Tech 21 SansAmp PSA-1 Preamp

I took the damn thing apart and i can't find no tubes in it! There must be something wrong! It's warmer than most tube amps out there, save the boutique ones.

There are 49 factory presets which sound like heaven and 49 user presets which are left for you to program. It's solid state and the Buzz Punch and Crunch controls are awesome! They alter your tone in ways you never thought possible. (and normally wouldn't find on other amps). This is what makes the PSA-1 sound so incredible and Flexible at the same time. This baby can rumble like a Boogie or sparkle like a Bogner

Hey SS. No tubes.

Support was quite good, responded a day to my query and even explained to me the reason why it sounds great running it through a solid state poweramp and all.

I let my pal with a Boogie dual rec try it out and he prefered my Rectifier setting to his actual one. Hmm.... The cleans are good but it's the distortion settings which steal the show. The Plexi setting sounds as good as my own Plexi, though slightly different. Great product. The XLRs out prove useful for recording direct.

Even a baby can play it without a problem. Just turn the knob to your favourite tone and click "save" twice. The only problem is the 2-digit LED, not enough to inidicate all the info in Special Function mode. 50 factory presets and 50 user presets. Seems not many but enoguh for me already.

I am using Ibanez JEM 555 (all Evolution), Epiphone Les Paul Classic w/ Dimarzio PAF Pro (neck) and Air Zone bridge, a Japanese Epiphone SG 61 Reissue. I put my PSA-1 into my Boss GX-700 effect loop. I have a rubbish Crate amp, which I never use after I bought my PSA-1. It is hard to beleive this is a solid state preamp. The tone is warm. It is not just a distortion box, sparky Fender clean tone can be produced too. The presets are incrediable, you can play thru them without adjusting anything, of coz I modified many of them and save in user presets. Some of my friends do not believe how great is this box. They are tube lovers and they only know Mesa Boogies stuffs for their heavy tone, mostly becoz not many ppl use Sansamp here (Hong Kong). It is lack of advertisment. I put PSA-1 in the effect loop of GX-700, the variation is infinity. I remove the distortion and preamp in GX-700. I use PSA-1 as preamp and go thru EQ delay and reverb, I put speaker sim in the end, that really rocks, even now I play with a headphone only. I am thinking to buy a Fender Champion 30 later on. Originally, PSA-1 and amp modelling stuffs is ideal with a power amp. That cost me too much and it is very hard to buy power amp here. For home use, I choose a good clean tone amp for a substitution. I think the tone are much more killer after play thru this Fender amp. At least I heard my friends Sansamp GT-2 sound very awesome in this Champion 30.

Mine is 2nd hand, some of the knob have some buzz...

Excellent. I emailed Tech 21 few times before I bought it. They reply everytime and very fast. My PSA-1 does not comes with a user manual, I asked Tech 21 email me a copy in pdf format. They really did!! Thanks!!

It beat many real tube amp. Even the tone are not 100% same as them, for a box with million of great tone, it is worth, even I think the price is quite expensive for a new one (that's why I bought a used one in ebay). I think if all the knobs in PSA-1 can be turned 360 degree, just like the one in my GX-700, it is perfect. I have one problem now is that I cannot change both PSA-1 and GX-700 presets at the same time, I am going to buy a MIDI foot controller. Without a foot controller, GX-700 cannot send ot MIDI command by itself. It is quite trouble some for me to change presets one by one...

For a simple layout, they managed to screw it up by calling things not by their names, but their tweaky marketing terms. For Christ's sake call bass bass, midrange midreange, etc :P Pathetic

Also it is EXTREEMELY difficult to get a usable tone from this thing - it's not like you get a wide range of useful sounds. No, it has ONE good sound - a grindy heavy distorted thing. If you need any other sound, get something else as it doesn't compare to tubes. Even the distortion, it is onlyinteresting becasue it's a little different than you will get from a typical pedal or tube amp, but it's not necessarily better, and certainly it is far less versatile.

You can spend hours with this thing never get a usable tone if you don't know what you're doing. It's very touchy.

Heard one of these at a music store the other day. You know what they sound like? They sound like a keyboard sample of distorted guitar, or a synthesized guitar - like something you'd see out of an analog synth or a korg modeller or something. It's a synthetic tone. It's an interesting sound, but it's not versatile at all. Cleans absolutely suck on this unit - no body whatsoever. If you think so, you need your head examined!

