The new shop is working out great and things are going very well here . I miss hangin out and working on your basses bro , Congrats on this pre, It looks great and I am sure it performs to the high standards mike is known for . Stay in touch ,
Pete
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Mike Pope Design MPP-1 Review
- Thread starter Bassbwithu
- Start date
The new shop is working out great and things are going very well here . I miss hangin out and working on your basses bro , Congrats on this pre, It looks great and I am sure it performs to the high standards mike is known for . Stay in touch ,
Pete
After several e-mails with mike I decided to take the plunge and order one of his MPP-1 preamps. I feel pretty good about it. If there is a club, sign me up and give me a number! Hopefully some others who have purchased it will post some insights or tips. Here's to a long few weeks of waiting for a new toy. 
After several e-mails with mike I decided to take the plunge and order one of his MPP-1 preamps. I feel pretty good about it. If there is a club, sign me up and give me a number! Hopefully some others who have purchased it will post some insights or tips. Here's to a long few weeks of waiting for a new toy.
Congratulations!
I suspect you will enjoy it a lot.
Congratulations. A BIG thing that I would recommend is to keep the preamp for a while and get to KNOW it. A preamp that is designed to start flat and can boost and cut 20db across 3 bands with 2 selectable frequencies for each band CAN sound bad. It is a very powerful preamp, and I'm still really getting to know it. It is not plug and play in my opinion. I constantly have to remind myself that you've got to learn your gear. I like that this pre starts FLAT, and a bass player designed it using key frequency centers that he finds helpful to us. If anything, it is good peace of mind 
Congratulations. A BIG thing that I would recommend is to keep the preamp for a while and get to KNOW it. A preamp that is designed to start flat and can boost and cut 20db across 3 bands with 2 selectable frequencies for each band CAN sound bad. It is a very powerful preamp, and I'm still really getting to know it. It is not plug and play in my opinion. I constantly have to remind myself that you've got to learn your gear. I like that this pre starts FLAT, and a bass player has designed key frequency centers that he finds helpful to us. If anything, it is good peace of mind
+1
I purchased, had shipped to me, then tried the Glockenklang BAC pre. I detested it and sent it back after at most a half hour try. I now own that very same pre after about a six month period. I don't know what was wrong with my head
but the second time around oh my! I seemed to intuit how it worked. You know Les Izmore (less is more) is now my good friend. Also what you want isn't always delivered the way you want it! I remarked here awhile back that you can't dial up half a dial of bass and a quarter of mids and full treble on any amp just because that mix sounds like it would do, in your head. What a rig really sounds like is what it sounds like out in the real world. Your particular "taste" for a sound doesn't translate to the real pre in front of you. No preamp is the "ideal" base line. PUN whoops. There is no absolute "cut mids" that is the same everywhere on every cab or every amp for every bass. The interrelationship is so significant that what works is only right there right now in that room with all the possible variables. "Plug and play" could be such a dominant sound that the rig has a significant personality all of the time. One pre requiring more adaptation and understanding could provide a significant personality all the time at a particular setting or be capable of so much variation as to have huge tonal options.
wow,
just caught this now! totally piqued. would love to compare this to my Summit TD100 / FeQ setup, my avalon u5, and my epifani 902. while i love my 902 for the doubling, it'd be awesome to have a preamp i can play around with, too!
and digging the front mounted headphone jack and 1/8" stereo in. so flippin' handy for lazy butt MD's.
regardless, my upright waits with baited breath.
just caught this now! totally piqued. would love to compare this to my Summit TD100 / FeQ setup, my avalon u5, and my epifani 902. while i love my 902 for the doubling, it'd be awesome to have a preamp i can play around with, too!
and digging the front mounted headphone jack and 1/8" stereo in. so flippin' handy for lazy butt MD's.
regardless, my upright waits with baited breath.
It's pretty early and you gave me a scare for a second when you said that the preamp was returned after a half an hour. Then, my brain cleared up and realized that you were talking about a glock. I don't expect to have that strong of a dislike with the MPP-1 right out of the gate. As long as my ears do not here it as bone dry, lifeless or that is feels clumsy under my fingers, it will get a good workout and I'll learn how to use the pre. I've owned almost every bass pre and a few expensive mic pre's like the avalon 737. You just never know. Some of the cheaper bass pieces sounded the best to my ears.
There, I've had a shower and feel alittle better. There are a few other points that I would like to bring up. After using a mountain of other products, there comes a point where you can plug into something and know within about 30 seconds whether or not it is going to work for you. If it feels strange or clumsy under your fingers, it will most likely always feel that way. If you tap your finger down the length of the string and the harmonics just aren't there, they never will be. I can work most eq's fairly well but if the basic feel and character of a preamp are wrong for you, sell it off because no amount of eq will make it right for you. If I was to plug into the MPP-1 when it arrives and love the feel and character but hated the eq, I'd learn to make the eq work for me. I do not expect this to be the case.
