Rocktron Piranha Tube Guitar Preamp

Tons of features, very easy to use. I love that it uses knobs still instead of all buttons.

This thing sounds like no other amp I've had. I've owned tons and tons of amps, and this one is my favorite. Cleans are plenty good, classic distortion sound is awesome, and covers heavy heavy distortion with ease. I've heard that a 12AT7 in V1 will sweeten the clean channel, so I'll try that soon. The fact that it is so versatile, and covers so many sounds lands this one a 10.

I haven't had any issues at all with it, seems to be built like a tank. I play without a backup all the time (even though I have two piranha's haha).

Haven't dealt with them yet. Although I hear they are good.

I play everything from classic rock to metal, and this preamp delivers. I've had a ton of amps to compare it against, and not only does it sound better, it also is MIDI, so no contest there. Please use it with a good tube power amp!

I am no MIDI expert, yet I can find patches, edit, and store with no difficulty whatsoever. The Piranha has a great interface, and I love that it uses knobs, and clearly shows the value for whatever field you are editing, as well as the number for the preset.
The manual was good, focusing more on the features and the use of the preamp rather than how to find certain tones.

I hope this doesn't sound too 'glowing' but this preamp is amazing. I have owned a grip load of tube amps over the years, and this little unit just continues to impress me. From Mark IV's to vintage SUNN's and everything in between I've owned at some point.
The Piranha sounds great no matter what genre (for me classic rock to metal mostly) and the mid freq control is very cool- opens up a ton of different sounds. The two distortion modes are great, I was shocked at how well the classic distortion sounded.
The clean channel is not the best I've ever head, but it is certainly miles from the worst and plenty capable.

My current setup with the Piranha consists of: Mesa/Boogie 20/20, Piranha, Furman conditioner, BBE 462i (which the Piranha doesn't even need), Gibson Les Paul classic with SD pickups, pedal board (535Q, whammy, EB volume pedal, barber tone press, EH electric mistress, BOSS DD-20 TU-2 and NS-2, MXR 10 band EQ, and a RRPG 8 Looper). I'll probably sell the MXR as I don't really need it with the Piranha now.
I run all of this into custom built detuned cabinets.

Seems to be extremely well built. Solid, quality parts. I don't think I'll encounter any problems with it. I'd gig without a backup.

I haven't had to deal with Rocktron at all. Which is the best customer support- one that you don't need.

For my tastes and playing style (classic rock to metal) this fits perfectly. I've been playing for about 12 years now, and have gone through many many amps, guitars, speakers, pickups, pedals, etc etc. I love this Rocktron and am very glad that I found it. Now my rack is small, light and lethal. I wish it would cool my beer or wash my car, but it does plenty.

Very easy to use. See other reviews.

hands down the best preamp I've ever used and I've used a lot of them: Ada, mesa boogie, Marshall, etc. I use the rocktron with a furman pq3, rocktron intellifex xl, and a retro-sonic stereo chorus. I frontload this into a '73 100 watt Marshall. My speakers argenz-benz g-flex. I run the Marshall at about 4 to open up the harmonic structure and dynamics of the marshall and control the overall volume with the piranha. I use a midimate to switch everything out. The preamp tubes in the Marshall are Ei ecc83 and for the rocktron I use tung sol 12ax7 for both tubes. Contrary to alot of reviews you can get any clean sound you want all you have to do is keep the volume of the presets low on your distortion low (below10) this will give more than adequate headroom for your clean settings. The high gain aspects of this preamp in are unmatched in my opinion both in dynamics and harmonic content. The furman pq-3 really help though to add low end and have better control of midrange scoop.

Built like a tank. Instant patch switching with absolutely no latency. I've used this preamp for 10 years with know issues whatsoever. You don't need a backup.

Jim is a great guy and is more than willing address any concerns you have.

10

Just a quick addition to my review (huge thank you to Thales from Gammoth for reminded me). I found the cause and solution of the crackling noises by accident. Well, the noise (when palm-muting, crackling like when stepping in the broken glass) was caused by the DiMarzio EVO 2 pickup. I've swapped it for active EMG 81 and the noise is gone absolutely.

Well, it has MIDI (caution - MIDI can be used only for switching patches, no control changes as I've read somewhere), few buttons, 99 memories for patches, clean/distorted/more distorted sound - nothing complicated really. That's good. Manual is quite good too.

Now this is a very complicated question with Piranha. I experimented a lot with settings and especially with tubes, because the preamp was rather noisy and produced strange crackling while palm muting. Now I'm almost satisfied, though some noise still remains. I found as the best this combination of tubes: clean tube (marked TB1 on a cirquit board) - Marshall 12AT7 (12AT7 turned out to be much better for the clean sound than 12AX7); dirty tube (TB2) - Tung Sol 12AX7 (very powerful and rich sound, low noise). And carefully with settings. I play kinda thrash metal and use modern (more distorted) sound with gain never over 50. The sound is really brutal and pushing. Overall the sound is great and aggressive, just the noise spoils it a little, though when the whole band plays, it's not audible at all.
My rig is: Focus JCK with DiMarzio EVO II pickup or Aria MAC 7 with DiMarzio PAF 7 -> AKG GuitarBug -> AKG WMS 40 receiver -> Rocktron Piranha -> Boss VF1 (in the Piranha loop) -> Marshall 9200 tube poweramp -> Mastersound 4??12 box.

10 with no doubt. Built like battleship.

No doubt here too, Jim Chowning from Rocktron is excellent guy, experienced, very friendly and helpful.

Overall this is an excellent piece of equipment. I really don't undestand, why Rocktron discontinued it or why they don't produce something similar. It's really very very flexible, you can dial up any tone you wish - from sweet cleans (with 12AT7) over slightly distorted blues to absolute massacre. Only flaw is the noise in heavy distorted sound. If you'd find the way to get rid of it, please drop me an e-mail.

i use this preamp live and in the studio. the piranha has a wide range of useful sounds but the bottom end is too loose for speed metal. for speed metal you need an Engl E530. for everything else this preamp kills! i have tried the preamp with a variety of guitars and cabinets and i am amazed by the great tone i can dial in (was rockron on crack when they stopped making this unit?) i am able to get a dream theatre to fender twin clean, with a vox ac30 to blackface grit, to full out marshall meets booogie distortion and beyond. you can get many great tones if you just use your ears and stop paying attention to the knobs and settings. the tone circuits are active, meaning if you dial up your favorite old marshall tone settings it may sound like crap. use little changes in tone controls. i also have the peavey tubefex preamp and the difference is that the rocktron has much more highs and lows available. i can get the peavey sound by dialing down the highs, so don't let the other review scare you off.

midi switchable analog tube preamp with built in hush.

built like a brick! 7 years with no backup and no problems ever.

rocktron is one of the best when it comes to customer support. they have mailed me parts for other fx on the road at no charge. they supplied schematics and tech support for free. how many other companies will help you troubleshoot and repair your own gear on the road?

for the money, it can't be beat. no modeling can touch this reality. if you have money to burn, buy a triaxis. if you just need a real solid quiet tone machine, this is it.

I'll give a short list of features: 1U rackmount, two 12AX7 preamp tubes, MIDI with 100 presets, front and back inputs, XLR simulated outs as well as regular jack lineouts, easy to use frontpanel knobs and pushbuttons for storing presets.

Others have mentioned the easy-to-use front panel buttons. I agree with them - this unit is a breeze to use. Good sounds can be dialed in quickly, and saved with a few presses of buttons. The parametric mid is simple to use, just turn the knobs. Much better than pushbuttons.

Only minor drawback is that the pushbuttons seems to be either too sensitive or sometimes don't react. Anyway, these can be replaced, and I just might...

The manual is simple and straightforward, and tells you all you need to know.

Am using an Ibanez RG-350EX tuned drop-C into the piranha, followed by a poweramp that I designed and built myself (125W solidstate), into a Marshall 1922 with two Jensen C12N 12" speakers.

There's very little noise even on high gain, and what is there is quickly removed with the HUSH controls.

