Old solidstate amp preamps

mnemonic · Feb 26, 2019

There’s a lot of cool solidstate amps out there that have some level of popularity, were used by big names, etc. but given their age, have become rare, fragile, and expensive when they do turn up.

I’m talking the likes of the Ampeg VH140c (and derivatives, SS150, Crate GX130c) Randall RG100ES, Marshall Valvestate 8100 (granted this one has a tube in it that complicates things).

Any chance of doing some PCB’s for single-channel pedal preamps of these circuits? The schematics are available online. They’re a bit too complicated for me, and I’ve already failed once trying to make a tagboard VH140c preamp pedal

There’s only a couple boutique builders doing replica preamp pedals like this that I know of.

Devoureddeth · Mar 9, 2019

There are some really nice solid state amps out there. One that I have been trying to figure out is the Intersound IVP which has tube like qualities, which might be from a transformer? What I really like is the EQ it has shelving and parametric.

sot.merkouris · Mar 10, 2019

Also Gallien Krueger 250ML and 250RL, Iron Maiden Somewhere In Time / 7th Son era

chongmagic · Mar 12, 2019

If you are up to the task you can look at Aion Electronics and build the Lab Series L5 Preamp. It is pretty involved, but has one of the best clean channels I have ever heard. B.B. King used these amps, so he was a fan.