ADA MP-2

I purchased the ADA MP-2 16 years ago and have used it ever since. I've owned Fender, Mesa-Boogie, Seymour Duncan, Crate, Line 6, and Peavey amps, and nothing matches the flexibility, tonal range, and built-in effects processing of the MP-2.

For those who have little or no experience at programming amps or effects units, the MP-2 can be a little daunting. I had no trouble because I love tinkering with settings to see what kind of tones and sounds I can get out of a box like this. NOTE: I never use factory settings on anything. The factory settings are there to show off certain tones or effects and that's all they do - show off. To get usable sounds you must tweak.

While it is lengthy, the manual is very well written. It covers the MP-2 from A-Z and explains everything well. Like some manuals it doesn't assume you already know everything and it doesn't leave important things out.

There is an EPROM upgrade which I have not chosen to do because some people have had issues with it. It is a software upgrade only so tones are not changed.

I use three Stratocasters that are all configured differently. My main guitar is a 2008 VG Strat that has a lot of tones. I have a 2006 American Deluxe Strat that has EMG SL-20 pickups. I also have a 1983 Strat that has been totally customized with EMG SA pickups, a real Floyd Rose tremolo, and a Warmoth 22-fret maple neck. For power I use a Marshall 8008 80Wx80W power amp.

The MP-2 is relatively quiet and the built-in noise gate takes care of most noise issues. The effects are nice with lots of parameters to get the settings the way you want them. I've used the MP-2 amp voicings and effects to emulate many tones that I have liked over the years which ranges from a Country Tele to 7-String Metal.

The programs can be changed with a MIDI foot controller that allows you to plug in expression pedals. I use one as a global volume pedal and the other as an expression pedal based on the program chosen. I use it primarily for wah or tremolo speed.

I've been using this MP-2 for 16 years and I've only had one problem with it. There was a diode that went out causing a loud hum. The guys at ADA Depot diagnosed the problem online within a matter of hours, provided a schematic, and I had it fixed within 24 hours for the cost of the diode - about $4.00.

I'm OCD about having backups of everything so I would like to get another MP-2 if I could find a unit in good shape at a reasonable price - just in case of an unexpected meltdown.

I never had a reason to contact ADA but I have used the ADA Depot site and forum. Some of those guys there are very smart and helpful. They have parts and upgrade kits, too.

I play a wide variety of styles so it is critical that I have a versatile preamp. The MP-2 lets me instantly switch from a Country Tele sound to a crunchy rhythm to searing lead. The two 12AX7's give me the warm tube tone that I like and the programmable digital controls and effects give me the versatility I need.

I've been playing guitar for more than 25 years. As I said above, I have three Stratocasters, a Marshall power amp, an Alesis Quadraverb for delay, a Korg DTR-1000 rack tuner, an EBow, and a glass slide.

If anything happened to my MP-2 I would definitely buy another one. I'm a huge Mesa-Boogie fan but that would require me to buy more effects units to match the MP-2.

I've tried other amps and my MP-2 is like an old shoe - it is very comfortable and I know the tones are good.

MP-2 1U rackmount guitar preamp. 2 x 12AX7, numerous features (effects, fx loop, 2 x cab sim, midi control). Using rev 1.41 (which is the last firmware rev). Getting a good sound is pretty easy, depending on what you want. The box will do dirty to 80's crunch very well. Cleans and overdriven cleans are a bit trickier to get nailed, but can be sufficient. The box can do the crystal clean nicely - funk chops, anyone?

The manual (which came with mine) is helpful, and is written in English, not Engrish, which is always a plus. I've used it a few times. If yours didn't come with one, go to adadepot.com - it's all there, and then some.

Editing patched is very straightforward, once you understand the layout. It literally takes me 1-2 minutes to completely edit a patch, including everything except CC parameters. If you need CC programming, it will take quite a bit more effort. It's the price you pay for being such a geek....

All in all, easier than a Roland piece, harder than a Fender combo, but there's a lot of versatility in there.

Currently using it with a PRS custom 24, customized Ibanez S540 (20 years old now!). For power (and backup preamp), I use a Lexicon Signature 284 (3W x 2). Avatar 2 x 12 cab w/ Hellatones. By the way, if you come across one of these Lexicons for less than $500, buy it immediately. I also use a TC G-Major for additional effects. The setup sounds amazingly large, and doesn't hurt my aging back....

For it's time, this box was WAY ahead of the curve. Brilliant conceptually. It does have some noise in the high-gain modes, but it can can be tamed with good choices for tubes (Tung-Sol ECC803S) and a mod provided at adadepot.com, which does help considerably. There is also a noise gate, defined PER PATCH, that is pretty good. I also have a Rocktron Hush IICX...

The effects are: 1) Chorus. Very good. Analog. Thick. 2) Cab simulator. Very good. Beats the hell out of going without it. 3) Tremelo. Don't use it very much, but seems to do it's job. 4) Wah. Surprisingly good. I'm not a wah snob, so I can't say it's better than this or that, but seems to be regarded well among those who are.

The unit has not failed me yet (or the previous owner). Of course, ADA is long dead, so operate at your own risk.

Using anything without *some kind* of a backup is a bad move, regardless.

Well, there is no company to deal with, but there is a fantastic users' community at adadepot.com. You can usually get questions answered there. Very cool guys, and very knowledgable. As I said before, there is a great noise mod for the MP-2 that does make a significant difference.

I've been playing for about 25 years, though no longer professionally. WhenI do play, I play mostly rock. There is some occaisional country, blues, R&B thrown in. This preamp is not my only option (or choice), but has an impressive feature set for a piece it's age and cost. Any option that is it's equal or better is much more money. I have been a long-time Mesa user, and had a Triaxis a while back, which was a better preamp, with 5x the price tag. But it didn't have a gate, chorus, wah, or tremelo, either. By the way, the recording outs on the ADA are better, too.

Since I don't generate income from playing anymore, I have a hard time justifying expensive equipment costs. My purchases are dictated mostly by value - something good (or great) for as little as possible. The ADA fits that value model pretty well. The tone isn't for everyone. If metal is your thing, this will disappoint. If you like anything from Stones to to ZZ to AC/DC to hair metal, this will get the job done - in one rack space.

I would probably replace it with another if lost. The price is right, and it gets good tone.

It is very easy to use

I like the sound,but it is very noisy, so I am looking for that Spiridon who did that mod for MP2, can anyone help me to find him?

I used it a lot on a live gigs

Company died

not too tough to use at all. you can download the manual as a PDF, but unless you're diving into the midi functions it's pretty intuitive. I needed the manual for the midi stuff.

well, when I first got it, I was pretty happy with the cleans and totally bummed about the distortion voicings. It was a complete fizztastrophe, just buzzy tone. not bad at break-up, but pushing it into high gain was just horrible. The worst aspects of hotrodded late 80s marshall top end sizzle. I also noticed that in the clean and the dirty channels, the dynamics just suck. So I retubed it. It had sovteks in it which I swapped for a set of JJs, which made all the difference. It's still voiced in that hotrod marshall way, but the fizz is gone. It's never gonna do the non-diode clipping, smooth liquid gain thing, but it actually sounds pretty good now. I can get rootsy breakup on up to some great metal sounds now, and it's got a lot of clarity when you play chords with the gain cranked. goody! the cleans are pretty good, but like I said earlier, the dynamics suck. new tubes won't change that. oh well. we all know that the noise gate is horrible. the tremelo is great. the chorus is serviceable, though it's no small clone. I actually prefer my dano fab chorus, which is a surprisingly good chorus at any price... anyway, I don't use the wah, so no opinion there. I don't use the compressor either. The EQ is good. before the retubing, I'd give it a 2 for the dirty channels, but now it's about an 8. A little noisy, but I don't usually play at super saturation so no biggie. the cleans get about an 8 also. this is because of the shitty dynamics, like there's always a compressor on it that you can't turn off...

yes and yes. it's a solid piece of work.

well, the folks at ADA depot are pretty friendly, although things are certainly geared more toward the MP-1 there. It's a good resource.

what style of music do I play... man, what don't I play? that's why I opted to get this amp, I need the many many channels and many many settings. I can't get a santana sound or a good black metal sound out of it, but pretty much everything else is in there if you dig deep enough.
If it got ripped off, I may replace it, or maybe go for the triaxis. one nice thing about it is that even though there's no reverb, the sound it puts out doesn't need it. If I could change it, I'd add a tube or 2 and chuck the diode clipping altogether, although it's pretty good sounding as is. I'd definitely do something about the lack of dynamics you get out of it. it's definitely worth the money you pay for one.

I guess this is entirely dependant upon one's previous konwledge of FX processors. I found it extremely easy to use, no need to read a manual. Speaking of manuals, I believe that it is still downloadable as a pdf if it is needed.

First some background...

I have been playin for over 20 years and have gone through a huge amount of guitars, ampilifiers, effects, etc.

As preamps that I have owned to compare this to...

Matchless DirtBox, Mesa V-Twin, Budda Phatman, Rocktron Voodoo Valve, Marshall JMP-1, Sansamp PS-1, Lexicon MPX-G2, Line 6 Pod, Roland G100, Roland VG-8, H & K Cream Machine. I have also have had way too amps and effects to bother listing.

Now my setup is very simple, Ravens West PRS style Hollowbody, ADA MP-2, Epiphone Valve Jr.

I absolutely love all the tones I have been able to coax from this rack unit. I was expecting this to be somewhat noisy but it is exactly the opposite of that, in fact it eliminates the small amount of noise I get when plugged directly into the amp, and this is without any use of the ADA's noise gate, ever. I can run the distortion full out with out any need of the noise gate and when I stop playin, dead quiet. I have never experienced this from any of my pedals or amps when the gain is even slightly cranked much less full out saturation, incredible!

