Tech 21 SansAmp PSA-1 Preamp

I play an Ibanez S540 w/Dimarzios or Ernie Ball Luke model or my Fender American Strat w/Van Zandts through the PSA-1. My power amp is a Mesa Boogie 50/50into a BBE 482 Sonic Maximizer and I use a TC Electronic G-Major for effects and all are controlled with my Rocktron Midi Mate. They are all wired with /George L cables. I use Carvicn Legacy 2x12 cab w/Celestion 30's.
This unit will cover just about any music style you could imagine. Can go from Fenderish super clean(there's actually a preset called Fender Super Clean) to over the top Mesa Dual Rectifier sounds. And they're pretty convincing too. This preamp only gets noisy when you turn the gain way up as does any other amp. Generally it is very quiet though. And the distortion can be very brutal but sensitive at the same time to the volume control on the guitar. Many of the factory settings may go a bit overboard on the gain, but you can use the volume knob on your guitar to control that a bit. You can always adjust a preset to your liking and reduce the gain and save it. I like the fact that you just have to turn knobs to get your sound, just like regular amps. The knobs may seem to be a bit tricky to figure out at first but it all makes sense.
My favorite clean presets are the Fender Twin and the Mesa clean. For distortion presets, well... they all rock. Especially the Mesa sounds. I own two other Mesa amps and the PSA-1 has more gain, if you can believe that. The Marshall settings are cool too, but I don't really care for the Marshall sound.
There are so good many sounds in the factory presets alone and you have the ability to tweak 'em all. And it's all controllable via midi.
They recommend powering up this unit with a solid state amp because using a tube amp will make it sound too compressed. I don't know about that, sounds pretty awesome with my Mesa 50/50. I tried connecting straight to the PA and it sounded pretty good there too.
This unit fits all my needs and then some.

This is a very versatile preamp unit. 49 factory presets and 49 user presets. User presets are a cinch to store. The unit looks cool too. I wish it had more room for preset storage. 49 doesn't seem to be enough. All in all a real versatile amp that can cover a whole bunch of styles. I play mostly rock and modern pop music.

Looks pretty reliable. no tubes, so no worries. Never broke down on me yet. But I always bring a back up to any gig regardless.

I've been playing guitar for almost 20 years. And I'v had all kinds of gear thoughout the years. I've always liked Mesa Boogie sounds but couldn't afford a Triaxis. I read the reviews on HC about the PSA-1 and thought I'd give it a try. If the Triaxis is the reigning king of preamps, then this must not be far behind. It is just as versatile and costs way less. I would definitely get another one if it got lost or stolen.

this is an update of my review that i posted a while back. my opinion of it hasnt changed, but since my last review i've gained a lot more experience.

Since my last review, 2 new things have been added to my rig: an outboard eq courtesy of my new TC Electronic G Major (read my new review for it!) and a proper poweramp. i bought a jcm 900 head and cab, and am now running the psa-1 into the fx loop return of the head, effectively bypassing the head's preamp section and making it into a mono poweramp.

i'd just like to say that with the help of these new items, the unit has REALLY come into its own. particularly with the added control of the mid frequencies that the parametric EQ of the G Major gives me.

i'm more psyched than ever about my tone. i can honestly say that this thing DOMINATES 99% of all the tube amps ive tried, the last 1% being a couple of presets on my friend's triaxis. i URGE you to try one of these, or even better... buy one. and i urge tube purists to wake up and smell the FET's.

how difficult is it to turn knobs and push a 'save' switch with a pick? could be a problem for finger pickers, i suppose.

what is difficult, and quite the pain'dela arse, is that there is no bypass except for patches 00 and 50. i always like to a/b the effected and uneffected sound - how else do you know what the darn box is really doing to your tone? they could have at least put a jack in the back for a bypass foot switch. pretty lame imgpo. it really sucks to scroll from #78 to #00 just to check yer tone.

my other beef is the limited number of user presets considering the vast sonic capabilites and sensitivity of the unit. this unit is very dynamic and needs to have it's own patches for each one of yer guitars. what sounds great with a strat can't be used with a humbucking axe, and that's as it should be considering the goal is a range of expresive tone from your personal attack. i am a tweaker and love to fiddle and create tone and for this the psa-1 is excellent. the problem is... you've only got 49 spots to store your creations without midi swapping.

now the good stuff. this thing sounds so good and is so easy to create great sounds through - just twist the 8 knobs and drive away! i bought this to compensate for the weakness of the ods and distortions in my korg a-3 and it sure does the trick. i call it the 'dial a crunch', because there are so many ways to tweak your tonal color. too bad there aren't more patch locations to keep more of them.

my work horse axes are: an 80's white jap strat with stacked double coils equipped with splitters and a floating kahler bridge with the nut lock off, a 90 sunburst gibson howard roberts(like a semi-hollow f-hole les paul) that someone put a stop tailpiece on, a 60's or 70's block neck jaguar that was refinished in orange and gold glitter by and had humbuckers added by my old pal homesick james - (i have added a single coil in between that can be phase reversed and the mix is controlled by the alternate tone/vol of the jag - one for the single the other for the humbucks. each p/u can be turned on/off and reversing the phase of the single has a subtractive effect as you roll it up.) i bought this primarily for recording, but it also sounds great though my 70's fender deluxe reverb and my seymour duncan 100w convertible. my recording is monitored through makie 1604 and tascam tm-d1000, powered by a hafler pro1200(great amp! get a hafler!), out of tannoy 6.5s(sweet).

