love with when I bought it, but then going into the Monique darkened and warmed up the tone a bit more and provided me with extra tubey fatness and bass that I was missing from the Read alone.
At this point I'm not going to sell my Monique. I still think it sounds great and is a quality piece of gear. I am very happy with it. I also think it is the perfect marriage with my Read pre that has been collecting dust for some time now. So Monique may wind up being a botique DI with eq for me to make up for the few things missing with my Read.
Its really funny how things work out. I get so pumped for new gear and get on the GAS bandwagon, and sometimes I go blind and forget what I have. It is true that I might not have bought Monique if I had the opportunity to try it alongside my Read, but I can also honestly say I am happy with adding it to my collection, and looking forward to using it with my Read pre live.
I am so thankful to the fellow TB'ers out there who talked me out of selling my Read pre a few months back. Yeah it is a bit of a drag to lug a small rack now on my next gig, but if I wind up being happy with the end result, so be it. I think the Read and Monique will be a perfect marriage for me.
Hmm so whats next... I have not tried using the Puma 900 front end into the Monique. Perhaps I should check that out.
I understand that Monique was originally intended to use as a front end into another preamp, but I dont believe there are ever any set rules when it comes to tone. If it sounds good and works for you, then thats all that matters.
Hopefully I have not lulled all of you to sleep by now. Perhaps I just put my foot in my mouth again..
Cheers,
Mike
