Rocktron Piranha Tube Guitar Preamp

I find it fairly easy to use with the instructions anyway this thing rocks and rocks!!!!!!!!! I have tried load of stuff in my 27 years of playing but this has got the lot I use it together with an intellifex.

I use a Lanez 50 watt amp hooked up to the Piranha and looped into the intellifex I do have a pretty awesome sound I must say! There always seemed to be something missing with my sound but not anymore.
I am a lead guitarrist and although I say that technique is more important than sound, sound also has to be right too! The rocktron comes up to this without a doubt!

It is built very well in a metal housing i never really had a problem with it up to now !!!!!!!!!

Never had any dealings with them !

I play Rock blues and rock if you want those nice screaming solos full of body then the Piranha is your best friend!
I have played for 27 years and I also teach guitar I have tried loads of stuff but this is something else for the price I got mine in Ebay for a song!!

For a preamp this baby is pretty straight forward. Honestly I'm still learning how to use it but for what it can do, the interface is great, real knobs for on the fly changes, etc. Very nice.

This is a metal pre. There is not doubt about it, it is so absolutely perfect I can't believe it. And... it's got tubes! That is a major major benefit of this killing machine. The sound / cost is well worth the money. If you can find one...

No problems so far, but I've only had it a while.

I had to order a few cosmetics for mine and they
1) answered my email and a phone call very quickly
2) had the parts in stock
3) they were a decent price
4) shipped them fast
I was very satisified with the experience.

You would have to upgrade all the way to the prophesy to surpass this pre in my opinion. I don't even know if that would be any better. I get rave reviews about my tone with this unit. I love it.

it control easy .........umm ..... IT SIMPLE...

SOUND .Woo Woo!! It great sound .I am using my ESP LTD M-300 PICKUP (CHANGE ) EMG85 NECK AND EMG81 IN THE BRIDGE .I PLAY STYLE HEAVY METAL EX. HELLOWEEN ANGRA ETC.. .PIRANHA IT'S VERY SUITABLE FOR METAL ...OHH!!! .... VIOLENT!!!....WOOWOO

I LOVE PIRANHA EXTREME.........

USING IBANEZ RG WITH HUMBUCKERS AT BRIDGE AND NECK.BEEN PLAYING FOR 1 1/2 YEARS , TOO FEW TO BE EXPERT BUT I'VE TRIED SOMETHING IN MY CAREER AND JUST CAN SAY THAT AT FIRST APPROACH THE PIRANHA SEEMS TO BE REALLY VERSATILE FOR 360?ROCK, FROM BLUES TO METAL THROUGH HARD ROCK AND COUNTRY!!!BUT I'VE BEEN PLAYING IT ONLY FOR A WEEK.I USE IT WITH A ROCKTRON VELOCITY 250 THAT'S A GOOD POWER AMP FOR MY TASTE. I USED MARSHALL AVT COMBO, LANEY HEAD AND BY NOW THIS PIRANHA SEEM TO BEAT THEM BUT TO GET A COMPLETE SOUND I THINK IT NEED SOME OTHERS PIECES LIKE A COMPRESSOR AND A PARAMETRICAL EQ OTHER THAN YOUR FAVOURITE EFFECTS.NO NOISE AT HIGH GAIN AND NO KIND OF OTHER NOISE THANX TO THE BUILT-IN HUSH NOISE GATE WHICH WORKS SO GOOD.THAT ALL I CAN SAY BY NOW..I NEED HELP TO USE IT BETTER!!!

MIDI PROGRAMMABLE TUBE PREAMP W/ HUSH NOISE REDUCTION: 3 CHANNELS (CLEAN,CLASSIC OD AND MODERN OD, BASS/MID/MID FREQ/TREBLE AND GAIN CONTROLS,LEVEL CONTROL FOR EACH PRESET (THERE ARE 99 LOCATIONS),OUTPUT CONTROL FOR GENERAL VOLUME AND INPUT DRIVE CONTROL TO INCREASE DISTORTION USING GUITARS WITH LOW POWER PICK-UPS (SINGLE COILS,OLD PIECES...). ALSO SEND FX LOOP,STEREO RETURN FX LOOP, DIRECT XLR OUTPUTS, MIDI IN OUT/THRU. THERE'S ALMOST EVERYTHING EXCEPT A COFFEE MACHINE AND HEADPHONE JACK.KNOBS ARE GRADUATED FOR EXTREMELY PRECISE REGULATIONS

NEVER HAD A PROBLEM...FROM A WEEK AGO TILL NOW!!!

