Tech 21 SansAmp PSA-1 Preamp

My setup (like you care) is Ibanez, ESP, and Epiphone guitars to PSA-1 to G-Major effects to Randall RT2/50 tube power amp (amazing amp and I'm surprised there are NO reviews of it here). I mostly used the presets, but also filled up about half the user locations with original sounds as well. The tone was great yet not great.

Someone down the page said every tone it made sounded like it came from behind a wall and I agree. I had to constantly crank the presence to the maximum on the Randall and usually turn up the "high" control on the PSA-1 to get a non-muffled sound. This was a bit disappointing, but no big deal.

I disagree with those who said that this sounds bad for mildly overdriven tones, but wholeheartedly agree with the ones who say the clean and fully distorted sounds are incredible. That they are. This made a "rectifier" sound better than my rectifier and the Marshall sounds were much more interesting than any of the countless other boring Marshalls I've owned in the past. I also agree that it has its own tone and though the sounds are close to the amps they're trying to be, they're not exactly the same.

Not sure of the year since I bought it used. This is easily one of the coolest preamps to ever be created. It has no "channels," but it does have 49 factory and 49 user presets. And may I add, this preamp should win an award for being the first piece of electronic gear ever created to have presets so good you never need to use anything else (while at the same time being extremely "tweakable" to appease those people too).

It's got an effects loop I don't use, and I've never tried the direct record outs, but I wouldn't do that anyway. It's, as said before, a solid state device which sounds almost eerily like actual tubes.

No problems in just shy of a year of owning it, don't plan on having any problems since I actually take care of my gear.

I've emailed them about five times and each time the reply came before the day was done, sometimes within an hour. To me, that's good support.

This is an incredibly good preamp. Rocktron, Digitech, Line 6, throw them all in the trash, they don't hold a candle. The only preamp which beats out the PSA-1 (and this is my opinion, remember) is the TriAxis, but this comes from a die-hard Boogie fan. The PSA-1 makes remarkably good Boogie tones, but not quite as focused as I like them. Still, the PSA-1 is a VERY close second and will be remaining in my rack as a backup.

I play in a top 40 bar band, so i need a wide variety of tones at my fingertips. The PSA1 delivers! I play a 1998 Ibanez RG 570, a 1980 Ibanez Artist, and a early 90's Fender American strat. These run into the PSA 1 with a T.C. Electronics G-Major in the loop. I use a Rocktron Velocity 150 (150w) solid state Power amp into 2 Rocktron Velocity S112 (1x12)75w speakers cabs. I do not run stereo live. I have a Bradshaw switching system to handle the midi functions. The amp and speaker combo is very important. The PSA 1 needs a Clean pwr amp, like you would use for a PA system, and full range speakers, again like that of a PA system. Your traditional 4x12 marshall cab will work but you will get far better results from full range speakers.
The cleans on the PSA1 are amazing even fully cranked, the fender styles are damn near dead on, I even tricked a few people into thinking I was playing an acoustic, when I was using the RG 570 stock!(NO Piezio pickup!) the Marshalls, and Boogies get noisey on the high gain settings....just like the real amps. No complaints here either, a basic noise gate covers that. I get tones for AC/DC, to Metallica and INXS to Simple Minds so it really is the most versatile system I've used.

I rate this an 8, because quite frankly it aint supposed to have a tone of features. It's a straight forward Pre Amp. It has all the basic things you need. 2 in's, stereo outs, effects loop with 50/50 switch(depending on your set up this can be very handy). The knobs on the face are very simillar to that of a traditional tube amp, and are labeled acording to what they do. No nonsense here. The Buzz adds Buzz etc. etc. The only thing I wish it had was more MIDI versitility. E.G. make some or all of the face knobs controlable via midi expression pedal. It would be very cool to be able to vary the "Preamp" or "Drive" with your foot on the fly!

Never Had a problem. I gig regularly with out a back up. I do take good care of my gear though. Shock mount rack etc. etc.

Again the unit seems to be solid but I did talk to the teck support guys before buying. Lloyd was awesome, very helpful.

I've been playing 20 years in all sorts of bands. I used to manage a Guitar Center. I have played with all the toys. I did a lot of research before going solid state. This seemed like the best thing going, and I beleive it is. To give you and Idea of just how great I think it sounds. I just sold my Mid 80's Marshall JCM 800, I have no need for it anymore. If it was stolen, I'd replace it in a heartbeat!

