Rocktron Piranha Tube Guitar Preamp

Right now , my signal chain consists of Carvin guitars (I endorse them) with stock pickups, Audio Technica wireless systems, Sabine Rackmount Tuner, Rocktron Piranha Preamp, ART SGX2000 Preamp/Effects Rocktron Replifex, Rane 2x15 EQ, Marshall 9200 Poweramp. I've been in the process of upgrading my rack, and the Piranha fits in perfectly. The band I'm in (KATELLA - www.katella.net) plays a wide variety of music, and so far the Piranha is stepping up to the plate nicely. It did take a bit of tweaking to get the sounds I want, but it's blowing away the SGX2000 (up for sale, if interested, email me) The cleans are what you'd expect from a tube preamp - nothing spectacular until you EQ it out with an effects unit - alone they're bland. The distortions are great, if not a little brittle. The sweepable mids take care of that. Now I can get aqny sound I want, from a Fender clean, to a Hi-Watt crunch, to a Marshall gain to a Soldano/Rivera mod sound all the way to a Mesa tone. Not quite the Triaxis, but for my tastes (and wallet) the Triaxis is a little to much for me. K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Stupid)! Plus the Hush is great, and no dropout between patches! (The SGX lacks sorely in this category)

Great layout...easy to use whether you are a head user or a rack fanatic. 2 - 12ax7s running at high voltage give this preamp incredible sounds. I do wish the manual went into more detail on how to craft sounds (using the sweepable mids, etc.), and I wish it had midi mapping capabilities, but overall it's a great unit!

This thing is built for road work. I'm on the road 3 weeks out of a month, and I couldn't wish for something better built. No plastic BS, just hard metal - from knobs to jacks.

The only time I've dealt with them was when I was researching preamps. The Piranha is no longer in production, so getting info from your local music equipment jobber was hard. Rocktron was very responsive, and very honest. I felt I knew exactly what I was getting and what to expect before I even plugged in. Besides Carvin, they have the best Customer Support around.

I've been playing for around 19 years, and I've gone the usual path from small combos to large combos to heads to rack stuff. I used to like Digitech, but they're trying to be all things to all people now, and not doing any of it well. I like the SGX, but it has a little to much of the same thing (look at all the patches - they're pretty much the same 6 layout with differnt volumes/effects mixes). I'm the type of person who does a lot of research before investing in equipment. For preamps I looked at the JMP-1 (too limited in tones) Soldano X-99 (too expensive and hard to get support), Rivera (no midi) and Triaxis (too expensive and touchy). The Piranha definitely is in a class by itself. If it was stolen, I'd get another in a hurry. I do wish that it had a more intuitive midi section, but for what I use it for it's a great piece of gear. It does take a while to get really good tones from it, but once you do you just store them, and Katie Bar The Door! Anyone who has good Piranha programs, email me and lets exchange! Also, one SGX 2000 for sale!

I am using my Ibanez s440 and Seymore duncan (Jeff Beck) humbucker in the bridge posision. I play metal, and for that my Piranha fits very good in my rack! Gain:Brutal,Brutal,Brutal, Because of the middle controls i found the sound type very variable, you can do almost everything with this preamp im using a very fat and heavy distortion, but when its time for the clean sound it takes some work to get it "crystal" clean.

I have ben playing for about 7 years now, and i think this preamp will stay for a while, I am using the Piranha with a peavy 60\60 and a rocktron replifex and hughes and kettrer 4\12 cab, if it was stolen i would find that son of..... or buy a new one

Listen up.Stop whinging about the lack of usable clean sounds and open the damn box up and change the 12AX tube on clean channel to an 12AU or an 12AT.This also works wonders on the dirty channel for firming up
flabby distortion sounds.How many guitarists does it take to change a tube for godsakes?

Looks very much like the Metalzone controls. You have to put the Hush noise gate at high settings to cut the noise sometimes. I will not give it a 10 because it's a little difficult to get clear sounds.

