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NPD: Verellen Meatsmoke Preamp

Hi! Just registered here to ask a question since it seems many of you have this thing... how is the low end as you turn up the gain? Does it remain punchy or does it fart out on the bottom as sometimes happens with bass in overdrive.

Currently in our band (I'm the drummer not the bassist) we're splitting to 2 different stacks, 1 for clean-ish bass tone and another to drive the crap out of that sometimes gets switched off on quieter sections. In theory the meatmoke preamp would be a great travelling or paired down solution especially when we don't have as much control over the amp heads themselves, but only if it retains a solid low end while being overdriven pretty hard.

As an added bonus, if it sounds good, it could be a nice solution for recording, as that is also part of my purview.

Much appreciation for your thoughts!
 
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Hi! Just registered here to ask a question since it seems many of you have this thing... how is the low end as you turn up the gain? Does it remain punchy or does it fart out on the bottom as sometimes happens with bass in overdrive.

Currently in our band (I'm the drummer not the bassist) we're splitting to 2 different stacks, 1 for clean-ish bass tone and another to drive the crap out of that sometimes gets switched off on quieter sections. In theory the meatmoke preamp would be a great travelling or paired down solution especially when we don't have as much control over the amp heads themselves, but only if it retains a solid low end while being overdriven pretty hard.

As an added bonus, if it sounds good, it could be a nice solution for recording, as that is also part of my purview.

Much appreciation for your thoughts!

The Meatsmoke keeps the low end really well even with massive gain.
 
Thanks guys! I might just jump on it. It's obviously a bit more of an investment than just an overdrive pedal (as mentioned). I was hoping someone I knew would have one I could try out but apparently not. I might scour the stores here (LA) a quick minute to see if anyone is holding on to one, but this gives me a little more hope...
 
Those of you that switched out tubes, did you change out both? I got a 12au7 and it's noticeable but tge boost channel is still nuts. Good but unusable for my situations. The gain is barely up.
You need to swap out the v1 position to reduce gain. It will affect both channels, so channel 1 on mine is very low gain to where I have both gain and master nearly maxed out in order to match level with channel 2 which I have set for just slight overdrive. Channel 2 is awesome with either a 12au7 or 12ay7 in v1 position. I rarely use channel 1 now.
 
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Maybe it's a bit of a heresy, but I'd like to try clean but subtle grit on CH.1 and growly but mild OD on CH.2, both still with crisp highs and "airy" feel. Which seems to me, keeping the beast on a leash, but what about that? What tubes would you suggest for the above sounds?


I've used gold lions 12ax7 in channel one and bugle boy or mullards or telefunkens in v2 with great results. The telefunken in v2 might be your best bet, and either a tele it the good lion in v1
 
Cool thread, the Meatsmoke has always caught my eye but has been passed over for many of the reasons mentioned earlier... I’d probably have to redo my board if I got one (aka get a bigger one). Tube swapping sounds like an easy way to customize the pedal but I’m afraid of falling down the tube rabbit hole :(:eek:

@DirtyDuke Did you get your custom Meatsmoke yet? Anything to report back?
 
Bumping this older thread. I've tried a 12au7 in v1 but I'd still like even smoother tones. About to try a 12au7 in v2, although I'm hearing conflicting reports about the efficacy of this approach. Anyone?
 

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