Rocktron Gainiac

I did a review on this a little while ago and I thought I would add this. I forgot to mention a few things which might explain why I have rated gainiac higher than most. I have an EMG turbocharger (basicly a signal booster for my Duncan Distortion) in my guitar that I almost constantly use. It pushes the volume on the clean channel and gives the overdrive a more full-bodied sound. I really recommend anyone who has this preamp to have either active electronics or a pickup booster of some sort. For those that have EMG's and still didn't like the gainiac ...keep reading..

I HIGHLY RECOMMEND YOU CHANGE THE STOCK TUBE!

When I first got this I thought as others on here that the tube was just for show and didn't do much. Well I opened the side panel and you could see the tube glowing (There is a top on the tube so you can't see it glow from the front opening). I've never heard of the brand...TNT :the new tube (yea...it's ghetto).

With the stock tube you actually do get kind of a marshall-imitation sound but it's little thin (which is why I constantly used the TurboCharger). But I put in an Electro-Harmonics super7 and it really pushes!! The wannabe marshall clone sound is traded for a more of a genuine peavey sounding tone and it's got less feedback/noise. I can even get good sound with the turbocharger off and I get real deep gutsy sound with it on.

You also won't have to be as fussy with the EQ. With the stock tube you have to have the EQ perfect in order to get good sound but with a good tube the gainiac is a little more relaxed about this. It's not ultra thin when the "scoop" knob is all the way up either.

Very simple to operate and connect up. Manual is simple as well, nothing of great importance.

I have a couple of different setups, but my main setup is a Rocktron Gainiac into a Rocktron Intellifex then into a Marshall stereo power amplifier. This sucker screams! My main sound for the heavier tunes, I dial in the scoop control and a little reverb from my effects unit and crank it through a 4x12. For the less "heavy" tunes (which suck, but that is what my singer likes to do) I use less scoop and dial down the gain to get a more crunchier sound. For the larger gigs I do I use two 4x12s , side by side not stacked, sounds awesome like that. I also record a lot with the Gainiac. Sometimes I use a Palmer redbox so I can record direct. The cool thing about the Gainiac is the tube, it seems to add that edge that you can't get out of those digital floor pedals. There is some noise, but I think it is mainly caused by my strat and the high volumes I usually play at. But when recording no problem.

So far no problems. I don't have a back up. So far I have not seen a need to have one, but the Gainiac is really pretty cheap - so it probably wouldn't hurt.

Not had to deal with them

I have looked at other preamps and have tried some of the digital floor pedals as well. Although, these floor pedals seem to have all of the things you need, they don't seem to do any "one" thing very well. Everything is sort of "half assed". Normally the distortion in these multi floor pedals completely blows - I have been able to find one good distortion sound, but usually it is only good for practicing, I would never gig with one of those things. I guess that is why I have always had either different rack products or different pedals. For me the Gainiac does what is says, produces Gain and that is what I need at my gigs. I would recommend this to anyone, especially at this price!

its easy to use

This is where i am going to speak my mind...PIECE OF CRAP!!!!!!!
How in the world could any company get away with false advertising like this is beyond me! THERE IS NO GAIN! This thing sucks!
If ANYONE out there wants a deep metal sound forget this product
The worst $200 bucks i have ever spent. I ended up using a metal zone pedal through my rig setup just to get some decent distortion. I have a full rack setup and this thing with all shit i have still doesnt sound good. WARNING!!!! If you are a metal head like me, dont be fooled this will NOT GIVE YOU THE SOUND YOU ARE LOOKING FOR!

who gives a shit!

who gives a shit!

DONT BOTHER EVEN TRYING THIS THING! Unless you are looking for a weak distortion.

This is the order of my setup....

Ibanez RG > Ganiac > Alesis 230 EQ > Aphex Aural Exciter > Rocktron Velocity 100 > Carvin 412 cab.