this thing sounds great! i wanted a better preamp and i got one in the psa-1. this unit has 98 patches - 49 factory, 49 user, and 00 & 50 as bypass. i find the factory settings useless due to their vast gain range. traveling from patch to patch is way too extreme without backing your volume pedal amp or mixer down. too bad i can't write over these.

i don't judge by 'it sounds like a 'blah, blah' it ain't a 'blah, blah' and no two players hands can make one good single 'blah, blah' sound the same. i just want it to make the sounds that I like. i don't care about biting anyone elses sound verbatim, but if you do, i'm pretty sure you can get close with this.

i tweak patches for each guitar and this unit responds with great sensitivity to the personality of your pickups. i like the depth that tube amps offer, and this unit gives you vast abilities to construct the quality of that depth.

never let me down so far...

would i gig woithout it? my amps sound good all by themselves.

called them once about thier compatible midi pedal. they were nice.

i play blues, reggae and soul - with an occasional clash tune thrown in. i've been playing guitar for 23 years and am still learning. recently i have been studying with jazz maestro larry luger. i have a project studio with both outboard gear and computer based softsynths - gigastudio and reality both rock!

i'm not sure if i'd get this same unit again. i needed a preamp for a good direct sound and my pal, r&b/jazz player gil parris, sold me this one.

this unit sounds great. it does what it should.

my next tool in my arsenal looks like it's going to be the 'adrenalinn' - that little blue box sounds nasty - it's either prove of intelligent life on earth, or we've already been invaded by the ufos!

I suggest you just pick a preset u like and tweak it. The controls on this are VERY unique and the manual does explain how to use this thing, but I can imagine some moron discarding the manual and claiming they can't get a good sound from this. This is unlike any programmable preamp I've ever used and it does take some getting used to, so be patient, read the manual and you'll find your sound.

This thing sounds great, u just have to know how to use it. At first I used it with a mesa power amp and mesa 4X12 cab. I LOVED the sound! my god, the distortion sounds in this are unreal! The cleans are good enough for me, but I can imagine some tube purists bashing the cleans... whatever. I think the difference in the tones u can get in this unit and the amps they emulate are so miniscule, that only YOU will hear it, if you really look for it. I got tired of lugging my heavy rack, with the power amp and effects, big heavy 4x12 cab, etc... Now, I just plug the PSA-1 into the P.A and get a consistantly awesome tone. A good effects processor and a sonic maximizer for that extra sizzle and low end(if u want it; this thing has plenty of low end)and you're all set. Well, at least I am.

it's solid state... so far so good

n/a

I'm implimenting the less is more approach, or maybe I'm just to lazy to move all that heavy gear around, but I know what I like and thats the sound of the PSA-1 direct through the P.A. I'm very satisfied with my tone and i can't imagine using anything else. To those who haven't tried the psa-1 through a P.A, try it.

You have to get use to how each knob works with one another, But its not hard.

I've used a few guitars and poweramps with it. Also a couple of different cabs. It does a decent clean, Rock distortion, and Metal distortion.

It seems soild.

They respond to Emails, and answer some questions.

Like I said, it sounds pretty decent, but didn't get the sound I wanted. It would get in the ball park of what I wanted, but just wouldn't do it. It was also kinda sterial sounding. Its not bad, just not for me.

It is easy to use because it is analog, but you often really do have to tweak because of the interaction between controls. There are multiple factors that affect gain - buzz, punch, etc - and a little can go a long way on each setting. So it's not that it's "hard", it just that it is versatile. To my ears, versatility is actually missing from digital emulators - they have lots of patches and variables but the there is a "sameness" that permeates each digital patch (Boss, Line 6, Yamaha - it doesn't matter).

You can sound like 20 different setups with the PSA-1 if you want. I think this is great!

This is where the unit shines! If you want to see how much, do a side by side comparison to a Line 6 or Boss (or whatever) unit and you will be amazed.

I recorded an identical slow A minor blues progression (with some slow solos and a couple of quick legato licks to showcase both sustained notes and chords along with some fluid lines) on separate tracks in Motu Digital Performer. I used a Line 6 POD, a Boss GT-6, Yamaha DG Stomp and the PSA-1. I recorded dry signals, adding an insert reverb after on one set of tracks. I also recorded a second set of tracks with the internal effects of the Digital amp emulators to showcase their best sides as well. I used a TC G Major with the Sans Amp in the latter set.

WOW! WOW! WOW! The digital emulators all sounded OK, but the Sans Amp track seemed to literally JUMP OUT OF THE SPEAKERS at me. It sat beautifully in the track, required no EQ boosts or cuts and sounded so present and full. Ballsy and clear. Each note rang true and clear in a chord, and I could use distorted jazz chords without farting out and sounding mushy.

To ensure it wasn't bias (remember, I DO own digital equipment and an NOT a "digital basher) I played the recordings to a dozen listeners separately and did NOT tell them that I was testing direct recording gear - I just asked them which track sounded the best. All 12 people independantly selected the Sans Amp track!!!!! Effected and un-effected!!! It was immediate. Everyone said immediately when they heard it. "Oh yah, that kicks ass!" was one comment. "It doesn't sound lame like the other ones". The bassist in our band was really struck by it because he has been recording direct with PODs and was just shocked at the realism.

So why not a 10? Because I also recorded my Les Paul through a JCM 800 Mark II 50 watt head into G12-65's and THAT is a 10. You cannot replace the feel and response of tubes on fire, beating the crap out of Celestions, vibrating the walls. It makes you PLAY differently, act differently and think differently.

It also is a pain the ass to record the JCM800, hard to do at 4 in the morning, causes divorces, breaks backs, is a pain to fix etc. The Sans Amp is easy to record, does so at 4 in the morning, restores marraige vows and is light. You can get outstanding results with this. You could record 90% of your tracks with this, and use your JCM (pick yer poison!) for those special moments.