I have replaced the chinese (Audio Glassic) tubes with Sovtek 12AX7LP's, and sometimes I run a GE 12AT7 in the first socket.

The Sovteks tightened the whole thing up a bit, turning a good preamp into a great one. The clean sounds very good, and is easily brought to a slight breakup when the gain is turned up. The distortion button brings out the marshall-ish distortion sounds, and another push brings out screams of higain. Forget the guys who says it can't reach mesa-levels or play clean good - this one does both those very well. They can't possibly have messed around with the controls more than a few seconds. Although it *does* sound better with better tubes than the stock ones.

I did manage to get it to go a bit microphonic with high gains and mid, plus maxed treble with the 12AT7 in the preamp. Has not been a problem since I reverted to 12AX7's in both sockets. Rather odd, the AT7 having less gain. Then again, it does not look as solidly built.

All in all a great versatile preamp. Pity they discontinued it.

Built to last, no doubt about it. I would actually gig without a backup, but I would bring spare tubes ;) But in a box like this, preamp tubes will last as long as is needed I reckon. Weird things sometimes happen, though.

No dealings with Rocktron.

I play mostly droptuned metal, and the piranha does great. The cleans and crunch are very good too. I've been playing for three years, and I certainly don't have the experience with the gear many others have, but I do have ears, and an extensive amount of experience with audio and electronics, and not least I know what kind of sounds I like ;)

If it were stolen, I'd be very upset... and I'd certainly try to get a replacement.

The best "feature" beside the sound quality is the simplicity of dialing in sounds and storing them for future use. The XLR simulated outputs are nice too, but doubling them with simpler jacks for gear that takes singleended signals would be better.

I considered a Marshall JMP-1 and a Mesa Studio too, the former was considered to be a one-trick pony my many, and is not as easy to use. The latter is useless when presets are needed. The Piranha beats both for my needs.

At the price I paid, it's a solid 9.

Even though this is a midi rackmount preamp it is still super-easy to edit and find your tone given that the knobs and eight front panel buttons are right there in front of you. Unlike Mesa's Triaxis with its multiple arrows and other midi preamps where you have multiple buttons and edit switches, this thing is a breeze to use. Sure, its not as simple as a combo or head, but I give it a ten when comparing apples to apples.

Currently I use this with a Mesa 20/20 stereo power amp and a Rocktron Replifex. I purchased one of those little Crate Power Blocks so I can run both through headphones so I don't piss off the wife. I've also got a B-52 4 X 12 cab (an absolute steal at their price point) and Celestion Vintage 30 loaded ADA 2 X 12 cabs for running stereo.
The Piranha is extremely versatile. Great vintage and modern distortion tones can be had all the way to crystal clean. I can pretty much nail the Van Halen tone from the first album running it through my Rocktron Replifex to add the reverb, phasing, and flanging found on the first album. When I'm using the headphones, I use the Replifex's speaker simulator. (The Replifex is also an awesome piece of gear.)
Comparing this to my Rivera I'd say this unit has a more bit more grit to it, and more gain. The Rivera has somewhat of an audiophile quality smooth distortion to it. Not at all bad, just different. The Piranha doesn't quite cop the saturation of say a Dual Rectifier, but that's not the tone I'm after, given that I'm pretty sick of hearing it on the radio all the time. I like the vintage 80's and 90's Marshall tones. I've played through the DSL and TSL stuff and am pretty disappointed with them. Some sound OK, and others just plain horrible. The variety of quality from one piece to another, along with their price tag just keeps steering me away from even thinking about buying one.
Overall I have to give the Piranha a ten in terms of tone. I've played through Bogner's, Marshall's, Rivera's, Mesa's, Soldano's, Matchless, own both a Rivera M-60 head and an original '65 Fender Deluxe Reverb, and this piece is quality gear with the best of them at a bargain basement price.
If your after thin transister sounding tone like Tullio below, go buy the Peavey he thinks blows this away. More power to him. If you want an extremely versatile tube preamp, and are willing to spend a little extra time getting used to the mid frequency knobs, (which really expand the tone shaping capability of this unit) you can get some awesome tones from the Piranha. I still can't understand why they quit making this unit, as its probably one of the best products they ever had.

I bought the unit used, so it's been around awhile. No problems. I've taken the top off to change the tubes (NOS Chinese 12AX7's) and it looks extremely well built. Would I gig it without a backup? I wouldn't gig with anything without a backup, too many things can happen regardless of what your using. I saw a guy blow his "handwired military grade build" Matchless. Regardless of how much the thing costs, something can always happen to even the best gear.

I called Rocktron's tech guy. I didn't call about the Piranha, it was about a Chameleon I purchased off Ebay which the idiot seller packed like he was shipping a piece of wood and the LCD display went out on it due to it bouncing around in the UPS truck. Overall, I give them a five simply because he told me that I couldn't get the display from anyone else except them, which turned out to be false as I bought it straight from the manufacturer.

Overall, I give this unit a ten. I've played through alot of expensive gear over the twenty plus years I've been playing, and the Piranha definitely holds its own with the best of them at a bargain basement price. My Rivera pretty much sits in the closet now, as well as the Deluxe Reverb. I'm too stubborn to get rid of them, especially the Fender given its collectibility.
I like just about all kinds of rock and blues, and I can get any tone I want out of this thing. It definitely blows all of the "modelling" stuff out of the water in terms of tone.
If it was stolen, I'd probably wind up trying to pick up another, although they are getting pretty hard to come by now. I'm also pretty much a "gear head" constantly checking different stuff out, and I haven't found anything yet that would cause me to get rid of this preamp, so I'm sure I'd be pretty pissed if I had to go hunting down another one.

In contrast to the last review by dear, dear Tullio who "thanks god" sold his unit, this is a fine preamp. Both clean and drive sounds are pretty robust and about the last thing I'd describe the overdrive as sounding like would be a cheap fuzz box. I'd have to conclude that his preamp was not working properly. Or perhaps he's not working properly. Take your pick. In any event, you can easily get JCM 800 or 900 levels of crunch. I did find that I had to dial back both the Treble and Middle pots a bit but they have dials, after all, and so, this seems easy enough.

I believe the model I have was built in about 1998. I won't bore you with any of the details of operation of the unit, of which you've doubtlessly read time and again.

Very nicely built, with clean, clean outlay of circuitry and a toroidal transformer, for goodness sakes. You won't find that in the ADA MP-1, I would point out.

I contacted Rocktron about some component values on the tube board and they got back to me promptly the first go round. The second question I had for them was not answered, however, though my question turned out to be superfluous.

Really a great preamp but you have to be in the mood for MIDI switching of channels. Personally, I don't know why that should be so big a deal but, admittedly, it's not a simple range of two or three channels.

This is an AWESOME pile of junk. Fuzzy, buzzy, shitty sounding tube preamp. If you want a crappy distorsion that sounds like a dying cat, your choice is right. Distorsions may be thick but they are also really fuzzy, muddy and sloppy. It seems that you are playin' with an old fuzzy overdrive pedal -_-' I'm using 2 electro harmonix tubes so this overpriced piece of shit can't be so bad sounding because of tubes... Clean channel is nice but the volume is really low. Thanks god I sold it!

Midi programmable, continuous controller option, Fx loop, direct outputs with speaker simulation and two 12ax7 tubes. Really easy to use... just turn the knobs, choose if your patch is goin' to be clean or distorted (you can choose between modern distorsion and vintage distorsion) and here we go: let's start playing.

Very sturdy, reliable. I'll put a 9 because I don't wanna give a 10 to this piece of crap.

No idea.

This unit sucks. Don't buy it, after a while you'll desire to trash it. It's a waste of money. Go instead on a peavey tubefex (this one is REAL TUBE PREAMP, a nice rival of Mesa Boogie's products) or on ada (mp1 and mp2) if you don't want to pay more than 300 or 350$.