I'm using a Gibson Flying V with 500T pickups. The clear sounds are difficult to get. You will have to set up the input drive control with caution. A very good trick, when you are not using the effects loop, is turn it on at the clear presets, then you will get clear sounds with great volume. The BASS control give the Piranha a very distinguished sound. It's not extremely punchy but it will sound very dark. Remember that the Piranha was used by Megadeth at Criptic Writings and Judas Priest at the Juggulator albums. I use it with a Marshall Major 100W head with an Eminence 4X12" cab.

It's never let me down but I've used it for too little

It's perfect! I will never use solid state distortion anymore! All the dynamic sound that the Piranha offers makes you want to use an compressor for the solos, but Van Halen fans will love it the way it is!

Very hard to get ANY decent sound out of this Box. No cleans is only the beginning. The distortion is so noisy you have to gate it so much you loose all fading notes. Not even Hush can tame this beast.

Just awful. i loved the Voodu Valve, What the ar?!f happened here? I guess all companies produce some duds.

Typical Rocktron quality. Well made.

Excellent customer support. Called on other items and received prompt and courteous servcie.

i play rock. That is a wide range of tones needed. This Piranha is so narrow in what it can do. If you're idea of playing is cranking to 10 and banging power chords forever, then you might never hear the tremendous noise that this item creates. What about pulling the wall wart out of this box and getting rid of the mains hum? I have owned Marshall JMP1(excellent) Voodu Valve(pretty good) 4 Les pauls, Bunch of Strats, Ovation acoustic, EQ's Gates, Etc....

I use mostly ESP customs and Gibson Les Pauls and a EVH Wolfgang. They all sound killer through this thing. I'm running this unit with a Mesa-Boogie 2:90 power amp and a Rocktron Multivalve. And using my old ADA MP-1 for a Midi Controller. My band plays everything from AC-DC to Metallica, Alice In Chains, Billy Joel, Lynard Skynard... Lets just say we play a wide variety. The Piranha works well for all styles. I love the Hush Unit built in, of course I have a Mutivalve so I have two Hush's to chose from now... You can get every thing from Van Halen 1 to Metallica. I can dial up the Red channel from my Tri-Axis very easy on the Piranha. I can see where some people complain about the clean sounds being distorted, but if you want to have a solid state sound by JC-120, but if you want something that will melt the plaster off the walls go with the Piranha. It really sounds likea hot rodded Marshall... I always loved Accepts guitar sound now I can get.... JOY!!!!

Hello Fellow Rocktron Lovers!!! I've used Rocktron gear for years, and have always been very pleased with there stuff. I recently purchased a Piranha to replace my First year edition ADA MP-1. I had loved that preamp for years. Of course if I'm just now replacing it. It has been years... But anywho... I purchased a Mesa-Boogie TriAxis a couple of years back and was fairly happy with that. But it seemed to lack a lot a gain when I would go into a solo. So after reading review after review on the piranha I chose to purchase one. And boy am I glad I did. I had always searched for the "BROWN SOUND" You know the one where it sounds like you're sucking the never ending life out of your tubes. Where you can hear the glass of the tube cracking.
Well I get that from the Piranha. Some people have complained about the clean sounds. But after tweaking a little I've got them sounding really good. I love this thing. The only other thing I can think of I want is an Egnater. But I am truly happy for now. The other guitar player in my band liked it so much he bought one to relace his MP-1... All I can say is KICK-ASS!!!

The Piranha is very dependable. I do have one complaint I bought another Piranha for a backup and it sounded weak compared to my main one. But I think it justs needs new tubes... But the other has never broke down

I haven't had to contact Rocktron on any of my gear. I have emailed them before and called them to ask questions on products. And they are very prompt. The other guitar player in my band has A Hush Unit that had a bad switch and they sent him free in just a week or so. That's Cool...

I've been playing for 23 years and have owned alot of gear. I currently have a Mesa-Boogie Tri-Axis, Mesa Boogie 2:90 Power amp, ADA MP-1, Rocktron Piranha, Rocktron Intellifex, Rocktron Multivalve, Shure Wireless system, And a Korg Rackmount Tuner. If the Piranha was stolen or lost I would buy another one. The bottom line is that this thing rocks and for now I am satisfied, still looking for the never ending tone, but it suits me fine for now. As far as anything I wish I had. A custom built Bruce Egnater preamp would be nice... If anyone wants to get me one I'll take it...