This preamp fits my Valve Jr. like a glove, I am able to get all manner of cleans, in betweens, and full out balls to the wall tone out this litlle beast. I love the effects that live within this box, the EQ works sonic wonders, the Wahs are great (I have always had problems finding a wah that I liked), Tremolo is fantastic, Compression works wonderfully, and the Chorus is the best I've owned.

I still can't believe that I have been playing with this setup for over a year and have not felt the need to even use delay or reverb. The tones coming out of my little amp have a 3 dimensional shimmer to them even with a completely dry setup.

My musical influences run the gamut, King Sunny Ade, Ali Farke Toure, Ry Cooder, James Grealy, Jimmy Page, Tom Morello, Billy Corgan, Charlie Hunter, Zappa, Brad Shepik, Shakti, Tupac, etc...

With this box I can nail most any tone shy of full out Fuzzed mayhem ala Grealy's tones in Big Brother and the Holding Company, for that stuff I need a bit more. If anyone knows the trick to that tone let me know.

I have to say that I have never held on to one piece of gear as long as this and I have no plans to ever part with this. I don't know if I may have got an exeptional unit or if most are this impressive. I do know that this has ended my search for a versatile box of tone.

I had this sitting in a closet for 6 months, had it fall off a table onto a cement floor, and like the Energiser Bunny it kept on tickin. I hope it never dies as ADA is no more.

There is a couple things I wish it had. I wish that I could bypass the preamp section and just use the effects into my amp. I wish the effect loop was located just after the preamp in leau of not being able to bypass the preamp. I wish ADA still existed.

I see this unit as a good match for all styles of music. I can get great clean jazz tones, exotic world music tones, breaking up blues tones, and thumping palm muted heavyness with eaqual ease. I have been reading reviews here since it hit the net and have NEVER been inclined to even consider writing a review before but this unit has blown me away so...

I generally have little patience for scrolling through menus and programming units, but I found this unit generally very easy to set sounds and all the buttons are dedicated to each parameter which is very nice. I did not try to program the midi functions, so I am not rating that (although the ADA MXC pedals were plug and play with this, so this is all I'd ever want to do anyhow). Overall though, very tweaker friendly since the unit is actaully fairly basic with only a few effects.

I'll start out by saying I bought this unit on Ebay so my experience may be somewhat tainted if the unit was abused previously. I was attracted to this unit because many users compared it favorably to a Mesa Triaxis. I then bought a Triaxis and compared them - and there is no comparison between the two.

That's not to say the MP-2 overall sounded great. I was absolutely impressed by the direct recording outs, I thought sounded better than my POD. I was playing this through an ADA Microtube 200 and an Avatar 2x12 with Century Neo 60's (similar to Vintage 30's but with Neo magnets). I thought the clean voicings were good, a little sterile and thin, but not bad. Maybe this was not the fault of the MP-2, but was due to the solid state (but with tube pre) Microtube poweramp. However when I played the Triaxis through the same exact setup, the cleans were so much warmer and fatter. Back to the MP-2, I found that the unit was fairly quiet on the clean and mid gain voicings, but horribly noisy on the high gain voicings. This forces the use of the noise gate, which is very chattery, so much so that it is almost unusable in my opinion. The presets I thought sounded pretty good direct through the recording outs, but I couldnt use them live through the amp/cab. I wonder if something was wrong, because many of the presets were just howling with noise.

I think the second biggest complaint I had about the MP-2 was that it lacked dynamic response to picking force. I saw someone else say this in another review and I know now what they are talking about. Is it horrible? Well no, it blows away a POD, but when I compare to my Mesa Mark IV, and the newly purchased Triaxis, the MP-2 is uninspiring to play. Again, I realize this MP-2 was old - but I did put in nice new JJ tubes and it did not improve this aspect much if at all. Again, this may be the a result of using the ADA Microtube.

I was able to approximate the lead sound on my Mark IV with some tweaking, but eventually gave up. It wasnt too far off, and let's face it, if you want the boogie tone, then get a boogie. I am not bashing the MP-2 because it doesnt emulate a fender/ marshall/ boogie perfectly. It has some great clean and gain sounds (maybe a bit flat and sterile), but it is the lack of dynamics that turned me off. Just didnt feel right, and the noise gate was driving me up a wall!

The chorus was good, and the tremolo was very good(I compared it to my Keeley modded boss tremolo, and it was better I think).

In my opinion (at least using the MP-2 with the Microtube 200) the MP-2 is good, but just lacking in the warmth department. I really wanted to like this, and was initially blown away, but after critical listening, it just didnt deliver top notch tone/feel of a great tube preamp.

Seemed solid and it survived this long since about 1993! I think I'd trust the MP-2, but the Microtube is another story. It is a bit quirky on powerup, but seems to keep on ticking once it is fired up.

I do think ADA was way ahead of there time and it is unfair to compare the MP-2 to a lot of newer stuff. Too bad they went out of business. I really liked the ADA MXC midi pedal - I actually wish I kept them because the modern offerings are too big/bulky.

I play mostly hard rock/bluesy style. The MP-2 sounded more like a great "wall of sound" generator, and did not have the expressiveness that I prefer. I've been playing for about 20 years and have gone through the rackmount phase, the solid state phase, the tube combo amp phase, the modelers, and now back to rackmount (albiet tube rackmount) phase. I've used to just run a distortion pedal into an old Roland Jazz Chorus and then upgraded to an ART SGE back in the late 80's early 90's and thought that was great at the time, but always felt that the response was not there, though I didnt know what it was missing at the time. Then I got a Mesa Tremoverb half stack and then knew what a real amp was. I then went through a couple of amps like a Mesa Nomad 45, a Peavey Ultra, a Mesa MkIV, and now the triaxis. I recall when I was buying the ART SGE back in the day, the MP-1 (precurser to the mP-2) was on display brand new, and I opted for the ART (I think I was mesmerized by the effects though, and might not have made that choice today knowing what I know now).

All in all, not a bad preamp, if the high gain sounds were more useable (less noise or better noise gate) it would be a lot better. Also, run this through a nice tube poweramp and maybe that will show the qualities of this preamp in a better light. I think that the Triaxis must just be plain better than the MP-2 since it can still sound good using the Microtube amp.

I will also say that, yes, it is not fair to compare the Triaxis at $1700 to an old 1993 MP-2 going for $200 used. Very true, and if you put it that way, the MP-2 gets a couple extra points for being as good as it is for bargain basement cost. I just wanted to compare it to the Triaxis to share my experience and an alternate opinion as to how the two compare, especially since I see this comparison drawn in several other reviews.

I would give it an 8 for the cleans/mid gain and tremolo, and a 6 or lower for the awful noise on higher gain settings, and chattery noise gate. So an average of a 7 is probably about right, but as everything else, ratings are subjective, so try one for yourself!

Every metal head knows about the sustain and chunk that an ADA preamp can achieve. some classic rockers, blues brothers and jazz strummers can also get some good tones if they take the time to really look at what it is and listen to how all the controls respond. As I said before, this is NOT an effects divice, if you want effects (the only effect I want is delay and verb!) go get this with a nice studio unit... Think older Alesis or some of the newer T.C. Electronic stuff. If you want ALL-IN-ONE, go check out Digitech's GSP-2101, 2112 or 2120, or Rocktron's Voodoo Valve. I've personally been running one of an ESP KH-2 (with Duncan's Dimebucker and '59), an ESP/LTD M-1000fm (still with the EMG-81's for now) or a slightly older Ibanez RG-570 (with the Ibanez V-series pickups) into this. The preamp then goes into a Peavey Classic 60/60 power amp and into a Peavey Triple XXX 2x12 cab. I tie everything together using NOTHING but Monster Rock series cables. I also have a Boss GT-8 that I use from time to time, but, it (even with all the effects available) still sounds digital when compared to this. This thing especially shines in band rehersal when I get to turn up the power amp and get the power amp to heat up with it.

I managed to get a deal (one time where Ebay worked to my advantage) on a VERY clean 1993 ADA MP-2. Analog signal path with compresion, nine-band eq, chorus, tremolo and even wah effects! Let's not forget the range of 10 tube voices from clean, to vintage dirt to Hi-Gain (and there's plenty to spare there). I'm going to say up front, this is NOT an effects unit. This is not a Digitech, Rocktron or Boss. This is an early ninety's attempt to add digital control and flexibility to a great analog preamp. 2x 12AX7's, a stereo effects loop, direct outs with cabinet emulators, it's good piece live and in the studio. What more do you need?

Haven't had it for very long, but, I've owned at least three or four ADA MP-1's in my life (hey, I was a teen and didn't know how to really use 'em!), and the only problems I've EVER had with ANYTHING ADA was my own fault. I always keep a new set of tubes handy and have a little chart in my rack cover to make sure I remember to retube everything at least once a year. Again, never had any problem that wasn't my own fault.

Ada disappeared when the rack scene went to all-in-one then back to pedals and amps...

I've been playing for about 14 years and I listen to mostly metal and classical. If this disappeared or died, I would hunt down another without any second thought. In fact, I'm SO jazzed by this that I'm trying to hunt down a couple of ADA's combo amps that used to be on the market! I love this pre's simplicity and tone availablity! It's a preamp? What more do you REALLY need? Oh, yeah, an outboard (I'm not saying the preamp needs it, that would just screw up the analog signal path!) digital delay! I mean, hey, what're effects loops for if it's got it in it, right?!

The distorted tones were ok/tolerable and a bit better than the MP1, however.... This stereo preamp had a flickering stereo right channel that would clip out constantly into mono-ville.
This preamp was a lemon from Day 1. Its chorus was ok but overall, the effects were weak and NON-transparent. I returned this dead dog and stepped into the very alive ROCKTRON Chameleon and later into the wicked Voodu Valve. These "real all-in-one machines are both musically beautiful and very transparent sounding units. The pick attack is not lost and the distortions/hush are killer. ADA did me a large favor by innovating the idea for a single rack space tone machine...however, other companies successfully took it into a whole new realm and buried them alive. ADA dropped the ball.

