ADA MP-2

It's very easy to use, i think it's a children toy.

I'm using a ibanez rg-570, a inteliflex in loop, and a jazz chorus amp. The noisy is real, but whit a lot of time you can get very good sounds. I find many fusion tones, how Frank Gambale tones, Scott Henderson, and other jazz fusion guitarrists.

I did not find any web page, and e-mail adress in my documentation. It's a terrible problem, in the years of internet comunications.

I play jazz/fusion. I realy like MP-2 sounds. I'm plaing over 7 years. I like too JMP-1 sounds, and i'd to confess that it's better than MP-2, but i have to say too that i'm not having any trouble whit MP-2 sounds. One more thing to the people that don't likes MP-2 sound: Some times, troubles are not away, they are in us.

Am using an old Zion with neck and bridge duncan JB's, and a classic stacked strat in the middle. I play a wide variety of styles, and have found it to be decent for most. I have had no luck at all getting that Wes,Kenny Burrell thing going on this unit,though.
Some of the hi-gain settings are way too noisy for my taste.
As some other guys have said, that distorted thing that happens with the chorus on clean really stinks.

I have found the preamp to be fairly versatile, am not totally crazy about the "fat clean" jazz setting, too "tubby sounding. The vintage settings are a bit contrived sounding,although i modified the "on the edge" patch to get a quasi-blues setting. The hi-gain settings are decent,especially going stereo thru a pair of good guitar speakers.

Have had no problems at all.

I play it through a peavey classic 60/60 with svetlana power tubes, and sovtec 12ax7lps preamp tubes. I bought it on ebay about 6 months ago, and have been pretty satisfied with it.I recently changed the preamp tubes over to 12ax7lps, and noticed a big difference.A lot less
sterile sounding.

I play both kind?Gibson and Fender. Funk, Rock, Delta Blues, Chicago Blues, Jazz.
Noise is an issue with single coil pickups. It's capable of virtually ANY tone.

Plenty of tones, from Jazz & Country to Metal. Lots of features. Wish it had a tuner though. Best direct-to-board sound I've heard?great for recording or live.

Never a problem. Never.

I had to deal with the company once, with a different model. They were quick and friendly.

I've played for 18 years, I play it through a Marshall 8004 (40x2 watts) valvestate poweramp. I also use a Fender Blues DeVille (2x12) combo. I will probably replace it with a floor effects unit from Boss. They're cleaner.

It takes a bit of tweaking to get a good sound. The presets aren't very useable "as is". You can use them as a starting point, though and edit them to your taste, rename them, and store them in one of the other patch areas (40 thru 128). Editing is pretty straight forward IF you read and re-read the manual. If you got the whole midi foot controller setup like I did then the real time features of the expression pedal really takes some work. I've given up -- I just use a VOX wah in the input signal path. I could never figure out the "global" volume control of the expression pedal -- How do you make the volume swell control ONLY in non-wah mode?!? Firmware version is 1.33. I guess I can rule out further upgrade since ADA WENT BELLY UP! I've had this preamp (I also own an MP-1) for about 4 years now. As you can tell I have a love/hate relationship with this thing.