It's a great preamp. I use it in the return of a TSL100 Marshall head, with a Gmajor in line, and it kicks major butt !!! Cool clean tones ( very john petrucci on Images and words if you know how to tweak ), the classic distortion is really great and the modern is almost too heavy so I don't go all the way with the gain...Actually the classic mode crancked to max gain is all I need and more. THe cool thing is the parametric mids EQ, with this feature and if you know how to use the treble settings, you can dial any type of tone, very sharp or mellow and sustaining...anything is in there for the tweaking guitar player...sounds really between a marshall and a boogie if you look hard enough...

Old tube preamp by rocktron, but to me at least, the best they ever made. 3 channels, all tube, midi, loop w/level, XLR direct out.

It's probably 10 years old and works like a charm...'nuff said

A really cool unit, it's kind of forgotten now by most people, but it's in my rack and not going anywhere. If rocktron reissues it, I'm on the line of customers

This unit is very east to use. The knobs are sturdy, and have a definite feel as each parameter is edited. The light-up buttons tell you what's on, and there are two simple number displays.

There's a global setting button which allows you to adjust a parameter for all the patches, though the price is having to change them all back to different values. There are also separate input and output knobs, which is handy where you are simply plugging into a different output, or using a louder guitar.


The EQ is limited, but it gets it right where it does work - sensibly there is a mid frequency control as well as a cut/boost. These are the frequencies that make or break a guitar sound, and there is lots of room for adjustment.

Midi control works fine. You can really only change patches, but given you can store 99 of them, you should be able to set up all the individual parameters you want anyway.

You need three different screwdrivers to get into and replace the valves, but you shouldn't need to do this often.

There is a wealth of outputs and inputs.The effects loop has a midi-programmable button. meaning you can put an effects unit in the loop, and program it in.

With some new valves, this sounded excellent - you get an excellent marshally drive, that doesn't sound so good at extremely high gains, or have cleans with a lot of presence.

You can't quite get full modern metal, or classic fuzz, but the tone of the unit is very good - it won't do everything, but what it does, does well.

The clean channel gives the warmest,bluesiest distortion, while the "distort and even-more-distorted" settings provide a nice crisp, full sound.

As each valve is for a separate channel, you can opt for a different tube to give the clean channel more headroom.

It's a very quiet unit, and the hush noise gate (good as any other I've heard) is not often neccessary.

Finally, it's worth saying that whether it was into computer, or solid state and valve amps, the Piranha is consistent and sounds good.

This thing is built of very sturdy metal, and the rackmount wings a reinforced, so they won't bend or snap off. As said earlier, the knobs are great, smooth.

THe unit I have is a few years old, but it has none of the signs of age - bad input sockets, scratchy pots etc.

Rocktron answered both my questions quickly, telling me how to indentify the clean tube, for example. Considering this product is discontinued, and I bought second hand, they were excellent.

I play all sorts of music, and I think this is one of the best distortion units I've used. It sounds genuinely 'valve-y', and I really haven't found myself wanting for much.

Well, a lot of sounds, a lot to controls.. hm.. had some difficulties to find my BRUTAL DEATHMETAL sound

the record out is shit...
the main sound is, if very distorted and with a lot of gain very hissi.. but if you took the piranha in front of a marshall or boogie the piranha is very sadistic..:) he beats other fx in any way.. IF YOU LIKE BRUTAL DISTORTION, and play extreeeem metal, it's the best choice.

hm, bought it secondhand, and after 4 month it went away.. had to change the tubes..

very fast. i mailed to jim from rocktron and yes:) believe it or not he sent me next day all the plans for the piranha by fax.

Get this bitch if you play metal.. no other unit gives you such fat sound.. but remember to use a tubeamp..

This is the best sounding preamp on the market!!I just don't understand why Rocktron decided to take it out of production??!Nothing comes close to this thing.Nice cleans(well it's not a Roland Jazzchorus).If you add gain to the clean channel you can go from a bluesy crunch to a pretty nice Brown-Sound.
The distortion is offering two different modes.The first one is a "classic" distortion channel with a lot of gain and great sustain!Just think a hot-rodded jcm800 or 5150.The modern distortion adds even more gain and natural compression(TUBE-compression!!!) and sounds more agressive.You can have the Rectifier distortion with a very tight bottom end,backed mids and with even more gain(yes!!)but without losing clarity an definition(like it's the case with the Rectos).No matter wich channel you use,this thing sings!I use the Piranha with Ibanez Jem guitars,tc electronic gmajor and Rocktron Velocity 300.I owned: Marshall hot-rodded jcm 800,dsl 100,Laney vhr100 and tt100h,Line 6 Pod xt pro,Ada mp1 three tube mod(a mess of a preamp!!)and a x-88.The Piranha is the best one,because it has three very good channels and not only one.You don't have to compromise( like i used to do with the jcm800:great crunch/distortion but no clean channel,same thing with the x-88).Just go for it!No matter what sounds you need,they are here!

Very versatile preamp.Has evrything you might need.Very cool feature is the control for the mid band information.If you try tweaking it a bit,you can produce any sound you need.The built in Hush noisereduction works great,although the amp is very quiet!midi controlable plus a very good effects loop.

Never had a problem with Rocktron gear!

No idea.

I play a couple of different bands an styles.From jazz to pop to classic,heavy rock and the piranha can do it all.Just take your time to tweak and you'll find your voice!

I have 2 guitars hand-made with humbuckers Gibson 500T each one. Also the same wood of the gibson guitars. I use the distortion of the Piranha and the Hush, i think it, the best noise gate in the world. I use the Behringer Virtualizer PRO 2024DSP only for FX, in a power amp of a 5150 head. Marshall cabs. The sound is simply FANTASTIC. So Hi gain, dirty, heavy, and aggressive sound. Just like Nevermore, Pantera, Machine Head guitar sound. I used a Jmp-1 for this, but when i found a Piranha to buy, i didn't think about twice. I use a Behringer FCB1010 to control both racks, no problem to do that.

i have known this preamp since 2001, when i got onde from the studio to try the sound and record my album. Great, i just fell in love! really good. I used to use the JMP-1 and last week i got a Piranha(i was searching on the guitarshops, but didn't find to buy). I didn't use all of the sounds of it, but i think that it's better for heavy sounds. Metal bands for example. Its drive is powerfull! But i think that you can get some more sounds. I liked the clean sound, and the crunch(classic) i don't use to use a lot, so, i don't know comment about. but i think that it's the best Midi preamp that you can buy.

I use this with a custom built guitar with Lace Drop&Gain pickups (excellent pickups!!), a behringer 2024P Virtualiser pro effects, Marshall 8008 power amp, Behringer BG412S stereo cab and a vintage Guyatone reverb pedal...

For the review I'll leave the effects out of it, after all it's the pirahna that matter isnt it? I've had this thing for about 6 months or so now, and although it sounded shit loads better than my previous amp (Hughes & Kettner Vortex - great amp but distortion is a little weak and flat) I never thought it was anything special. I fiddled with the settings for ages but whenever I turned it up loud it just seemed to get muddy! Then I replaced the valves and OH MY GOD!!!! IT'S ALIVE!!!!! this thing is getting on a bit now - probably over 10 years old and the valves had never been replaced as far as I could tell! I got a pair of drive tested 7025 high grade valves (7025 = 12AX7 with more gain, more volume and less noise) from www.watfordvalves.com and the difference is incredible. I can't emphasize enough how much better and clearer it sounds! I used to be a solid state nutter - hated valves cos they seem so fragile compared to a microchip - but in the end I surrendered to the sound.

The built in hush feature is superb - i have a boss NS2 noise supressor and it's just as good if not better. you can use it to just clean up a bit or turn it up and it's practically a compressor!

As has been said on other reviews of this item, the distortion can be brutal, but can also be tamed. It takes about 4 seconds to find that horrible marshall mid-high sound ala Queen (a superb band and a sound that fitted the music perfectly don't get me wrong, but not my type of sound) and another 4 seconds to find scooped-mid moshness of MuDvAyNe, Tool etc.

