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Monolith MAGMA Bass Preamp

#3
I like some of the clips. I think the Ricky is definitely coloring it a bit. The ones in which both channels were used I like the best, however,....I prefer boxes for distortion and my rack pres (which I'm assuming this will be) clean. I'm sure it can be cleaned up though.
 
#8
warwick.hoy said:
How well does it clean up? Can you still get good volume with the Drive hovering around 1? Is is this intended to be a "Goes to 11" type of preamp?
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It cleans up fairly nicely. This circuit was designed with the intention of focusing on the drive portion of the amp. I will say that bringing the drive back to 1, level near dimed and master around 5, you get a nice clean tone. I have to admit part of reason for some of the "dirty" sounds in the earlier samples have to do with the Rics string rattle too, it may be player error...all in all, we are pleased with the samples.
 
#15
I find myself hopping on the Sunn wagon after Mecha Shiva opened for Red Fang in early May. Those guys have awesome tone. Aaron was using a Beta Bass and Brian and Davie were using Beta Leads. I've never heard Solid State sound so good.
 
#16
warwick.hoy said:
I find myself hopping on the Sunn wagon after Mecha Shiva opened for Red Fang in early May. Those guys have awesome tone. Aaron was using a Beta Bass and Brian and Davie were using Beta Leads. I've never heard Solid State sound so good.
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No joke, what is it about that CMOS digital stuff that sounds so uniformly crunchy? Was the bassist running only the Beta Bass amp, or did he also use a power amp to get a little more gumption?
 
#18
ZombiCrow said:
No joke, what is it about that CMOS digital stuff that sounds so uniformly crunchy? Was the bassist running only the Beta Bass amp, or did he also use a power amp to get a little more gumption?
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Just a Beta Bass through a 412 geetar cab. Those guys are so in control of their stage volume that it let the soundguy do his job. It was just a really good cohesive grindy live sound and I was at the front of the stage with my head buried in one of the mains. my only gripe was the vox were a little weak,....but that's par for the course in these smaller venues.
 
#19
ZombiCrow said:
Well now there's a party in my tent. What is your estimated ETA on these sure-to-be-beautiful babies? Sunn Beta Bass is my favorite bass distortion, no joke. Did you tweak the Mids knob to be more smooth, and maybe less 'honky,' if that makes sense?

Please redirect me to any already-posted FAQ or QA you've already done on this so I don't repeat a bunch of other inquiries.
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There is no FAQ as of yet but the ETA on the enclosures is 3 weeks. A number of boards will be loaded and ready by then. So ordering is already setup. Everything is tweaked to be smoother. We have been reverse engineering the original for about 9 months and we have finally found the sweet spot.

Red Fangs Brian and Aaron came by a while back to try the prototype and they really dug it. I wanted to get them done before their European tour but as it turns out it didnt get there. We are getting the first one to Jared of Big Business/Melvins for their summer tour. Now if we can just get Buzz on board. His originals are near the end of life.
 
#20
Aaron is the Sunn Collector as all the Beta's they had were his. Definitely nice compact good sounding workhorses to tour with.

Those Red Fang dudes are all solid,...we had a spot for them to crash (our rehearsal space) so they wouldn't have to sleep in the van/a motel.

Definitely color me interested in the MAGMA,....just gotta go get me a job (has to wait till middle August,....last thing I want to do is go to work then ask for a week off a month later).
 

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