With the PSA-1, your direct recorded tracks won't sound like mush.

Had it for 7 months and no problems so far. Looks and feels very sturdy.

No experience and that is a GOOD sign.

It rocks. Whether or not it sounds like tubes (face it, a LOT of people don't know what that really means anyway). You can get deadly sounds to tape (disk) so quickly that stand out in a track - not get buried in the digital malaise.

A word to the wise. Just like a good tube amp, if you suck it will show. it is difficult to mask lousy performance with analog technology. The notes will be clear and pronounced. So are your mistakes.

Remember to not just listen to this dry. Of course it will sound dull compared to a chorused, flanged, reverbed and delayed POD or GT-6. Add a little reverb to the PSA-1 and you probably sell your POD.

My set-up is as follows:-

Shuker 6 string Bass, EMG single coils + 3 band eq wenge body, wenge/maple neck. (normal tuning)
PSA-1
TC-Electronics M-one in the fx loop
Matrix STR1500 amp
ACME low bII cab

Musical style is generally sort of hardcore, heavy, weird stuff with some funk thrown in - it's irrelevant what I play this pre=amp can handle anything but perhaps total clean and transparent sounds for Jazz/fusion, it seriously colours your sound (in a good way IMO)

In one word, this sounds WARM - very convincing tube typre sounds with real character and depth.

It can get pretty noisy on high gain patches or those with a fair amount of treble boost but not really any more than other pre's I've tried. In fact when I replaced my old set-up (which used the PSA-1) I concentrated on getting pointless crap out of the signal chain and using quality cabling, this reduced most of the psa-1 noise that I was seriously unhappy with.

This has 10 bass pre-sets to get you started with. The SVT setting is so convincing it's unreal, just tweak to your liking and you are away. You do tend to return to these pre-sets to just get an idea of how all the controls interact with each other.

Expect to spend a lot of time getting to know this pre-amp, the options are limitless (so it would seem) I've been using one for over 18 months now and still find new little nuances with the settings and interaction of the controls - it really is fantastic for bass.

Distortion - absolutely hands down the best distortion sounds you can possibly muster up for bass, the misc. pre-sets throw up a convincing Big Muff and Fuzz Face sound and making your own is a piece of cake anyway. In fact, there is so much gain available in this pre-amp that distortion sounds are far easier to get (or at least a lot less work) than cleans.

I cannot recommend this piece of equipment highly enough for bass use, particularly if you like the soud of the sansamp bass driver DI and rackmount RBI version - this has midi control and far more available distortion wise. It goes from just a mild overdrive akin to tube saturation, to full on rediculous levels of fuzz and distortion and all will maintain your low end signal integrity no problem at all.

My reason for purchasing this was to replace an Ashdown RPM-1 whose switching capabilities were useless to me (in design: not a dodgy unit). The ability to call up any number of patches for different sounds opens up a whole new world in flexibilty, something that most bass players are not all that accustomed to. I have about 10 patches in there - half of these are distortion/overdirve patches, a bit easier (and better sounding) than 5 different pedals!!

I AM USING THIS IN A BASS RIG.

See reviews below for full run down. I do however wish the fx loop was switchable via midi, I wish it had a mid control on the eq (but this is obviously just achieved by cutting treble and bass then boosting level). It's level control is applicable only to each patch, it would be very useful to have a global output level control. I wish that the controls were labelled in some sort of practical and easiily understood manner, but then that's what the manual is for ;-)

Midi swtiching/features are very good, barely any audible noise when switching and no delay whatsoever. There is some noise introduced by the "memory" operation of the controls for each different patch (expalined in previous reviews), the flashing dot to indicate where the control is in relation to the pre-set makes an annoying clicking noise untill the change is saved to a patch. This is not really a problem for me as I tend to save any changes pretty much immediatly, however if you just want to fiddle a bit half way through a gig without bothering to save patches then it'll annoy you.

Bearing in mind I use this for bass, it has two XLR outputs for a superb DI sound to go FOH and two unbalanced jack outputs (the same signal). Levels of these outputs (-10db or +4) are selectable.

This is the second unit I've had (first was stolen), and it seems pretty solid. Both were bought used and had obviously had a fair bit of use so I would say that reliablity is pretty high. All analogue circuitry should be pretty resiliant so maintenance is not an issue. Has never crapped out in any gig or rehearsal situation.

Not really applicable as I bought it second-hand and have had no reason to contact them. Would have liked to see the manual before buying but it's not available on the website, however there are samples of it being used for both guitar and bass which was very useful. Folks on the bass forum who've dealt with them have had nothing but praise for them though, in dealing with repairs and simple requests for manuals and literature. So from others feedback I'll give it full marks.

I've been playing for 7 years now, this is the best souding set-up I have come accross. As soon as I plugged it in I was grinning like a cheshire cat - made my little bedroom combo sound like an SVT!! (well as much as you can with 10 watts!)

It DID get stolen first time around and was the only piece of gear alongside the power amp that got replaced to be included in a new set-up. In fact it was the first thing I looked for.

There are some features I wished it had (see features section) but generally these would push the price up further anyway so I understand their not being included.

There are very few places in the Uk which stock these, so I bought it on the strength of reviews and the website samples. Other pre's I tried include the Ashdown RPM-1, Warwick CCL, Ampeg SVP and bass pod. It's close to the ampeg in clean/overdrive sounds available; only with the midi control there's no limits on the PSA-1. Distortion pedals soon got abandoned too.