It's a pre amp with no efects what more can i say

I'm running the piranha through a marshal 9100 poweramp.the distortion on this thing are brutal.i've read a lot about the clean channel and its true that the clean channel is terribal.i've tried everything but six months later I gave it a second chance.I put a rocktron intellifex into the signal chain and I achieved crystal clean tone.to top it all of the its dead quiet even at maximum gain.

I dropped on the floor once and works perfectly

I play any style metal that there is death metal and power metal and everything inbetwen.i've been playing for three years and this unit fits my style perfectly.if it were lost I would try and get my hands on another.{if I can find one there getting hard to find} .I love the rocktron piranha for its distortion and two mid frequincies.ive played through a lot amps in my day and rocktron is the best in my opinion.

Like I said, it's about 90% of what I would consider perfect. The missing 10% is in extremely clean tones and over-the-top distortion (opposites of the extreme). I find that in order to get an acceptable clean tone I have to back the gain down to a point that it loses most of it's punch and vitality. The "new-age" distortion is pretty cool though, sort of a tube/solid-state combination ala Metallica. For blues and SRV type stuff, use the regular tube overdrive mode. It responds to changes in your guitars volume setting just like any good tube amp should. Roll back the volume a bit to clean up the sound and get that "squishy" rhythm tone, then max the volume for increased gain and sustain. Really, it's a very, very versatile unit. I play mine through an ADA 100 watt stereo tube head into a Marshall 2X12 cabinet. Cranked up with my modified Fender AS Strat (Dimarzio humbuckers) this combination truly BARKS.

I've had mine for about 3 years and I thinks it's very much "OK". Not Great-OK, but very useable and I'm about 90% satisfied with the tones. It does what it does well, which is allow you to tweak a variety of clean/crunch/overdrive tones at different gain/EQ combinations, save them to patch settings, then recall those with the tap of a foot controller via MIDI. Together with my Alesis MidiVerb 4, I've got two banks on the foot controller that give me instant access to all the tone/EFX combinations I could want. Can't beat that. Plus the on-board HUSH circuit and the cool sweepable mids make it very versatile. The face plate is kinda ugly though...

Had it for 3 years and haven't had a problem yet. I do plan to replace the power tubes with another set though, just to see what effect it has on the tone...

Never had to deal with them personally. Their web-site look really good though...

It's a great unit and I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a MIDI programmable tube pre-amp. Just make sure you run it through a good tube power amp...

It's easy to get awesome sounds out of this. Rule #1: forget the presets. The presets are no indication of what this thing can do. It is very easy to program this thing, even without the manual, which by the way is easy to understand as well. Just dial in the parameters(yes, dials!) press a button twice and you've just programmed a patch.

The reason I won't give it a 10 is because I can't get crystal clean sounds out of this unit. I don't think this unit was meant to play Air Supply and other soft rock. This thing was meant to rage and that's exactly what it does. I still can't get over what this thing does. I used this to replace my ADA MP-1 (which I will still keep for the solid state clean channel). I used to have to run a Furman PQ3 parametric EQ in the effects loop to get the heavy, deadly, raging crunch I needed. Yes, I did get that with the ADA-Furman combo. But guess what kids? I can get this with the Piranha by itself!! And, with the Furman PQ3 in the effects loop of the Piranha...I can't even begin to describe the sounds I get! I love the built in hush! I can get the exact tone I need from this thing. Imagine that a Marshall plexi and a Mesaboogie Dual rectifier had unprotected sex...the result: the Rocktron Piranha!! Still, like I said, it could have used a solid state circuit as well for the crystal cleans.

