ART Powerplant

Very easy to get a decent sound out of this unit. I'm on my third one, not because they break down, but because I'm always thinking I can get something better, yet I keep coming back to it.

No patches to edit. Two channels and knobs.

No manual required.

I run mine similar to the reviewer below. Warmoth soloist > Dunlop wah > MXR 10 band EQ > Power Plant > clean channel of a Carvin MTS. The loop of the Power Plant is quieter than the Carvin. The loop's chain is Danelectro Cool Cat Chorus (the newer one w/ true bypass) > Line6 Echo Park > Electro Harmonix booster (for solos). Playing through a 2x12 clone of a Marshall 1936, with the exception of no MDF. WGS Veteran 30 speakers. Live I mic the cab. If there are enough channels available, I run a direct signal as well. Combined it sounds huge.

It can be noisy with both gains maxed.

The Carvin is used due to it's very good clean channel and far reaching EQ. Either unit is not that strong by itself, but combined the sound is usually described as "mean" by people who hear it.

I have the EQ set in an upside down 'V' to get a strong midrange signal to the ART, then scoop the mids a bit on the unit. Then I use the eq on the Carvin for more fine tuning. I'm able to get a sound that is high gain yet articulate at the same time. The tube clean channel seems to massage the solid state signal in such a way that it appears part of the amp, as opposed to sounding like distortion that has been forced on the clean channel.

By itself, the clean channel sounds very solid state, and the distortion channel, while good, is obviously an analog simulation of tubes, and not the real thing. I onced used it with a solid state power amp, which sounded okay. The direct recording out sounds more realistic than this setup, however.

But coupled with a tube amp, all of that goes away. By itself, the sound is a 6. Depending on the amp used with it, it can be a 7 - 9. I'll average it at an 8.

The unit I have currently was made in 91. I've replaced all the electrolytic caps (I think there were 12 or 13), and the only issues were two pots were damaged by me overtightening the nuts. I'd say that's pretty reliable as it's an 18 year old unit.

I was able to get a schematic from ART recently, but no manual. I also needed the previously mentioned parts, and they advised they hadn't carried them in roughly seven years. But they did respond timely and professionally on a long discontinued item. I think a seven is fair.

I play classic and modern rock in a coverband setting. Almost every time we gig, someone comes up to me and asks what I'm using. It happens everytime when I mic the cab & run direct at the same time, mixing the two sounds. It sounds great for whatever we play. It cleans up nicely with the guitar's volume control. I can go from AC/DC to Metallica pretty easily.

Been playing almost 30 years. Gear is listed above.

If stolen I would try to find another, but fewer and fewer are popping up used. The ones that are there are going for $100 - $200.00 lately, which at one time you could get one for $25.00 - $50.00. I'm guessing that's in some part due to the reviewer below, showing people the light on how to use it properly.

I love that the thick overdrive remains clear. I hate that it's not integrated into an amp! It also does not play well with other overdrives pushing the front end. It is solid state after all.

I guess the most fair comparison to other products would be other distortion units and not preamps considering the way I'm running it. Sounds better to my ears and integrates better with an amp than the the following Boss products I've tried (all stock): HM-1, MT-2, DS-1, SD-1, BD-2, OD-1.
Also have tried a stock and modded Ibanez TS9, Tube King, Visual Sound Jekyl & Hyde, Mesa V-Twin, Tube Works Tube Driver (post B.K. Butler), and the Seymore Duncan Metal Mayhem. There are others, but that's all I can think of.

It's easy to plug in and use it, but to set it up to really get the most from it, you'll need to do some work!

If you take the time to dial it in and route it as it's intended to be used, it's amazing! It's kind of a one trick pony, but the one trick is really good.