I got this thing in an attempt to get an "all in one" effects unit that sounded great and was a piece of cake to both use and tote around to gigs. NOT! From the start this piece of crap was a LEMON. I had dabbled in the MP1s and found them to be the best preamp sound out there in the early 90s at the time...so I felt that the "revved up" version 2.0 would hit the nail on the head. It was problematic from the start.

Unreliable. Especially considering the fact that the stereo sound was defective the moment it was received. Makes you nervous from the start. BAD first impression. If I had these kind of problems in 1996, I bet others did too. Thus the company went OUT of business.

The unit was sent back TWICE for the same problem. Never got fixed. We told them to stick the ADA MP2 up their NUMBER 2 (where the sun don't shine). Frustrating. I thing this was part of the Fall of Rome for this ADA group. Too bad for them.
WE'RE GOING ROCKTRON BABY!!!

Sucks. LONG LIVE ROCKTRON!!!

I never believed that I could get tone this good from a single space preamp with only two tubes! The scoop sound on this thing just totally nails that old "Master of Puppets" and "Justice for All" tone.
It also has really good lo-gain sounds as well. The Clean voicings are a far cry from Fullerton, but they're not horrible either. The compressor and chorus are perfect for me. I like to use just a little bit of chorus with the slowest rate possible on each patch because it's almost like having live double-tracking; it helps to spread the tone out and give it more dimension.

This is an ammendment/addition to my current review:

I have come to believe that most of the negative reviews for the MP-2 come from people who have bought the unit used, and most likely from Ebay or some other such source. If you're going to buy one of these from Ebay, make absolutely sure that you ask A LOT of questions pertaining to the condition of the unit.
There are quite a few inputs and outputs on this thing, so make sure the current owner has tested them and can verify that they work. Also ask about the state/age of the tubes. If they're older than a year, be ready to replace them before you plug in and rock out.
Ask if all of the led lights and the Display are working correctly. If at all possible, arrange for Fed Ex or the US Post Office Parcel Service to get it shipped. UPS really banged mine up good. The pin connector for the LCD to the IC Board was completely pulled off, and the connection at the LCD was almost halfway off. Keep in mind that this MP-2 was packed really well and yet it still suffered this nasty abuse.
So, make sure you've opened the unit up and checked all the connections before firing it up.
If you have any doubts about the purchase, then be smart and don't do it.

I absolutely LOVE this preamp; it ROCKS!!!

I think the more appropriate question about the MP-2 should be "What CAN'T you do with amazing little box"?!?!
Considering the year of its birth, this unit is light years ahead of so-called "tube amp modeling". I've found that if you're going to use digital gear, select products that use all of thier processing power to do ONE thing, and do it well. Until digital guitar stuff reaches a MUCH higher bit-rate that 24, these devices will never come even close to tube and analog devices.

Disclaimer:
I am in the process of choosing a new guitar that will be my next full-time ax. Until then, I'm using a cheap-o Epiphone LP Junior that I generally use only for electric slide work.
Even though this guitar is a far cry from being the best, the pickup still manages to convey the tone in a honest and transpearant fashion.
Some people claim that the ADA preamps are too noisy, but I've yet to come across a noise that was out of control. Plus, the MP-2 DOES have a noise gate; so USE it! If you REALLY want to eliminate noise altogether then I suggest you buy active pickups( I use EMG's and I love them! ), a Rocktron HUSH, and put it before the MP-2 and coming right out of your guitar. Then you can set the MP-2 noise gate a lot lower and get your sustain back.

The cleans don't seem as robust to me as thier distortion counterparts, but they do NOT suck too badly either.
The distortions this Unit can get are absolutely incredible for a preamp with only two tubes. It's got really good in-between sounds, but hi-gain is where this baby roars to life. I've been able to get fat and focused Boogie tone, mighty Marshall midrange, and depending uopn EQ settings, I can almost nail that Matchless "blizzard of nails" distortion as well.
Tonally I have no complaints about the MP-2

Stereo, MIDI-based, tube preamplifier.
A TRUE Stereo FX Loop, and your choice of Outputs which break down like this:
XLR Stereo Outs and 1/4-inch outputs which send the signal through a Speaker Simulation circuit before it hits your mixer or soundcard.
Stereo, 1/4-inch outputs that run independent from said Speaker Simulation. These are the outs that you connect to your power amp.
And of course; MIDI In, Out, and Through.

If you buy one used from Ebay, make sure you ask the seller a LOT of questions about it. I've read horror stories about people who bought one and it didn't work right at all upon firing it up for the first time, so be cautious.
Mine arrived in good shape so I have no complaints( so far...).
Also, you should experiment with diffrent tubes so that you can get the sound your after. And ABSOLUTELY you must replace the tubes when you first get it! You'd be suprised at how many people spend hundreds of dollars to buy a used amp, and then they complain about the tone because they didn't think ahead and realize the tubes were what caused the weak tone.

ADA no longer exists, and it's a damn shame. These guys did quite a bit of pioneering work in the field of electronics and amplification, and I wouldn't mind seeing a comeback from them.
There IS however a GREAT support group called adadepot.com, and they can help you find a way to get your MP-2 fixed or upgraded if needed.

The only thing I wish the MP-2 had is a data wheel or two to help simplify and speed up editing. Rocktron really has it down when it comes to faceplates and ease of editing.
Other than that, I'm as happy as a clam with the MP-2.

I've owned two MP1s before this unit. Setting patches is time consuming, but the results are rewarding. And the process is really self explanitory. The changes are by ear. You do what "sounds" best. Not the easiest process in the world, but not brain surgery by a long shot. Like I said; more an ear thing than technical.

I agree with everyone saying that the chorus is the big show as far as the MP2's effects go. I owned 2 MP1s before this unit. When the MP1 first appeared, it was the only preamp the compared favorably to the sonic qualities of the Soldano amp head. Not wanting to mortgage my girlfriend, I opted for the MP1. I haven't been disappointed yet. And when a beer got poured through it at a show, I went and got another one. Now this MP2 is "all that and then some". Harmonics are easy, saturation is easily on par with Soldano's, sound density is ruthless but notes in chords aren't lost. I put the @#$* to it at shows and I've enjoyed fairly flawless performance. Only problems I've had with all these units is "pick dynamics". Pick hard or soft, same dynamic..regardless of the gain level or compression in / out. At ultra gain setting, don't stop playing or the feedback will kill you. I don't use the gate much as it sounds too artificial. Silky clean tones too. At triple the price, the only thing better is the Mesa Boogie Triaxis.. and then, not enough to be worth it.

Short of pouring a beer through it, this thing is unstoppable. Keep a spare set of 12AX7s with you and everything is 5 by 5. I.E. I haven't had one die on me of natural causes yet.

If you buy one of these now, you're working without a net, pal. Don't let that scare you though. They are relatively cheap now that so many other things have come onto the market. You still can't go wrong with this unit for the price. I picked mine up for $150 used. At that rate, you could buy a stack of them and throw 'em at people.

Rack gear in general is a pain in the @#*. Old school pedals are much easier, but the sonic clarity of digital gear makes it worth having. The level and room eq knobs make this unit very "venue friendly" without having to mess with your patches. Several levels of eq make tonal variations endless. Put it in front of a couple Marshall stacks in stereo: voice of God, brother!

The sounds this thing makes really are different, sound like a 60s guitar with that very thick rich Santana sound, to disco strat tones, to a very acoustic clean guitar, and go to Crazy train, and each one sounds right. Each mode is musical and just sings in its own way.

OK its finally time for me to review my mp-2. This is the most awesome amp I've found, and if the triaxis could somehow sound better, well it doesn't have as many features either.
This this has tone controls and drive controls for each of 10 different tube voicings. Each channel has a grafic EQ. This is very important becuase when I first got my mp-2, it sounded dead. Turned out that the channels I was using had the eq tones muted. It works so well that you would swear it couldn't make that much difference - but it does... Then you have the effects, a good usable tremelo sound, like an old Fender amp, a chorus, an auto wah, and a digital controlled wah - the only way to go. All these effects are not over the top and very pro sounding - AND THEY DONT ADD NOISE OR KILL YOUR TONE LIKE MOST FOOT PEDALS. Stereo out and all is fully midi switchable - just what you would design for yourself if you could!

They're gone

I've been playing 25 years and played many amps to find the right one - I have plenty of cash to buy what I want but have found nothing I like better yet. Get one and spend some time with it - you will be very surprised that you didn't have to fork over $2K for it!

This is basically a good sounding preamp, but your choice of amp and speakers is CRUCIAL!. I originally used it with an ADA microtube amp and ran it stereo into a 2-12 cabinet I had wired for stereo so I could get stereo chorus live (seemed like a good idea at the time!) It sounded pretty good and of course the convenience of being able to switch patches quickly with a midi floor pedal made it perfect. Then the ADA power amp took a dump on me and since ADA was out of business I couldn't get it fixed. I sent it off to some tech in Los Angeles (I'm in Central Cali) and he just whined about not being able to fix it because of no schematics, no ADA, etc. So I gave up and went and bought a Marshall Valvestate power amp. I think it was an 80-80 or something. This amp, with the combination of my "stereo" cabinet made it sound HORRIBLE! It was dry, with no punch, weak, and lifeless. I played like this for about 4 years and was always wondering why the other guitar player in my band sounded so good (Mesa Boogie and Marshall JMP1) and I sounded so weak. Well, this other guitar player had a Fender Blues Deville that he never used so I borrowed it one night and put the MP2 directly into the "power amp in" on the Fender and everyone's mouth just fell open. The Fender power amp section and speakers completely brought it back to life and I bought the Fender from my friend more or less on the spot. Now my tone is back and I'm enjoying playing again!! YOU NEED A REALLY GOOD TUBE POWER AMP AND SPEAKER COMBO FOR THE MP2 TO REALIZE IT'S FULL POTENTIAL, (in addition to knowing how to program it well.) Oh yeah, I'm using an Ibanez RG 570, with SD '59 in the bridge position and the standard Ibanez pickups in the middle and neck. I play everything from classic to modern rock and have been playing professionally for about 30 years.