Contrary to the majority of people's opinions I quite like the clean channel. It doesn't have a lot of headroom but it suits me perfectly, cos I like the early break-up sounds like Stevie Ray Vaughan and hendrix. Add some reverb (courtesy of Guyatone) and it's just beautiful...

For the money this thing can't be beaten! This can do all the sounds of other popular preamps like JMP-1 and everything else that it can't! The variety of sounds is great, partly due to the EXTREME variances of the controls (a little goes a long long way, so tinker with caution)

The sound through the direct outputs is also incredible for recording...

See reviews below for features...

Built like a brick shithouse, I've dropped it a number of times and it's fine. Like I said earlier it sounded average until I replaced the valves so don't neglect it!

Never spoken to customer support, havent needed to. I even managed to replace the valves myself! (smug grin)

Been playing for over 7 years and played loads of equipment and if it was lost I'd probably buy another one, unless i could afford a Brunetti head or something! In my opinion the best rack preamp you can get for heavy distortion.

Very easy to use - and its got real knobs instead of Windows-like menues and +/- buttons. Manual is rather concise but informative. MIDI switching works perfectly - no delays between patches, although it is such an old unit. I mean it is amazing that there are still products and manufacturers who can't sort that out. Another great feature is the really versatile EQ and the global editing function. Two thumbs up for that.

Sound is great, especially for the price - beautiful tight bottom end, brilliant highs and really flexible mids. LOADs of gain - the gain goes to 70, the EQ controls range from -15 to +15, enough said. About a year or so ago I decided to make my setup more compact and got rid of everything except the Piranha. Now I have a five space rack and a 2*12 Celestion-equipped cabinet. I have two Ibanez RG 550s with DiMarzios and a Fenix Mona Lisa (great guitar, get one if you can). I plug into a Boss Gt-6 which is looped to the Piranha. Outputs go into a BBE Maximizer (which I really don't need much), the whole thing gets amplified by an Engl 2*20 Poweramp, the left speaker output passes through a Palmer PDI 04 (to provide a compensated output to the PA) and meets the right channel at the cabinet's input. This setup let's you get ANY tone you can imagine and maybe some that you can't. The reason I went with a GT-6 and not say a G-Major is that the GT-6 is the only unit that allows me to have an EQ before the Piranha AND after it. Other wise the GT is nothing to write home about, but it is a real sturdy MIDI controller for the Piranha and also functions as a backup unit in case a tube blows in my power amp or the Piranha, which has never happened. I can't stress the benefits of an EQ before the preamp - try it for yourself. It is so useful that one can even get a convincing blues sound out of the Piranha, which is otherwise quite hard if you insist on having two 12AX7s. Another thing to mention is that the Piranha (at least my one) is very quiet, I hardly use the Hush on any setting, but that might be due to the proper shielding of all my guitars plus quality pickups.

It is built like a tank, solid metal knobs and internal power supply, just remember to change tubes from time to time, and don't use NOS, military or No Name Crap.

Never dealt with them, and I don't plan to do so either.

I have been playing for 13 years now and have been through a lot of equipment until I finally realised that tubes are tubes and MIDI is MIDI. My personal opinion is that although it is nice to have tubes in the preamp because of their dynamic response, it is not crucial to having a good tone. What is important is how the preamp is voiced. The JMP has tubes and sounds crappy, the SansAmp PSA doesnt have tubes and sounds very good. The Piranha does both have tubes and sound brilliant. What is very important to having a good tone is a good tube power amp. So please stop buying the Valvestate garbage. If you can't do away without FETs - find a used Roland Bolt combo or an old Musicman - they have it the right way: solid state preamp, tube power amp. And no matter how flexible an amp/preamp is, without MIDI one can never use it to its full potential in a band situation, unless you play polka. If you are into rock/metal, but feel like playing some funk, ska , watever on one of those days, the Piranha is one of the few affordable solutions. Maybe the TriAxis is better and even more flexible, but the bang for the buck factor speaks deffinitely for the Piranha. It is really a shame that it is no longer in production. Unfortunately Rack gear is getting kinda hard to get in the age of "tube modellin technology, dude" and plastic gismos that will make you sound like "insert favourite artist here" for 50 bucks and can also function as a toaster. Don't get me wrong, modelling has really come a long way, and maybe one day tubes will become obsolete, but they were also supposed to vanish when solid state came up, which however didn't happen. Another thing that beats me is that there are so few noted pros that use this preamp, but (fortunately) marketing doesn't seem to be Rocktron's thing. What I would like to see is a Piranha version 2 with one more channel and a larger display.

I use my Piranha in combination with a Marshall 9100 (tuned), a rack-
mount e.q., a T.C. electronics G-force, two 4 by 12's and a Ibanez RG 7620 with Tone Zone picks (these are awesome!!) Use a little compression and a little gate, open the low-end (like around 80-200 hertz, give a midrange a tweak (1,2 kH) down it around 6-8 kH, tune the guitar down
by a half and strike a chord... Like you got hit by a great, mean, angry truck!! It's beyond brutal

I think everyone knows the features by now...
Kickass sound (not clean but who cares..) easy to use and a good fx
loop. Check the Hush, it's perfect!!

Never had a problem with it, and I use it for six years now...

I never want another amp... played a Mesa and this just sounds better

This couldn't be simpler - just turn the knobs like you would on any standard combo amp. There is a very shallow learning curve to get used to the 'save preset' procedure but that takes all of 30 seconds. The fact that you can tweak sounds on stage to suit immediate requirements without affecting the preset is fantastically useful - any gigging guitarists out there know how often you need to tweak on stage, pay attention Mesa Boogie the triaxis cannot compete with this. This could be a little easier to use if it had the option to enter text titles for the presets, but this is a minor concern

I use this with a range of single coil, humbucker and piezo guitars, it is flexible enough to cope with all of them. Like other reviewers, I have set up my clean sounds first and then the OD/Dist sounds so had no problems with level, although levels on the heavily driven sounds are down at 6 to 9 which doesn't leave much room for fine tuning. I run this into a Rivera TBR-3 (absolutely the best rack valve power amp ever made - limited only by size at 4 rack units and weight about 50 pounds), via a Rocktron Intellipitch and Xpression. This plays through stereo Celestion classic lead 80 speakers in custom cabs. I can dial in quite a lot of what I want with this setup, but would like to have access to pre EQ (I originally used a Voodu Valve). The preamp does produce a little background noise but this is tamed by the Hush system. Overall I can't really fault the range of sounds, it is the best preamp I have owned (and I have owned a few), it doesn't produce everything I want - really high gain sounds for instance - but I play in a covers band and it produces all the sounds I need for a set list spanning 5 decades (how many other products can do that well?)

This is built like a tank, It has already seen 10 to 15 years service and will probably see me out!! I have owned many Rocktron products and am slightly concerned that unless they lower their standards they will kill themselves off - the kit never dies (unlike other manufacturers I could name). Based on my experience with Rocktron equipment I don't anticipate that I will need to buy a backup, but if it was stolen/destroyed I would buy another one at the drop of a hat!

I have made use of customer support for questions, never for a breakdown, and they have responded within 24 hours with helpful, friendly answers - absolutely top marks!

I play just about anything that goes (so long as it isn't too hard!) and this is simply a great piece of kit. This has a place in my 'dream setup'; I used to flip through magazines and catalogues looking for the ultimate setup and this is one bit of kit that meets all my expectations. If I redesigned this today I would only make three changes - give me a text display to put preset titles on, give me a bit more gain (I think you always want more than you have) and make the fascia purple!

Here is where this pre really excels ! It is extremely good at extreme distortion maintaining clarity, focus (mid) and low end at the same time (Miles better than Peavey Rockmaster.) The Hush-noise red. works great when gain reaches insane levels. For really bad-ass sounds you will have to use a godd pealboard (i.e Boss GT-6 or similar) in front. Then you are set !!! Difficult to get really good cleans at high levels without having to increase level a lot on power amps. OK, the distortion is very BRUTAL !