If you are looking for a warm sounding pre-amp with real flexibilty at the press of a (midi) switch then look no further, there is simply nothing else on the market that will do it for you as far as I'm aware. This gets my full thumbs up. Look used though as a few guitarists don't like the results and sell up in favour of other pre's :-) this was half the price of any othe pre I looked at thanks to some bargain sellers so keep your eyes peeled.

I use it w/ a Washburn Dime333, B.C Rich NJ series Warlock, Fender Custom Shop Strat (one of those $1800 jobbies), and it sound incredible with all of them. Also in my rack you will find a nady wireless, rocktron intellifex, korg dtr-1 tuner and qsc power amp. Through all these and my wah and phasor pedals, this preamp sounds like a preamp should. I play all types of rock, and this thing pulls through, whether its grand funk railroad, STP, early metallica, sponge, collective soul, satriani or SRV. All presets are incredibly convincing - no cheap ultra-processed sounds like you get from a million-effects-in-one unit like a digitech rp20. Clean presets get just a tad distorted at high volumes, but i also have the input gain on my intellifex up pretty high.

This preamp is absolutely stellar. Has 100 presets, 50 user and 50 factory. Midi switching for all channels, and very easy midi mapping. Awesome amp modeling capabilities via its unique distorion breakup modeling circuitry. Sounds like a million bucks. Not lacking in anything I've tried to do with it yet, which is, um, playing through it. Record outs are very useful, large numeric display is crystal-clear even from a distance. This baby isn't tube and doesn't have to be. Used in my rack, wouldn't think of selling it.

Well, I haven't really used it as a doorstop or played baseball with it or anything, I try to take care of it, but throwing my rack around in a van has done it no harm. I most certainly would gig w/ it w/out a backup. Have yet to have any problems with it, sound quality is still absolutely cherry. Midi is also fully functional and hasn't let me down.

Got it as a floor model w/out a user manual, so i emailed sansamp and they emailed me a psd manual the next day. i call that some good service. Haven't needed to repair it, and doubt i ever will.

Been playing for eight years, tried a marshall jmp-1, mesa boogie tri-axis, floor units, rocktron gainiac, fender amps, and a couple pedals.... and i would never use anything else again. even the triaxis gets a run for its money from this bad boy, and for half the cost, you'd be silly not to buy it. I'd highly recommend checking one of these out if you want all sortsa versatility and quality. Its midi capabilities also make it superior to a lot of other gear. somethign as simple as a single-button footswitch can put you in control, or a midi controller like the rocktron midimate will make you feel like god w/ this preamp.

You get great, great presets and at the mo, I just plug and play. So on that scale, the unit should score a 10.

However.....

If you try and tweak things then it gets ugly very quickly. There are no less than 5 knobs that control the gain. These are called things like fuzz and punch etc.
Now this is great for options I guess but I have trouble with just bass, middle and treble. The sound has too much bass. Do you back off on the bass or up the treble? Then there is not enough middle, so do you up the middle or lower the bass and treble?
See the permutations you can get from just a three band eq?

On closer inspection of the manual it doesn't get any easier. Maybe it's because i'm a plug 'n' play kinda guy. I don't know. What I do know is that terms such as "this controls the low end preamp gain" and "this controls the high end post amp gain" confuse the hell out of me! It's supposed to be the key behind the Marshall tones and the Boogie tones etc. But if you can't use it then it's not very useful is it?
All I want to know is how to go from a light crunch to balls heavy screaming gain. I don't care about post or pre amp gain.
The instructions make some controls sound like EQ as it talks about bass, mid and high levels. But if this is the case, why don't they just mark them as such?
I had a bit of a tweak but get lost. I even looked at some of the settings in the book and on the webpage to get some hints but they don't help either.

If any one wants to email me and talk me through how to use them, please do!

Unbelievable!
And the reason why I don't need to tweak with the settings.
You can hear my Tech21 on my bands website at www.bornjovi.com/mp3.htm.

It imitates Marshall, Mesa Boogie and Fender and it is amazingly accurate with all of them. Just go to the Tech21 website and DL some of the audio clips. I love the all star jam where they do Schencker, Hendrix and Van Halen. Spot on!

When I got rid of my 5150 I was looking for a similar balls heavy amp. The problem with my 5150 was that the gain was causing lots of feedback problems and noise hiss (and this was with a HUSH unit!).
I wanted a Soldano but couldn't afford one. You think they are expensive in the US. Try getting one over here in the UK!
I tried a Pod and as good as it was, I could hear the digital quality and though the audience wouldn't tell. I could and that narked me.

I was purposefully avoiding rack equipment as they had never compared to true all valve equipment. Anyway, one day, a friend just sent me the mp3 "psa-hvy" and what spat out of my speaker was fierce Boogie riffing. It was amazing and had the balls that my 5150 had. I begged him to tell me what it was, expecting the words: Soldano, Custom, Boogie, $10,000 to be uttered.
He told me what it was and amazed me even more when he told me it wasn't valve. I could not tell. No way at all! And when he told me the price, well I think that was when I fainted.

At home I MIDI it up with a Rocktron Intellifex amd then run it into a hi fi power amp and a Mashall 1936 2X12 cabinet. And it sounds gorgeous. Live I go direct into the PA (which is why I don't have my own dedicated guitar power amp and use the hi fi when at home).
My guitars are an Ibanez RG570 and an Ibanez Jem 77FP.


Patch 5, Hi Gain Marshall and patch 24, Mesa Boogie Rectifier are my main patches and they are awesome.