Adequate features, I like the chorus, wah and tremelo, but I wish there was some kind of ambience effect (reverb or delay)

LED display poops out when there is a low or unreliable voltage situation from the AC, but otherwise it's stayed together now for about 10 years (I replaced the tubes once or twice).

I would definitely try to replace it if I lost it because I know what it CAN do under the right conditions. HOOK IT UP TO THE RIGHT POWER AMP AND SPEAKERS AND YOU'LL BE HAPPY!
(Sometimes I just want to plug my old "tube driver" pedal and Ibanez chorus into the Fender and just wail, though!!)

The MP-2 is very easy to use / get a great sound
Editing patches is easy .
Yes I have the manual but the mp-2 is so easy to use
the manual is still in the wrapper(will sell on e-bay for cherry kool-aid)
yes /yes

I use an Ibanez 7620 to pedal board-mp2-allesis 320 eq-sonic
maximizer 482 back to mp2 to my power amp to my mesa bogie
4x12 recto cab. the gate is incredible no noise. the only
effect i use is the chourus the rest are preety weak in sound.
I went for my sound huge,dynamic,heavy,crisp and tight .
the mp2 makes the tripple rectifier look a peavy bandit

So far it has crapped out twice on me and has been re-wired a
bunch of times .

They went out of buisness before I could call.

I play death metal and this is a great match ive been playing
for 15 years and I always check out new heads but when I do
I always compare them to the mp2 and so far nothing has come
close .To bad ada wasnt still in buisness and comming out with
the MP-200 million

It's so damn easy to use.

This is my gear and connections: Ibanez JEM77FP---Marshall JCM900 hi gain master volume amp head---amp effects loop--Alesis Midiverb 4 processor----amp to speakers---Line 6 Flextone 2125 cabinet.
The mp2 is amazing, you can get brutal distortions and great tones from it. I play lead guitar and you can get those Marty Friedman guitar solos with the mp2, also it fits very well for sounds like Vai and Satriani. The effects are good, not that great (I never use them) but the noise gate it has is a good one. I have played the mp-1 too, and comparing them I preffer de mp-2, the mp-1 is very noisy.

I have been playing the guitar 4 years, I have played other preamps like the mp-1, hafler T2 (good one), marshall jmp-1, line 6 pod (crappy solid state), and I would say that the mp-2 is the best one (for my style), and you can get one in a good price (the jmp-1 is so expensive so as the triaxis). Too bad ADA dont longer exist.
If you are looking for a real distortion, I recomend you to get the mp2.

My guitars I use/used are: A custom made guitar of my own design/shape handcrafted by John Jordan of Jordan Music http://www.jordanmusic.com , it is a solid body electric, basswood body, AAA quilted maple top in translucent red, Evans pickups (E2 in the bridge, E1 in the neck) with a push/push single volume to split the bridge p/u. I also had an Ibanez RG-320 (Downtune a whole step DGCFAD)equipped with 2ea Evans E2 pickups, & a Floyyd Licensed. It was a basswood body as well. I also used a PRS CE-3 with 2 Evans E2 pickups, and recently an ESP/LTD H-207 7stringer.
In my rig which consisted 80% of ADA gear (Except for DDL/Reverb/Harmonizer) treated me very well through those years. It consisted as follows: Furman PL8, Samson Concert Series 2 Wireless reciever, 1 "Y" cable to split signal to, 2 each ADA MP-2, 2each Digitech DSP256XL (DDL/Reverb), Digitech ISP33B Harmonizer, ADA Microcab Miked Cabinet Emulator, Roland M-120 12channel Line Mixer, & ADA Microtube 200. There was also a 4space rack drawer which store cables, strings, tools, etc...

The signal flowed as follows: Gtr to wireles, signal split to 2 MP-2's; one for clean, one for dirty, Stereo dry signal from each direct to mixer, clean MP-2 had loop sending to 1 of the DSP 256XL's for reverbs, delays, the other MP-2 sent Loops send #1 toe the ISP33B, #2 send went to the 2nd DSP 256XL. The signal was split at these processors to stereo and then their wet outputs went to the mixer.

Now, here's the answer to the question "Why did you have 2 MP-2's, wasn't one good enough?" The answer is this, One was used for clean, the other for dirty because I used the CC's to provide a Clean/Dirty "Morph" to similate the crossfade done on a mixing board in the studio. I never like the abrupt change from clean to dirty, & I never liked the volume knob on the guitar rolled back to similate clean. I like my clean to be clean & my dirty to be dirty, & this allowed me realtime & dynamic control in the transition from clean to dirty. Having the dry signals fed direct to the mixer kept my original tone intact. Having the wet signals fed direct to the mixer simplified levels by leaving all the channels on the mixer at the same "6 o'clock" setting & I adjusted the indivual preset levels respectively.

I used one expression pedal for volume, & on an individual patch basis, the wah. The 2nd expression pedal was used to fade in the harmonizer, rather that suddenly. I always thought that this sounded nicer than on/off.

The "monitor outs" of the M-120 Line mixer went to the Microcab, the "main outs" went to the Microtube 200.

My live signal as heard through the house pa was 100% Microcab. This assured me the same consistent mic emulated tone night after night, & allowed me to use my 4x12 cabs simply as onstage monitors. Occastionally, since I was using a 20 space rack, in venues that had statges that were too small to house all of our cabinets, keyboards, & HUUUUGE drum kit, I simply went completely direct, & got of my guitar given to me in my monitor wedges.

This system was Extremely quiet, in any environment it delivered, & it's sound was consistent in any venue or volume.

This amp was in preproduction in early 1993, & put into full production in the spring of the same year. I enjoyed the preamp a great deal since I was fortunate enough to have been endorsed by ADA for 7 years. Because of this relationship, I was fortunate enough to have my ideas considered, & eventually implemented into the products that eventually became the MP-2, Microcab, & Viper. I am a prog metal musician & I played in local Bay Area bands like Gateway, & Prodigal Son. The units never let me down.

Of the concepts I had that were eventually used: MP-2; Loop activation from the effects send, not the return. Return level adjustment, individually between the 2 independent loops, programmable noise gate, cab emulator out.
My input on the Microcab was in lending my ear to testing between emulation & the many cabinets that were tested. This was neat, because I was plugged into an MP1 & a Microtube 200, the signal was ab'd between several 4x12 open/closed back, 1x12, 2x12, cabs of many configurations, vintage & modern. The miked signals then went to (of all things) a Ramsa 31 band EQ, & dialed in until the graphs on the oscillascope matched as close as we could get.

I never had any problem with ADA gear or this rig for that matter, other that of my own neglegence. I was performing at BURNING MAN 98 & our entire camp & stage fell victim to a hellacious sand storm. My rack was outdoors, lids off ready for sound check & was wide open to damage.

My relationship started with my first ADA purchase, the MP1 in 1989. I was its biggest fan. In 1990 My close friend, Chris Keller, went to work for ADA as West Coast Sales Associate. I work just a few blocks from the old ADA site on Edgewater Drive in Oakland, Ca. Chris & I lived in Antioch at the time, so we rode to work together daily. He exposed me quite a bit to what was in development in ADA, & as I was asked, I offered my input & opinions.

It was at this stage that I was fortunate enough to offer my opinions which were later put into production. Lorry Marcus, Matt Bocci, & David Tarnowski (ADA Owner) were very supportive of my ideas which I felt represented the average musician & consumer of gear such as thiers. Matt Bocci wrote the software for the pedals MC-1 & MXC, & I remember one time that Chris & I gave him a ride home to the recovering Oakland hills where the fire had consumed everything. Upon dropping Matt off at his home (The one home in the neigborhood that survived), he asked Chris & I into his home, where he presented to Chris as a gift an old antique harpsicord. Chris was elated.

I have nothing bad to say about their service. It was top notch.

The demise of ADA started upon moving into the building on Lesser Dr. in Oakland.

The building on Edgewater Drive was leased. David Tarnowski purchased the building on Lesser Drive for a price that seemed reasonable, but property in Oakland was not appreciating very well if at all back then. The building on Edgewater had ample room for expansion. The building on Lesser Dr. was triple the size of the previous location, & David only was able to lease out a minimal portion of the excess space for just a short period of time to a mattress company.

His burdonsome mortgage, along with the increasing "retro" trend, caused a decline in rack gear. To offset this negative cashflow, he started laying off production people. Nearly 90% of his production assembly staff were Asian & had worked for him faithfully for nearly 20 years. It was very hard for him to let go of them, & eventually, Chris, Lorry, & additional staff were let go. This also cause a pinch in trying to keep up with prodution with limited staff & cause a flurry of backordering. Without being able to keep up with production, it just snowballed from there.

It's a sad end to a great pioneer in modern amp technology. The man who in my opinion inspired what we now know as amp modeling ala Line 6 & Johnson, is now a man without a company, a product. His product legacy lives on in his gear that is now preciously valued by those who faithfully rely upon it.

Last I heard, David is now working for a computer company. I still have contact with Chris, he works for Federal Express at the Oakland Airport.

Since the demise of ADA, & without the support of a business currently in operation, I've had to replace all of that gear. I recently (couple of years ago) switched over to a Johnson Millenium J250H Head.

I'm 37, been playing for 30 years, love heavy music, love gear, love learning about all things technical. I hated parting with my ADA gear, but since I was gigging extensively, I couldn't chance being without "replaceable" gear on the fly. I have my patches dumped into the computer, & if I ever neaded to, I could borrow another Johnson Amp & dup my patches back into it. I don't have the luxury of a lot of people around who have ADA gear to borrow from, but the ADA gear still gets my vote, & if they were back in business today, I'd still be there #1 advocate, & I'd be back to using there gear once more.