Rocktron Piranha Pre from the mid `90-s. Plays 70`s HardRock and 90`s Metal mostly. Easy to get a great sound fast after power on, mainly thanks to great EQ section. Utilizes two 12AX7 tubes which is good for the harmonic structure of tones, making the treble spectrum less brittle when extremely distorted. Miss one or two more effect loops. Could be better on the cleans. Would probably help to insert a 12AT7 or 12AU7, but then again, the killer distortion would be lost. Stereo and wet/dry mix is great.

Great. Solid metal housing. Real Printboard inside. Electronics looks top notch. Solid knobs.

To kill this unit you must probably hire someone to help and spend some money on the tools necessary!

Not been in touch with them

Been playing 13 years. Use it along with Mesa SimulClass 395 and/or Mesa SimulClass 295. This combination totally fullfill my metal needs. It can easy push a total of 16 (sixteen) 4x12 cabs. With an OK pedalbord in front + graphic EQ you can accidentaly cripple people seriously with this setup. For studio cleans: THD Bivalve and Lex LXP15 mkII.

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...

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.

This unit is VERY easy to use. I am, and always have been, a fan of knobs, and this one makes it really simple. And to boot, the settings are storable!! There's nothing more frustrating than trying to get that -just right- tone and end up running back and forth between menus on other units I've tried or owned.

I love the sound quality of the Piranha. I read the other reviews here, and tried one and bought it (used) based on them. Most were on the spot, especially the positive ones. I highly recommend the Piranha.

I am using this unit to do direct recording. For that it is a little much on the high end (what isn't), so I use an amp/speaker simulator (the POD on some sounds, and Korg A1 on others) in addition to the speaker simulator available from the balanced output. Really warm tubey sounds abound then.

The only slight drawback was I couldn't get a really fat sound. Come on, you can't get everything in one box though, now can you??! Medium fat and down is great. All I had to do was put a Marshall Gov'nor + before the Piranha and voila, tone fat enough to drive a car on. This is the only thing preventing me from giving it a 10.

So far so good. At this point in time, I don't gig out, so this shouldn't be a problem

I really like the Piranha. If it were stolen or lost, I would get another in a heartbeat, or faster if possible. I tried a number of other units, such as the ADA MP-1,MP-2, Rocktron Ganiac, Peavy Rockmasters, and Marshall JMP-1. This had them beat, hands down.

What do I like about it? The ease of use (read KNOBS), the EQ is great-you can set the midpoint of the cut/boost between about 500 hz to 4400 hz, which gives you considerable control over the tone, and the warm sounds you can get from this unit. I looked long and hard for a unit such as this.

I am using a few different guitars. Mostly my Ibanex USRG30 with DiMarzio Pickups (tone zone - bridge/paf pro - neck).
The Piranha tends to be noisy and the hush circuitry although a good feature tends to let off with an airy noise which I find to be quite annoying. The Piranha tends to sound it's best on Cleans or Super High Gain. It doesn't cover much of the in between range.

This preamp is what I consider to be a mid level pre. It has 2 12AX7 Pre tubes. It is very easy to use and sounds decent, though I am using it in conjunction with a Mesa 50/50 which provides about 75% of the tone.

The Piranha has never let me down as far as needing maintenance. It's worked well 100% of the time that I have used it, whether it be just practicing or using it for gigs.

I have never had the need to contact Rocktron.

As I said before. This preamp is good, but what I would consider mid level. I have played the Marshall JMP, both ADA pre's, a few Peavey Preamps, and it beats all of them, but the Mesa Boogie TriAxis better suits my needs and discriminating ears.

Like the other reviews here have said over and over again-this unit is a breeze to figure out. Copying presets to other presets is a bit cryptic, but not a big problem once you read the manual. Fiddling with the MIDI setup might get a bit dicey, but there's really no need to do that anyway. Just follow the 'Keep it Simple, Stupid' rule of thumb and you'll have no problems.

Well, make it about an 8.999999..., and the reason for that is that it has just the slightest bit of high-end sizzle with a mildly distorted patch. Keep in mind that a) I'm being VERY nit-picky about the tone, and b) I've only had this thing for a little while and haven't had the time to find the 'secret tweak' yet.
All in all, this thing rules across the board, tone-wise. God knows that it's light-years ahead of the totally worthless MP2 that I was playing (check out my review of THAT particular piece of crap-it'll be the most scathing one).
One thing that I have noticed is that this thing really starts to shine in higher-volume situations, i.e. playing in a band situation, rather than in the 'sitting by yourself at nursing-home volume' situation. I've found that in the band setting, I need less gain for the distortion/lead stuff than when I'm alone. Also, try to tweak this thing on the fly when you are in a band situation in order to get the best live tone. Since tweaking is so easy to do with this thing, it makes doing that easy. I'm currently playing opposite someone with a Boogie Mark III, so I have that tone to compare with. It comes very close, especially on the clean stuff.
Speaking of the clean vs. dirty issue that has been addressed in earlier reviews, I'm actually getting a *better* clean tone than a dirty one right now. Like I said, I haven't had a real chance to fiddle with this thing.
One last bit-DO NOT, under any circumstances, judge this unit by the factory presets. It's way better-sounding than that. I don't know why, but that's almost always true of anything in the preamp world. Death, taxes, and crappy factory presets....

This thing seems really sturdy. I have no reason to think it unreliable. Lots of metal and not so much plastic on the thing, too. Gotta love that. So, I'll give it a 9 until it proves otherwise.

Well, I can't really speak for their customer support, as I've not had to deal with them personally, but I can recommend the support that is provided on the website, www.rocktron.com. I bought this thing used, and it came with no manual. I was fully prepared to buy one from Rocktron, so I checked the website looking for the email address. Ten minutes later, I had a .pdf printout of a full manual in my hands. None too shabby. They also have HTML and rich-text formats, if I remember correctly.

The rating choice box calls '10' a fantastic value, and the Pirahna certainly is that. I've been playing for over 15 years, and have had all kinds of gear. This preamp is about as good as it gets, and even at list, price, it's a bargain. I'd buy another one if it got stolen, but I have to admit that it'd be a lot more fun to hunt down and kill the bastard that stole it. Just kidding. I think. LOL.
My one nagging question is, why the hell did they discontinue this thing? It's too good....

This is a one space high voltage midi tube (2-12ax7) preamp. This is only a preamp, no built in effects. The unit is very easy to use. There are three modes; clean, distortion 1 (classic) and distortion 2(modern). Unlike many midi rack units, this one actually has knobs for bass, mid, mid freq, treb, level and gain. All you need to do is pick a mode, turn the appropriate knobs and hit store twice. Doesn't get much easier for rack gear. In addition the unit has a global EQ and Hush (although I don't use the Hush because I generally don't like noise gates because they cut off trailing notes). The global EQ is great for quick changes across all your presets when performing in different sounding rooms. All in all a very easy unit to use.

This unit sounds great. I play Carvin, Ibanez and Peavey Wolfgang guitars and run the Piranha through a Mesa 2:90 power amp and a Digitech 2120 (Through the loop of the Piranha, used for effects only) and out to 2 4x12 cabs. I had used a Marshall JMP1 for the past 6 years and still own that unit also. I really liked the JMP1 for the Marshall gain sound, but found the unit to be weak for clean and mild distortion tones. I've tried various other preamps over the past few years looking for a more versatile unit to replace the JMP1 with (including the Triaxis), but did not find another preamp that gave me a high gain sound I liked better than the JMP1 and was more versatile (I didn't like the gain sounds on the Triaxis as much as the Marshall). I picked up the Piranha used based on the reviews here and I'm glad I did. The Piranha is very versatile and sounds particularly good on mild distortion tones (a weak point on the JMP1). Another thing that I love about the Piranha is the dynamics of the unit. You can roll back the volume knob of the guitar and the unit cleans up very nicely (the JMP1 just became dark and muddy). The clean sounds aren't as good as a Fender or Roland JC120, but are significantly better than the JMP1. The cleans especially sound good when running single coils through it and sounds very Stratty when doing so. What surpised me the most is the gain sounds on the unit. They are superb. The unit has significantly more gain than the JMP1, and none of my presets have the gain level cranked all the way up, and it still has sustain for days. While the JMP1 had basically that one great high gain Marshall sound, the Piranha seems much more versatile even in the high gain sounds. You can get a good Marshall type tone, or a very convincing Soldano type tone or Rectifier type tone, etc. The EQ is extremely powerful, and the Mid Frequency control (allows you to chose the mid frequency to boost or cut) gives you much more flexibility and enables you to customize you sounds more than other preamps I have used. I've been using the preamp live now for about 3 months. The EQ is so powerful that it took me a number of shows before I was able to tweak all the sounds to exactly where I want them. One thing I do miss about the JMP1 is the effects loop level. The JMP1 allowed you to change the effects level for each preset. The Piranha allows you to change the effects loop level, but only for all presets. I compensate for this using dry/wet levels in my effects unit, but this is one feature I wish the Piranha had, hence a 9.