This is a toy like they say. Some things are 'pro' in feel and versatility and whatnot. This strikes me as a patent type product like bose - it's crap, good for one thing (bose is good at very low volume if you ahve no space and don't want to see anything). This thing has one good distorted sound, and the rest is pretty much a joke. If you are looking to make your guitar sound like a synthesized version of guitar - a sampled guitar kind of sound, get this, because that is what it sounds like.

It blows my mine that ANYONE would pay over a grand for this thing, ever!

The PSA-1 has got Marshall, Fender, Mesa Boogie, Bass and Misc ( 10 of each) factory-presets. For example you got Hendrix-Preset, Recifter-Preset and a Panthera-Preset. Really nice ones! The Marshall presets sound like Marshall ( I always hated Marshall-Sound) - crappy.
It is not very noisy. Some noise in hardly distorted presets. I kill this easily with the HUSH in my Replifex. The Mesa-Boogie-presets are killer! I like it so much... Fender ones are nice for clean tones. Never tried the bass-presets with a bass-guitar. The Miscs-presets are nice too: Big Muff, Pignose, Panthera etc.

If you are listening to it with closed eyes: You won't believe that this preamp has no tubes in it. I heard that the tubes in other preamps like the VoodooValve or JMP-1 are just like a fake. They don't really work for your sound. This is just for some marketing reasons. But I also tried the Mesa Formula Preamp: You hear the tubes. No fakes here, but too expensive... ( about 1500 US-$).

Great sound from Jazz, Blues, Rock, Metal and even NuMetal. Nice clean and crunched sounds. Distortion-sounds ( i.e. Recifter-Preset, Metallica-Preset, Santana-Setting...) are very nice sounding. A lot of distortion in this preamp with tons of bottom-end... Check it out!

The preamp was made in 1997. I bought it used from eBay. But it looks like new, no optical faults. It is the version with a red front-panel.
Looks nice, even if I would have prefered the silver one.
The preamp has got a lot of features. With Buzz, Punch, Crunch and Drive-Knobs you can get a lot of different Sounds. You just got a Low and High-Knob. No Mids. This is explained in the other reviews.
It features Midi ( be careful at eBay -older ones aren't midi-able and programmable) and you got 50 very good factory-presets and 50 for own presets. I play it with a Rocktron Replifex and a Velocity 120 in a 4x12 Hughes&Kettner cabinet. No tubes in this preamp, but read on...

It has XLR Outputs and (!) normal 1/4" Outputs. The stereo effect-loop can be switched in 100% or 50/50. The "wetness" of your effect can be adjusted in the effect-processor. You got 10db-boost at Outputs and on the rear-panel Input. The Front-Input is at instrument-level ( -10 db). Via the "special-page-functions" you can reach Midi-mapping-functions, all knobs inactive etc. Nice!
It came with a software ( Mark of the Unicorn | Unisyn) to get the possibility to programm via Midi through a PC or Mac. Never tried so far, but seems to be good...

Never had any problems. Seems like i won't get any, 'cause it has no tubes in it to replace and it looks built for the road and stage...
I gig without a backup...

I mailed them for a digital User's Guide. I got it within 24 hours!
I tried the same with Line 6 - no answer after 1,5 months...

Never dealt with them with any problems. But I guess they are helpfull and FAST!

This is no fake review from Tech 21. You can mail me, if you got any questions. I am from Germany, so excuse my thrash-english...

If you are searching for a versatile, nice sounding preamp: Check this one out! Nice vintage-sounds and great modern heavy distorted Sounds for hard stuff ( even NuMetal). Very versatile. I get every sound I want ( with the PSA-1 and my Replfifex). If Tech-21 would say, that it has 4 tubes in it, you would believe it!

Sound is a comparative judgement. In my case I have the following additional preamps I run through my mixing desk. Tubeman2, Tubeman plus and Ensoniq DP/4+ (contains some preset effects modelling pre amp). The PSA-1 is more thinner sounding. If I am looking for a solid state sound it usually delivers better than the others. For a meatier lead sound like a boogie or marshall I think the tubeman pre amps do it better. So in my recording experience it is an important part of my studio offering its range of guitar sounds. I do use it from time to time to run synth module sounds through it like an effects unit to dirty up sounds or add some punch. This is not always successful and requires a lot of tweaking, sometimes abandoning the effort.
I do like the way the buzz punch and crunch colour the distortion and the pre amp is very useful in shaping the sounds. I think the eq section could be expanded beyond high and low to include mid range tweaking.

I have had my unit for 7 years and I think the concept of tone colouring with knobs bets the push button menu navigating facility. You intuitively get to now the characteristic much easier and have quick access for blending tonal qualities.