It has not given me any major problems yet. A couple of strange things though: once it got stuck and the controls wouldn't work. I still had sound, but I couldn't toggle through the presets or change the tube voicings or activate the hush or anything. I kept pressing buttons, but got no response. I just turned it off and on again and it was fine. Weird?
Next, it just recently allowed me to scroll through programs by keeping the up and down buttons depressed. I use to have to keep pressing up or down to scroll through the programs. Weird?
Other than that, no problems to report. Do keep in mind though that I bought this used(ultra mint condition) and have only had it for three days so far.

Like I said, I bought this unit used and have only had it a few days. I'm hoping I'll never have to contact them though!

I'll have to give this unit a 9, simply because of the lack of crystal cleans and because of the strange; yet harmless, behavior. I play heavy hardcore/metal music and this unit seems like it was made for just that. If it were to get lost or stolen, I would have to kill the scumbag who lost or stole it, because Rocktron doesn't make this unit anymore! Can someone please tell me why?!? The best sounding preamp for it's price range, and it's discontinued! I do wish it had a solid state circuit for the clean channel. That would make it a 10 for me.

I'm using this in the FX loop of a Boss GX-700 processor, and I'm recording direct with it. Everything else I've plugged into the FX loop of that processor (SansAmp GT2, Tech 21 TM60 amp, Overlord pedal) was terribly noisy, so I was a bit worried about this preamp with its 280-volt tubes, etc. As it turns out, it's dead quiet. So quiet that I don't even use the noise supressor on the GX-700 in most cases. I use the HUSH on the Pirahna, and I don't really need that much HUSH.

As far as sounds go, I'm highly impressed with the variety of tones this box offers. The EQ is active, and really aggressive. The Bass control lets you add low-end wallop to the sound until it's overpowering. The mids are sweepable from 250Hz to 7kHz. This is the thing that allows you to change the color of the sound. The treble control adds a harsh edge to the sound (when running direct) that is useful sometimes, and not others.

There are 3 tube modes: Clean, Classic, and Modern. I like the clean mode because it sounds FAT, something I can't hear in any modelling preamp (like the one in the GX-700). Someone in a review below mentioned "clean distortion"; This is what the classic mode sounds like. It's got a lot of sustain and is distorted, but it sounds clear, and not buzzy. It's great for middle-intensity crunch sounds and clear-sounding leads. Modern mode is essentially the same thing, but has a buzzy quality to it. If you're after a really agressive distortion tone, this is the place to be.

I was hoping to get a real "Doomsday" sound out of this box, but I haven't quite gotten there yet. I've come pretty close though. If I was running it through a tube power amp and real 4x12 cabs instead of a GX-700's speaker simulator, I could get it. Aside from that though, I can get all kinds of "non-Doomsday" type sounds; The combination of this with the GX-700 and all of its features is really powerful.

I've played through just about every rack-mount preamp and processor available for under $1000, and I can say with a fair amount of confidence that this is the coolest one yet. I judge a unit like this by the amount of fun I have playing through it, and I'm having a lot of fun with this one. I'm keeping it!

Think of this as a tube preamp with 100 channels. It has a fair amount of features; 3 tube modes, 4-band EQ with sweepable mids, an effects loop, XLR outputs with speaker simulators on them, and HUSH. For a straight tube preamp, it's actually pretty packed with stuff.

It's built for torture. The faceplate looks like it's made to take small-arms fire and not bend. The knobs are metal, etc. One thing I think is kind of overdone is the number of screws used to hold the top on. There are a TON of them. I'd like to know why you need 20+ screws to hold the top of a rack unit on, when it's going to be safely enclosed in a rack? That's just annoying. Oh well, I'd rather have it overbuilt than flimsy. Rocktron stuff is cool because there's nothing toy-like about it. It's rack gear for manly men.

Rocktron doesn't make this unit anymore; They have the Prophesy now, which is the new whoop-te-doo preamp/FX processor. I think they'd probably still be able to fix this if it broke. Rocktron is really good about responding to e-mails, etc. Ask 'em anything within reason, and they'll usually get back to you within the day.

I can't stop messing with this thing. It's really cool. I think it's an excellent value. It makes my direct-recording rack sound like a real amp. It's easy to use, sounds great, is really dependable, backed by a good company, and has pictures of fangs on the front. You can't beat that.