Dead stable

It's no longer manufactured, so I'd say support is an N/A

about 18 years ago I was in the studio getting a bit discouraged with the sounds I was getting with my Boogie studio 60. The studio owner said he knew a fella named Buck Brundage that did the guitar sounds for Al Dimeola (among others) that I could hire in with his rig to get some different guitar sounds. I hired him on and he brought in his racks of gear and speaker cabs (a pair of Marshall 4x12 flats loaded with Celestion greens) and a magic box he had designed that he called a Power Plant. He said he'd been messing around with a solid state circuit on the bench one night and accidentally crossed a trace and this amazing distortion sound came out. He said it was the only one that existed at the time, but he was shopping the design around to some different vendors and it would eventually be available commercially. He also explained that though it had a great direct sound, the way to get the most with the unit was to run one return direct to the board, and another line out to a tube head (we used a 1960s Marshall 50 head out to the two 4x12s) and close and ambient mic the live signal across two more channels and mix the three tracks as a group. The sounds we got were earth shaking, and I was dying to get my hands on one. Buck said he didn't know when it would be available, but he'd give me a call when he cut a deal. I later heard that ART had picked it up, and I made a mental note to get hold of one when I had the $. By the time I got around to looking for one they were out of production. I just got one on Ebay and I'm thrilled. This thing given the right treatment can do amazing things! I also run an ADA MP1 into a TC G-Major, a VOX Modeling amp and some other toys, but its great to have this sound to add to the arsenal. FYI - the clean channel makes a pretty decent bass pre as well...

It's worth repeating that you will get the most from this preamp if you reamp it through a tube head / cabinet and mic that, then combine the direct and live signals.

Here's an article that references Buck's amp miking techniques:

http://www.couchcreativeservices.com/articles.htm

I've been playing guitar for 30 odd (very) years, played pro for a while in various bands and still do some studio work here and there. I play rock, jazz, blues, fusion, whatever...

I agree with other reviews that the clean channel sounds basically like a fender; I think maybe not as good but more controlled- and not amazing but very usable. But with the neck pickup of a single coil guitar it sounds very beautiful. Remember, it has a clean channel EQ bypass button on the back, if you want to use it as a distortion-only unit. In my search for great distortion sounds, nothing has ever come close to the harmonic richness of the power plant distortion channel- with a p-90 pickup it is something to behold, and is plenty heavy for whatever kind of rock music. Even at full distortion (which has more gain than any overdrive pedal I've tried) you can hear every note that you play, and they all come out in the most musical way I've ever heard from ANY amp, ever. One note, however, I've had to cut the midrange almost completely in both channels to get the great sounds, and boost the low end almost completely. But the sweet spot is there, all that matters.

Never had a problem with it, 10+ years of almost daily use.

Never needed it..

I've been playing live and in the studio for 30 yrs. now, I have used my power plant live for many years with an effects processor in its loop, output went to the pre-in on the back of a Lab Series L5, miked. My guitar sound got great reviews in LA Weekly, SF Weekly, among others (for live shows), and Option Magazine (for a record that was mostly power plant on the guitars, often direct to tape.) This unit for me is the holy grail of distortions, from slightly overdriven Beatles sounds to Gilmour-like soaring leads to grungent muted metal chops. It'll do anything I want it to. Just got another from ebay for 69.00 shipped, just in case one ever breaks down.

Ease of Use: ez-nuf jus tweek knobs by ear!

One Fender-ish sounding low gain Chan & One higher gain Marshall-ish sounding Chan. Fender cleans are decent nothing lively as the real thing, and nothing as sparkly as the fender cleans on my Boss GX700 (GX has wonderfull cleans but not so great distortions) overall a little thin but otherwise not too bad. Distortion are kinda like an old tube amp with very weak tubes, a little farty in the bass, not very tight or aggressive, (pedals can help this tho) and of course it is lacking in the dynamics and complexity of real tubes. (Its clean is by far the best of the two chans) The Spkr sims sounds ok, not on par with Rocktron's or Behringer's, but certainly usable. Takes pedals ok, FX loop does processors Ok too. Overall a fair SS tone and better with added EQ & FX. And while you also can use it to front a tube amp I've found that a good quality pedal sounds much better for that task. I have heard a few PP's when I bought mine and they can vari a bit in sound quality one from another. (??? probably due to variances of internal cap & resistor values either from drift or from poor factory quality control parts sources, so tuning the internals may also be a good option IF you really love your PP but have issues with the particulars of its sound quality)

Reliable (SS Pre that weighs a TON)

Unknown? Not Necessary!