I also have a Digitech 2101. Sansamp blow digitech in terms of versatile and distortion. Some people say that this preamp is not good for recording or playing live. Also, tech 21 recommends to use a solid state power amp on it, avoiding tube power amp. I tried one time plugging sansamp in a Carvin power amp (tube power amp), sound was far worst comparing with my valvestate power amp. So I am not totally comfortable with this product It is why I am giving a 9 to this. But tried and you will not be disappointed with this produtct. It is an excelllent machine.

I use Sansamp plus G Major plus BBE 462 and plug into my Marshall Valvestate return plug in. I have 3 ibanez (jem, rg and PGM model). I play all styles of music (jazz, blues, rock, mpb and metal). Sansamp is very versatile -> some clean sounds (fender simulation) makes my ibanez sound as a fender, and some heavy sounds (mesa boogie simulation) makes my sound get very closer to mesa distortion.

I never had any problem with it

no problems

Excellent product. Tried first and compare to other pre amps (triaxxis, digitech 2101, jmp-1, rocktron voodu valve). You will see that Sansamp will kick many of the products mentioned above, however, it depends on what kind of tone and sound you want

Ok, First of all I tried hooking this up to my Carvin DCM150 power amp and a Genz-Benz Flex 2x12 cab. It wasn't very impressive. It was dull and all the metal/hard settings sounded too much alike. My Tubeworks Real Tube 9002 reissue is half the price and was way more musical aka not cold. I also tried the PSA-1 thru a combo amp's front end as well as driving it through the return loop with the same results. Yes, I've switched the vol/line setting buttons to experiment. I got online to check out the other reviews to see if there was something I wasn't doing right. Anyhow, the last review written here was the answer. FULL RANGE SPEAKERS! It sounded 90% better. I'm still tinkering with it. The speakers I ended up running it through are cheap so I can only imagine what real PA speakers will sound like. With that said I am still not tripping my balls off with the sounds I can get out of it now. I'm still tweaking and will leave a follow up review.

Alot of features. If you are looking to get one you are aware of them.

Things I like: no power off button(I always turn all preamps, effects,etc BEFORE I turn the Power amp on. It's one less switch to flip. I love how you can hold the up or down button to go thru the presets(speeds up after you hold it in over a second so it's faster than just tapping it one preset at a time). The enclosure is great and looks nice.

The things I don't like: When you power off it doesn't keep the last preset you were at. You can't name your patches. The knobs are plastic.

USE FULL RANGE SPEAKERS! This solves many problems. I was using a 300 watt 4x12 cab with celestion gt100s with a solid state pre and I just wasn't cutting through the mix in a band setting. The clean sounds were OK. The high gain sounds were there, but they were undefined and not cutting through the mix. I simply could not coax a good medium to low gain growl out of this setup. Then, after fucking around with this setup for 3 years, I tried sending the Sansamp through the input of an old Roland JC-120 2x12 and *BOOM* - there's the tone! JMP growl, Mesa Rectifier, Fender Twin. It really is in there!

So here's my advice everyone - Use full range speakers with this preamp. Do not expect your typical celstion 4x12 to cut it.

I have already reviewed this product. This is a second review. Features are great. There's nothing extra that I need other than a tone knob for the mids. And maybe also a presence knob.

awesome. lloyd rocks.

I have an Ibanez RG570 with a seymour custom5 in the bridge position, and a Strat fitted with EMG SA set. The guitars go into the PSA1, the PSA1 to my Digitech GSP2101, then a Digitech-Hafler G150 mosfet poweramp that drives two selfmade 2x12 cabs fitted with Celestion Classic Lead 80s.
Wanna get the Gilmour sound? No problem. Wanna play Dream Theater? No problem.
Finally I have an amp that has a very tight and clear bottom-end.
The distortion is brutal, but crystal-clear at the same time (just like in Fates Warning - that was the sound I'd been looking for)...incredilbe.
When I let it ring I feel like a baby in his mother's arms...Warm, clear and round.
I had a Fender RocPro1000 and an ADA MP1 before, but none of that could get close to this baby.
There's no question why does Jim Matheos (Fates Warning), Roine Stolt (The Flower Kings), or Joe Satriani use this stuff.
I showed it to one of my friends today. He didn't belive that this is a full solid state amp. It made him thinking of buying one of these babes instead of a Mesa Triaxis...
I LOVE this stuff!:-)