I play very aggressive metal and I am a firm believer that you do not have to turn the gain all the way up to get a heavy sound. I like the clean,I like the distortion and I think that the effects are half way descent to boot. I play a Marshall full stack,Roland srv-3030 effects unit,BBE 386 sonic maximizer and a Peavey classic 120/120 tube power amp. Jackson guitars

This thing as many cool features and can be all be usable. I dont care for half of the reviews on this page,so dont look into them to much. I think this is a very versitile pre amp and would recomend it to all.

I use the unit daily,have been since I got it a year ago. Nothing has gone wrong with it in the time I've had it.

right

I had the mp1 before this and I didnt like that one much. I was hesitent on selling that only to get the newer model. This thing is on a different level from the mp1 and do believe it is a trusty contender with the jmp & triaxis. But thats one mans opinions...who cares right? Oh I've been playing for twelve years.

Excellent ease to obtain an excellent (TONE!!!)

I am running the MP-2 to a Peavey classic 50/50 stereo tube amp - not to be confused with the 60/60 which lacks true tube amp character for some reason. I run a Digitech GSP 21 for effects (minimal) and midi-controller.

I've read the other reviews on this pre-amp and must say that I am disappointed with the responces as they are very general and lack definition. I hear alot of, "lacks low end" from eq junkies and "noisey" from the gain freaks . In plain or simple terms, any more low end out of this unit and it would be un-micable because the boom would over-ride the tone and I have never in my 24 years as a musician heard a tube amp that didn't hiss when the gain was turned past 8.

TONE is where this unit excels all others and it is very simple to achieve if you turn the compressor OFF, set the eq's flat, select your tube character (program) and evolve your sound from this point.

As an owner of several tube amps (Mesa, Fender) this unit comes unbelievably close to matching any amp and is a hell of alot easier to lug around than 10 tube heads!!!

Users such as Satriani, Vei, Petrucci, Lynch can't be wrong.

If your looking for extreme bottom end - use a solid state amp ( a tube amp will never achieve the lower frequences of solid state).

If you want to use the highest gain settings and over use the compressor - your going to lose your dynamics guys and gals on any amp, but if this is your thing - use the friggin' noise gate.

If you want nothing but pure tube tone then use the MP-2 the way it was designed - as a preamp (nothing more- nothing less) and turn down the gain and compressor!!!

Have had mine for years and am very sorry they (ADA) are no longer around (conspiracy). My fenders and boogies always needed re-tubed and overhauled yearly due to road travel which is why I bought the ADA MP-2 in the first place and got away from the BIG amps. What a blessing!

Out of buisness at this point - but were extremely helpful when they were in buisness!

I have played music for 24 years on a semi-professional level and I play many types of music from blues to extreme metal and the MP-2 covers all extremely well and accurate. I have compared it to nearly everything on the market including the POD which so many seem to love. The POD is nice for sounds on the fly - but is very lacking in tube character. The MP-s simply does a far better job and the built in ampulator is fantastic for direct recording and also does a better job than POD or any other current hype items. My opinions are my opinions and not the gospel - so please do not take it as such. I am not the first nor the last word when it comes to advise - but it appears that some guys on here simply do not know what they are talking about when it comes to the MP-2 or what sound they're trying to achieve for that matter. Do not e-mail me with any obscene or offensive e-mail as I will turn it over to authorites and your internet provider will be notified. All other inquiries are more than welcome.

I've been using this with an Ibanez RG7620 with DiMarzio pickups, and although it gets a decent crunch for metal sounds, the harmonics are not really that good. You really notice it when you put this thing next to any Boogie amp. The distortion just has a "choppy" quality to it, where a good amp will have smooth sounding harmonics in the distortion. Of course, the distortion on this thing can really roar if you're looking for a cool metal sound. You have to be carefull about your gain settings. There is a point where turning up the gain makes the sound sick and gross and only adds noise - use you ear! I really like the lead tones I can get out of this thing.

The clean sounds on this preampamp are pretty weak. I've tried for 7 years to get a clean tone out of this thing that I like, and it just won't happen. All of the clean voices sound weak and thin - no balls.

I would like to say something about the "flubbiness" of the crunch that so many people like to mention, and what I would like to say is this: Use only monster cables, put some decent tubes in it, and turn down the gain!!!

As far as the effects go on this thing, I use the compressor, the wah and the noise gate. None of them are outstanding, but it's nice to have them available. The noise gate and compressor are kind of annoying to use, but if you get them tweaked right they work well.

I'll give the distortion a 10, but the clean a 4, thus an average of 7.

It's got a compressor, wah, tremolo, chorus, stereo effects loop and noise gate - good combination of features. I was able to dig up an old advertisement for this thing, and contrary to other information I've seen, it has an all analog signal path.

I've never had a single problem with it. However, I've never gigged with it or put it under too much stress. There have been a few times when I was playing right before going to work and accidentally left it on for about 12 hours. It got pretty hot, but worked just fine.

This doesn't really matter anymore.

Overall, I like the distortion on this thing, and that's why I keep it around. But keep in mind that the 10 tube voices aren't all that versatile so I am yet one more person that believes that this preamp is for metal ONLY! I'll give this a 6 because it's really just an elaborate distortion pedal.

I play hard rock/metal/alternative/blues/classical/etc. The list goes on. I do not think it covers a wide range of musical styles. It covers rock very well minus the loud hiss this thing has. The noise can be covered up with the built in noise gate, but the gate gets annoying after you use it for a while. You begin to miss the sustain you can get without it, like on better preamps. The preamp doesn't cover the heavy crunch palm muting very well. It's more like a muddy thud, thud, than a crunch. I guess it would be ok for a cheap backup or if you have a smaller amp. I use a marshall half stack and before I tried the Marshall JMP-1 preamp, I thought the MP-2 was really good. The first time I tried a JMP-1 I put my MP-2 up for sale and bought a JMP-1. I'm now thrilled that I have the JMP-1 now. :)

It has a ton of features. More than you'd expect in a preamp. Things like a wah, tremolo, chorus, etc.

I never had trouble wih it.

It's alright if you were deprived from getting to try music gear out all the time like me. Our music stores are pathetic around hear. They rarely get anything good in. So I guess it's not that the MP-2 is a bad choice, it's just there are many choices of preamps that are better.

GREAT SOFTWARE, EASY TO USE, VERY LOGIC EDITING.

MY AXE IS A JACKSON COSTUM SOLOIST WITH AN EMG 81 HUMBUCKER, & 2 EMG SL SINGLES, PLUGED IN TO A DBX 166 COMPRESSOR, ALESIS 133 EQ, LEXICON MPX-1 PROCESSOR, FURMAN PL-PLUS POWER CONDITIONER & A TRIPLE RECTIFIER MESA BOOGIE AMP.
BEST DISTORTION I'VE EVER HEARD ( BEFORE THE MESA TRIAXIS).
WITH A LITTLE WORK, U CAN GET ANY DISTORTION U WANT.

IT BEEN DOING ME SOME PROBLEMS LATELY, SO I USE A TRIAXIS BACK UP.

N\A.... USE YOUR MUSICIANS FRIENDS...

I PLAY METAL THE MOST, ABSOLUTELY WOULD BUY IT AGAIN, WISH IT HAD A NICE REVERB.

I JUST BOUGHT IT ABOUT A WEEK AGO ! AND HAVE FOUND SOME GREAT TONES! AND DISTORTIONS! BUT IM WONDERING IF IM GETTING THE MOST OUT OF IT
SEEMING AS I DIDNT GET A MANUAL WITH IT!
IF ANYBODY COULD STEER ME TO ONE ! I WOULD GREATLY
APPREACIATE IT? PLEASE SEND TO mo_rage@prodigy.net

the distortions on this unit are great ! it seems to have alot of features .that i havent explored as of yet !

i just got it from a friend that said he would never sell it!
how ever he just got a boogie traxis and a couple of weeks later
he said wanted to buy the unit back ! and after that never gave me the manual he promised me he would look up! so i guess he liked the mp2 better than his new boogie after all! so far so good!

im a devout metal head ! i have been using a zoom 9151 gsp
processor !. lopped thur a dimebag signature model randall
a/ b switched to ada mp2 looped with a ada s1000 into an ada pre amp ! thur two 4/12 25 watt celestion cabnets and it sounds killer !!! no noise

The unit worked great for me. It was quiet, versatile, reliable till it started making the hum. I use a PRS, and Les Paul. I used a Peavey Classic 60/60 amp through 2 Marshall 4X12 cabs with it. I had a huge sound. Kinda like an Alex Lifeson sound. I have the Pod Pro and it sucks! It is noisey and does not have any good clean sounds. I am desparate to get this repaired. If anyone can help pleas contact me.

I need someone to fix my unit! It has an intermittent hum. It is not a bad ground. If anyone can help or would like to sell their's e-mail me. Please!

I use a sh*tload of guitar sounds, from Mr. Clean to Captain Crunch to Fuzzy Ferret to Molten Metal. I thought this unit would certainly do the trick. I was WRONG! It makes GESTURES at these sounds, but that's it. This over-priced, over-hyped unit is tragic. It has what must be the most lifeless, character-less sounds I have ever heard. ZERO dynamics, and even though there are 10 basic sounds to choose from, they really aren't that versatile. Hard to describe, but this thing has no feel to it; it's like plugging a guitar into a homogenizing box--they all come out the same. The distorted sounds, when high gain, are way too compressed and buzzy. The cleanest cleans have no sparkle. I am an audio engineer in a studio, and when of the players had this at the heart of his rack, I spent 4 hours explaining to him why he shouldn't use it. He was pissed...but the tape didn't lie. For metal-heads, this preamp would be okay. If you want TONE, not sound, and CHARACTER, not caricature, look elsewhere. This thing is a one trick pony, and there are MANY other units that do that trick better for a LOT less money.