The low end on the rectifier makes the room shake and spits out single string, palm muted runs with immense power. Imagine the riff to Bon Jovi's "Lay Your Hands On Me" and you will be there. You just won't need 6 multi tracked guitars to achieve the power! I love this sound and it allows my licks to cut through in a live setting without having to stomp on my lead channel all of the time.
Patch 5, Hi Gain Marshall has less bass and is not as 'muddy' as the typical Boogie sound. This is very Soldano - ish. Very reminiscent of Van Halen and his hot rodded Marshall Plexi. There is a Van Halen patch, 8, but that is not as good,IMO, as patch 5.

The clean settings are crystal, nay, sparkling and just cry out for lush chorus and reverb!

As I say, I have had no need to alter any of the presets. Normally the presets are wank. But these were very useable.
Likewise, I have had no call to use the bass settings so I cannot comment on them.

No problems so far.

I have emailed a number of times with questions (no doubt stupid ones) about the presets and what not. I have always had a quick and polite response. Especially from Lloyd Schwartz.

This unit should cost 100 quid more, and even that is good value.
The unit is brilliant.
It was a toss up between this and a Digitech 2120. I amnot saying it is better. No doubt the all in one of the Digitech would suit a techno phobe like me much better than farting around with MIDI and cables like I am at the moment.
What I can say is that I love what I have and amn ot wanting anything.
Any tone you want from spartling clean, to bluesy crunch, to hi gain modern rock. It is all there.
Hendrix, Clapton, Van Halen, Schencker, Metallica, Pantera. They are all there.

I found it to be simply awesome, but what does that mean if my only other previous experience has been playing through crap equipment? I don?t know you can decide for yourself here?s some of my other equipment: Marshall 8080 valvestate, Johnson JM-120, Boss VF-1, POD (forget which it was a friends, he took back), old Fender squire practice amp. I play a Carvin bolt w/ 1 humbucker 2 singles Wilkinson trem, a new Ovation tangent acoustic/electric and a Gibson SG Special. I use the PSA for direct recording using the Boss VF-1 and an old Digitech RP-1 for various effects. For live (just a jam band at parties with my brother on bass and a drummer) I run the PSA into either my Marshall 8080 or Johnson JM-120 with these amps set to be very clean with the Bass on 0, Mid on 5 and High on 0, so these are just used for power amps and speaker cabs, they provide little to no color on the sound. I also have a Mesa 20/20 rack mounted tube power amp and ran the PSA into that then into a Carvin 2-12" speaker cab. I didn?t notice much of a difference in any of those 3 setups other than how loud they could get, the Mesa/Carvin cab option was the loudest, but to my surprise they all sounded about the same and felt good when playing to me and the band.

I was able to get Marshall, Mesa and Fender dirty and clean sounds out this thing that all sounded and felt very different through all of my guitars, of yeah they also all sounded and felt great. This unit is very responsive to my attack and everything my fingers do on the guitar. It has midi control for switching channels and only takes up one rack space.

Bought used, shipped to me, so far so good no problems. I don?t gig out much, maybe a party or two a year, but use every week at my studio for the last 6 months. The guy I bought it from had it for over 2 years.

Sent an email to tech-21 wondering about how to use phantom midi power from it to power a foot switch. They replied the same day with some schematic/elect. engineering charts, I could?ve taken these to one of my local repair shops and had them make a modification to it I guess. Also tech-21 offered to make the mod for $40-50, but this would kill the warranty. I ended up just using my RP-1?s midi out into the tech-21?s midi in to switch channels.

I noticed that many people who trashed this item didn?t give details on their entire setup. The sound you get outa this baby?s gonna depend on your guitar, PSA-1 settings, power amp, speaker cabinet, effects and how you?ve got them all tweaked to work together. I used a few different amps/preamps and this one was the easiest to tweak (it?s all just turning knobs no silly scrolling through screens etc..) and took the shortest amount of time to get great sounds (just by tweaking the presents I had GREAT sounds in under 20 minutes). I love this thing and can?t believe it?s been out so long, way before all the current "Hot" amp modelers were and in my opinion the PSA smokes them all for versatility (tons of sounds, great for live and studio work), ease of use and most importantly to me the responsiveness to your pick/attack/fingers. Also it responds great to all of my guitars volume and tone knobs. I?d highly recommend this unit to anyone who understands all the parts involved in getting a great guitar sound for both live and recording environments. Look at the price that you can nab one of these used for and I don?t think you can really loose, if you don?t like it you can always sell it for what you paid if you get a good price like I think I did.

I posted the review just below this one and this is just a follow up. The follow up concerns the repair side of the service and how they are very very rude and nonservice oriented. buyer beware when it comes to repair.

I had it for five months and it crapped out. Turns out it was the internal clock and was covered by warranty...or so I thought.

I have had a change to deal with they product manager and the secretary there. One thing about this place is make sure you call between 9-5 Eastern time...they have no hours posted on their answering machine so you dont' know exactly when they are in. But I got a hold of them at 3 so that seems to be a good time.
I sent the unit out for a malfuntion and payed $50 bucks to have it shippped there for warranty work. I get a call three weeks later that is is ready but I have to pay $30 bucks. That was about enough to make me flip out but I took a breath and sent them the e-mail receipt that musiciansfriend sent to me(I lost the paper one long ago). I fax this document to them and they call me back to tell me that this is not enough. Well, why isn't it enough? She tells me I need to call Musiciansfriend and have them fax me an "official" receipt to them. At this point I tell them to just keep it...I am completely fed up with warranty crap. I have a Brian Moore go in for a 2 Month repair job(they picked up the shipping and all repairs too) and a Fender Twin for a complete fucking year didn't work. So, I get turned over to the Plant manager or the coffee boy one and he assures me that all I have to do is tell Musiciansfriend to fax them a receipt. Why should they have to get involved? He says he needs an official receipt. I tell him I got this one of their website(because they have a accounts area you can check and print out your past orders). Then he says that the document proves that I bought it there and that it is covered by the warranty I STILL need to have an official invoice. I thanked him for the information and told him to enjoy his new PSA-1. So, just remember that if your unit breaks and it probably will that have some money set aside(at least 100 bucks) so that you can get your eqipment working again. I am through with their products for this one aspect of their business. Since Fender And Brian Moore stood behind their products and incurred the charge I will be faithful to their product line. To hold a 600 dollar piece of equipment in leu of $30 repair bill is just stupid and they can keep it.

