Mentaltossflycoon
Well-known member
The beta preamp can be built for either guitar or bass with only a few component changes, this one being the latter. I've been playing it unboxed for a few weeks and finally came to the conclusion that it needs to go on my board. I actually kind of avoided this project for a while because I associate the beta amps heavily with the band Red Fang who I used to share practice space with. Didn't want to feel like I was biting Aaron's sound. Though I think he sounds great, I don't exactly play the "hard" stuff either. Thankfully I still sound like me with a cranked beta pre.
Having already built the aion TS50, I was so enamored with that pedal that I felt the need to compare with this. Long story short they're very different. TS50 is much cleaner and louder. It has a unique growl as you increase the gain but I prefer it cleanish, gain around 11: 00 gives a touch of grit when I dig in and responds nicely to boost and dirt. The Beta starts getting dirty at like 9:00 and has a beautiful smooth break up. I enjoy almost the entire sweep of the gain. My only want is that there's not a ton of volume once you dial out most of the distortion so it's likely to end up living right before the TS50 acting as my lightly dirty channel which I've been using a chopshop for. Beta also stacks well with various boosts, dirts and fuzzes.
Earlier today I started a wishlist thread for a 125b version. Go give an up vote if that idea appeals to you.
You can probably tell there was a bit of forcing non optimal parts to fit. Weakest link is that 9mm volume pot. I could've sworn I had that A100k in my stash.
I had printed this max ernst collage a long time ago and was waiting for the next 1590b of this orientation to put it on. Might be my last "straight up art theft" enclosure. We'll see.
Having already built the aion TS50, I was so enamored with that pedal that I felt the need to compare with this. Long story short they're very different. TS50 is much cleaner and louder. It has a unique growl as you increase the gain but I prefer it cleanish, gain around 11: 00 gives a touch of grit when I dig in and responds nicely to boost and dirt. The Beta starts getting dirty at like 9:00 and has a beautiful smooth break up. I enjoy almost the entire sweep of the gain. My only want is that there's not a ton of volume once you dial out most of the distortion so it's likely to end up living right before the TS50 acting as my lightly dirty channel which I've been using a chopshop for. Beta also stacks well with various boosts, dirts and fuzzes.
Earlier today I started a wishlist thread for a 125b version. Go give an up vote if that idea appeals to you.
You can probably tell there was a bit of forcing non optimal parts to fit. Weakest link is that 9mm volume pot. I could've sworn I had that A100k in my stash.
I had printed this max ernst collage a long time ago and was waiting for the next 1590b of this orientation to put it on. Might be my last "straight up art theft" enclosure. We'll see.
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