I bought my unit used several months ago. I've used it for a number of shows and it has performed flawlessly up to this point. I don't believe I've owned it long enough for an accurate rating in this category though.

Never dealt with them.

I play a mixture of modern, classic and hard rock (Creed / VH / Metallica / Rage / Limp / Aerosmith, etc) and this unit covers it all extremely well. I like this unit better than both the JMP1 (owned for 6 years) and the Triaxis (demoed and used live for 30 day trial). One unit that I haven't tried but heard great things about is the Hughes and Kettner Access, however out of all the units I have used, I personally like this the best. I found the Triaxis to be very versatile, but the gain sounds didn't suit my tastes, the JMP1 I find to have that one great Marshall high gain sound, but is not very versatile for clean and mild distortion tones (or even for other high gain sounds). For the cost that these are selling for used, this is a great choice for a dedicated tube preamp based on versatility and most importantly tone.

depends how u define easy. if u mean learning what all the knobs are for & learning midi, it's a peice of cake. but unless you're experienced in the studio, it might take someone (such as me) a long, hard while to get used to the sweepable mids and to get the exact sound u want.

the piranha goes into the effects loop of a solid state peavey (pre-transtube)

sparkly, crystalline, cleans. not a fender (can't even match the hot rod series), but it beats anything else i've tried.

this preamp's overdrives sound like it's coming from an all-tube head. fat, crunchy, full, dynamic distortion w/ complex harmonics. i still use a boss dual overdrive because sometimes u want that solid state sound.

it's great at the in between thing too.

seems like it's a sherman tank. didn't have it too long.

it took them 4 weeks to answer a question about the signal being louder when effects loop is engaged and a question about their website. by e-mail.

but at least they answered.

because tone is everything.

This thing can copy "almost" any sound. I've heard problems with the clean but to be honest you have to follow the advice of the guys below. Basically set up your clean sounds first and then your OD sounds. This is the same principle you need with the Chameleon. The clean tones will give you a close twin/boogie clean but not quite a Hiwatt. But hey what else but a Hiwatt will!! The OD will give you anything, just play with the thing until you are happy.
I've been playing for years (17 or so) and have Marshall Park hiwatt and orange amps in the vintage arena. I also have had boogie carvin fender peavey marshall in newer kit. I'm sure that the valves add that valve tone pretty well and i'm happy to gig with this instead of carrying my heads around.

See below

Never had a problem with any rocktron kit

I've always had swift response to questions though never had to deal with a repair

Like i said set up your cleans first and then you can balance out your switching between each patch.
I use to use the chameleon but got sick of editing my patches in a live situation. This thing is no problem and although it doesn't sound quite as full as the chameleon (which i think is the best processor on the market) it is very close.
I'd buy another if this got stolen.
I'm pretty picky about my sound and as I have a number of vintage amps and have had a number of newer models it has alot to live up to. It eats the digitech stuff, keeps up with the tri axis and at used prices of $300-400 you can't go wrong

Just about as easy as tweaking an amp's settings...
I didn't have the user's manual and, frankly, it isn't necessary for programming that beast.
The only trouble was setting the MIDI channel, since those dip-switches aren't excatly user-friendly.

My axe is a Fender Classic Floyd Rose Strat loaded with EMG pickups, and I'm using it with a Mashall 8008 power amp (I know it sucks, but I'm willing to replace it soon for a Boogie 50/50) and 1922 cab (sucks too, to be replaced by 2 Boogie 1x12's), plus an Alesis Quadraverb GT (sucks also! to be replaced too...) and it is kickin' ass!
I'm in a cover band playing funk, rock, jazz and soul, so I needed a preamp that is very versatile, offering both hi-gain lead tones and crystal-like clean sounds, and the Piranha has it all! The tubes are especially efficient, offering that touch of dirt that helps make clean sounds sparkle, and that gives those singing lead tones I was looking for (sounds very american, which doesn't bother me)...
Moreover, I have used its direct XLR outputs, and got a monitor sound that was better than the one I had through my power amp and cab. No comment...

I've been gigging quite a couple of times using this unit and never ever had a problem... The Piranha is bullet-proof. Period.

I sent them a mail requiring support on the MIDI programming of my Piranha, and got an answer under 24 hours. It was really nice (especially compared to some other companies) and really helpful. These guys rule !!!

The Piranha preamp is by far the best unit in that range of price. His true competitors (Boogie Triaxis, Soldano X99,...) are by far more expensive (who said unaffordable???!), so I think it's the best bargain possible...
The only drawback is the really weak MIDI part... I need to modify the MIDI mapping and probably will have to start some heavy editing on my foot controller...

Anyway, it has both ease of use, great sounds and instant efficiency.
A must have, definitely !

This is just as easy to use as any amp head. Just tweak eq, gain,
etc. by twisting knobs on front. They're heavy steel and have a great feel to them! In playing situations I often find that I'm looking for a slight (or drastic) modification to my tone. I can
just twist the knobs, save to a new bank, and then A/B. Normal amps cant do this! I've owned a PV Rocktron, ADA MP-1, Rocktron Pro Gap, and a Hafler Triple Giant (which the Piranha replaced) and the interface is better than all of those. The only substantial improvement would be to have separate display windows to simultaneously display all parameters.

My rack is simple with just the Piranha and a Roland GP-100. I use the Piranha in one of FX loop of the GP-100. It is "movable" so I can put any of the effects either before or after the Piranha in the chain, or turn off the Piranha and use one of the built in sounds. The signal is sent directly to a Fender 40 watt Hot Rod Deluxe 1-12 (bypassing the preamp.) My guitar is an Ibanez S540-fm with Dimarzio Tone Zone/Norton pickups.

A couple of things have amazed me about the sounds I can get from the Piranha. First, the sweepable mid eq allows me to achieve an incredible array of tones, more than any other pre-amp I have used. It is almost as if this is "many" preamps. Second, I have been able to achieve and surpass the tones I was getting from the Bogner Triple Giant. They sound just as "big" and "open". (headroom?) Yet can be dialed in more exactly. Third, changes in gain for a particular EQ setting do not change the tone. This was a problem I had with the Triple Giant. I can now back off the gain for a particular patch and have the same vibe. The Piranha is useful across the range of gain from high to low, unlike the MP-1, and Rockmaster whose mid-to-low gain settings sounded weak.

Some reviewers have said that they were unable to get the heaviest most vile distortions like Pantera, etc. Note that the unit has no "prescence" knb. The unit oozes high frequencies which with the right amp/speaker setup will get these styles. I attenuate them with Tube Warmth, open cab, and a prescence cut at the power section which give me a smoother lead voice. Smart design, the Piranha, you'll see.

Personally the sounds I reach for are Progressive, cranked Mid EVH stuff. This unit is right up my alley but I bet any musican could take his favorite guitar/amp and dial in his perfect tone for his style. I'm not kidding. Even country. (For those of you who already own this unit, try wierd experiments like moving the Mid into the treble range and chopping the treble, then subtract like 7 or 10 from eacch band and roll back the guitars tone all the way. It's scary but what you'll get will be another useful sound like from a differnt amp. Putting all bands in the negative range to my ear introduces midrange "honk" and the thinng starts to sound like a PV, as oposed to other setting which are more Marshall, Mesa, etc. Amazing.)