I got this preamp secondhand on ebay in Germany. Perfect condition.
If your looking for a GREAT pre, and you're not a tube-fan this unit is for you. I play almost every style from blues, to metal, and this baby can handle everything!
The stuff is simple: it has 3 pre (distortion) EQ, 2 postEQ, input level, drive and master volume KNOBS, program-select UP and Down buttons. No more button-pushes to get the sound I want!:-)
Midiable, 49 user and 49 factory programs.
It has a BEAUTIFUL metal case.
Headphones-out, 2 line outputs, stereo fx-loop. The fx-mix is simple, global off or 50-50. It would be better to control the mix with one more knob and save the setting in every program...(-1point)
Wish it had an ON-OFF switch (-1 point)

I only got it for a mounth now...
What can I say? Like others before me: Built like a tank!

I'we asked them one thing in email, and they replyed next day.

I play for 10 years, I had a Marshall Valvestate 8240, a Fender RocPro1000, an ADA MP1 before. None of that could reach this thing in sound. Small, light, great sounding...what else do you need?
If it were stolen or lost (how could I lost my gear??) I'd buy another one immediately.

I have to admit that the Fender Twin is tricky. It "treble pings" at max volume with the MFG preset values. The ping can be dialed out by turning the crunch down to just a smidget beyond midnight, adding 25% punch and turning the Master Vol up to 100 percent. Otherwise, the output levels are too low, and unity gain off-matched to the adjacent high gain patches.

I have played all the REAL high gain amp HEADs modeled on the MFG list. Man this thing really rocks, and sounds smoother than the real McCoys w/o the volume, weight, noise, tubes, and other baggage ... Rectos, Plexis, 5150s etc. I'm stunned. I'm not sure what exactly the Hiwatt and Tele Simulator are. Didn't lik'em at all. Didn't even bother with the MXR Bigg Muff etc. Never liked that crap mush anyway.

I didn't like the Bluesbreaker, but then I don't like anybody's bluesbreaker modeler either. This is the only amp that nobody on this planet has been able to model. The AC30 is close.

Bottom-line, a single performance bank of of good Marshall & Mesa crunch and lead sounds covers a lot of rock genre territory. Line 6 does not even appear on the sonic radar compared to this single-rack device.

The Marshall patches have a more aggressive character than the JMP-1, even with brand new Jan Phillips in V1 and JJ/ECC83S in V2, and I loved my JMP-1 ... and that was MFG'd by Marshall go figure ... nuff said

I owned a GT2 for 10 years that I used for bass in the studio but it used to feedback like hell live on guitar. That little sumbich made any bass amp head or bass guitar sound better: Punchy and in-your-face bass. I am sure the PSA-1 on bass will sound even better.

This is not your jazz music teacher's preamp. This is a solid state aggressive guitar rock machine covering Classic, Hard, Prog, Metal, NuCrap, etc -

Notwithsatnding the really cheesy patches mentioned above, this puppy gets a solid 10 for solid aggressive monster rock tone. I surmise that all MFGs (Lexicon, Eventide, Digitech, etc) always inlcude bullshit patches to prove that their staffs get stoned often are not infallible nor perfect lol

I read this guy's review below who is turning this knob down and that knob down and comparing to a tube head "checking the buzz factor"? What a tweed-head brainwashed moron. Welcome to the 21st century moron ... if you don't and can't understand the technology ... then you just don't get it huh? It is a rock machine, not a blues club panacea to not buying a Victoria Combo. Go buy a fucking hand-built Victoria for $2200.00 with original bassman specs, Weber Q10s, resistors to tolerance, etc etc etc ad nauseum. When you blow a tube in your bedroom or douchebag open-mic talent show in NY or NJ and it fails, I'll be rocking an arena in Europe somewhere with my $399.00 PSA-1 and getting paid for it you fucking loser. Get a life ...

Salut Montreal Bob ... enchante ... I concur with Bob Guido's review below. The PSA-1 rackmount is an ingenious tools that rocks for both performing and recording. I picked one up from a cat in CA this week on eBay for $399 including MidiMouse and cable in A++++ shape to replace my beloved JMP-1. This device is definitely straight as forward in-your-face and idiot proof to use as it gets.