OK good stuff first. It does create good high gain sounds. I run this thing into an ADA T100S 100 watt power amp (stereo with 2 EL34s per side) which goes into a Marshall 1960A. If you spend time editing your patches you can create pretty good imitations of a high-gain modded plexi, dual rectifier (I actually A/Bd this thing with a Tremoverb in red mode and it came pretty close), and just about any heinous scooped mid sound you can imagine (Dimebag's Randall included). The key is the graphic EQ. You CAN get wolfing bottom end. Still, don't expect super-responsive Bogner. It is noisy in high gain but I just create, say two clean patches per group of ten, and step on the clean patch at the end of a song to stop the chaos. The noise gate IMHO sucks!!! I don't know, I actually like the chorus. I've got some high gain patches that pretty much nail an EVH chorus laden 5150 sound.
Bad stuff: The brown sounds don't come close to "vintage" brown sounds. Hey, if you want broken-up power amp distortaion ala '59 Bassman, get a '59 Bassman (or at least a Clark or Victoria). They just have that fuzzy first stage master volume buzz. The chorus does a strange clipping in clean settings. It's more pronounced with bridge humbuckers -- the more gain your humbucker has the more pronounced this awful crackle. It's as if whoever setup the sound was using a strat and tweaked the input gain into the chorus section based on the strat. It really bites with my Ibanez RG560 on which I dropped a Duncan Full Shred in. This is the most anoying aspect of the MP-2. Like I mentioned above, the noise gate sucks! I never use it.
Just OK stuff: The wah is a good imitation of a Crybaby. At least you don't have to worry about scratchy pots. Also you don't lose gain/tone with the built-in wah like you would with a straight-thru wah. The compression is par for the course -- I hardly use it, don't need it. The tremolo is a nice "extra". If I were more of a trem freak I guess I could really get into it. The clean tones are sterile. Nothing special. If you're looking for that nice '65 Blackface twin clean, it ain't here! Good enuff for metal clean. The effects loop is OK -- I use a Yamaha FX-500 just for a little reverb or delay. Someday I'd like to get something like a Roctron or Lexicon to throw into the loop to get a better chorus. It has so-called speaker emulator outputs (2x12 or 4x12 cabs) which I used once. Didn't care for it. I like close miking my Marshall cab better.
All in all, I love it for the high gain stuff and can stand its failings.

It's reliable. Only crapped out once on the wah. I left it on with a patch I created for bass. My wife and kids came home and just turn the volume down on the bass. I think my daughter (3 at the time) stepped on the footswitch and kicked-in a high gain with wah patch which blew something. I know, sure blame the kids! ADA was pretty good about honoring the warranty (although I had to pay to get it to them) and fixing it and getting it back to me within 2 weeks. But I've never really gigged with it. Just use it at home with my 4-track Fostex.

See above about wah. But it's moot now that they are GONE! Funny how that whole high-gain metal thing, now that it's passe took ADA as one of its casualties. They tried though. They made, what I heard, were low priced sweet-sounding boutique combos just before they died.

About 2 years after I got the MP-2 I went out looking for that little tube amp that cranks and found it in the Blues Jr. They are good foils for each other. If I feel medieval, I plug my Floyd Rose Classic Strat or the Ibanez into the MP-2. If I feel bluesy, I plug my '62 reiss strat into my Jeckyll & Hyde into the Jr. Other stuff sitting around the house gathering dust: Boogie MK II and Sunn Model T (the real deal -- not the reissue). If it were stolen or lost I dunno. Would I buy another rack-mount pre-amp or would I save up the cash for a REAL amp (Bogner Ecstasy comes to mind).

if you've ever used anything programable this one won't be a problem. it's easy to program but they could have made the EQ bypassable. no brain strain here! getting a sound is a pain but it can be done with a lot of patience.the manual is ok for basics but useless otherwise.

i'm running an ibanez jem, a tubeworks provalve power amp with 6L6's, and a boss GX700 for the effects only through 2 2X12 tubeworks cabs with celestion GL70's. the high gain channels are very noisy but the noise gate helps with that, but the gate is'nt the best. the built in effects are ok for what they are "built in" the chorus does a good job the wah does a good job just remember separate effects are always better. i strive for a george lynch tone and can get it using the warm vintage setting, the dynamic vintage does a good judas priest. the vintage brown does a good 70's,blues,and country thing, and all the high gain settings for me totally suck and i like a good high gain for those whitesnake type leads "is this love", but it's not going to happen with this rig unless i'm mistaken. effects, if you can afford it go with the eventide if not art and boss are fine, i personally don't like digitech they sound cheap to me or maybe it's just the way they alter the tone i just don't like, example "RP-1" horrid to me. all that are musicians really dig the tone i try to get and most of them decide they hate theirs after hearing mine and they all use digitech.