REALLY DON'T KNOW BUT ROCKTRON FAME TALKS BY ITSELF...THE WEB SITE IS EQUIPPED WITH USEFUL STUFF LIKE ON-LINE MANUALS

IT IS GOOD...NO DISCUSSION...BUT I MUST USE IT MORE TO TELL A DEFINITIVE RATING.BY NOW IT WOULD BE A 9. I NEED HELP!!!!PLEASE CONTACT ME CAUSE I CAN'T USE THE INPUT DRIVE CONTROL OS WELL AND CAN'T GET CRYSTAL CLEAN SOUND AND EXTREME DISTORTION WITHOUT REGULATING IT EACH TIME!!!CONTACT ME!!!!!

OK, here is where I get extremely detailed. My signal chain is the following (this is quite simple): Guitar > Preamp w/ FX in loop > Power Amp > 2x12 cabinet.

I use three different guitars:

1. 2001 PRS CE 22 w/ stock pickups

2. 1998 Fender American Deluxe strat fitted with USA Bridge tremolo (like a combination of a PRS and a G&L bridge) and Seymour Duncan pickups (from bridge to neck: JB Jr., Classic Stack, Cool Rails)

3. Ibanez Universe UV777BK stock.

My FX unit is an Alesis Midiverb 4, and my power amp is a Mesa Simul-Class 2:90 stereo power amp.

OK, now that all of that is out of the way let's get down to brass tax. The Piranha sounds awesome right out of the box. The first preset is a Marshall-like tone that showcases the vintage distortion channel quite nicely, and gives any JCM900 a run for the money. After several minutes of tweaking I was in tone heaven. I was able to dial in some great heavy modern distortion tones, and some very pristine clean tones as well. For my solo tone, I am able to achieve incredible harmonic feedback, which is a signature of my style. I am also able to use the volume control on my guitar to back off the distortion mid-tune for a nice semi-distorted clean tone ala Ty Tabor (King's X) and George Lynch.

The Piranha can deliver tones that will rival any Fender or Marshall out there. For styles ranging from country, jazz, classic rock, modern rock and heavy metal, the Piranha is a great tool. If you love the heavy Marshall tones from guitar players like Slash, Eddie Van Halen, George Lynch, Joe Satriani (from the album "The Extremist") and Steve Vai, this preamp is for you.

On the other hand, I wouldn't agree that the Piranha can achieve the famous Mesa Dual Rectifier tone. Some have said that a parametric EQ in front of the preamp will help achieve that tone, but I cannot verify that. Still, the Piranha gets damn close while maintaining it's own unique tone signature.

Since the preamp is fully programmble, you can dial in unique EQ settings for each preset. I like my solo tones to have a slight bump in the mids for added OOMPH, and the Piranha can deliver. Instead of one control for the mid-frequencies, the Piranha features two controls: Frequency and "+/-". This allows you to choose which frequency band to cut or boost. This is a great feature that will really help you get a wide range of distortion tones.

Contrary to what I've read, my Piranha can get a bit noisy at high gain settings, especially in rooms where the grounding isn't 100% reliable or the wiring isn't shielded properly. Take it from me, I've played in 12 different states and 3 different countries: some clubs have crappy wiring. Fortunately the Piranha features HUSH circuitry, which effectively eliminates noise below the user defined noise floor. You can set the HUSH level for each preset independently, which makes sense; Clean tones don't get too noisy.

We have here the Rocktron Piranha, a way above average rackmount tube preamp manufactured in the early 90's. Some handy features: MIDI switchable, 3 channels (clean, vintage distortion, modern distortion), integrated HUSH technology, integrated effect loop w/ stereo returns, and stereo XLR direct outs. There is also a front mounted input gain control, which is very handy when using a guitar with low output pickups, such as a vintage strat.

I have owned this preamp for nearly 10 years, and I have never had a single problem with any part of the preamp. Except for changing preamp tubes (there are two) every six months (due to heavy usage - your tube mileage may vary) I have never needed to open the unit. I replace the fuse every twelve months just to be on the safe side. I think 0% downtime in ten years is quite remarkable.

I lost my original manual and was able to download a PDF manual from the Rocktron website. Thank you Rocktron!

After 20+ years of playing, I've heard some pretty great preamps. I've also heard some real crap. Im always amazed what some companies will out out there, including Rocktron (c'mon guys, what is up with the distortion in the Chameleon?). The Piranha falls into the "great preamp" category.

Rocktron doesn't make the Piranha anymore, and that concerns me. What do they know that I don't? :) But if you see one used on eBay, snag it. They go for about $300 and it is worth the scratch. I paid $500 back in the day, and I would do it again.

Some other preamps I have owned (and therefore can compare the Piranha to): ADA MP-1, SanaAmp PSA-1, Mesa V-Twin. The ADA was a mess of a preamp, both loud and difficult to use. The SanaAmp was cool, but somewhat sterile sounding. The V-Twin was the best preamp of the three, but I was disappointed in the distortion. Less gain than you would expect from a preamp with the Mesa name on it. Overall, the Piranha outclasses all three previously owned preamps.

