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Jule Amps Monique

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Wow!!!
Thanks so much!!
This is why I prefer my people, people.:)

Yep. Jule called me this evening to discuss. Mine is already being shipped back to him, so rather than send a 'replacement' I've just asked for him to fix/send the unit back, saving him, I hope a bunch of hassle. Monique will be well traveled by the time I get to use it on stage. :D

It also makes me feel like I'm not nuts and stuff...I was worried it would get back to Jule and he'd say 'what, there's nothing wrong here!?!'...you know, like when you bring the car in for a noise and the mechanic can't make it happen.
 
I have money down on a Dove cage version and havent got it yet but Jule sent me a personnal email stating he had found a miswiring on the first run of the rack mounts.I feel this a great business man to keep a potential buyer updated of a problem since I had sent him a email a little concerned about what people where talking about not having enough gain output.It looks like the Monique is really going to catch on!
 
I had great results using the XLR out into my Genz Shuttlemax 12.0 main return, with a good deal of volume (master dimed, with the direct out control at about 9:30). Not tried at gigging levels, of course, as it was at work at 5:30, but it was respectable--I'll have to give it a bit more gas. I have yet to try the line out, but the wiring issue is probably the same for my unit. Fortunately, a great tube amp shop (AZTech Electronics) is literally down the street from work, so getting the rewiring done by a pro will be a snap.

Now for my "review." As a multi-decade solid state guy, I admit that the chance that I would produce quality tones with Monique is about as great as that of a chimpanzee armed with a ballpeen creating the Venus de Milo (with or without arms, take your pick). See tube mavens like Chadds, Skies, or Jimmy M for the real scoop. However, with very little effort I got solid, round tones with all the immediacy described by others, with a nice, warm, very subtle overdrive when desired--either by upping the Sensitivity or by playing into the strings. I could crank the Sensitivity further and get full overdrive, but that wasn't my intent. I found the range of sounds very useful and the tone controls to provide all the shaping I needed. And this was using a 1990 Steinberger with EMG soapbars, so I believe that's saying something. Now I just have to learn how to "play" Monique properly. :o:D
 
Wow well said.
I try to steer somewhat clear of the Ampeg comparisons. (sorry JimmyM, you always hurt the ones you love) :) So often that can mean muddy or gritty. I'm sure, having owned my share of the A----s, that it's due to poor maintenance or exuberant eqing. The Monique does those tones with an ever present accurate reproduction of all the frequencies. That feel let's you make each note musical.

Well, the Ampeg comparison in general tone and and feel is the closest shorthand I have for this preamp. I don't want to have people think that that's ALL it is, which would sell the Monique and what Jule is doing short. Roll back the sensitivity, its hifi without the give and tube saturation, clean and clear and more modern. The tone controls seem pretty precise and effective to me. They're not 'interactive' like most of the Fender style amps.

To me its an "idealized best tone" example of the Ampeg bloodline. It brings more to the table than that, across the board. In the same way that the Kern is a 12AX7 Fender-tone-stack based unit, but brings way more to the table than just reproducing Fender tone.

I sort of think of it like the DiMarzio neck pickup in my Telecaster guitar. Its a Twang King. It doesn't try to reproduce or peg an exact year or vintage but what it does do is try to create the idealized perfect telecaster tone that we all can hear in our heads...but hasn't ever really existed. A sort of 'if we could get all of the good stuff we imagine it to be'.

And while everyone knows that I'm a fan for the tech and spec side of things, I fully believe there's such a thing as 'feel'...that you don't reproduce when you record it...its in the room when you play it. Its how your physical playing interacts with the sound you're making. And like my Kern, or my Twin/Telecaster or a couple other things, there are just these little magic moments where stuff just sounds so elusively good. This one has that.
 