Features are well spoken for already.

I have no idea.....it stayed with me for 3 days before I gave up and took it back.

Didn't deal with ADA. In the past they have been decent about things.

I would compare this unit to having about 6 cheap distorto-pedals at your disposal. You would be better off with a Line 6 POD, a Rocktron Piranha (if you can find one), even a Marshall JMP-1 (which I don't even like). Hell, the old Crate TDP from 1991 or so was better than this thing, at 1/4th the cost. I have been playing for 13 years, working in the studio for 4. Unless that spider guy has one hell of a modification (I hope he doesn't just swap tubes...that wouldn't do enough to change my mind about this piece of dung), this is for metal guys ONLY.

I never cared for MP-1...but that is a FAR better preamp than this one.

It just like a toy for Kids

I'm using this preamp with MY B.C.Rich Warlock(neck:Seymour Duncan Screamind Demon Bridge:Seymour Duncan Invader)and Marshall Amp.
I get this stuff before I'm using BOSS GT-3 as my preamp.
after change to ADA it sounds really getting much better.
you know.B.C.Rich's Guitar Clean sound always not good
but after change this Preamp.My warlock aslo can get
Crystal clean sound and the main part is Distortion.
it's really amagzing!very various Distortion sound I can get.
from Hypocrisy to Katatonia.also can get.
can be Thin can be Fatten sound.
no any complain for this Preamp MORE
I'm sure this preamp must be the best choice if you guys into
Metal Stuff

I just have this one for one weeks..I think cannot give too
high rate on it?

this manufacture is gone..I think no longer Customer Support rite?

I usually play Doom Metal Stuff sometime will play Black Metal,Classical.I played Guitar for 3 years.if this preamp was stolen
I'm sure I will get that guy and put him down from the cliff.
this preamp must be my last one~

Easy to modify a patch from factory preset; different thing is obtaining a sound that is still in your ears. Can someone mail me some schematics patches? I'm quite satisfied of mine but i'd like some tips to improve the sound quality since the guy spyridon give me the key of infinite good time with that mod. Good the manual, i have still an electronic one.

I've got an Ibanez FGS series with DiMarzio pick-ups and also use an acoustic Yamaha. I can have all kind of sound from that gear, from acoustic unplugged Clapton style, to EVH tapping and flying playing. Clear and bright to rough and crunchy, hard and fast.
I use a Fender Blues Deluxe with only the clear channel + a CryBaby wha + a DigitalDelayBoss. After years of experimentation i decided to reduce to minimum and find that playing technic is the difference. It depends on what kind of music you play.
I play Am-rock, blues, some metal, Allan Holdsworth, Frank Gambale, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai.
I must tell that with the mod told by spyridon that MP2 is becoming a real Blaster.......no more noise and dynamics all the time.Thanks.

Once it left me because of an electric problem in the gig. It must be stable with something.
Hope it'll live forever but i have some pedal for back up, they are NOT the same but you never know.

No cantact alt all, only downloaded the manual on line.

I owned an MP1 for three days before.....this one is the best pre-amp i never played with, no Triaxis, no Rocktron, no other. The only thing i regret is that i cannot find the original pedalboard which someone told is best.
If you have one MP2 contact the guy spyridon on this database. He's a realgood man.

I use a variety of "Strat" & "Tele" configued guitars that I have both purchased and made myself. They all have Seymour Duncan pickups in them. The typical arrangement is Lil' 59 neck and bridge with a stock strat pick up in the middle or Vintage Rails neck & bridge, stock strat in the middle and a 5-way pickup switch that allows neck and bridge pickups to be used together, real useful for me. Even though my band covers some grungy music here and there, I've never gone for that way mid-scooped sound (although there is enough EQ to do it). I've also had better results getting more sounds using pickups that are not way hot or that have accentuated mids. My whole setup consists of the MP-2, Alesis Midiverb II, ADA Microtube 200 and the foot controller. That all goes to a 1960A cabinet. I go for a while content with my settings and then will tweak for the heck of it. Something that might help other MP-2 owners, try starting out on an empty patch with one of the high gain voices, pull down the "Overdrive" level so that it's just a little "warm". This is a way I've found to create thick, sustaining patches that are a little different from the factory presets. Sounds real good on the neck pickup. Another handy use for the continuous contoller is to use it to variably control the amount of effects return. I also use the emulator outputs to go to the mixing console when we play out. I've noticed that I can get better presence/projection in the mains if my solo patches are mono(not chorused), this puts the solos in the "middle". I've got all my levels set so that I can run the output level on the preamp at 12:00 and the power amp all the way up, this seems to allow more natural feedback and maybe a little better frequency response overall. This preamp has enough range when set this way to create even clean patches that can spread from rythym to solo levels without distorting. The chorus is real good, I've gotten addicted to the stereo capabilties, I don't use the tremelo. Something I haven't been able to accomplish (although is not high on my list) is that ringy, gritty clearer distorted sound that I found in a Mesa Nomad. I was attracted to the three channels with solo funtion in each channel. I'm going to try the modification listed on this site by Spyridon, will write back.

I ordered this preamp through AMS in 1995, or so. I play in a band that does mostly rock/alternative covers and some originals. It has always been important me to be able to pull off varying degrees of distortion sounds and to be able to bump up the over-all level for solos regardless of the sound being hyper-clean or way distorted. This preamp (for me) handles this asignment well, I think the choice of power amp is critical. Some fore thought on creating patches for your live situation is prudent. I highly recommend some kind of continuous controller for using this unit, there are funtions you cannot access without one. I use the ART X-15 with one pedal being global over-all volume control and the other for various functions, depending on the patch (sort of a "poor man's Bradshaw system"). I use ADA's Microtube 200 power amp and this is probably the weak link in the chain sound-wise.

It has never broken down, I'm flying without a net on the backup amp situation, I take real good care of it. I've been thinking about something like the Mesa V-Twin pedal for a back up.

Had a weird deal where apparently the phantom power on the console we were using was working it's way into places it shouldn't in my MP-2. It exhibited the problem when the phantom power was switched off, the input levels from the MP-2 went through the ceiling. I re-wired the cables with TRS plugs instead of XLR, no problem.

I've been playing with bands since about 1980, I also own the PA gear we use so money for sound gear gets pulled many ways. Now that these things are turning up used I'd like to get another one for backup. I also have an old Princeton Reverb that I plunk with, it's good for keeping me aware of what a REAL clean sound is. I go through phases where I'd like to really chuck the technology and play through a Nomad or something, I'm surprised more amp manufacturers don't address the main/solo volume thing.

simple and straight foward editing and i love the compare feature
that lets me hear patch before and after any changes!.
why didn't i give it a 10?, simple i love knobs and turning them!
pressing buttons is slow and menu's are hidden unless your there
and you have to document all your patches on a chart like the one
at the back of the manual to record them!, make plenty of photocopies!

actually i have to give it a 11! for sound quality.well mine at least.
Why? ,becouse its me spyridon the guy who has the mod to elliminated
the noise, but im a tone freak and it still didn't satisfie me!,
yea it was great at the metallica and mid swoop boogie sound etc,
but the clean and classic distortion sounds were ok, not great so
i got obsessed again and tested and tested and found a fix! yea i
really found a great natural tube tone ! and the gain and distortion
sounds also improved!,WoW now i'm satisfied my "NEW MOD" has turned
this king of the 80's GEM into a unit that competes and blows away
even the new gear out there today!No preamp comes close at any price!
and i have plenty of feedbacks from people that agree!,e-mail me to read some.

this baby was built right but lookout they forgot something really
important at the factory!, if you have problems or funny things
happening when yours gets "hot", you need to remove the top cover
and applie silicon heat sink grease to the top of the power supplie
heat sink plates top!.don't know why they didn't do that ,its standard
procedure with any electronic unit. i highly advise everyone to do
this to there unit!

no help from ADA there into studio gear now and guitar stuff has been
discontinued!, But if your interested in my new mod and finding out
more about it e-mail me at sse29@netzero.net!, i can also be reached
at sthero@hotmail.com , or click on the link at the bottom,
my other e-mail address at juno is not active anymore!

im into heavy progrock! and i also love playing acustic stuff and
blues, i collect guitars have a tom anderson drop top w/floyd,
brian moore c-90,a couple of MM EVH's about 4 gibsons ,68 tele,
some warmouth guitars i built with there premo parts(i'm a guitar
tech! at a sam ash!), and ibanez,kramers,ovation 12,etc. also i love
rack stuff and collecting pre-amps-got the pod pro,rockmaster,
hafler-boogner,sgx2000,digitech2101+lots more-yes im insane!
but i have to tell you the ada sounds best through a tube poweramp
or in the effects return of a tube amp ex.peavy 5150 wow what a
improvement!, i've got a backup also for experimenting and all i
can say is if your thinking about a rack or for home recording
GET ONE!, and don't forget about my mod!

I think this thing is monstorous. I have two guitars I made from warmoth parts outfitted w/ Lawrence pickups and I literally was able to replace 3 amps I was using, a Marshall VS-100H for distortion, a blackface Fender bassman, and 2x8 Roland JC-80 combo for the cleaner stuff. I've read other reviews where complaints about thin sound, tubby sound, noise, sterile distortion, flat clean sounds, and all kinds of other complaints, and my only guess can be programming errors. It IS very easy to overdrive any area of the signal path, which can cause this clanky distortion that is just plain horrid. And I've heard the funky buzz on the chorus that other people describe. But all I had to do was use the 'compare' button to make gain adjustments so my edits were no louder than the 'tube voicing' with both eq's flat.