Recently, the internal fuse went. It was a simple matter of openning the unit and relacing it myself.

When my unit failed I emailed Tech 21 and they advised me that the fuse may have gone. The only other communication was regarding Midi Quest editor librarian software. To have the psa-1 supported I needed midi implementation details to forward onto the software vendor, Tech 21 did provide documentation but it was not the full spec. We tried?

I like the unit simply because it only relies on knobs giving you quick access to shaping the tones and gains. It does have useful sound voicings but as a stand alone pre amp it is probably is not the be all. It works well with stereo effects and I do use the XLR connections with my mixer.

I have a Ibanez Artist(80s) and an Ibanez Les Paul (80s bolt on neck) both with dimarzio pickups. My set up is this:
boss tu2 tuner
dunlop 535 wah
axess electronics MIDI footcontroller
psa-1
t.c. electronics G-Major
mesa 20/20 power amp
marshall 1960 4x12 sealed cabinet

This set up is very loud Everyone in the bband I'm in is blown away by this setup. This amp will make almost any sound you want it to. I can get these tones from this set up: Tony Rombola(godsmack), Adam Jones(tool), SRV, I can get close to Jimi's sound on purple haze using the Fuzz Face preset, Mike Enziger(Incubus) these are the only ones I've tried so far. The psa-1 also gets great clean sounds you just have to keep the pre level down because, it works as a gain. Fender cleans are easily to get. The gains are amazing. This is the first amp I've ever owned where I don't run the gain cranked. I don't have to.

Look at other reviews or the tech 21 website for this info. Does everything it's supposed to very well and at a good price. The only thing I wish it had is an overall level.

Too new to tell

Never dealt with them

I've been playing for about 12 years now. I've owned a Fender Twin Reverb, a Marshall TSL 100, and a Marshall jmp-1 and some pedals. The jmp-1 sucks ass in my opinion. And for the TSL100, it can't hold a candle to the psa-1, mesa 20/20 combination either. In fact, our singer uses the Marshall now to help out with some of the rhythm parts.

I love this preamp and it didn't cost too much. I can't compare it to the triaxis because I've never heard it. But, this costs half as much.

I bought mine at the Guitar Center in Cincinnati, OH. They had the psa-1 set up through a mesa 20/20 and a 2x12 rectifier cabinet. The worker there hooked it up and I was amazed. A week later I bought it and to this day I am still amazed. Also, I've recorded this thing on a tascam 4 track with an sm58 mic and it sounds great.

Well it's time to submit my review... I waited a few months because I wanted to give a very informed review. It is very easy to get a good sound out of this unit, but the manual is a must becuase you can't just look at it and know exactly what the knobs do to the sound. They're not standard amp knobs, but what they allow you to do is shape every factor of the particular tube amp you are emulating, or create a completely new sound. The Manual is very straightforward, and not insanely long like the manual for my digitech 2120. I'm not gonna give it a 10 for "ease of use" but that's not something I necessarily want. Any so-called "plug and play" amp is gonna limit your tone to a certain pre-determined sound, and I like to tweak every little factor of my sound. This is also why I like rackmount setups. One complaint I have is that the Effects loop is NOT PROGRAMMABLE!! this is why I don't use it, I just go straight from the right output of the PSA-1 into the input of my 2120 which allows me to control all levels, solo boost and gives me additional EQ where necessary.

Here's my rig: Ibanez S540fm and RG7621 >> Dunlop Hendrix Wah >> PSA-1 >> Digitech 2120 (preamp sections bypassed) >> stereo out to my tubeworks Mosvalve 962 power amp. I love this power amp with the PSA-1, in comparison to the Mesa 295 all tube I used to use. This tells me that the PSA-1 IS effectively emulating tube power, because the 295 added too much compression to it, and the Movalve 962 is perfect since it's an FET based (like the PSA-1) solid state power amp. If you get the PSA-1 seriously think about powering it with the Mosvalve, maybe a Marshall valvestate power amp, or some kind of tube power amp with high-headroom tubes like KT-88's.

It does not have any effects built in (the best preamps don't) so you're gonna want at least some kind of simple effects unit to run with it.

"Can you get the sound of your favorite artists? Well, yes, but I use my own presets primarily for originals with my band, Profane Oath (www.profaneoath.com). I usually used a modification of the recto preset or the "metallica" preset, with distortion in the punch and crunch knobs. I have found that for ultimate low end response (which this unit does well) you can't have saturated gain, especially with another guitarist. My lead tone is very Petrucci-ish, creamy fluid sounding with a hint of analog delay.