As an added benefit, for those of you who know they will never again play a high gain rig without HUSH, the Piranhas got that too. And programmable by patch. Before this, I had a HUSH IICX in the chain and thats a pain in the ass, always having to worry about leveling the patches to work with the threshold. Also, I got to kick that IICX out of my rack along with the(I hear dissention) BBE-362. Less effects loading. My tone is awesome, pristine, incredibly versatile, and the size of a briefcase. Thanks Rocktron!

Rocktron is a thriving company that stands behind their products. This thing (as said) is a tank. I have not had any problems getting the top off to get at teh tubes. You need the right tool tho.

They have a very progressive Web Site.

Kicks ass. Perfect tone. Great interface. Incredibly versatile. I dont think I'll ever need to buy another piece of rack gear. Ever. I laugh at the Mesa Boogie Snobs paying $1200 for a Tri-Axis. Also, even though I swore by the Tone of the Bogner Triple Giant for years, the Piranha has got the same "hugeness/openness/clarity", and is more versatile, programmable, etc. BTW I sold that thing to some guy named Chris. . .

Yikes, almost forgot! When I added the Piranha to the rack, a ground loop was introduced. (Slight low level humming whose volume was independent of the output level) This would not be a problem if you were always playing relatively loud. The loop is between the Fender Hot Rod and the Piranha. An EBTECH "Hum Eliminator" (that I keep in the back cavity of the amp) solved the problem but I do not really understand it. I have not had the time to try the Piranha with other amps although at the Guitar Center Phoenix, AZ (thanks Tim) amp there was no problem.

Dimebag Darrel could figure this out.

I was ready to sell mine because I couldn't get a satifactory clean sound.Then I read the submission on this page dated 6/5/98 and dug it out of the garage,turned the gain down to three on factory setting#3,and maxed the volume.Voila!The sound compares to the clean sound in my Hafler Triple Giant,which is the best I ever heard.A bit less complexity perhaps,but close as dammit.Thanks Chris!The distorted sounds need to be turned down to a comparable volume as pointed out,and you may want to goose the front panel gain to taste.Oh and adjust the global threshold for the Hush (if you use it).

No problems.Toured for two years with it.

The guys at Rocktron are sweethearts.They have always sent me free extra knobs,controls etc whenever I needed them.However,this episode begs the question,who programs their sounds?The presets on the Piranha and my Replifex are universally shite.They are based in Michigan,so sounds travelling from the East coast would take what?15 years?Sack the Big hair guy.

This thing has got you covered for most kinds of music other than Pantera type stuff.I consider the best of the midi preamps other than my Hafler of course ,and that only does channel switching by midi.I wish you could program the Fx mix like on the Marshall,'cause the replifex is not transparent at all!

Dead easy .Loads of knobs.no scrolling.Even a sad of vintage gear fogie could use it.Probably a bit compicated for the brit-poppers though.!

Okay so far ive had ,digitech GSP2101 -broke 3 times,will never touch digitech stuff again,peavey transfex-way too hissy,Marshall "no gaiN" JMP-1 and a peavey rockmaster which is great but not midi.
I use this for dokken/lynch soft/hard rock style stuff and also metallica covers.It is the best sounding preamp on the market without haviong to sell your gran! the parametric mid is a godsend.Try scooping the mids on your JMP-1 hahahah!
The hush is excellant.
I use this with a velocity power amp(transisters) and an fx unit in a 4u rack.I also own JCM900 and 800 and this will do what they can and loads more.This unit is now being replaced with the prophesy so second hand is a giveawaY!

Metal case and its rocktron.Internal power supply as well.Weighs a ton.I cant se any problems.Unlike digitech crap.I cant believ the amount of complaints on here regarding digitech,i hope they read this site and sort there lives out!

never talked to them

for rock and metal this is the best preamp cept maybe a triaxis which i havent tried .forget JMP-1s and digi-junk.

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.

Midi- Controllable Tube Guitar Preamp.
I found it very easy to get a good sound out of this unit. The controls operate (mostly) like an ordinary amp head with the addition of a few buttons to allow you to store your current settings, retrieve saved settings or control the noise reduction. Adjusting presets is easy: Just turn the knobs, then press store twice to save it.
The manual is acceptable, though somewhat brief. No description of the presets appears in my manual: The one in this database is useful, print it out.

I read that this unit hummed or buzzed a bit, but thats not really been my experience. Unless I'm standing right next to my rack, I don't hear much of any noise. (with the noisegate thresdhold adjusted in such a way to permit noise, were there any) Certainly less noise than most amp heads.
The clean sound can be thin, but theres tons of control over it. The "clean" tube setting ranges all the way from clean to overdrive. I have one preset thats purely clean and another that has a slight breakup.
The modern and classic distortion modes are not terrible different, but alter the sound a bit. I initially thought that I might prefer a bit more gain, but upon taking the unit the band practice and using it at NON-apartment volumes changed my mind. My lead preset for heavy rock has the gain setting at 50 (out of 70). Plenty of good saturation here.
Adjustable Midrange frequency controls the range the mid EQ affects. This is very flexible.
HUSH noise reduction is very intelligent. Holding a note and allowing it to decay illustrates the HUSH at work: gently easing your sound level down as it decays. Adjustable.

So far my other Rocktron gear (Intellifex LTD, MidiMate, Velocity 250) haven't failed me, but not much experience here.

I had a question about the MIDI channels used to switch the loop in/out, change tube mode, etc..., so I sent email and had a response in a day or so.

Overall: The best tube preamp I've used. Combines the great high- gain sounds my Peavey Rockmaster got with midi-selectable presets (instead of a two or three channel preamp, how about a hundred or so channel preamp) Distortions are available on all three tube modes, and span a lot of different styles.
I've recently played lots of stuff in the search for a sustaining saturated sound that is not harsh, but more singing. The kind of tone where chords are rich, which the notes are distinct and not muddy. Where chords are obviously distorted, but single notes in leads do not buzz and make nasty sounding noises. The Marshall 9001, Crate Blue Voodo 120 with 4x12, Marshall JMP-1 + 9100, Marshall all-tube 112 combo, Fender Princeton, Blue Tube... None of these devices make it happen. Most of them are very harsh _or_ very muddy. Peavey Rockmaster does it. Rocktron Piranha does it while adding midi-selectable presets. I'm in gear-heaven.
My complaints are mostly minor: #1 I wish it featured midi control of parameters like gain (for continuous controller applications. #2 I wish the output volume was on the far right hand side. #3 I wish the unit was black instead of red. #4 I wish it had much more gain than I would ever need, just in case. As is stands, it has "plenty" of gain, but not "too much" #5 I wish the clean tube mode had some sort of compression control. Its hard to keep the clean volume and the dirty volumes the same without having the cleans clip on my Intellifex LTD. #6 I wish it included some extra talent. :) #7 Multiple effects loops would be nice for non-midi effects.
Bottom Line: If you want multiple channels on a preamp; don't need midi control of parameters like gain, treble, loop mix; prefer a rack mounted format; are sick of hearing about "retro" gear; need "plenty" of gain; Check out the piranha.

I have tried many preamps and this one beats them all ( the only one in the same ballpark is the mesa triaxis for 2x cost) The hush works perfectly allowing sustaining notes with no cut off and use of gtr volume control to react like a true head. Very dynamic and VERY sweet tone. The XLR speaker sims are the best I've heard yet, although this may also be because of the basic quality of tone the unit offers. I have had no problems with noise, the unit seems very quiet even with the Hush turned off.

Three tube channels (voices) which all sound great. 99 presetsfor storage of parameters. Midi control, global eq adjustment for different venues,cabs and/or volumes. The intelligent HUSH is unbelievable! 3 band EQ with sweepable mids.

No problems yet (seven months). It seems to be built well.