They have lost a repeat buyer. The sound was good through a Fender Twin or direct into a recorder but since they have no trust in their customers and are so cheap in their customer service\repair department I won't buy again. I was actually looking at dropping another 400 dollars on their stuff( wanted the Acoustic DI and the Tri A.C.) but will find something else with better reviews. It just goes to show that a product is only as good as the people that stand behind it and the amount they care for the purchaser.

I run a Brian Moore i.2 or a strat into this unit and both come out sounding great. I then run the sansamp into a Fender Twin amp. It can get a bit noisy in some of the metal settings but this can be taken care of by setting the output to -10db on the back panel. Brutal...I think as brutal as you could ever possibly want and the best thing is that in a push of a button you can get the cleanest clean....and all solid state at that!!!!!

This amp is very very impressive. I play many styles from originals to covers to metal. This unit covers it all. Yes it does take some time to tweak it out and make it sound good but all and all darn cool. I wish it had an off button up front but oh well.

Here is why I am writting this review, though I have wanted to write one for a while. I have owned the unit for about 8 months. I had my twin in the shop being serviced and recently bought a new amp. When I plugged my sansamp in and got ready to play is came up with the letter 'A' and no sound. I got in contact with Tech 21 and they are going to fix it. It makes me wonder how reliable this unit is. I will get it fixed and see if it makes it a year and repost.

Now they do rock in this area. I had some questions early on about midi controllers and they were very quick and very knowledgable about the ins and outs of this unit. They even told me how to get the best sound out of the unit when playing it on a combo amp such as the twin. For the repait they are going to take care of it all I have to do is send it to them. They said it sounds like a microprocessor went bad so hopefully I will have it back in a few days.

I have been playing for 15 years and this is the only distortion that I will use. I am going to purchase the Sansamp TRI A.C. just because it would be easier to carry around for small little jam sessions and what not. I am actually considering have the sansamp set inside my Twin so that it is always with me!!!!!!! Just an awesome piece of equipment for anyone who plays a lot of styles. Hopefully when it is repaired it will never break again but electronics can be very unreliable. Always do your best to play something like this though because everyone is just a little different and like different things.

I play a Fender Standard Stratocaster's bridge pickup into this fucker. I play thrash/death/black metal and am going for a fat, cutting, clear, defined, articulate, percussive, tight, and punchy distortion sorta like a dimed Plexi meets a JCM 800. Think Slayer but less boutique-ey, if you understand what I'm saying. It sounds absolutly wonderful even on tape, but it doesn't cut as much as I hoped, but I should've remembered to back up on the gain a step and add more mids and treble to the guitar tracks. As for clean, that isn't perfect, but I think a tad bit more treble and mids in the mix would make it cut more and less gain.

This is a totally solid state MIDI controlled preamp. This preamp doesn't have channels, it has presets. I wish that it had a dedicated headphone jack and a post-gain mid knob.

Listen, it's made in NYC. Do you want to fuck with that? No tubes so very little to worry about.

Never dealt.

If it were stolen, I'd buy it again instantly. I seriously wish it had a post-gain mid knob and that the knobs were aligned better (they're half a step to a whole step off).

It Is pretty hard to use...You have to Dial each aspect in precisely to get what you want!

The cleans were too high and most other sounds were sounding like they came out of a tin can! Slim! But I was using it for direct recording! I don't know what it sounds like through a good poweramp?? It must sound better considering all the good reviews?

Not good for direct recording, but maybe it's better with a full setup? I have been playing for 15 years, and am into bands like Dimmu Borgir/Soilwork/Iced Earth/etc. I have the Rocktron Voodu Valve Online which I like a hell of a lot better! And I hear the Piranha is better than that? JMP-1=Junk I heard the new Rectorecording preamp is Phat...we will see?

The PSA-1 smoked before, and although I thought it impossible, it sounds even better now! I am playing a Jackson DKMGT Guitar into the PSA-1, through a Mosvalve MV-962 and then into a Marshall 1960 4x12. The sound I get is absoulutely amazing and is huge! My band plays Metallica's cover of "The Small Hours" at gigs and when I am hitting solid drop-D in that song it sounds "none more black" - Spinal Tap

This is just an update as I have had the PSA-1 for several months now. My previous review was based soley on how it performed recording direct. I was previously playing the PSA-1 direct into a P.A. but now have upgraded my gear....read below.

No problems ever. Won't have any.

Everytime I email these guys they get back to me within a day. It is unreal. They help me with extra things like what type of fuse to get if the PSA-1 ever blew, etc. Always helpful.

I try not to be too critical of people, but when I read some of the reviews below it amazes me. It is almost like we were not playing the same gear. I agree with a guy below about the importance of additional equipment, etc. Everything along the chain has to be good. One piece (pickups, bad cord, sorry power amp, etc.) and you won't have it. Just a sidenote, I played through headphones once with the PSA-1 and hated it. Trust me, when you are going into a recording studio, etc. it sounds awesome.