Well, the Ampeg comparison in general tone and and feel is the closest shorthand I have for this preamp. I don't want to have people think that that's ALL it is, which would sell the Monique and what Jule is doing short.
Being compared favorably to the B-15 or SVT is NEVER selling any bass product short. How dare you! ;)

Roll back the sensitivity, its hifi without the give and tube saturation, clean and clear and more modern.
Exactly like the B-15 and SVT. Of course, people on here tend not to believe me when I say that, but they tend to be the kind of bass players who never plugged into a tube amp in their lives ;)
 
Being compared favorably to the B-15 or SVT is NEVER selling any bass product short. How dare you! ;)


Exactly like the B-15 and SVT. Of course, people on here tend not to believe me when I say that, but they tend to be the kind of bass players who never plugged into a tube amp in their lives ;)

True. :D I don't want people to think that Jule just reproduced the Ampeg preamp and sent it out the door. Its definitely its own monster, and Jule is an artist in his own right. I can't wait for some facemelting once mine comes back and teams up with my Dingwall, fEARfuls and 3000w of power amp.

Those coffee house gigs won't ever be the same. ;)
 
True. :D I don't want people to think that Jule just reproduced the Ampeg preamp and sent it out the door. Its definitely its own monster, and Jule is an artist in his own right. I can't wait for some facemelting once mine comes back and teams up with my Dingwall, fEARfuls and 3000w of power amp.
Ya, no doubt, except for the 3000w. Sheesh! I don't even need 3000w to do an arena gig with no PA!
 
There is some of that Sunn clean in there too if you look. :)

Being compared favorably to the B-15 or SVT is NEVER selling any bass product short. How dare you! ;)


Exactly like the B-15 and SVT. Of course, people on here tend not to believe me when I say that, but they tend to be the kind of bass players who never plugged into a tube amp in their lives ;)
 
Mr. Amazing,

Yes, turns out there were 5 Rack Mounts with this wiring mistake. Yours will need the fix too. I'm putting together good instructions on the fix and will have them available within the next couple of days.

Nice to know you have a good tech available. Techs are good people too (except for all that lead inhalation). Have your tech contact me and I'll pay him for getting to know Monique.

I'm sorry to put you through this. This is supposed to all be fun.

I had great results using the XLR out into my Genz Shuttlemax 12.0 main return, with a good deal of volume (master dimed, with the direct out control at about 9:30). Not tried at gigging levels, of course, as it was at work at 5:30, but it was respectable--I'll have to give it a bit more gas. I have yet to try the line out, but the wiring issue is probably the same for my unit. Fortunately, a great tube amp shop (AZTech Electronics) is literally down the street from work, so getting the rewiring done by a pro will be a snap.

Now for my "review." As a multi-decade solid state guy, I admit that the chance that I would produce quality tones with Monique is about as great as that of a chimpanzee armed with a ballpeen creating the Venus de Milo (with or without arms, take your pick). See tube mavens like Chadds, Skies, or Jimmy M for the real scoop. However, with very little effort I got solid, round tones with all the immediacy described by others, with a nice, warm, very subtle overdrive when desired--either by upping the Sensitivity or by playing into the strings. I could crank the Sensitivity further and get full overdrive, but that wasn't my intent. I found the range of sounds very useful and the tone controls to provide all the shaping I needed. And this was using a 1990 Steinberger with EMG soapbars, so I believe that's saying something. Now I just have to learn how to "play" Monique properly. :o:D
 
juledude said:
Mr. Amazing,

Yes, turns out there were 5 Rack Mounts with this wiring mistake. Yours will need the fix too. I'm putting together good instructions on the fix and will have them available within the next couple of days.

Nice to know you have a good tech available. Techs are good people too (except for all that lead inhalation). Have your tech contact me and I'll pay him for getting to know Monique.

I'm sorry to put you through this. This is supposed to all be fun.

Hey Jule,

Since there are only 5 units out there like this, does that mean that some of us got a very special "limited edition" version? ;)
 
Hey Jule,

Since there are only 5 units out there like this, does that mean that some of us got a very special "limited edition" version? ;)

I wish it had been more limited. And I wish some underpaid employee had done this so there could be a public flaying. This was a mistake I did.
 
I wish it had been more limited. And I wish some underpaid employee had done this so there could be a public flaying. This was a mistake I did.

Happens to the best of them. Let me tell you about another highly thought of tube preamp I own...that has two clip lights. Neither of which has ever ever lit up, No matter what you feed it. :crying:

All that time alone at the workbench inhaling solder does funny things to a guy.

shining.jpg
 
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