If you like that old Metallica sound, this will produce it. Nothing says you can't play in a death metal band with this. It has that clean crunch within the distortion. I think the reason some of these kids don't like it is because its a clean distortion. They play through it and realize they suck and then blame it on the preamp. You can hear every note. Doesn't cover your ass like thsese digital distortions. As far as the clean goes, why would you buy a product called gainiac and whine about the clean channel. It's still pretty good though. Its got the classic warm tube tone with a tinge of dirt. You can clean it up by rolling back the volume knob on youy guitar just a tad.

Guitar Preamp with a 12AX7 tube. Pretty Basic. Clean channel has an eq (low and high). Distortion channel has gain control, level, eq, and a scoop (mids) control. Has a switch for switching between channels. It has a footswitch jack in the back along with the output jack. I really wish it had an optional input jack in the back. Also, it needs a lead channel.

Its a rack unit, How are you gonna fuck it up? It seems pretty reliable. I had it for 6 months already, not one problem.

Haven't had to deal with them.

For the price it is good for what it does. I realy wish it had a lead channel though. Maybe have two tubes? One for clean and one for distortion. Before you talk shit about it, Learn how to use it and run it through a power amp and some cabs. Don't run it through your shitty 10 watt practice amp.

From a Epiphone Flying V with a Duncan Distortion pickup, digitech multieffects between the gainiac and a solid state power amp...I get awesome sound.

It's very good for hard rock. There's actually a lot of gain BUT when played on a low string the sound is compressed greatly! I happen to like this but I can see how many would not. It's GREAT for shredding down low but if you want wide open chunk down on the Low E string then forget it. It can get heavey but it doesn't have the sound of modern drop A metal

Also, on high strings there's not a lot of sustain, so You've gotta really work your fingers to get sustain manually. It's also very defined so you've gotta keep things fairly consistent for it to sound right. IT DOES help you see what ya gotta fix in your playing though LoL. Seriously, I was using digital preamp before this and now I've improved my playing based on the difference in clarity this thing has. It helpped me see where I was sloppy.

2 channel preamp...and stuff. Nice EQ. Very basic but adequate. No mids on Clean channel but it sounds sweet anyways, it just is a little less flexible for pedals. No On/Off switch is the only thing that bugs me I guess.

I've had it for like a week...I'll tell you later if it breaks

uh...see above

The preamp has it's niche (probably 80's hard rock) and You've gotta have at least a little experience to make it sound right but even if you do, it'd be a toss-up wether you like it's sound or not. I can tell you, You'll either love it or hate. Personally I love it!! Still, trying it out before buying is probably a good idea.

The gainiac is in deed very easy to use...but what is hard about using a EQ, volume and gain? By the way the EQ is like full bass/treble or nothing.

I used the gainiac with a 79' Gibson Les Paul Custom, a Ibanez Roadstar I and a SG. As amp I used the JCM Slash with two 4x12" cabs. I expected a full-shred metal distorsion with tons of gain and balls...but it's definetly too weak for my own sound. No clear fat basses and very noisy trebles... the gainiac has in my opinion the typical teenage metal sound...and I'm playing in a death band, so I got no use for it... too weak and thin. I guess it is the perfect preamp for true metal or heavy rock but not for the ultra heavy stuff.

I did use the gainiac on one gig it worked and I had no technical problems but...my mixer was shocked and said that I should use the marshall without the gainiac because of the sound. I came back to my marshall shred master, my boss EQ and my marshall. And of course my black beauty has lots of ass!

Did not need it...

I play death, gothic and rock and roll...but it sounds too weak and thin... I played the gainiac for about one year (only one gig-that was enough)...

So, checked it out before you buy it - because the name makes you expecting a other sound. Sorry.

J:

Not really any different than a Randall amp...The randall has less noise, but alot of setups demand a noise suppressor reguardless of this unit. Definately a ok choice for a very basic power amp.

Here's funny response from a previous poster:

>Ease of Sound Quality: 1
>Oh man!!!!!!! I cant explain it - when I played this unit (for >about three minutes) I was asking >myself "how can someone produce >such a fucking machine! It sounds so awfull. The tube is >just for >fun in it and I just can say that this unit is something like a >joke. It's only a noise >producer. Belive me - hear this thing >BEFORE you buy it!
>I play for over 12 years now. I took a mc Carty PRS-guitar and a >Fender Twin. So you can >belive me - the bad sound doesn't come out >of the other parts of my equipment.