Before it arrived, I went to the tech-21 website and downloaded a page (front-back) on each amp type preset values plus the miscellaneous page. Without the manual I created a performance bank (51-60) including:

51 TWIN
52 SRV
53 PLEXI 50
54 PLEXI 100
55 EVH CRUNCH
56 SCHENKER LEAD
57 SANTANA LEAD
58 METALLICA
59 PANTERA
60 MESA LEAD

It took all of 10 minutes. The catch is setting unity gain on all patches to match in real time.

I loved my JMP-1, however, it is utterly incapable of programming Mesa or Fender patches.

The device runs thru a HUSH IIC, into a wet/dry/wet configuration, Left output dualled out into BBE 462 into MOSVALVE MV-462, and right output dualled out into delay+chorus thru another BBE462 into a separate MOSVALVE MV-462. Single 4x12 cab with four inputs one per speaker, G12H80s top, Altec Lansing D120Fs bottom.

I never liked tube power amps, and on the MFG's recommendation to use a solid sate power amp the MOSVALVES are perfect (warm, do not affect the tone, and are solid state). The PSA-1 and BK Butler's MOSVALVES are a perfect match.

This is not my primary performance preamp, although it could easily become one. I also use a Real Tube II preamp, however, my primary rig is rackmounted Mark IV Mesa Boogies. All preamps go thru a rack mixer.

The PSA-1 fills my tone gaps for live and session work where the Mark IV Blues-Rock leaves off. Now I have the best of all worlds.

One thing I didn't like was that the Master Volume is "saved" with the patch. I would have preferred a dynamic global master volume in "real time" depending on venue, and a patch volume saved with the patch that readjusts itself on all patches when the master volume is changed in real time. Oh well ... I give a 7 here, because this is a critical performance feature bout not a critical studio feature. Huge bang for the buck otherwise!

Based on other reviewers -- built like a tank.

Based on other reviewers -- solid NY MFG that stands behind their product.

This is truly a wondeful piece of technology. When I get back in a few months, I plan to try it in the studio and experiment with fattening/crunching guitar/bass tracks, and who knows, maybe it has utility on other instruments including vocals?

Would I buy again? Sure, if another deal like this came along. Way too expensive at regular retail prices. eBay has levelled the playing field in that regard. I am past paying retail for anything anymore. You buy a new piece of gear at any music store then its worth 25 cents on the dollar when you try to sell it back later. My sentiment to the music stores and their ignorant non-player lizard sales staffs: Go fuck yourselves ...

The operation, editing and storing of user programs in the PSA-1 is very easy. The manual is very informitive and outlines the history of SansAmp technology and thier approach to emulation of tube amplifiers using FET analog circuits.

Recently for a project, my client wanted the best possible clean but tube driven sound. Basically, clean with a bit of that tube compression kind of tone. I ran some extensive tests using a ProTools Recording system with Apogee I/O and A/D convertors before we got started. The front end was a Sure SM57 microphone into a Neve 1073 mic preamp into the Apogee A/D and direct to disk.

This was what we had at hand:

Fender Vibro King custom shop Class A guitar amplifier (fender's most expensive amp)
Fender Deluxe Reverb vintage
Vox AC 30 Top Boost vintage
Vox AC 15
Matchless DC30
Fender Super reverb 1960's model
Fender Bassman vintage
Line 6 POD pro on Vox and Fender Bassman settings
Sansamp PSA-1 Plug-in in ProTools.

I DIDN'T OWN THE REAL PSA-1 RACKMOUNT YET.

I Recorded a guitar track direct through the Neve to ProTools and re-amped it through all of these amps and the POD. All amps had the EQ and volume set to produce the best clean sound. I also set the amps tone controls and levels so that no amp was particularly brighter or bassier than another. Sameness in tone would keep the listener from percieveing more treble or bass as "better tone". They were all miked the same with a shure SM57 on axis pointing at the seam between the speaker cone and the dust cap centre. Standard stuff. So I did all the re-amping and recorded all these amps and the Pod simulations. I listened to the results for a long time. Afterwards for fun I put the SansAmp PSA-1 Plug-in that was in the ProTools system I am using on the original direct NEVE guitar track and holy #$%^! I thought it sounded way better than any of the Amps miked up and the POD. So I wondered...is there something wrong with my ears? Maybe it's getting late and I should get some sleep and listen to it tomorrow. So I invited several musical people over for a little beer and listening party. I gave them each a piece of paper and asked them to write down after I soloed each track whether it was a real amp or a simulator (POD, SansAmp plug-in). They were not able to see my ProTools session as I was in front of the monitor.