i have used ADA stuff for 7 years starting with an MP-1 and have had no trouble whatsoever. i've had the MP-2 for a couple of years with the same results. but i did own a microtube 200 that would go into protection mode all the time for no reason. other than that the preamps have always been good to me as far as reliability. i would and have giged without a backup for many a gig.

i've never had to use them for repairs but i have called asking questions, especially about the MP-2 because of the noise and i asked about the EQ placement for the tone controls and they were very nice and tried to help but i don't think anyone in their company is a guitarist and they did'nt really know anything about their own piece of gear, strange!

i'm in a variety so i play country,blues,pop,alternative,metal,funk, if it's a hit we probably do it no mattaer what category except for hardcore rap, and i can get everything but a good metallica sound. i have played in bands for 10 years and have art,mackie,alesis, and a lot of carvin gear which i consider the best for the money and the best company as far as warranties go. i had an amp go down and they overnighted me a new one without question. if i lost it i would try out some other gear but i would probably buy it again because of the fact of the variety needed in band situations, can't do enough with a marshall head or boogie head. i don't love or hate it, it's just ok it does'nt make me erect or anything, and the best thing about it is the midi ability to go from country twang to SRV blues to 80's metal at the touch of a button. i did try the JMP-1 by marshall and to me it was worse, to solidstate sounding and no low end. i chose this one because one of my friends had one and his tone was great but he did'nt play any metal so i missed that part of hearing the tone. i really would like a complete bypass for the graphic EQ so you can hear the tone before it gets or needs tweaked. i personally feel an EQ is for tweaking a good tone not as part of the main tone. oh, i hate the room EQ knob, another way to mess up the tone, it really annoys me. i have worked hours on getting a sound then move to another room and realize the room knob just ruined my sound completely. once you get passed the bad high gains and their noise it's a fine preamp and actually helps your playing because if your chops are lacking you'll know with the cleaner distortions. in my opinion the EQ is all wrong for guitar the frequencies muddie more than help or make it thin. i have a lot of trouble with getting way to much low end, to the point it rattles the cones on my speakers and i don't have any of the tones or EQ above 0. i read some of the other reviews and there was a lot of talk about thin sound, i don't have that problem, and i have the room EQ set for all high or all the way right. so, unless you need a lot of variety in your sound i suggest passing on all preamps. if 2 or 3 are enough go out and buy a 5150 or a carvin steve vai model, even the regular carvin amps can't be beat for the money. try out everything as far as 6L6's or EL34's or 5881's because it makes a big difference in tone. i think boogies are stupid in price for what you get as is soldano, my friend bought a sovtek which sounds great fot about the 1\4 of the price. same with the carvin stuff 1\4 the price with as good or better sound compared to a marshall or a boogie and i'm a tone freak. any questins feel free to contact me i love to talk gear.

The manual not a must but makes it MUCH easier to get good sounds. The interface is intuitive and informative with an LCD display for all parameters. It has XLR recording outputs that sound very realistic with direct recording and two effects loops. Standard 1/4" ouptuts are provided as well. Plenty of versatility with the inputs and outputs.

I have been happy with the unit in many different configurations but it lives in front of an Ampeg V2 head with 4x12 Cab. At first I had trouble with what appeared to be noisy distortions, but with the help of the manual and some twideling - no more problems. The noise gate works very well and is flexible. I am also able to closely emulate the clean sound of my '64 Fender Deluxe Reverb with the clean sounds - it warms the ampeg up nicely. The effects are excellent in stereo mode and adequate in mono. I have heard only two preamps which I prefer (Triaxis and JMP-1) but the MP-2 gets high marks for the price to quality ratio. I've seen them sell as low as $350. What's great is that you can get very realistic DRASTICALLY different sounds at the touch of a button. This is a much more professional unit than anything I've seen by Digitech. These sounds are the real thing.

I would be very confident gigging with this unit.

Never had to use it.