For what it's worth to the over elated PP reviewer below (or perhaps ebay seller?) I have to say sorry charlie, PP's do sound good, but to claim that the PP sounds better (or even close to) a Bogner, Budda, or any other Pro quality tube amp or tube preamp for that matter, is totally insane, (any SS PSA totally smokes the PP) IF that were the case the PP would have been the magical mystery major tone contender of the world, All tube amps would now be obsolete, and ART would RULE the market with its circuitry design, and of course would also ah... not have stopped making them due to poor sales! Geez, anyway IMHO a good sounding used PP in very good condition is certainly worth $150, maybe even $200 max in absolute mint cond, but for much more than that I don't really think so. It's only just a SS Pre, w/no fx an I have several other Pre's w/fx, a small V5-series crate tube amp, and even some really good SS pedals just to name a few things that totally embarrasses the PP tone wise. But for what it is it is not really a bad preamp at all.

Super simple.

Superb!
Super clean sounds or Marshall crunch to fluid saturated leads

Never let me down, I own two of them.

Overlooked piece of equipment.
Sold my first one but ran back to the shop like hell cause I missed it right away.
I've compared it next to Bogner, Two Rock, Mad Professor, Budda and almost any boutique amp out there, but no amp can beat the PP lead channel. Handles pedals perfectly, I set the overdrive channel on 10 and the master on 7, use the volume on my Strat to let the tone clean up or an overdrive pedal (Barber DD, FT OCD, TS10 or MIAudio Tube Zone)to kick it into total distortion.
I currently use a Fender Twin for clean and switch to the Power Plant for leads.
Awesome, couldn't live without it.

Easy to set up qucikly and it has enough inputs and outputs to get creative if so desired.

I picked this up cheap in a pawn shop several years ago. I read about these in Guitar Shop ( remember that? ) years ago before hte mag went defunct. They raved about the tonal qualities and the ability to dial in Marshall, Vox and Fender tones. That reveiw alwasy stuck in my mind, so when I saw it sitting there, i pounced.

It languished unused ever since until an old piece of crap solid state amp I use for runnign stereo started flaking on me. "Ah ha!" I said, and resucued the PP from the garage. Ran the PP into the power amp in on the flaker and added an Alesis Micro verb for some wetness. I was 5 minutes from playing, so I did not have much time to dial it in, but found a very nice tone quickly. I usually set my amps for pristine clean and get crunch tones from various dirt pedals. Felling a bit adventerous, I toggled to the overdrive channel of the PP and set the controls for a nice cleanish/crunch. With my other amp set clean, the tone was very, very nice. Round ,fat and very harmonically rich. I was very surprised and tickled it sounded so good.

I would like to have the time to actually fart around with some different settings and see what I can come up with. I was fairly shocked at the 6's for sound quality here. Maybe as I delve deeper into the Power Plant I will find it's not as nice sounding as I think......maybe not! I do know there is a wealth of tweaking availabe with this thing, so maybe the secret is in the tweaks...who knows! I'll save my rating points till I have time to play with it a bit more....

Seems rugged enough. Mine looks like it's been used quite a bit, but all the knobs do as they say in a quiet manner.

I'm sure they quit making this thing years ago! Mine had no manual but hell, you twist some knobs till you hear what you like and then shut up and play yer guitar.

I'm an old fart that plays pretty much anything and everything, but have a deep and abiding love for the blues. Doubt if this will become a main piece of gear, mostly a stop gap or reserve back up if something goes wrong with the big boys. That said, if I can dial in a nice mixture of Vox, Marshall & Fender tones with this puppy, I would be a happy man. Oh yeah, it also has an effects loop, so running the microverb or holy grail is a piece of cake.

Don't know if this was a big deal or highly thought of back in the rack / processer days, but the fact you can find this stuff dirt cheap these days is nice for starving musicians putting together cheap noise makers.

Doesn't get easier than that! It's analog and it has just knobs to turn, go figure...

