Rocktron Piranha Tube Guitar Preamp

Pretty easy if you are used to tweeking tone from amp heads. Scrolling through the different tube presets is simple, although could use an actual name in place of the number system.

This is where this toy kicks ass. The range of distortions is great. It is a tube preamp, and it sure sounds like one. I tried about everything out there, and this one won for me. From hard metal, to speed metal, to classic rock to more 'tamed' tones. Warm and clear. Ever use the term 'clean distortion', this fits the bill. A small tweak of the mid, mid/level, or gain will drastically change your sound. I use this in my rack along with a Rocktron Intellefex, BBE 462, EQ and a VHT Power Amp. Although the power amp is sometimes a Marshall JCM 900 (set to clean) all throuogh Marshall Vintage cabs. Excuse me, but it all sounds fucking great!

So far so good.

Never had any complaints to submit, but have talked with them many times. They were very helpful both before and after I purchased their gear. Both via email and phone. Emphasize VERY HELPFULL. Although they could use an 800 number......

Overall I give it a 10. Like I said earlier, I have tried about everything out there. When I was ready to purchase something new, I studied every article, talked with every company, went to music stores and played everything until they kicked me out, and talked with every guitar player I could. Your ear is always best, but a lot is said for other users experience.

Very easy to use. I was using a Rocktron Pro G.A.P. before, and this sounds more than a little like that unit, only with all of the tube warmth and response and none of the solid-state brittle. Editing patches is very easy. Parameters are dialed in with a knob, just like any amp head. I haven't really got into the manual, it's pretty easy to get working even without it.

This is one of the best preamps I've ever heard. It's very responsive and it was easy to get a workable sound. I'm using it with a Steinberger GM Guitar with Seymour Duncan pickups. In the rack is: a graphic EQ (alesis), a BBE Sonic Maximizer, an Alesis Midiverb 4, all thru a Mesa Strategy 500 tube amp and 2x12 Celestion Vintage 30s. I kind of wanted a sound with tube distortion, that didn't completely remove the "clank" like most solid-state units. It will definitely deliver a Buck Dharma kind of sound. It might not satisfy gain-heads without an external distortion unit.

Haven't used it live yet, but haven't had any problems with it.

Haven't been in contact with them.

The Piranha would be hard to beat, if you can get one used.

i'm primarily using the piranha with a hamer special FM, which of course is equipped stock with great seymour duncans. i've found the piranha to be far more versatile and yummy-sounding than any other box in its price range on the used market. the presets are pretty crappy for the most part, but give 'er a few twists of the dials and you've got a perfectly usable sound.
the clean tones are ok, but i'd rather use my fender any day. at the same time, they whoop up HUGE on about everything else on the preamp market under $1000, and you can get some tasty blues grit cranking up the gain, something which is again pretty much impossible on boxes like the more popular marshall jmp-1.
the distorted sounds are pretty damn fantastic. the piranha has a *lot* of flexibility in this regard, far more than the jmp-1, and you can either get a nice marshall crunch or something far, far heavier than that. the sweepable EQ is very useful in fine-tuning these sounds-- you can either pull out some low mids for a very brown sound indeed, or go full crank on the higher mids for an in-your-face lead tone. here's my one complaint: on the last sound i mentioned, the preamp tends to start squealing microphonically if the preamp is in "ultra-high-gain distortion mode" and either the gain, mid boost or level is set too high. the hush closes the gate but does not block out the first bit of squeal after you choke a note. one of the presets sounded *great*, but started getting all squealy when i turned up the output level. i changed the preamp tubes to sovtek 12AX7WXT+ selects to remedy this, with no luck. it's a minor design flaw, and it doesn't really affect the usability of the box. you just have to set your parameters more reasonably, i guess (what, you mean i can't turn everything up full blast? :) ). the best solution would probably be to turn all your patches down a bit to compensate.
the hush makes a *world* of difference on the high-gain tones-- dead quiet in comparison to other preamps i've checked out. i really dig both modes of distortion on the piranha, and use them both regularly.

