From djacques@csulb.edu Wed Mar 12 07:52:41 2003
Subject:RE: Speakeasy Preamp (long, grateful post)

Well deserved... One thing for the SE owners with SRM 450's out there.
It is easy to overdrive the SRM450's with too much gain from the SE. I
have found that my output dials at 12:00, input at 3:00, and mackies at
12:00 does the trick. Blows away my guitar player's Marshall....

-----Original Message-----
From: Steve Moenssen [mailto:moenssen@hotmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, March 12, 2003 6:54 AM
To: CloneWheel@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [CWSG] Speakeasy Preamp (long, grateful post)

Although I've been monitoring this group for the past few months,
this is my first post. Up to this point I've been content on just
being a fly on the wall, sucking up all of the great advice.
However, having just used my new Speakeasy preamp for the first time
this past weekend I feel I need to make this post, partly in praise
and partly in gratitude.

I first started looking for a tube preamp for the purpose of adding
some warmth to my solid state Leslie 302 / Voce V5 setup. I thought
this was a great idea, of course not knowing that I wasn't the first
person to have this "novel" idea. I went to my friendly neighborhood
music store, and by the look on the salesman's face I could tell he
understood even less what I was looking for than I did. He suggested
an affordable solution might be a DBX Mic Pre, which I gladly
purchased because it had tube in it. The Mic Pre added some warmth,
so I was happy for the time being. However, whenever I tried to push
it a little bit and overdrive the unit to get some grind there was
a "rumbling" noise, and the low-midrange tone of the V5 became overly
pronounced. After gigging for a few weeks with this I became
frustrated and realized I was probably using the preamp for something
it wasn't intended for, and there must be something better. I now
figured out that I couldn't have been the first person to try and get
more of a vintage sound out of my clone using a tube preamp, so I
performed a search on Google for "vintage tube preamp" and ...
viola! Hence the beginning of my Speakeasy enlightening...

My experience this past weekend with my new SE was like everything
I've read about since then, and everything I hoped for (I purchased
the rack mount Classic Clone/Keyboard hybrid). I must admit though
that I was a little nervous after reading some of the recent emails
about hum and buzz which were posted just before I received my SE.
When I first got the SE my equipment was at the club from the
previous weekend, so I had to try it out with my spare equipment at
home (XB-2 through a Fender keyboard combo amp). I used the settings
that seemed to be common among the posts: SE volume @ 3 o'clock,
bass @ 12 o'clock, treble @ 3 o'clock. At first there was a buzz,
and I thought "oh no, it's true!" But after a brief conversation
with Steve at Speakeasy he straightened me out. He told me to turn
down my channel input on the amp and let the Speakeasy drive the
input. He also told me to dial down the gain on the back of the SE
to adjust for the impedance level of the combo amp. The latter I was
aware of from some of the posts, but I had it down to almost zero and
didn't think that was right. After lowering the channel input to 3,
I was able to raise the gain to around 10 o'clock and there was
virtually no buzz. The tone sounded great, but I couldn't wait to
try it out with my real setup.

Once I got to the club, I plugged in my V5, and ran the SE output to
my Leslie and adjusted the gain on the back of the SE to 12 o'clock.
There was absolutely no buzz, even with the Leslie volume on 10. I
pulled out a few drawbars, grabbed a handful of keys, and... ahhhhhh,
now that's what everybody's been talking about! What a warm tone!!!
Even with ALL of the drawbars out this thing sounded incredible! I
could never do that before without cringing at the shrillness. For
kicks, I turned down the volume of the Leslie to about half and
cranked the SE to full volume and was able to get just the right
amount of grind for my tastes, no weird rumbling overtones.

So, after changing my underwear, I decided to try the keyboard side
of the preamp. I plugged in my favorite digital piano setting and
ran the SE output to my Barbetta 41c... Shut up!!! I thought I was
already pleased with the tone of the Barbetta, but the SE did
something that was amazing. It was like I just added a 31 band EQ
that was tweaked just right. The tone was warmer, clearer, and more
rounded. I was planning on just using the SE to warm up my electric
piano sounds (which it did of course), but I never would have thought
that my digital piano would sound better.

I'm a software engineer, not an electrical or hardware engineer, so I
have no explanation as to why this box full of wires and tubes can do
what it does. My theory is that Steve is really a wizard and he
casts some sort of magic spell to enchant every Speakeasy that leaves
his shop. Even my know-it-all soundman, who rarely has anything
positive to say about anything (unless it was his idea) said, "I
don't know what you paid for that thing, but it was worth every
penny!"

Thanks Steve! And thanks to all of the Clonewheel members who
contribute their invaluable advice... this gave me enough confidence
to purchase the SE without hearing it first hand! I have a vintage
Leslie 142 in the works with Steve, and I can only imagine what
that's going to sound like.

Regards,
Steve Moenssen

P.S. For sale: 1 DBX Mic Pre, contact me offline if interested

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