From bourniplus@yahoo.com Sun Jul 10 19:31:07 2005
Subject:A short review of the Speakeasy preamp

Hi everyone,

I just had my first gig with my B4 / Leslie 145 / Speakeasy preamp
rig. It sounded good, but right now I have to say I'm not a "Speakeasy
convert" like some of you are. however I must admit I didn't have much
time to tweak the different settings.

first, to my ear, the difference between my leslie combo preamp and
the SE preamp is not like night and day, even though my sound is
better with the SE. it definitely adds warmth, grind, and some drawbar
settings that sounded ok now sound really cool with it. overall, the
sound is more clear. also, the distortion is great; it's the real
thing, so it sure is better than that on B4, which is already very
nice. at times, my sound reminded me of Medeski very much.

what i don't like about the preamp is:
-the knobs. they are too loose. as suggested a few days ago, knobs
with clicks or just stiffer knobs would be better. especially for the
gain knob, located on the side of the preamp.
-the pigtail cable. why not a female leslie socket?? if i forget it or
loose it before a gig i'm screwed!

well that's it, the negative aspects are mostly about these little
details, but for the total cost of the unit (700 CAN for me) i believe
i can be a little picky about it...

so, as i said, i'm not a convert (yet?...) but i will let you know if
ever i become enlightened after some tweaking.

cheers

martin