Rocktron is one of the best. They even modified a piece of gear for me (not the Piranha) to meet a particular need of mine. Very helpful and they listen.

I loved it so much I bought another to put in my closet in case they stop making them or if mine just dies. And no, I am not a rich man.

Quality stuff. From very clean to saturated OD, this unit has it. The preamp has thee main modes, clean - tube 1 (american) - tube 2 (british), all very useful. The EQ is active and the mid is parametric. This allows for quite a bit of sound shaping. You do have to be careful not to boost too much EQ on the heavy overdrive setting. What I usually do is set the EQ flat on the distortion patches and slowly tweak them in.

The Piranha is one of the first affordable MIDI tube preamps that really can satisfy a user looking for true quality amp sounds with the versatility of a MIDI format. The only one that really comes close in its price range would be the Marshall JMP-1. I am using this in a rack configuration and I am very pleased with the results. I have a Rocktron Replifex patched into the one effects loop and I am feeding the preamp out into a Rocktron Velocity 300. I have four (Rocktron again) Velocity S112 speaker cabs that are set up in stereo. This arrangement can cover a wide range of gigs. As far as ease of use, this one ranks right up there. The user interface is primarily amp-like knobs with a two digit LED display for parameter value (displys patch number during play mode). The manual is pretty straightforward and it didn't take long to implement a good bank of patches.

Well built! I have had very good luck with all of my Rocktron gear (which is one reason why I stick with them)

Rocktron's web site is one of the best. I haven't had to use them, but my guess is that they would be up to par.

Top notch! The only preamp I've ever used that can touch this is the Hughe's & Kettner ACCESS, adn the list on that is $2,000.

Easy to use, yet the manual is annoyingly incomplete. It doesn't contain a list of the presets. It doesn't say what the numeric ranges of the controls are, or the frequency curves of the EQ, or what the MIDI SYSEX format is.
You have to press the buttons pretty firmly, and you can't tell by feel whether they've taken effect because they click before they activate. There's no way to scroll quickly through the presets, so unless you have a MIDI controller to select them, don't plan on jumping quickly to a numerically distant preset.
There are both front and rear input jacks, but the front one doesn't override the rear one; they sum together. That means if you have a powered-up piece of equipment plugged into the back jack and plug a guitar into the front jack, the signal from the guitar is about half as strong as it should be. There's no line-level input; it's instrument-level only, so if you use it in an effects loop, make sure you can control the effects send level. You can't control its parameters (volume, gain, treble, etc.) with MIDI continuous controllers.
To replace the tubes, you need to remove 20 flathead screws and 3 star screws. Maybe the sticker says "No user serviceable parts inside" because they figure you'll give up before you get all the screws off. It comes with two Audio Glassic (Chinese) 12AX7's, which sound pretty good. I replaced them with NOS tubes (one USA, one Japan) and the sound became a little richer.

Excellent tube distortions. You'll probably have to play with the noise gate settings. It sometimes makes crackling noises or hum as a note is fading out.
As typical, the presets vary a lot in overall volume. The clean ones are all much quieter than the distorted ones--about half the volume. I've maxed the level parameter on all the clean patches to partly compensate.
I'm going to make my own patches, but of the presets, my favorites are: 2 3 5 14 15 17 21 26 27 29 34 37 38 42 44 45 49

The Piranha is one of the first affordable MIDI tube preamps that really can satisfy a user looking for true quality amp sounds with the versatility of a MIDI format. The only one that really comes close in its price range would be the Marshall JMP-1. I am using this in a rack configuration and I am very pleased with the results. I have a Rocktron Replifex patched into the one effects loop and I am feeding the preamp out into a Rocktron Velocity 300. I have four (Rocktron again) Velocity S112 speaker cabs that are set up in stereo. This arrangement can cover a wide range of gigs. As far as ease of use, this one ranks right up there. The user interface is primarily amp-like knobs with a two digit LED display for parameter value (displys patch number during play mode). The manual is pretty straightforward and it didn't take long to implement a good bank of patches.

It's heavy--sturdy steel case, builtin power supply (no wall wart). I've had it for several months without problems.

I called them to ask a few questions about the MIDI implementation and the presets, and got a helpful and friendly fellow on the phone. He was the one responsible for putting the Rocktron manuals on the web site.

I compared it with the JMP-1, Vudoo Valve, GSP-2101, GP100, etc. For great distortions, it blew them all away. Didn't try the Boogie-- too expensive. I've gotten excellent sound from it both through a Fender amp and recording direct using a Boss GX-700 as a cabinet simulator. I'd buy it again.

Good sounds are so easy to get it is ridiculous. If you plug into this and can't tweak all 99 presets (51-99 duplicate 1-50) into sounds so good they scare the heck out of you, I don't know what will.
Editing is as simple as: click any knob once and get a readout. Turn it any more and you are adjusting. Save by tapping twice on the "save" button. That's it.
The manual is clear and easy. Not gonna win a Pulitzer Award, but it does the job. (Besides you can check it out on the Rocktron Home Page -- before you buy the thing! Cool!

This is flat out the best sounding preamp this side of $1500. And at that level, they only sound as good. I am so taken with this thing after trying it once, I bought it at the Guitar Center on the spot. (And we all know how hard it is to demo anything at the Guitar Center -- too many kids playing Nirvana over and over >>> and not playing it well or at very low volumes ...). I've never been one to buy without thinking \ about it for a long time.
With two 12AX7 preamp tubes running at 250 volts, the headroom for clean sounds made me smile real wide. Dynamic, punchy SRVish Fender clean. The overdrive sounds are remarkably useable and flexable. The gain can be adjusted in one of three modes: clean, distortion (which is really overdrive), and "modern distortion". For instance I found a clean sound I really liked and could save it to preset 1. Then at preset 2 I could take the same tone and turn up the gain ten notches (it goes from 0 - 70), and dial in real good blues tones. I could set up banks that do the same all the way up to the really hard distortion stuff, and viola -- a virtual amp. I have banks that really model the Fender, Marshall and Mesa Boogie sounds I love. And I don't have to lug around three or more amp set-ups!
FYI I use a Carvin Tube 100 Stereo Power Amp with EL34's. And the cleans still punch with out breaking up at real amp volume levels.
The distortions will please everyone from the SRV crowd to the Pantera monster metal rockers. Honest. I was able to dial in sounds that I counldn't believe. The Piranha has HUSH built in to each preset and is adjustable within each individually. SO COOL! No waterfall between songs on stage.
It is hard to express the sounds in this thing. The Mesa Triaxis and Marshall JMP-1 distortions are almost as good, but they lack a certain sweetness and dynamic edge that the Rocktron nails in the clean settings. The Egnator Tone-of-Life preamp that goes for $1700 has it, but you can only have four footswitchable sounds at a time. And it costs nearly 3X what I payed for the Rocktron.

One the third day, my original Piranha farted out. The factory replaced it (Guitar Center didn't have any more in stock) overnight. I have had an Intellifex for 2 years that has never had a problem, and that coupled with the fact that the new unit has worked flawlessly for two weeks (and I have played alot of guitar through it in two weeks), leads me to believe that the first one was a fluke. But I can't say that for sure, so a bit of a lower rating here -- at least so far.

I have dealt with the factory a few times (since I am in Michigan about an hour from their factory it makes it kind of easy for me) and have always, without exception been very happy with their response. They stand behind what they do, they care about how they treat you, and they do cool things (my Intellifex was bought used and didn't come with a manual -- they tossed me one for free. [Now the are posted on the internet])
Highly regarded.

Overall, I have a rave review of the Tech 21 Sansamp PSA-1 elsewhere in this homepage. I really loved it for a long time. The Piranha impressed me (more than Mesa Boogie/Marshall/Egnator) enough to buy it on the spot and I have had more compliments on my tone than any other time in my life. I am very particular about my sound and tone and I cannot imagine a preamp that can give me anything more (parallel effects loop/analog controls/ high voltage tubes/programibility/noise reduction (HUSH is so much better than ANY noise gate)/XLR outputs/etc.)
This is the one!