basically, the piranha is a one-space preamp with a couple of essential differences. for one, the two 12AX7s in the box run at 280V-- closer to the voltages in a "real" amp (higher than most vintage amps, as a matter of fact). this really makes a difference in its ability to do nice clean tones, an area where most "mid-level" preamps fall short. secondly, even though this is a MIDI box, the interface is set up like a "real" amp, with individual free-spinning data knobs for each essential parameter (EQ, gain, level, etc.). this makes a world of difference in the speed at which you can program the piranha. my favorite feature would have to be the built-in HUSH circuitry. it not only keeps the preamp from being noisy at high gain settings, but also helps your playing sound cleaner by minimizing loud squeaks and palm-muting crackles. if set properly, it has no audible effect on the notes you "actually play" (unless you're trying to play a fingerpicked jazz solo through an ultra-modern high gain patch, which would be idiotic anyhow). i don't know of another preamp, especially one in this price range, that offers this much power and flexibility. standard fare: one clean and two distortion modes-- "classic" and "raging trendy", are available. the box has two banks of LCD numerals for patch number and parameter value. there are recording outs with a specially shaped output EQ for "cabinet emulation," but i haven't gotten around to trying this yet. (the reviews below say it's pretty tasty stuff.)

in order to put the preamp tubes in, i had to open the box (duh). let me just say that: a) it was a *bitch* to get this thing open-- the screws were all extremely tight and they're either small hexagonal screws with a very shallow head, or star-driver screws with slightly deeper heads (on the front panel only). it took ingenuity and every tool i had in my little toolbox to get the top off without stripping the hell out of the screws. b) this thing is, well, unavoidable cliche: built like a tank. the chassis is incredibly tight and thick, and heavy too, owing to the monstrous toroidal on the left side of the box. it's PC board construction (at this price and size, did you *expect* hand-wired?), but everything looks very sturdy-- with the exception of the side-mounted tube sockets, which scare me a bit-- and all parts are more than adequately spaced and ventilated. i can't imagine having a problem with this unit for a long time to come.

i sent an email to rocktron to ask where i could get a new front panel knob. within the day, they replied and asked for my snail-mail address, which i gave them. a week later, i had a *free* bag of *four* knobs. how cool is that? most companies don't even answer their email, let alone use it to service a customer in so friendly and speedy a fashion. these dudes rock.

i've owned three or four different preamps and this is the only one i would ever feel comfortable using by itself in a live situation-- the others have all had severe deficiencies in clean or blues tone that mandate lugging another amp and an a/b box to the gig. its tone is truly delicious, it's full of usable sounds, and the interface makes it perfect for use in live situations (who doesn't need to twiddle a knob or two in the first couple of songs?). at the price, about $600 new street, it's a steal, and i feel *really* fortunate to have found it used. the only thing i don't dig is the aforementioned squealing at extremist settings... perhaps a little more space betwixt the tubes would do the trick, and perhaps newer models have incorporated this (mine is one or two years old). i honestly feel that this is the best-sounding mass-production preamp in existence (this includes the legendary mesa triaxis-- at thrice the price-- and the ilk). check it out.

Looks like the front of an amp. bass/mid/mid-freq/treble/gain/volume. Also, programmable effects loop, hush, three modes (clean, vintage distortion, modern distortion).

I use mine with the Rocktron Replifex through the effects loop, into a Peavey 50/50 tube power amp, through 2 Rocktron 1 x 12 cabinets (75 watt eminence). I use the Ground Control midi pedal for controlling both. Guitars: PRS CE, Les Paul Classic, Ibanez Jem, Strat, and Gibson Blues Hawk. The sound quality is great. It sounds like a tube amp. Distortions are killer! Metal, classic rock, blues, etc..... One thing that I noticed is that people can't find a good clean tone. All you have to do is turn down the volume on the distortions to 2 or 3, then you can back the gain down on your clean presets, and crank the volume up to around 20 or so. That gives you a lot fo headroom on the distortions, and a good amount on the clean presets. I've compared my clean tones to my friends Twin and they sound very similar. I was pretty surprised. Anyway, tweakin' is the name of the game...just keep twistin' knob till you find what you're looking for. The Eq on the Replifex is also very helpful in fine tuning the tone. I can't think of any reason to buy new equipment. Maybe the only other thing you need is a TS-9 to really nail the blues tones.

