Mesa Studio Pre help.....

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Chrille

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Hello.

I need some help to get the best tones out of my Studio Pre. (I bought it last week.)
No matter how I turn the knobs I feel that there is a blanket or a carpet over the sound.
The distortion is also very "rough", "undefined", like a blown up speaker. Make any sense??
I don`t know how old the tubes are but they look pretty new.
The tubes are the ones with black rubber on them.
It´s made in 89.

Anyone out there that can help me with the tone??

Thanks!!

Best regards.

Christian from Sweden

www.christiancederberg.com
 
Check out the sample settings in the manual: http://mesaboogie.com/manuals/StudioPre.pdf

In general, for distortion, keep the bass rotary knob low, and the lower frequency sliders on the graphic eq higher. If those things dont sort out your blanket sound, there may be a component problem (tubes, resistors, capacitors). Also make sure you aren't using the recording out if you are going through a guitar cabinet. Your speaker choice could be affecting the "blanket" as well.
 
Get new tubes. That is what my used Studio Preamp needed.

I just got a Racktifier in the mail, today.
I haven't even plugged it in.
I won't form an opinion on the amp, until I put new tubes in it.


The only problem's I've ever had with my Mesa's were tube related.
 
Hi.

Thanks for the replies.
Which tubes do you recommend??
Which tube should I have for the reverb? Can I use a 12AX7??

Thanks!

/Christian
 
The reverb tube should be a 12AT7, I recently replaced my original (from 1990) reverb tube with and electro-harmonix one and it works great. Turns out the ancient Mesa one was fine, just needed lots of crap scraped off the pins. This thread has also reminded me I need to but new power tubes for another amp.

Cheers folks!
 
I also just picked up a Studio Preamp, and both the cleans and distortion channel sounds great. I would also guess that tubes are the answer to your problem. You might want to swap some tube positions to see if the problem changes.

My Studio Pre does have two problems though: the Rhythm bright switch doesn't seem to do anything (or is exceedingly subtile), and the reverb sounds like poo. I wasn't planning on using the reverb anyway, so that doesn't bother me much, but shouldn't the bright switch be roughly as obvious on the Rhythm channel as it is the Lead channel?
 
Markedman said:
What power amp/speaker/cabinet-type are you using? My studio pre likes only certain amps.
Click to expand...
Hi. For the moment I´m using the Studio Pre with some Red Wirez impulses. But in a couple of weeks I´m planning to buy a Torpedo LIve from Two Notes.
I also have the EVH 5150 III 100 watt head. I haven´t had the time to try the Studio Pre through the EVH and Mesa Rectifier Cab. I´ll guess the sound will be different.
 
cbm said:
I also just picked up a Studio Preamp, and both the cleans and distortion channel sounds great. I would also guess that tubes are the answer to your problem. You might want to swap some tube positions to see if the problem changes.

My Studio Pre does have two problems though: the Rhythm bright switch doesn't seem to do anything (or is exceedingly subtile), and the reverb sounds like poo. I wasn't planning on using the reverb anyway, so that doesn't bother me much, but shouldn't the bright switch be roughly as obvious on the Rhythm channel as it is the Lead channel?
Click to expand...
Hi! Can you tell me more about the different tube positions? Which one do what? Which one goes to channel 1 and channel 2? Thanks!
 
MichaelC4 said:
Get new tubes. That is what my used Studio Preamp needed.

I just got a Racktifier in the mail, today.
I haven't even plugged it in.
I won't form an opinion on the amp, until I put new tubes in it.


The only problem's I've ever had with my Mesa's were tube related.
Click to expand...
Hi. What tubes are you going to put in you´re Racktifier?
 
Chrille said:
Can you tell me more about the different tube positions? Which one do what? Which one goes to channel 1 and channel 2? Thanks!
Click to expand...
It's not quite that simple. Looking at the schematic there's a legend at the bottom that has descriptions of what the roles of the five tube are.
 
When I got my Studio Pre (nth hand of e-bay, made in Spring 1990) I thought the reverb was terrible. I took the tube out and the pins were caked in corrosion, I scraped it off and it was amazing! It sounded, on 1, like it had on 10 previously. So have a look at that, also check whether the wee springs holding the reverb tank suspended from the chassis haven't come off, they do so very easily.
 
I opened it up to look at the reverb driver tube, and I noticed that there's a little white wire that grounds the reverb "claw" that had broken off of the ground connection. I resoldered it and the verb does sound a little better. It's certainly no Fender long tank, even "fixed". I'm sticking with my plan of using digital verb in the effects loop, which I like considerably better. Still loving the Studio Pre.
 
Chrille said:
MichaelC4 said:
Get new tubes. That is what my used Studio Preamp needed.

I just got a Racktifier in the mail, today.
I haven't even plugged it in.
I won't form an opinion on the amp, until I put new tubes in it.


The only problem's I've ever had with my Mesa's were tube related.
Click to expand...
Hi. What tubes are you going to put in you´re Racktifier?
Click to expand...
I don't know, yet.
 
Chrille said:
Which tubes do you recommend??
Which tube should I have for the reverb? Can I use a 12AX7??
Click to expand...
FWIW, I have GrooveTubes 12AX7s in V1-V4, and a Mesa 12AT7 in the V5 reverb driver position.
I think you probably want to stick with a 12AT7 for the reverb driver.

The form factor of the Studio Preamp sort of discourages tube experimentation, IMO. It was much easier to play around with the Triaxis and the Formula Pre.
 
 
I use a 5751 for the second tube for a lower gain clean channel, I find there is enough gain for me overall and I rather a clean Fendery sound, if I need more gain I can add a Zendrive or other pedal to add more, but I can't clean it up otherwise. But otherwise I can get that Robben Ford type tone, and I can get a Fender blackface type tone. My Fender is next to it in my studio and A/B'ed it is close. You can use a 12AT7 if it is still too much gain.
 
I've wondered about 5751s. Do you have a fancy NOS tube there or a more garden variety model?
 
Just a stock JJ Tesla 5751. I know there are a lot to tube aficionados with better ears than mine, but my amps, guitar and bass preamps (Fender, Mesa, Marshall, Demeter, Alembic, Trace, Read Custom, Egnater) are all-tube in my commercial studio that I have run for 15 years and I cannot really tell a difference between this or that tube of the same spec., but with the different gain structures you can tell a difference for sure. I gravitate to a cleaner sound, my Egnater also has a 5751 in the front end.
 

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