Lots. Reverb instead of tremolo would've been nice. You definately have to 'learn' this preamp. Takes a lot of time to get around.

So far, so good.

I called ADA twice when they were just about to shut down business. I owned an Mp-1 at the time, (which I absolutely hated) and I couldn't believe how polite they were. I got to talk to one of the original engineers, and he gave me all kinds of advice. It's a shame they're not around anymore.

I've spent thousands on amps, and they were all all-tube. Started as a kid with Peavys and Crates, graduated to Laneys, Marshalls and Mesas, and then tried Trace Elliot, Kitty Hawk, and even the H&K tri-amp, and the only thing I've heard sound better to my ears was a Matchless preamp (can't remember model) that sold for almost $3000. It was such a suprise because the only reason I bought it was because it was so cheap. I was going to use it for a trade or something, and I expected to hate it as much as the Mp-1.

Presets are exaggerated...typical..., but easily tweaked, with literally 1,000 gradations of tube distortion, awesome

With the right power amp and speakers to fatten the preamp distortion, you can get great sustain without honkiness

lcd illumination went up on me twice, otherwise the unit is dependable

i use it with the filter on all the time ,this preamp is the best i used

i use a fender stratocaster, a fender blues de ville, the preamp is noisy but the noise gate works good.

i can use it without a backup

i can use it

i play rock,for 15 years,i use it with a eventide gtr 4000, a t. c. electronic g-force. i live in mexico and i have a big problem because
my mp2 is broken, and i dont have the users manual ,the technician needs the diagram for repair, and i would like to know how can i use controllers in real time.please help me .i would like to buy another one or two. my e-mail is muloc_13@hotmail. i can pay for the manual and the diagram. thanks.

Very easy to use but very dificult to get a good sound...once you get there you will never leave.

The MP-2 has lots of distortion , so you'll probably abuse of it and call it noisy. Comparing to other preamps like JMP-1 and MP-1 the MP-2
is a worl of sounds. The low gain voices (wich have as much distortion as a JMP-1, with the right tubes)a lot sound better. Tweak the equalizer to clean the high frequencies.
I use an ibanez RG guitar , a marshall poweramp and ADA cabinets.
For using with Guitar amplifiers cut the treble and the presence.
The tremolo, the wha wha and the chorus sound very good specialy if you use them together.
I dont need to use the noise gate but it's very effective.

Its reliable, i used it in a lot of gigs without problems.
Once i had o problem with noisy hum but my tech solved it very
well.

Don't Know.

Very good for getting all kinds of sound from clean to trash to "unbeliveble".

Sound is ok, but not superb. Clean's are good, and you can tweak the sound a lot, but from distortion you wont get any marshall-sound, so if you're looking for a high-gain amp, count this one out.

Jada jada jada, lots of tweakin tho not much effects (chorus, "wah"...).

Not very reliable for a long gig. Once we played for about four hours with lots of volume, and the floor controller stated "error" or something like that. Couse it's valve-preamp, it heats a lot too.

I have used it for six years or so, and it have served quite well. If you like to tweak your sound, this is for you. If you're even a bit lazy, _do not_ buy this one.

My ADA MP2 WAS great. When on a heavy distorted channel, the unit buzzes tremendously. I've tried every grounding configuration I can think of, to know avail. It sounds like it's some sort of capacitance problem. Trouble is, I can't find anyone who can/will fix them! I live in the Chicago are. Anybody wanna lend a fellow string-bender a hand?

Very easy to use, especially for a quick adjustment on stage.

I got the modification that was advertised here by the guy Spiridon. My ADA MP2 blows everything I've ever heard away with the new sound. Nothing comes close, not Mesa Boggie's Tri axis, not Marshall's JMP1, nothing. My ADA MP2 can now emulate any distortion sound with out noise (I keep my noise gate off, I no longer need it)and can get heavier, or lighter, or more crystal clean than anything else on the market. I'm selling my other preamps. I no longer need them.

Never had a problem.

I am a college student studying music. The ADA MP2 with the modification totally covers all my tonal needs. I'm glad I found one.

Very easy to use, I bought a floor model without a manual and managed to figure it all out pretty quickly. I would like a copy of the the owners manual though so if anyone has a copy could you let me know?

I am using a Marshall Valvestate Power Amp into a 1960 4x12 cab. It rocks. Just having trouble with the loud hum I get at higher volume.

Yes it is dependable, I have a buddy who has used this on every gig.

No longer supported by the manufacturer

Been playing for 15 years. This is finally the sound I have been looking for. I play hard rock and metal stuff. Dpending on the Guitar used and the power amp used I imagine it has a wide range of sound possibility.

very easy

READ THIS! ada created what i beleve to be the best preamp in the rack
RELM!(read on),BUT they put the wrong tubes combo in it!yes it has 2
12ax7's standard stuff but all you know about the utterly crappy,farty
noise!sound this unit makes when you crank the gain!looose bottom and
hey my humbuckers are acting like single coils now!got the picture and
yes the noise gate works but that noise is still there when it opeans,
loud 60 cycle hum from hell!.so get out your screw driver cause your
about to transform that ada into a flame thrower that will send mp1's
and overpriced boogie triasses runing for cover!.Is this possible-->
E-mail me for the mod!at sthero@worldspy.net ,for reason use mp2 mod,
after you transform your unit you will have a thight bottom,plenty of
gain,and tone!,and noise so low you can and will turn off the noise gate!,and for you clean and jazz dudes no more distortion on the clean
settings when you pump the base on the eq's!.So dont thrash that ada
mod it! with my help e-mail me!

used it during a brown out and it blow something up years ago but luckily it was still under warranty and they repaired it and havent
had a problem since so make sure your useing good regulated A.C. power
with surge protection!

its out of production but ada is still around making studio stuff but
im afraid support for products like this one is gone!

take your rating up to a 10 also with my help!

I'm running this thing through a Rocktron replifex and a Peavey tube power amp, going into a fender 2X12 cabinet. Yes, it has that 80's ADA high gain rock sound. Feel that puffy hair flappin' and those spandex pants creeping up your ass!! It does the high gain thing well, although it can sound a tad bit nasally and harsh if you crank things on it...The clean sounds? No, not quite. But you can get that deep, mid scoop Metallica crunch if you want. And poison as well....I use this thing when I get a wild hair and want to pretend I'm an 80's guitar hero.....

Hey, for $150, What's not to like?

Rackmount preamp with midi switching and lots of features. FX include compression, chorus, tremolo, graphic EQ, room EQ (unusual knob), wah filter, and a few other things that aren't that important....

No problems yet. I used to have a MP1 too, and no problems with that either....

Never delt with them, and can't anymore, since the ADA guys are out of business (just like those glam bands, thank god...)

This is a good preamp for a specific sound. It doesn't sound like a Marshall, Mesa boogie, or anything else. But it does do it's thing well and has a nitch. If you can find one cheap and want to add to your collection of gear, grab it....

It's easy to get the sound that I expect from it. Like a mellow clean tone to a high gain crunch tone.

I use an asortment of G&l's,ESP's and Robin guitars. All of those guitars are first ran through a nady 1200 wireless then for effects I use a zoom 1010 a dunlop crybaby and a dunlop talkbox. Then for rest of my rig. I first use a morly a/b box and run a mesa/boogie mark IV as preamp into to one of the two ENGL 2x20 poweramps (for clean tone) then into two Marshall 1960A 4x12's and two marshall 1960B 4x12's. Now this is were the ADA MP-2's come in. I have two MP-2's I slave one into the other (for my overdrive) then through a marshall powerbrake and then on to the other ENGl 2x20 poweramp.That is all sent to the same 4x12's ha ha try to find out how I did that little trick.

I can depend on them they have never let me don't yet. I play gigs with them all the time all though I do have two but I use then both at th same time so I guess I wouldn't consiter the other one a backup.

no, because they went belly up what the hell isup with that anyways. They have some pritty nice stuff.

I play really play a mix between shred and death metal. His preamp is a much needed tool if you are building pro sounding rig.

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.

I found the MP-2 to be fairly easy to program. All you have to do is press the edit button and then select the set of parameters you want to tweak from the front panel. I like the compare function, too. I have an Intellifex, which is a superb sounding FX processor, but it is a friggin' nightmare to program. The ADA is simple in comparison. I've had to tweak the tone numerous times (see sound quality) in the middle of gigs, and it hasn't been a problem.

This is the category in which the MP-2 stinks. Thin, thin, thin. As I said above, I've had to tweak the tone numerous times on the gig. Why? Because there isn't a good tone to be found anywhere in this thing. And believe me, I've tried. The clean sounds might be passable if it weren't for this damned annoying distortion that rears its ugly head if I try to coax any kind of bass frequency at all out. It's not a warm distortion, either. If you heard this kind of noise on the telephone, you'd hang up because of the bad connection. The compressor just makes it worse, and if you try to add the chorus...fahgeddaboutit! Too bad the distortion tones don't make up for it-they are embarrasingly weak. Yeah, there's plenty of gain, but there's no TONE going on here. I have to CRANK the bass on the graphic EQ to get much of anything, and what I do get is flabby and lifeless. Unless, for some reason, you actually LIKE uncontrollable noise and feedback. The noise gate does clamp off the otherwise horrific noise, but you have to set it so high that you can't roll off the guitar volume. In a nutshell, this thing is the cheesy-sounding piece of plastic that has been alluded to elsewhere on this database. I'm running it with a Boogie 50/50 and a Marshall cabinet (both of which are fine), and I've tried just about everything imaginable to locate the source of my tone problems (new tubes, repatching, yadda, yadda, yadda...). Let's just say that I've found it. This thing sounds so bad you can smell it.

Crappy tone aside, reliability is not an issue. You can count on getting the same plateful of mud night after night. It has only freaked out on me once, and that was because of a power surge. I just turned it off and turned it back on, and everything was fine. I've been using it for a while without a backup. If I had a decent sounding preamp, it would BE the backup.