The Piranha is actually very easy to use, there is no problem getting exactly the sound you want from it, but there are some tricks, like setting the effectsloop-settings or using the parametrical EQ for the Mids. There are enough sounds in there for everybody, just you have to look for them a bit. It gets a bit tricky, if you have more than one Midi-device operated by the same controller (mine is a KORG FC6), the Piranha seems to be a bit slow to react, so you have to fiddle around with setting your rig up properly, but I have never had any real problems with it. It changes patches instantly, which is great for live use.

Godlike! There aren't many (if any) other preamps which give you such good sound at such an extremely low price (it eats MESAs, Hughes and Kettners, soldanos...) It is not an emulating machine, you have to find your own sounds with it, but that is exactly what I want. I'm not into copying, although my style is a heavy kind of style like Slipknot, Pantera, Gardenian, just to name a few. I don't even try to get bluesy sounds out of it, that's not what this preamp's there for, this one is for the heavy stuff. Don't try to use it with a cheap combo, get a proper tube poweramp, otherwise you'll never be totally satisfied with your tone. I have tried it with lots of different setups, including Fender-Combos, Transistor and Tube Poweramps, right into a mixer, live through a bass-amp, but nothing satisfies me as much as my normal rack setup (see below, overall rating). Smashing sound quality. I don't need to add a "for the price" here, because it's better than most, which cost much more, it is the best choice for heavy-guitarists, the built-in HUSH-system keeps it quiet, although it is very quiet to start with.

Haven't had it for that long, but I believe in Rocktron stuff, it seems very sturdily built, and if it sits in a rack, nothing can happen to it physically. Of course there is the general distrust in everything digital, because things that are digital can always cancel your presets or do stupid things like changing channels by themselves, but I've never had any problems with it so far, nor have I ever heard of anything like this happening to the Piranha.

I have never needed to contact them, but htere website isn't all that good, they don't have all manuals of their discontinued stuff (e.g. the PRO Q) but there is all you want for the Piranha. The Piranha is seen often on stages all round the world, so I think this speaks for reliablity and support (spares shouldn't be difficult to get).

My Setup: Ibanez Universe 7-string => Piranha => Korg A2 => MESA/BOOGIE Strategy 500 Poweramp => 4 MESA-Thiele designed cabinets loaded with EVM12Ls. MESA rule on poweramps and cabinets,
but are you listening MESA? Although it only has three channels, this thing beats the Triaxis on Heavyousnds, though it is certainly not as versatile, because even though there is a special vintage/modern switch for the distorted sounds, you don't get the creamy blues sounds you would get out of a Fender. That doesn't mean the vintage setting is useless: it gets smashing sounds out of it, but has a more neutral sound to it, the modern setting has the scooped metal grind that eats every f***ing marshall on this planet. I only play heavy metal and other hard stuff (there'll be a word some day for what i play), so it suits me perfectly. I tested it straight against a Yamaha DG1000 Motorized Preamp, the new ENGL MIDI Preamp, the Triaxis and a bunch of multieffects, like Boss or the new G-Major (top notch in efects but a joke on distortion sounds, as is the G-Force, both built by TC Electronic) I bought this one one because it was by a mile the best for my style of playing, and considering the price I paid for it I am now looking for a second one. If you have two different preapms parallel, then that gets you monsterthick distortion sounds, especially if you set the preamps slightly differently.

ONE NOTE ON ALL Preamps: if you'r into heavy music: use a parametrical EQ in front of your preamp, this is the way very many great people get their gorgeous sounds.

i play a jackson kelly with duncan pickups,i run it through a marshall el34 100/100 power amp,and a 1960 cab,that is it for now,and it sounds as brutal as the jmp-1 or the ada mp-1,and i have not even put an eq on it yet,i can imagine what it will sound like with eq and maximizer as well.clean sounds good through my jazz pickup.

features are good for what it is,strickly a preamp,no effects.the built in hush is killer,i was going to get a hush but now i dont need to.

have not had it long so cant really say.

rocktron support is pretty good,lots of dealers around.

they dont make this one anymore and that i dont understand,i play mostly death metal style music,but also like to play classical style parts as well,it can do those an anything in between ,like i said before the hush on this thing is great,i can crank it as loud as i want,and it is still quiet,without losing any tone....

this unit can't be any easier to tweek on the fly in front of an audience, such was the case when we opened for RATT. my lead sound on one preset was too loud and i simply held a note tweeked the level control and hit store twice in a flash i was done and played another stellar show with this preamp.