Overall this is a very versatile unit capable of warming up sterile amps and producing many different sounds accurately. I wish it had more effects like delay and reverb - but they obviously put their money keeping the signal as true as possible (it is an all analog signal path). It does the clean thing very well with nice break-up at the edge of distortion. The crunch is somewhat unique and very satisfying - especially for high gain lead tone.

It takes too much time to change parameters. I guess a data wheel would speed things up considerably.

I'm using this with an Alesis Quadraverb, Mos-Valve power amp, and 2 12in Carvin British Series speakers. I love the sound of this amp, when its appropriately tweeked for my ears. I get some great blues, jazz, and fusion tones tones. The hi-gain metal tones sound great too (harmonically rich, smooth sustain, a variety of fundamental voices to choose from). However, I agree with others, that the noise is simply unacceptable. The noise gate works great in most cases (the fader option is cool), but it just can't handle the noise generated from the over-the-top distortion settings. The clean tones can be really nice (the crystal clear patch demonstrates this, but I might have modded that one). One sound I would like that I haven't tried to dial in is a vintage-compressed- tweed-edge-distortion kind of sound. Bet I could get it if I tried. You can't beat this unit for added features. The on board effects sound great. I don't what the deal is with on the other reviews, but I really love the chorus on this unit. At subtle/low settings, the sound is very spacious, fills the room. The wha is great too, but I don't have a controlled for it. The tremelo is nice too. The compressor does a basicly good job. The recording outputs and cabinet simulation are fantastic. I just got a 4-track recorded and feel really fourtunate to have these features! My only concern other that the noise, is that it's frequency range dosen't extend low enough. I would like more punchy bass frequencies coming out of it. However, this is acheivable through the recording outputs with cabinet emulation. So, the problem may be my speakers or power amp.

Haven't had any problems. I've owned it for 4 years now.

Have not dealt with them.

I like this preamp a lot. I find that when I do get frustrated with it, it is because I'm wanting the sound a different amp (classic Marshall grind). This amp is not a Marshall, Mesa Boogie, or Fender. It is an ADA with a sound all it's own, which is quite nice. If you appeciate it for what it is/does, you will be very impressed. If you are trying to find the sound of some other amp, buy that one and stop flaming the ADA for your problems. Stop diss'n a trumpet for not sounding like a violin!

The user interface for this preamp is not perfect. There are no major glitches in the methods to configure the presets, but it is nowhere near as clear and intuitive as some other preamps like the Boss GX-700. Once you learn the basics of the preamp (from the manual), it may not be necessary to refer to the manual for most operations. The manual is passable, nothing great - but is certainly better than nothing!
It takes a fair amount of tweaking to get excellent tones from this unit.

I wanted to offer my opinions on the sound quality of this preamp after reading other comments.
I agree that the high-gain settings are noisy. The noise gate seems to work well to help this. I have not used the onboard effects enough to have an opinion either way.
I purchased my MP-2 about a month ago and have been using it and its onboard speaker simulation mostly for direct-input recording into my PC. I previously used the Boss GX-700 preamp which has the Roland COSM amp modeling. I have also used this preamp with a 100 watt Marshall tube head by plugging the output of the MP-2 into the Effects Return jack. The head powers a 4x12 cabinet.
A few reviewers say that the preamp sounds thin no matter how it is set up. I disagree. The default presets are very "80s high gain" sounding. The preamp offers a very dramatic level of configurability : 10 tube voicings, graphic EQ, and general tone controls. I have found that the "RAW" default preset sounds fantastic through the Marshall and 4x12 with some tweaking to the preamp variables - very warm and thick. Many other presets have a typical metal mid-scoop.
As stated earlier, I replaced a Boss GX-700 preamp with the MP-2. The difference between the two is really amazing. I recorded a couple of tracks of a song with the GX-700 and then added the MP-2 to the mix. In comparison, the MP-2 sounds so much warmer/richer/tube-like than the tube modeling GX-700. I ended up re-recording all of the GX-700 tracks with the MP2 and the difference is really outstanding.
The MP-2 requires a lot of tweaking to get the sounds you are looking for. This is difficult for me because after tweaking the presets for more than 10 or 15 minutes my ears become numb to the nuances of the changes. I firmly disagree that it sounds thin but you need to take the time to work the preamp.
The speaker simulation is good (IMO.) - again, comparing it to the Boss GX-700 which is supposed to excel at simulation, the MP-2 sounds better to me. I have also found that the presets that I use through the speaker simulating sound very harsh when going through a real cabinet.