I use it as pre-amp with a Marshall 8008 as Power amp, then into 2 x 12 cabs. I patch pedal effects in the front ( comp and dist ) and in the efx loop ( phaser, chorus and delay ). The clean channel is amazing, super clear and well defined, if you push the gain you get good blues or fusion tones. The high gain channel is very warm, sound like high quality tubes. Is perfect for rock, blues, fusion etc. Nice and warm overdrive, but not hevy metal, for that you need a distortion pedal hooked up.
I use every kind of guitar, from Kramer Baretta solid body with di marzio to fernandes electro acoustic, from standard strat to gretsch electromatic. You can get decent sound out of all of them with little tweak. Great for recording into the mixer from the XLR with cab eq.

Rock solid, I had several Art units, some very old, never had problem.
If you are ok to carry around racks of stuff is ok live to, I wouldn't get a back up.

Never dealed with them, but they give post the old manuals on line for free, which is good.

I play from 15 years, mostly rock, with open mind. I like original and creative music rather than mainstream prs boogie or seven string heavy bridge kind of boring stuff.
I think this might be a good piece of equipment to keep, you can find them for cheap on ebay. It sound good with a wide dynamic range, that digital stuff don't always have. I love the clean channel!

You have to be an idiot to not figure this one out. The only thing I don't understand is why they change Treble to Edge and Bass to Thrust on the distortion channel.

Not as good as I had hoped. The clean channel is excellent. I was very suprised with how far the EQ reaches. It stays very clean (as it should being a solid state preamp) and gets good high and low end. The drive channel on the other hand is kind of lacking. It was like they started it and never finished. You can't really get a great amount of gain out of it and what you can get sounds pretty empty and flat. Some say it would work for classic rock. It might but I'm not sure cause you can't get much sustain or fat tone out of it.

Never had a problem with it here.

Didnt have to use it.

I play punk-alternative. It didnt really work. I don't reccomend it for anything High Gain. Aside from it not sounding great, it gets horrible feedback.

I bought it used without a manual, but this was no problem, the controls are right in front of you. The unit is about as simple and self explanitory as it can possibly get.

I'm using the unit with powered speaker cabinets and a Boss ME-30 with a 1978 Ibanez studio 300. I bought this with intentions of only using it as a preamp with EQ. The distortion is exactly like that of an old mid-sized tube amp(lots punch, not enough bite), a little weak for my style of music but good for classic rock. The clean tone is very full and well balanced.

I've been running it with my rig for a few months now and have had no problems with it. I can confidently depend on it.

Never dealt with the company.

I've been playing for about eight years now. My Style is is a mix of jazz, classical, shred, and progressive metal. This is a good basic preamp, but the distortion is pretty weak. There is one major flaw: i don't know if this is with all of the powerplants, or just the year they made mine, but there's no on/off switch. to turn on the unit, you plug it in. This is absurd. Someone must have been smoking crack at the assembly line or something. Anyway, I'll replace it before too long.

You need to read the instructions. The controls are straight forward but the back panel outputs require a little reading. The instructions are easy to follow.

The Power Plant is used with a Carvin two pickup DC 125 (1986) and a Carvin X-60C amp (1985). Sometimes I run it directly through the PA. It is noisy if plugged into an ungrounded outlet. It is a straight preamp with a clean channel and an over drive channel, both with acctive controls. TO make a long story short, it sounds just like a Marshall stack on 10, or clean as a whistle if you want it to.

No problems. Sometimes the led on the overdirive channel will not light up; sometimes it will. I have no idea why.

I have no info.

I play mostly rock. I like clean or really heavy sounds. The Power Plant is truly amazing. It really sounds like a Marshall on 12. Pinch harmonics jump out with no effort. The notes are distinct even at full distortion. My model has pink lettering and is hard to read. I believe a second run was made with better control lettering. I wish it have reverb. You can run it through your amp and straight to the PA board at the same time. It has an amp-cabinet-microphone simulator circuit. The clean side is really clean and loud. With my set-up it can get VERY LOUD;lots of gain. I think it is out of production now, but it really does what it is was advertised to to- give you a great guitar sound with no hassle.