superb crunch rythm ala Godsmack with hush to tighten the syncapated stuff. this preamp is used with an intellifex straight to a rivera hammer 120 power amp to 2 mesa rect. cabs. i don't need endless piles of gear to have this set up raise the roof off the place week in/out. i've used it to record (miked cabs) our latest album http://www.mp3.com/StrAngeL the souls album. the best way to get a real clean punchy tone ala Stevie Ray, neck pickup(strat) loads of bass 12 treble 1 mids 11 mids freq 3.5 add rev/chorus and saw away!!! i have had treble issues in high gain modes but found that the mid control up treble way down, and the tone is killer.. change the clean tube to a 12AT7 instead of the 12AX7. people still come up after shows and say whats in that box of yours, man you got tone.

bulletproof,a tank,it will be here left with the cockroaches after a nuke fallout,this one has served me well for over 6 years since i bought it used.. it has been all over the place and has been dropped and it still runs like it were new.

they are very patient and thorogh 10 plus..

playing for 17 years, this is my sound and i love this preamp. i've owned it all and this setup next to new marshalls, mesa's, you name it it just blows them away in crunch, control, reliability, i love this thing and i can't they stopped making it. they should reissue this preamp so that other guitarist don't waste thier money buying second rate no midi control, only three chann. over priced and fail a lot crap... if you ever find one run this only with a stereo all tube poweramp you will get louder than 4 full stacks......

Just like dialing in the controls on a tube amp. Use the Mid sweep controls, they have the most effect on the sounds available. Find the sound you like and save it.

Awesome sounds come out of this unit. Keep in mind that this a pre-amp only, no reverb, no delay, no chorus, etc. If you are having trouble getting "crystal" clean sounds out of this unit, it might be the pickups you use. It's hard to get a fat, distortion bred humbucker to sound soft, smooth and pretty. I use Hamer Californian USA model guitars with Seymour Duncan pickups. I use the Invader humbucker in the bridge and the Cool Rails strat style pickup in the neck position. I can can play any style of music with this combination from Metalica to Journey to Queenryche to Alice in Chains to Pink Floyd to Tesla. The HUSH function works great at controlling high gain noise, just dial in the HUSH setting until the hiss is gone. The only modification performed on this unit was replacing the original 12ax7's with a set of Groove Tubes 12ax7's. I like Groove Tubes products and anything I buy with tubes in it automatically gets Groove Tubes tubes put in shortly after I buy it. In my opinion, the tubes did improve the already awesome sound quality of this umit. As a comparison I tired the Digitech 2112 and prefered the Piranha's distortion. I own a Mesa Boogie Trem-O-Verb 2x12 combo, a full Randall stack and a Hafler Triple Giant pre-amp. None of these could pull off the the incredible number of sounds available with the Piranha and with the Piranha I can duplicate them all very closely or perfectly.

I been playing with this unit for over three years with no problems. I played through a Rocktron PRO GAP before buying this and had no problems with it either.

Have not had any problems with it, so I can't say at this time.

My current rig consist of, from top to bottom, a Furman PRO Plus line conditioner & light module, AKG SR100 VHF wireless unit, Rocktron 300G compressor/HUSH unit, Korg ToneWorks DTR-1 rack tuner, Rocktron Piranha, Digitech 33B Super Harmonizer, ADA Digitizer 4, Alesis QuadraVerb, Alesis QuadraVerb2, BBE 362NR Sonic Maximizer and a Carvin Tube 100 power amp loaded with Groove Tubes 12ax7's and 5881's. On the floor I have an ART Midi controller, MXR phase 90 and a Morley "Bad Horsie" wah pedal. My sound gets sent into a pair of Mesa Boogie 4x12 cabinets loaded with Celestion Vintage 30's. I know this sounds like alot, and it is, I've been slowly building this rig for years, but as the old saying goes, "garbage in = garbage out" has real meaning here. You have to start with a great sound to end up with a great sound. You can process and effect a "fart" all day long and in the end, it still sounds like a "fart" that's been processed and effected!! My sound is built in small layers, not one big effect, based on what preset I'm using, but I always run a mix of dry pre-amp mixed with my effects thru to my power amp. It sounds great. When we (my band) play shows, I always have other guitar players in the club come up between sets or after the show to tell me they love the sound of this set-up. I truely believe it starts with this great pre-amp.

See below, and my follow-up

See below, and my follow-up

See below

See below

A postscript to my last review - I forgot to mention that there is no presence control on the unit, which is fine. My Marshall 9200 has a Presence control, but with the Piranha's tubes running at high voltage, I have the Presence control on the power amp set at "0", "1" at the most. Also forgot to leave my email, in case anyone has some great Piranha patches, or an interest in getting a like-new SGX2000 at a reasonable price...