I've been gigging 3 times a week for about 2 years. No problems at all. I changed the tubes about 6 months ago. Not because they were worn out, just because I wanted to. I can't don't use a back up, I can't afford one anyway.

Rocktron is the best. They reply, and the people are all knowledgable. Great all around company.

I play every style under the sun and between the Piranha and the Replifex I can find any tone that I want. You just have to be willing to spend the time and really LISTEN to what it sounds like.

I use it with an Ibanez "Paul Stanley" Iceman. I can crank out the deadliest metal tones you will ever hear. and the best thing about it, is that it has the hush already built in on the global channel as well as the normal one. as far as the distortion goes, it's just plain tough.

This pre amp is perfect for playing metal. I do'nt tend to use many of the features, but it does have an fx loop, and tubes. But the one feature I do use is the global feature, which you can use it to boost the lows, highs, or even cut the mids down for a dry, chug metal guitar tone. However, I have noticed it doesn't have much for playing clean tones, but I dont play that anyway.

I have had this preamp for a little less than a year now, and I have just recently sent it out on warrenty. but I think the reason why it's haveing problems right now is because I was using a Marshall 8008 valvestate power amp with it, and the Marshall actually blew and caught on fire while I was playing. I believe that must have done somthing to the preamp when that happened.

I believe that Rocktron has a good 3 year warrenty on all their gear. I just sent it out on warrenty about a week ago, so I don't know how they are quite yet, I will have to get back to you on that one though.

I give it a good overall rating. It's perfect for my style of music. I would like to add that you might want to try it out with a rackmount EQ. It'll boost the heck out of the tone. But I have to admit, If I wind up needing a new preamp after all this repairing through the warrenty, I think I'm going to move on to the rocktron chamelion. I have heard lot's of good about it.

It is very easy to get good distortion sounds out of this unit, but that's about it. Trying to get a decent clean sound is VERY time consuming. The midrange cut/boost doesn't have a very large range. It sucks only being able to see the parameter that you are currently editing.

As I mentioned before, distortion sounds are a breeze to dial in. Metallica, etc., sounds are easily reproduced with this unit. Grinding metal? No problem. Sweet, sustained, fat, midrange engorged solos? Get yours here. A little HUSH on the extreme settings takes care of any unwanted noise. Clean sounds are where this unit falls short...they are terrible unless you are used to practicing on a 10 watt Peavy amp. Just midrange and NO headroom.

I can't say anything about this particular unit's reliability because I returned it after one month. I have a Velocity 300 that I've owned for 6 years and only had a minor problem that they fixed promptly. I also have an original Intellifex that I've owned for 4 years that hasn't given me any problems yet!

Rocktron is more than willing to help out if a problem arises.

Great for Rock/Metal, but not very versatile, but what can you expect from their first tube offering? (Obviously I expected too much!) I bought a Mesa V-Twin rackmount that blows the Rocktron away as far as Tone is concerned. The V-Twin only has two channels, but you can do more with those TWO channels and your guitar's volume knob than you can with ALL the Pirhana's.

Wow! When I saw the amount of knobs on the front of it I was in heaven. I was sick of MIDI controlloble units (effects included) with ONE knob for multiple functions. The paremeters are easily tweakable, just turn the encoder 1 turn left or right to see what the current setting for that function is. There are controls for bass adjust, treble adjust mid frequency, mid adjust, gain and level. My only complaint about the front panel controls is that the preset up/down functions are implemented with buttons, not another encoder, and that the effects loop mix control is located on the rear of the unit...

I was using this with an Ibanez Rg470 and a ART Alpha 2.0 SE The unit, when I first got It seemed a little noisy, but a quick adjustment of the front panel output level and input drive knobs cleared that right up. After that, it had very little noise! Damn I love that HUSH! The 2 distortion channels, and the clean channel are very good...