I finally decided to take the plunge on this preamp for two other reasons. 1) I had came up with a concept for a custom preamp years ago and talked to an engineer/bassist about building it for me. It was 95% like the want mike has built and at about the same cost. The difference is that mike has already set the shelves and bell curves where as, I would have been sending custom pre back and forth across the country until it was right. I trust Mike's judgement. 2) I told myself that I would wait for sound samples to be posted before buying but, we all know that things sound different on computer know matter how they are recorded.
Im not too worried about this preamp. I really think that it's what I've been looking for. If not, I'll sell it.
I finally decided to take the plunge on this preamp for two other reasons. 1) I had came up with a concept for a custom preamp years ago and talked to an engineer/bassist about building it for me. It was 95% like the want mike has built and at about the same cost. The difference is that mike has already set the shelves and bell curves where as, I would have been sending custom pre back and forth across the country until it was right. I trust Mike's judgement. 2) I told myself that I would wait for sound samples to be posted before buying but, we all know that things sound different on computer know matter how they are recorded.
Im not too worried about this preamp. I really think that it's what I've been looking for. If not, I'll sell it.
Mike says that he just got a bunch of parts in and that chasis should be delivered next week. The wait time shouldn't be to bad. To bad there aren't any clips to help make the time go by faster. Well, it's time to get some food and take a shower before tonights gig. Happy gigging guys!
gregbackstrom
These aren't stock curves--things move around!
- Apr 24, 2004
- 1,359
- 53
- Disclosures
- Designer Fodera Guitars/Michael Pope Design, Inc., Trickfish Amplification
NO NO!!!! Greg, your chassis is here. You and another guy bought the last two of my previous batch. That's why Chris is waiting until later in the week. Never fear!
-Mike
Greg, your chassis is here. You and another guy bought the last two of my previous batch. That's why Chris is waiting until later in the week. Never fear!-Mike
gregbackstrom
These aren't stock curves--things move around!
NO NO!!!!
-Mike
Thanks Mike! That was really meant to be a light-hearted comment (that's why I added the smiley guy). I can tell from your follow-up and extra effort that you're committed to great customer service.
I'm gettin' excited!
- Greg
gregbackstrom
These aren't stock curves--things move around!
NO NO!!!!
-Mike
I just found out that mine is on its way!
Thats great man! I would pester mike some more for clips but then, that would side track him from building mine. I really hope you enjoy your mpp-1. There are some high expectations on this pre.
gregbackstrom
These aren't stock curves--things move around!
Mine included. I've had two Demeter VTBP 201 (old and s), an Ampeg SVP-Pro, an Alembic F-1B, and a couple of Avalon U5's. All of these are gone, but I have an Epifani 902c, Peavey VB-2, Markbass LMII and Genz Benz Shuttle 6.0 to compare this preamp with. From its description (and Mike's reputation), I'm expecting it to blow all of these away. I'll be using it with QSC and Crest amps into Epifani and Mesa cabinets. I'll try to come to terms with it reasonably quickly and I'll share my impressions -- immediate and over time. This should be a fun journey!
- Greg
Thats a pretty good cross section of tones. I have owned pretty much every preamp and owned/used most of the heads. At the moment I have an Ashdown MK500, a peavey preamp, tone hammer, sansamp vt, crown xti2000 power amp, EA NL-210, pair of eden xlt's, a couple LDS cabs and my billy sheehan attitude basses. All of my nicer preamps have been sold but I remember what they where like and will be able to compare them to the MPP-1. It sounds like mike's preamp with my nl-210 and crown xti will be as close to the nature sound of my bass as possible. From there, it should get really good.
I guess that means I should follow up with an update. I'm still very pleased with the preamp. For those about to get the preamp, a bit of advice is that the preamp EQ almost lays out more like a semiparametric eq. It really reads left to right. Don't think that you are boosting a particular frequency, think more about extending your frequency ranges. When the treble is all the way up, it still sounds good, and really goes into the upper range of your sound. You're not necessarily boosting 3.5k, you're extending your highs higher as you turn the knob. I haven't boosted bass all the way, but I have a fair amount, and it doesn't sound boomy, it just extends the low end more. Make sense? I think John East has a similar design, though I don't think I'd compare the two tonally. You should also keep in mind that the frequencies overlap a bit. If you boost upper lows and cut low mids, you'll achieve an interesting effect. This overlap allows you to notch a frequency, and you can actually isolate whatever "peaks" you want by playing with this relationship. It is very interactive.