no opinion. I opened it up to take a look inside and everything looks robust. The unit is quite heavy.

I have heard that ADA is out of business currently so n/a.

I play mostly rock and have been playing for 10 years. I own several guitars and the Marshall amp referred to in this description. I would probably buy another MP-2 if this was stolen now.
I really love the flexibility this preamp offers. I dislike how it is difficult to get a very good sound. I think it sounds very good for recording straight "into the board" - as I said earlier, much warmer and richer than the GX-700.
I would suggest anyone to buy this preamp, but be prepared to take the time to master it.
Areas of improvement are: too noisy on high gain settings, UI is not great, make it easier to dial in great tones.

I haven't had problems with getting a good sound out of it. But I ended making all of my patches, the presets are a bad joke!!! It didn't had a manual.

I use it as main preamp then by FX loop use a Yamaha FX770 muti effect, then it goes to a Marshall power amp (80x80) and out to a Hughes & Kettner 4x12 cab Rockdriver equipped. The sounds are OK, the only problem is that at hi-gain settings it becomes pretty noisy. The noise reduction however works Ok. I really like the sounds I get out of it!!!

Yes I can depend on it!!! I have too!!!! I don't have enough money to buy a backup, and if I had, I would have bought a TriAxis!!!

Well... the thing is good. The problem is that is not that friendly to use, however it has potential. Ive being playing for 10 years and right now I have a sound a really like and this preamp is most of my sound. I was never searching a preamp to sound like Pantera or Metallica or anyone else and this preamp has really good posibilities! I would only wished it had a reverb instead of Wah. Enjoy Music!!!

If ADA could have made this any harder to program, I'd like to see them try. Too many ways to clear a program in the last steps. I'd like to see the Marshall JMP-1 fashion of programming, amp style, quick and easy. It's too complicated and volitle. Editing patches is a total pain. The manual really isn't too much help. It's not very easy to use, even with a MIDI controller

I used this with a standard tube amp. With my strat, it was okay, but the high gain pickups in my Paul wreaked havoc with this thing, it simply couldn't handle the load. The unit is very NOISY, that is until the gate kicks in, for which the threshold, even when adjusted, is too high. The distortions are thin, weak, and shrilly, with WAY WAY too much gain. Terrible sounding. Even when played through a power amp into a cabinet, it wasn't very good. Totally artificially. The signal path on the MP-2 is digital, compared to the all analog signal path of the MP-1 and the Classic. The ten different building blocks aren't so different, only with massive changes in the amount of gain. An awful piece of equipment.

I feel bad for you to have to depend on this unit, but speaking objectively, it switched well, and if I liked the sounds, it would be a great unit.

ADA customer support is terrible. They wanted $$ just to talk to me, and then wanted to charge me $30 for a manual. I politely declined. They need to be more friendly, especially since the unit is so hard to work with.

Please don't waste your money on this. Buy an MP-1, or if you need more building blocks, the MP-1 Classic. The MP-2 doesn't even utilize the blocks that made the MP-1 so great. The chorus is awful, and unless you like distortions you can't control, and clean sounds that are artificial sounding, pass on it. The only thing that made this unit worthwhile to me is that I traded it straight up for a MP-1 Classic. Avoid at all costs, and if you are in the market for a preamp like this, spend it on the cheaper JMP-1 (the best preamp availible besides the Mesa Tri-axis) or the MP-1 Classic.