Here are the results: Many people confused the POD with the the real amps. But EVERYONE said that their favorite sound was the first one. It was the Sansamp PSA-1 plug-in by Bombfactory on the direct NEVE guitar track. Not one person hesitated to say "what was the first one? It sounded so much better than the rest." It was exactly what I said to myself the day before. I was not alone. The SansAmp Plug-in was the most digital thing out of the bunch but it had the most defined warm tube tone and tightest bottom end as well as a nice round and bell like top end. It was not mushy or muddy, the way a lot of the Amps were. The POD on the VOX setting was thier second choice but it too had a muddy bottom end. So here is what I wanted to know: Does the Sansamp PSA-1 Plug-in sound anything like the real rackmount unit? Is it close or is the Rackmount better? If the Rackmount is better than this plug-in then I have to have it because my clients and friends think the Plug-in has the most real and best tube amp sound even going up against the real thing recorded through a Neve! If the hardware is better than the software version then it will blow them away.

I sent this letter to Lloyd at Tech 21 and he encouraged me to try the real SansAmp PSA-1. I bought one and I have since tested it up against all of my amps, the POD pro and the SansAmp PSA-1 Bombfactory Plug-In.

Conclusion:

The PSA-1 Plug-in blew me away. It sounded better than the POD and any real amp with a SM57 on it. The real PSA-1 goes a step further than any of these. It sounds larger, more in your face, wider and deeper than it's Plug-n emulation and the POD and all of the real amps with a Shure SM57 on them. It has a sound that goes beyond any Amp or simulator. It sounds tighter in the bottom end than a real amp. It is also punchier. When you let n

This rack is built to withstand nuclear fallout and has wonderful metal handles on the front that make it oh so easy to install into a rack case or a producer's desk in a studio without scratching any of your other precious outboard gear above or below the home you have made for your new PSA-1.

Tech 21 has the best customer support of any music product manufacturer. They are even better than Eventide who are extremely helpful.

Let me just say that Lloyd at Tech 21 goes out of his way to maintain Tech 21's mission: to make the best professional guitar and bass preamps for the stage and the studio and not flavor of the month products like bright red kidney beans, purple blue and green Droids.

I am a professional recording engineer/record producer in Canada. This preamp is providing me with an extended sound palette of guitar color that goes beyond what tube amplifiers and the Line 6 POD will provide.

Other devices that are designed to perform the same function as the SansAmp PSA-1 that I have owned and used are:

Line 6 POD pro
Line 6 POD xt
Hughes & Kettner Tubeman Plus
Rocktron RepliTone and Chameleon
Hughes & Kettner Red Box
Marshall JMP-1
ADA MP-1
Johnson Millenium Modeling Amplifier
Yamaha DG-Stomp
SansAmp GT2 and SansAmp Classic
ZOOM 9002
Voodoo Lab Preamp

The SansAmp is unlike any real amplifier or other digital, analog or tube amp simulator/modeller and allows you to carve your own personal sound with it's unique tone controls. It sounds larger, wider and taller than any real amp does with regular micing technique.

I don't say this lightly - sonic quality is a solid 10. Please understand, I am a loyal tube fan, and I *LOVE* my solid state PSA-1.
I use the PSA1 as an easy way to get lots of tones in a simple rig. I use a speaker simulator and F/X in the loop of the PSA-1, and run the PSA-1 through a rackmount 15 band EQ, then into a variety of small combo amps (depending on how big the room is). This requires some care (my EQ on the combo amps is usually pretty radical), but is dirt-simple and works great.

To me, the acid test of any rig is how it sounds when it's barely dirty - the PSA-1 does slightly gritty tones VERY well ! I can get nice Vox (TB and non-TB) and Marshall Bluesbreaker tones, warm semi-clean and semi-dirty Marshall tones, big ringing HiWatt tones, growly Fender tones, and a variety of high gain tones (just for fun, really - I don't use high gain tones with the guys I play with). Eventually I'll develop some more settings (Tweed, etc), but for now I'm having more fun playing than tweaking.

I use a 57RI Strat with Duncan lil 59'er mini-humbuckers - these are midway between single coil and HB in output. I play alt-country, classic rock, and eclectic styles.