Dear Crackhead:
You are right about the tube, but I got to laugh when you mention you used it with a Mc Carthy PRS and Fender twin amp. LOL, no wonder you hate it. That's like me playing a Boss metal pedal through an acoustic amp. LOL. Moron.

Basic and to the point. It'd be nice if they put a noise suppressor in it cause it is noisey!

built ok... no problems

none needed

It's very easy to use. A few knobs...

I have a Engl Straight 50 head and Marshall 1922 Box. I have a Jackson SL3 with Duncans, and I can say it kicks ass! It's a little bit noisy (probably because my crappy power unit). When I bought it I was little bit dissapointed but then I realised that you just have to crank your amp real high to get that powerful sound. I mostly play hard rock and it's very good for that. It's a real tube distorsion and you can play on any stage without wondering do you have that transistor shitty sound. It's very good preamp.

No problem so far.

Had a question to Rocktron thru e-mail, they answered after 2 days.

I'm satisfied with it. Don't try to get Dimebag Darrell sound with it, you'll get better!!

very easy

Oh man!!!!!!! I cant explain it - when I played this unit (for about three minutes) I was asking myself "how can someone produce such a fucking machine! It sounds so awfull. The tube is just for fun in it and I just can say that this unit is something like a joke. It's only a noise producer. Belive me - hear this thing BEFORE you buy it!
I play for over 12 years now. I took a mc Carty PRS-guitar and a Fender Twin. So you can belive me - the bad sound doesn't come out of the other parts of my equipment.

I play many styles from New-Rock over Nu-Metal and Jazz and Blues or funk but this unit is only good if you need less space in your rack. or maybe you can make a little table of it.

Easy to use, simple settings, scoop setting is about the only key feature, and more or less just seems like you turning the mid down when you turn the scoop up. I switched it with a homemade footswitch using an instrument cable, very easy.....if you dont have a footswtich, get one....

i have a custom Ibanez, a Les Paul Standard, and a Jackson rr-1, all with EMG 81's, i CURRANTLY run a mesa boogie triaxis into a mesa 2:90, all effects through a DMC GCX, controlled with a ground control. I used this gainiac for a couple years, it has it highs and lows....for the money, and when i was in college, i didnt have a lot fo it, you cant beat it (i say that without being misleading). I have had EVERY other pedal around, DOD Grunge sucks, Boss Metal zone is shit, everything else was not cutting it. This comes along, it was suppose to be this awesome high gain rackmount preamp. IT HAS ONE TUBE.... HOW MUCH GAIN ARE YOU GONNA GET? not much...contrary to the advertisements, and the dumbasses you have never played though a real amp on here....The EQ sucks too...i had a decent sound for a while....went into the studio, and the guy didnt even wanna record it....face it, its not for playing metal. Better than most other shitty effects being sold, but it really doesnt do it if you want an awesome, high gain sound. After i retired this (should have buried it), i got a mesa boogie studio pre amp, you can find one of these on ebay for a little more. GET IT. 5 pre amp tubes, tons of gain, awesome reverb, better tone. Mine died, i got the triaxis, and will never buy any other preamp....no reverb though (cant be perfect)

it never broke, even when i threw it. i wouldnt gig it, nor would i buy a back up....

never had any problems.....replaced the tube....prolly didnt even need too, didnt help any....

I play in a hardcore/metal band (metalcore). It doesnt do it for me. Not nearly as much gain as advertised.....good sound for the buck though. Needs more tubes, better EQ. If it were stolen, it wouldnt be missed. Not much to love, anything mesa makes is better, even the V Twin....can buy this stuff used for around the same price. It did make me focus more on playing correctly, made my playing cleaner, you cant "fake" it with this, like you can with a super shitty stompbox, it doesnt cover up much, so i owe it that. Many people are either praising this, or giving it shit....the people praising it should play though some real equipment....the ones that tear it up....just think....it could be worse....