Can I depend on it? Not sure... Havent had it for very long but it hasn't done anything wierd on my yet... I was thinking of replacing the tubes that came with it soon, not because they are bad, just looking for a different tone

I havent tried yet, so i do not know

I play a variety of styles of music ranging from blueas and new age kinda stuff, to hard rock and death metal. The only tone I cant quite get out of it is a really harsh death metal. If anyone can assist me on this, send me email

I have used three previous preamps in my rig over the last 5 years: A TubeWorks RealTube (which I still own), an ART Powerplant, and a Hughes and Kettner Attax. I have also tried the Marshall JMP midi preamp (a very nice-sounding unit), but the Rockron is superior to them all. The clean sounds are much more detailed, and the overdriven sounds are as good as the Marshall. Very dynamic and controllable, very smooth. I play a variety of styles, and it suits them all extremely well. What I find most exciting is how each guitar's individual character comes through the distortion intact. Not all amps have this. I use a combination of single-coil and humbucking pickups, and all work very well. To really judge this unit, you must scrap the factory settings and start your experimenting with the tone controls all flat. Extreme settings produce extreme sounds. For you shredders out there, be advised that I can't imagine anyone needing as much gain as this thing has in its high-gain mode. I find the classic overdrive (the tamer of the two lead modes) to be plenty saturated at a gain setting of 45-50, with 70 being highest available. The only other preamp out there that I thought was better was the Egnater, and I couldn't afford it.

Three-mode, midi controlled, tube guitar preamp. Tubes run at high-voltage. Stereo effects loop, cabinet voiced recording outputs. Single rackspace, HUSH noise reduction.

I experienced 2 problems with this unit right off the bat. I introduced a ground loop into my rig that I never experienced with any prior preamp. Remember, I have been using the same effects processor and power amp in this rack for years, and no other unit caused this. I had to use an adaptor to lift the chassis ground, and rack isolators. Eventually I will use a safer isolating scheme, but I haven't found an inexpensive solution yet. Suggestions, anyone? The other problem was that the effects loop control does not allow you to completely eliminat the dry signal. This was a problem for me because I use a volume pedal in the effects loop, and I want to be able to go to zero volume. The manual states that you can do this, but you can't. To their credit, Rocktron modified the effects loop for me (gratis) so that it is now a completely serial loop, not parallel.

Excellent support. My only complaint is that they had no interest in the ground loop problem. Since this doesn't happen with any other unit I have used, I tend to think that there is something strange about their circuit design.

I would definitely buy this again. For the money, it is the best unit on the market for my needs (1-space, affordable, great-sounding, versatile)

About as difficult to use as a Marshall Head! I read the instruction manual once and don't think I've referred to it since. Very intuitive to use, easy to save patches - fantastic!

I personally love the sound of the unit. It's great for modern, hard, heavy sounds. It really sounds like a hot-rodded head rather than a rack. If your into Metallica, White Zombie, Grunge or hard rock this is your baby. Clean sounds are also warm and happening. It's not so good for vintage Fender type dirty sounds, but I never use them anyway.

Never had a problem in 14 months.

A brilliant unit that I would definately recommend. The sounds have a headroom that you don't expect from a rack It doesn't sound compressed or cheesy like ADA effects. MIDI mapping would be a nice addition though.

This is a followup to my earlier review, so I won't repeat what I wrote there. Some people have asked me about aspects of the Piranha that I didn't mention before.

There's always a little hum, even on clean settings. The unit seems to not be shielded well; when on, it generates RF that gets picked up by other equipment nearby. In high-gain mode, there's a lot of hum. I was asked about the clean sounds. With tweaking, it can manage a good, but not great, clean sound. My Boss GX-700 (all solid state) emulates Fender clean better than this does. The clean sounds generally sound thin. If there were more than 3 bands of EQ available, it could get a better clean sound. The builtin speaker emulator on the XLR outputs is ok, not great. The Piranha sounds too bright and thin going directly into my Fender Princeton, but in the effects loop of the GX-700 going into the Princeton it sounds great. That's the only way I found to get great singing lead sounds from it; otherwise they're on the fizzy side. The high-gain sounds aren't tight like a Peavey 5150; they're more fuzz-like. I prefer a Big Muff for those sounds, though. What the Piranha does very well is the dirty Fender Stones/Bad Co. range of sounds.

No problems after about 8 months. Haven't gigged with it much, though, but it's built very sturdily. No wall-wart, there's a builtin power supply.

Quite helpful on the phone.

Still probably one of the best MIDI tube preamps around. I haven't heard Digitech's new 2112; I don't like the 2101. I'd like to compare it to the SansAmp PSA-1 directly. The Piranha is well-built, and not cheap.