Rated 9 because some minor improvements could be made. This is the "tone generator" portion of a rack guitar system. It uses a total of 5 gain controls to change how the tone is created/shaped. The Preamp and Drive controls are like the Preamp and Master controls on a 'regular' amp, while the Buzz,Punch and Crunch adjust the gain for low, mid or high frequencies through the preamp - these 3 knobs control whether the voice you create sounds like Fender, Marshall, Vox or Mesa. There is a Level control that controls the overall output from the unit, as well as a Bass and Treble control.

The output section is VERY flexible, including two stereo F/X loop options. Very sturdy construction, and good rugged feeling jacks.

Learning the "secret" behind the knobs takes a few minutes to get comfortable with, but you don't have to be a genius to make this unit sound good - it simulates a "real" amp, and you have to adjust it like one.

Occasionally on power-up, there will be very low output from the unit (perhaps 1 time out of 200+ times). Turning the rack off and back on solves the issue - it has never been a regular problem, and has never happened other than right at power-on. It's a low noise unit - when I play bass with this preamp (clean only) I'm using about 700W through a Crown amp - it's dead silent, no hum, no hiss, no junk. Hi gain guitar tones will hum or hiss some, but not too bad. There is never any of the crackle or thump noise I often get from preamp tubes in other gear.

No experience with them.

I got this during the final clearance sales when Mars Music went bankrupt - $200.00 for this is a STEAL - I lucked out. I probably never would have purchased this at the regular retail price - but I would have missed out.

This unit has essentially solved most of my tone issues when playing a variety of guitar styles. Total tone purists might not be happy with it, but I think a *lot* of players would be. I think that the quality of tones I've heard from it are significantly better than the Johnson, Line6 and Behringer digital units I've played. This unit is a modeler, but it's an *analog* modeler, not a digital one - it's a lot less compressed and artificial sounding than the digital types (BTW, I own and enjoy a Behringer modeler).

First I want to qualify my review by saying that I was using headphones and no power amp with the PSA-1, using my Zoom PS02 as the headphone amplifier. According to the manual, the outputs are suitable for direct recording or as the input to a power amp and cabinet, so my setup should have been usable. That said, the cleans were good, the heavily distorted sounds were okay, and the mildly distorted sounds were poor. As others have mentioned, the breakup characteristics of the FETs do sound like a broken kazoo. This is masked in the high distortion patches by the overdrive, but just after breakup it is unpleasant to my ears. And, while you can't hear the kazoo sound on high gain settings, they are a bit harsh though headphones so I can't give them a high score either. I will grant that the PSA-1 probably does sound a lot better through a power amp and a cabinet, but for direct recording or monitoring with headphones it just doesn't cut it. The cleans were nice but not very warm so I give it a 9 for cleans, a 6 for heavy distortion, and a 2 for mild distortion--average 6.

They've been covered below. Lots of knobs--maybe more than necessary but I never complain about that. MIDI support was my main concern and it does that well enough--you can recall saved patches but can't modify any paramaters using a MIDI controller. My only complaint was the knobs being out of sync after a preset recall--this can cause problems if a knob is set to a really high value and then a patch is recalled with it in a low value. If you then move the knob the value changes instantly to where the physical knob is, perhaps greatly overloading the next item in the signal chain (I severly overloaded the input stage on my G-Major once). To be fair, the only other way to do it using pots (instead of encoders which are much more expensive) would be to have the knob not do anything until it matches the patch value, which I would have preferred (and which wouldn't be that hard to do).

Seemed well built, but I didn't have it long enough to get a real opinion.

Pretty good. I emailed them for the PDF users manual and they quickly responded and emailed me one.

I hoped this would be the preamp solution to my MIDI-controlled rack system, but it wasn't. I'm sure it sounds better through a power amp and cab, but I live in an apartment and the whole focus of my rack system was that it had to be silent, which means headphones. I don't recommend this unit for headphone use--only the cleans sounded good to my ears. The basic distortion sound is poor unless you have the gain cranked, and I play blues and classic rock--not metal--so I need a nice mild distortion I can build on. I returned the PSA-1 after about a week of trying to make it work for me, and I decided that tubes were the only way to go. I have since purchased an Egnater M4 preamp which soundwise is exactly what I was looking for (admittedly at a much higher price), but lacks the MIDI control of the PSA-1. Oh well, I can live with the lack of MIDI control on the M4, but I couldn't live with the sound of the PSA-1. For other people with different setups this may be a good product (it must be, given the high ratings some people have given it) but it wasn't what I was looking for.