I bought this for the distortion. It's BRUTAL! I play a PRS from the late 80's and a Jackson custom shop soloist. Let me emphasize something: THIS UNIT NEEDS TO BE HOOKED UP TO A GOOD POWER AMP AND A GOOD CABINET!! If you use a shitty gear with it, you will not get a good tone. That goes for any preamp. I have a Mesa 50/50 and a mesa recto 4x12 and a marshall jcm800 4x12. Quality gear= quality tone. It's a very simple concept.

I just tweak the presets and I can pretty much find any type of tone I need. the controls are very sensistive, so take it easy. It's easy to get a bad sound out of this if you don't know what you're doing. Just read the manual and the descriptions of each control. Start with a preset you like and tweak away. You'll find your sound in no time.

no problems

it's rocks......Case closed

Ok, this unit has recieved some bad reviews(probobly from a disgruntled guy who bought this and didn't know how to really utilize it; I think he even left multiple bad reviews) and I'm here to tell you that this thing rules! I use this with my mesa 2:90 power amp, my recto 4x12 and a sonic maximizer in the effects loop. My sound is HUGE!! You can get so many incredible sounds from this, you just need to match it up with the right poweramp/cab combo and a sonic maximizer for extra balls. I'm a very picky guy when it comes to my tone and I'm very happy with my setup.

I get every sound I need from this, from clean to nu metal

No problems to report

n/a

I love this unit, it's all I ever asked for. I can get all my super heavy sounds and some nice clean sounds.

It's very easy to use,just turn knobs.

I use a Les Paul Studio with stock pick ups[excellent],PSA-1 of course,Marshall power amp,and a marshall jcm 900 1960b cab.Perfect tone.I don't know what those two tube geeks below this review are talking about.I've got great tone.Very very unique and original.I've noticed tube lovers are picky as hell.Every tone I've ever thought of,I can get out of this.I'm finally happy.

I've had it for a year,no prblems.

The dude I talked to was pretty cool and helpful.

I play with a Faith No More,Primus,Pink Floydish,Mr.Bungle type feel.I'm also a huge Beatles,Doors,Frank Zappa fan.This unit is so versitle that it has inspired me in a whole new way.I've been playing for a few years and I've never been happier.Remember though,it's all a matter of opinion.

I felt the PSA-1 was OK for shredding and thrash but that I could never dial in a softer distortion or overdrive, and I spent probably at least 40 hours trying. It was always noisy/hissy and its decrescendoing sound as it would fade out would kind of crackle and sound rather solid state to my ears. Keep in mind I ONLY ever tried it via headphones, and NEVER through a cabinet -- since I was mainly interested in it for recording purposes. So while it has plenty of controls that you'd think would allow plenty of versatility I could never get a punchy sound without excess noise/hiss/crackle. As I recall, though, it's cleans weren't too bad, and the cabinet simulation was decent.

Some comparisons (all through headphones): Rockman Sustainor or XPR distortions were much smoother, less noisy and no crackle -- much more akin to what I wanted (although Rockman units have proven to be a bit bright and presence heavy for me compared to my current love the VOX Valvetronix AD120VT). POD Pro 2.0: Smoother distortions and much more flexible (but I found the POD Pro to have too much of a "veiled" sound, like putting your hand in front of your mouth when talking, and like others say it didn't feel like a tube amp to me). VOX Valvetronix (again, ONLY through headphones at this point): Creamy, versatile, smooth, tubey. It *can* do shred pretty well, but it can also do smooth OD or pop-rock, etc., and it also contains a decent set of programmable modelled effects. Granted, I changed the tubes to NOS Mullards right away but even stock this amp (through headphones) sounded great and I was able to quickly dial in very good sounds.

Solid metal chassis, plastic(?) knobs seemed quite sturdy, rack-mountable so should be pretty reliable. Always worked fine. But my experience is too limited to be of great use.

I kinda feel this unit is a two-trick pony: Noisy shred or metal and reasonable cleans. It's definitely heavy and ballsy, but IMHO pretty noisy. But even if those are the two ponies you want to ride you still might test out a different unit (like the POD Pro). Or, if you need an amplifier that can double as a direct recording device check out a VOX AD120VT or its 30W little bro' the AD60VT.

The previous review captures my exact opinion of this preamp "Still has a screechy solid state sound to it"! The distortion sounds very cheesy and you can dial everything out except the cheese. I would compare this closely to the Boss MetalZone MT2 in pedal form. Loads and gobs of distortion but always a hair off from what your ears want to hear. Sounds OK at frist but eventually you get a headache from it. I have not heard anything from this preamp that I would call good. If you like PODs and the MT2 then you probably will like this but if you like tube distortion, forget about it. Go back to the ADA MP1 because this doesn't hold a candle to it! I have played bass and guitar through this preamp and with several speaker combos to no avail.

You can do lots with this preamp, it is very versatile with many ways to connect it for playing, recording, etc.

Seems reliable but I've only had it a couple months.

Don't know..

Flat, solid state sound to screechy solid state sound. Nothing else matters. A million ways to use flat tone is still just flat tone. My solid state Crate G60 from 15 years ago actually sounds better in my opinion.

Very easy to use. Good method of programming. Just twist knobs and store.

Sound quality, depends on what you want to use it for. If you play in a cover band and need a wide variety of sounds then this preamp is for you. If you want your own perfect, defining tube tone get a tube amp. It's good for copying and getting a rough idea of what the sound should be, Still has a screechy solid state sound to it. For example the high gain sounds, at best, are reminiscent of really really bad Chinese 12ax7 tubes.