That said, I am building a bunch of my own presets based on different artists like early and later Megadeth, Iced Earth, SRV, Cream bluesbreaker, Iron Maiden Plexi, Black Sabbath and they are VERY accurate. One thing that I REALLLY like is the "input" knob which acts alot like the volume knob of a guitar, controlling the output.. and its programmable. That lets me dial up the sound of say a recto being pushed by the lower output guitar like a les paul or something. very cool. I do with it had more than 50 presets for the user to work with, but realistically that's probably plenty. With enough tweaking and research as to the rigs of ANY artist. also, some reviews have said this thing can't get a really clean sound, which is ridiculous, you just have to roll off the "input" knob... of course you can't get a clean sound if the input knob is set to where a set of EMG's would be.

Okay, let get away from these questions I'm supposed to answer (which seem to be more geared to an effects unit and not a preamp), and talk about why this thing sounds good, in my estimation. I have used digital modelers, Johnson millenium and Line6 and the PSA-1 sounds much better, because it is not a "digital modeler". Instead it uses FET's (similar in their signal response to tubes) to simulate the entire signal path of a tube amp.. pre and power. This allows it to simulate not only the sound of various tube amps, but also the dynamic attack and feel.

Anyway, I am more than happy with the tone of this unit, after 3 months of tweaking, rehearsing and gigging. My bandmates agree.

I haven't had it long enough to make an informed judgement. It is well built, and since it's SS less chance of failing.

no experience here.

I play prog-metal, it's the perfect match for my style and rack setup. I have owned varous heads (Triple recto, carvin Legacy, JCM 900) and rack preamps (Marshall JMP-1, Bogner triple giant) and this thing with the Mosvalve 962 is the best tone I've ever had, with great versatility. I'm always getting compliments on my tone.

Rather easy to dial up good sounds. I must say I was a bit confused by the knob labels, until I used them. Once you play with it, it becomes very clear. Midi mapping is easy as well.

Ok I hate reading other player's setups in here, but I should at least explain what the other equipment around it is. Rack looks like this: Psa-1 > BBE Maximiser > Line 6 Echo Pro > Mesa 50/50 power amp, with both outputs "Y"-ed together into one 2x12 closed back speaker cab, also a mesa. I play a PRS singlecut, and a Frankenstein Vantage I've rebuilt with PRS pickups and new hardware. I bought this to replace the previous pre I had, a pod pro (I don't know what I was thinking.) Before that I had a mesa Formula preamp. This has more sustain and tons more life and reaction to pick dynamics and fingering. The heavy distortions are very pleasing, and the cleans range anywhere from shimmer to spank. Does this sound exactly like the presets namesakes? no. no matter what I do, I always find it sounds like itself a little. but it does sound killer all it's own. if you're looking to sound like something, go buy that amp. if you want to generate very good tones on your own, get a psa-1. it's hella cheaper than the triaxis, and sounds 90% as good.

it's damn near bulletproof. Hell yes I gig without a backup.

never dealt with them. I did however like how fast they shipped out my order to the store. 4 days! Who can beat that?

My rack grows and grows every 6 months. I plan on adding a rack tuner and a mod pro from line 6 (I like their effects simulators, just not that damn pod.) I use the sansamp midi mouse to control both the psa-1 and the echo pro. very easy to setup, and nice stompbox format. This thing is core for great tone. it's warmed up nicely by the mesa power amp, as I have the outputs "Y"-ed together, I can dial up slight power tube breakup, and that helps the tone as well. I've heard this thing goes best with a solid state amp, and I disagree. I play all original music with my band, and this always makes its mark on the tone. If it were stolen, I'd curse the jackass that stole it, and buy a new one. If it were destroyed (being run over by a tank is the only way I see) I'd replace it without hesitation. Damn fine.

Very easy to use by starting off with the high-quality presets. It'll take some time to tweak your own sounds, but well worth it.

Gibson Les Paul Standard into the PSA-1 straight into a PA System. Finally, I have found the tone and clarity I've been looking for. If you're looking for no mud, excellent distortion, and clarity of all your notes, this is it. I'm a tone freak & very difficult to please, but this has met & exceeded my expectations.

Yes. Very reliable.

Perfect.

It's very easy to use.

Sounds good .I use two different channels.A clean Fender and a dirty Marshall.If you like heavy music it's good for that.The presets are good if you like The Who.I give it a nine because nothing is perfect.

I dropped it and it didn't break.It was a pretty bad fall.

Haven't had to deal with them.

I give it a ten because,I dropped it and it didn't break.By the way,I don't work for Tech21.