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.