When I discovered the nature of the beast, I called ADA. The service rep at the other end cheerfully listened to my rant and wasted no time in deciding that this thing needed to see the repair shop. The repairs(?) were done free, and the turnaround time was reasonable. Unfortunately, the unit sounds just as bad as it did before I sent it in. I can only conclude two things: 1)there was nothing technically wrong with it, or 2)they never looked at it. I tend to believe outcome #1 because I followed up with a phone call after I got it back. The service rep immediately pulled up my file and went down a dated checklist that the techs used to try to find the problem. Of course, he could have been lying, but I see no good reason for him to. I can't expect them to repair a design problem.

Despite the ease of programmability and good customer support, I'd have to give the MP-2 a low rating because of the sound quality. To me, tone is the most important factor in deciding to buy a piece of gear, and the MP-2 doesn't stack up against the competition. The only reason I bought it in the first place was because I was getting a good deal (or so I thought) and I was short on money (something I'm sure most musicians can relate to.) Needless to say, I learned my lesson the hard way. If I had a chance to do it all over again, I would have saved up and bought a really good piece of gear. Speaking of which, is there anyone out there who needs to sell that TriAxis to make rent this month....

I previously owned a mp-1 and I also own a digitech gsp2101 so I didn't have any problem getting the sound I was looking for. The front panel eq makes things a bit confusing though. So I would rate itt very easy to use compared to the 2101 but hard compared to the mp-1. I didn't get a manuel

I can get the same exact tone I got out of the mp-1 plus alot more. I constantly go back and forth from this to the 2101 and I can't decide which one i like better. Here's what's up The 2101 has less gain in the tube distortion but I think the 2101 is fatter and has a more natural tube sound. However, I am a high gain freak and love the thrash tones the mp-2 can deliver. If the 2101 would go to the extremes that the mp-2 does and retain the fatness I would sell the mp-2. The mp-2 has a great wah-wah and is one of the reasons I bought it. The ten voices prove to make this preamp one of the most versatile around. Also when I turn up the 2101 gets muddy. I have to turn down the bass which then thins out the tone. ADA's seem to have tons of high end and lack a little on the low end. This unit doses sound good loud. I have a mesa 50/50 which i play through a Marshall 412 vintage 30's. I have played the triaxis sounds good but I can't see paying that much for a preamp with no bells or whistles. I want to try a carvin quad-x this thing may just be the preamp I'm looking for, with 9 12ax7's. the mp-2 sounds more like a solid state preamp in the high gain settings with a bit more clarity and compression. I do love having all the voices to select from though, most serve a very good purpose. I like the vintage brown voice coupled with the wah-wah. Makes me feel like Jimi. I'm a little confused but I definitely will never sell the 2101 especially if i figure a way to hot rod the tube preamp. The solid state preamp sounds pretty good for the all out saturation but the mp-2 is better in that arena, because of the tubes I suppose. The other effects are good as well but distortion is my love and I will always be on the look out for something better in that area.

never had a problem with any of my rack gear. all ADA stuff is built to last and I would feel very comfortable relying on the mp-2 .

never dealt with them

I would buy-it again at the price I paid for it new but I have seen it listed much higher and if that was the case I would look for a used unit because ADA products are reliable and the extra money would only get you a warranty you probally will never need. I love the varity of tube voices very versatile. Overall sounds killer but a little thin. The graphic eq does fatten it up considerably over the mp-1 and i don't think that it lacks any tone but has a bit of a transister sound in the high gain settings, noticable with pick or false hamonics. Which some people love because you can really make this thing scream. I compare it to the 2101 almost everyday, and overall the 2101 will do alot more for you at about the same price. Have played the triaxis, pirana,and other rocktron stuff,2112,mp-1 various tube heads by Marshall and Mesa-Boogie. Personally I like the flexability of a rack mount system because contrary to popular belief you don't loose any tone and probally get better tone. And if you get a great tube power amp and speaker setup, just about anything you plug into your system will sound good and you can really customize your tone. The mp-2 would be really neat with a spring reverb unit that would be all the effects I would ever need and then would consider selling the 2101. I have coupled the mp-2 with the 2101 and that is really cool but for some reason I lose alot of volume. When I put the ADA directly into the Mesa man is it loud! I would appreciate any ideas on gain improvement that one may have on the 2101. I've heard that there is a pot near the tubes that will acomplish this , but mine has three pots inside and none are near the tubes.

It is a great preamp for jazz, blues, even metal. I play fusion and jazzrock and it is perfect for me. It can produce sounds from glassy or jazzy clean to nasal or creamy vintage to thrash. The clean channel does not distort the sound when set so. The high gain settings are a bit noisy, but the gate/fader can fairly handle it.

This amp is very versatile. It is very musical, has excellent clean channels nice and saturated vintage sounds and convincing hi-gain settings. However, as it is a correct tube preamp which does not make plastic out of your sound the character of your tone depends on the guitar plugged in it. My vintage gutar has a melodic sound even in hi-gain settings, while a a friends absolutely metal- oriented BC Rich makes obligate trash sound at dinamic and high gains. On the other hand dont expect to get the most out of it without connecting to a good tube PA and responsive speakers. It has a wide range of features without compromising the clean tube voice. Introducing digital effects to this unit would have been a serious mistake as digital effects in this price category make plastic out of clean tube sound. On the other hand this unit is so dinamic and makes can make that rich sound that even reverb might be unnecessary when using good 2x12 or 4x12 speakers which creates sound spacious enough. Dont judge this by factory settings that are generally thin with a lot of treeble in them. It can produce creamy saturated solo ounds as well.

I have a 220V MP2. I found, that these preamps are sometimes sensitive to power variances. I had a previous one, which did not initialized in certain places, but in other locations it worked perfect. I had no problem with the present one.

I would definietly buy it again. I have used several digital multieffects beforehands (Zoom 9002, BOSS ME series, BOSS pedals, etc) but these are not to be compared with the ADA. I have also used Marshall Valvestate combos and heads, I have tried the MP-1, Roland GP100, BOSS GX 700, but they do not come close to this.

Players who use a lot of clean tone or mild overdrive might find this unit useful, the amount of variety in such is good and the compression works pretty well, but for any use as far as high gain distortion it just isn't happening. I found the amp to be worse than a Peavey 5150 amp as far as background hum, it's just terrible.

A rather versatile amp overall, it has a lot of options, but with this and many amps like it you'll typically see a sacrifice in tone. I found it rather odd that ADA didn't load this unit up with a wider variety of effects (wah, compression, & chorus just won't cut it for most players). The room attentuator is nice feature, but doesn't necassarily serve its purpose.

It seemed dependable enough, but I can't really say since I only owned for 2 months.

I wouldn't give this unit a high rating overall, but who knows it may suit your style. I prefer a mean Marshall overdrive myself and I have to say that if you have the money do yourself a favor and pick up a Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier, its one of the only modern amps out today that truly rock!

I play progressive rock, using a variety of different sounds. The clean sounds are very dynamic and open and the chourus really makes them come alive. I also use a very spanky funk sound which the ADA does well, with lots of headroom that doesen't go into distortion when it is not wanted. The distortion is awesome. I use a high gain sound, which is very dense and creamy. This amp can achieve some very good distortion tones. The only complaint I have is that it can get noisy in high gain settings.

This pre-amp is very versatile. Its like having 128 channels. Sounds range from mellow clean, to spanky fumk, just touching distortion, warm mild distortion, or high gain saturated distortion. And with compression, wah, tremolo, chorus, and MIDI continous controll, this pre-amp does it all.

I would depend on it. I have had no trouble with it.

Never had to deal with the company

This is a great pre-amp capable of many different tones. It does take a lot more time to dial in a killer sound than with other amps, but once you do, watch out.The interface is easy to use, there are just a lot of settings, and it takes a lot of time. The MIDI controll is another great feature, and works well.

I previously owned a mp-1 and I also own a digitech gsp2101 so I didn't have any problem getting the sound I was looking for. The front panel eq makes things a bit confusing though. So I would rate itt very easy to use compared to the 2101 but hard compared to the mp-1. I didn't get a manuel

I play progressive rock, using a variety of different sounds. The clean sounds are very dynamic and open and the chourus really makes them come alive. I also use a very spanky funk sound which the ADA does well, with lots of headroom that doesen't go into distortion when it is not wanted. The distortion is awesome. I use a high gain sound, which is very dense and creamy. This amp can achieve some very good distortion tones. The only complaint I have is that it can get noisy in high gain settings.

This pre-amp is very versatile. Its like having 128 channels. Sounds range from mellow clean, to spanky fumk, just touching distortion, warm mild distortion, or high gain saturated distortion. And with compression, wah, tremolo, chorus, and MIDI continous controll, this pre-amp does it all.

I would depend on it. I have had no trouble with it.

Never had to deal with the company

This is a great pre-amp capable of many different tones. It does take a lot more time to dial in a killer sound than with other amps, but once you do, watch out.The interface is easy to use, there are just a lot of settings, and it takes a lot of time. The MIDI controll is another great feature, and works well.

You'll probably have to program your own presets, but the results are worth the effort. There's lots of variety in the 10 tube voicings, but the sound varies significantly with different guitars. The factory presets weren't very useful to me. Some extreme higain settings were a little noisy, but with the noise gate I think this wouldn't be an issue, especially in the context of the music you'd use higain distortion for. The clean sounds are good, and the distorted sounds are excellent. The compressor doesn't sound good to me in clean presets, but is very good in some distorted presets.

I made one call which ADA handled on a call-back basis. Got the return call one day later.

I believe the MP-2's strengths are in its tube voicings and in its MIDI control (contrast with GSP-2101, which seems like a preamp designed to support an effects section). This works well for me; I guess it depends on your preferences and goals. But don't judge the MP-2 by its factory presets.

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