The cabinet simulator is good for DEMO quality work, don't expect fantastic tone from long hours of miking placement either. Like I said this is for a cover band guitar player.

Very dependable.

Had a problem with the MIDI out. It worked, then it didn't. Sent it to sans amp checked out fine. But still would never work after that. Just ended up using processor to control it instead of vice versa. Never gave out seems pretty indestructable.

I've been playing 15 years and have owned practically every amp it's supposed to copy, so I can say close but no cigar. I had to have something that was excellent for recording so I switched to a Soldano preamp with a Mesa 50/50 power amp for dirty and a 70's twin for clean.
Like I said if your set list includes The beatles and metallica and you don't want a perfect sounding, huge rig with morley A/B boxes and old DOD masterswitches get a PSA-1.

Ok, here's the deal: ALL YOU IDIOTS WHO FAVOR TUBES OVER SOLID STATE, GET OFF THE BANDWAGON AND OPEN YOUR MINDS A LITTLE! This is the 21st century, you don't need tubes to get a tube sound anymore. I own a dual rectifier and a jcm800 and they sit in their road cases, because I like this better. I was using a mesa 2:90 to power this, until it crapped out on me(tubes...ugh). I bought a used mosvalve power amp off of ebay, to use until my mesa is fixed and I like the way this combo of psa-1 and mosvalve power amp sound. The 2:90 sounded awesome, but i can't deal with the headaches.

It's VERY versatile. My GOD is it versatile! I get everything from a heavy ass nu metal distortion to crystal clean.

it's solid state, need I say more?

these guys are very cool!!!

with the exception of my Les Paul custom, this is the only piece of gear I've ever been entirely happy with. The key to making this unit sound awesome, is in matching it with a good poweramp and a decent speaker cab. I got the idea from another reviewer to put a sonic maximizer in the effects loop. Smart guy, it makes this thing sound UNREAL!

I primarily use Ibanez guitars and Music Man Axis.
I play all sorts of music from blues and jazz to rock to metal.
I can not believe all the sounds you get out of this little preamp. I can immitate all the other amps I have and I can not tell the difference. Either on tape or live.

The Mesa settings are amazing...I dig the Pantera setting right out of the box through the Mesa 290 power amp on Modern it straight up rocks.

Brand New. Just bought it at SAM ASH Music in PA. I can not believe all the sounds you can get out of this amp.

I have a music store in my studio, GSP-2101, Mesa Triaxis, Mesa Dual Rect, Marshall TSL, Peavey Profex, 5150 Head, etc.... If it comes out I buy it (my wife's a doctor). This amp does all of those and then some.

Only had a couple of days.

Have not had to call them yet. Warrenty rocks.

All I have to say is I can not believe all those sounds come from one amp with no tubes!!!!

Here is my setup:
Ibanez 540S with DiMarrzio Evolution in bridge
PSA1
ADA Microcab
BBE 482
TC M-One Effects Processor

My style of music: Rock instrumental (Vai, Satch) and contemporary/new age instrumental

First let me say I record direct. I don't like how the PSA sounds direct. I need to do a lot of EQ tweaking to get a nice direct sound. So I use the ADA Microcab and it makes this thing sound amazing direct. Sometimes I get goosebumps when I play this setup.

I used to have a Marshall 4x12, but I sold it. I tried using the PSA with a Hafler P3000 power amp and I just didn't like the sound that much. But in a music store, I tried it with an Ibanez Prestige S Series guitar, some sort of Mesa power amp through a Mesa cabinet and it was the most amazing sound I have ever heard. I wish I remembered the exact combo of gear I used. Anyway, the point is, with the right power amp and cabinet this thing will smoke anything on the planet.

Lately I have been comparing the PSA to two reputable amp plugins - NIGEL (works with the UAD DSP card) and Amplitube. They don't come close. Enough said.

The lead tone on this thing is so damn sweet. I used to have a Johnson Millenium (which cost over $1000) 250 head, and it sounded pretty harsh (especially harmonics). There is no harshness to the PSA. It has a very rich, complex sound. Very full. Ludicrous amount of gain. Usually I have to crank premaps all the way to come close to getting the gain I like, but I can have this thing at 75% and that is plenty!

And another thing - this thing will experience feedback much like a 'real' amp. That goes to show you how responsive its signal chain is.

If you want to hear how this thing sounds in my setup, check out my recordings at

www.guitar-dreams.com.

All recordings made AFTER Dec 2001 were done with the PSA and Microcab.

Not many people realize this, but Tech21 will provide anyone who asks, some firmware that will allow the PSA to respond to MIDI continuous controller data. It isn't an official part of the product because Tech21 says that it causes 'zipper noise'.

Anyway, at first I thought this thing was too limited, but then I realized that it truly is meant to do one thing and do it well! So in terms of a guitar preamp, it has great features (lack of effects is absolutely irrelevant)

I don't know if this is true, but I also hear you can use the effects loop to achieve an output that bypasses the speaker cab simulation in its output section. That is good if you want to use a dedicated simulator or go to power amp and cab.

And the particular type of controls this thing has are fantastic. It has two controls to mimic pre and post gain. It also has these frequency shaping controls (labeled buzz, punch, and crunch) that have quite an unusual powerful effect (similar to pre-EQ perhaps).

Anyway, enough about features - let's talk about sound.

I bought it used last year and haven't had any trouble.

They tend to be quite slow at answering emails. Quite annoying.

I have been playing about 13 years. This is my favorite sounding setup (not that I have had many). People tell me they really like my tone with this setup. Other modelers don't compare (POD,etc). They are not capable of the versatility of tone that the PSA has.

I am moving to Germany this summer and am bringing this bad boy with me!

I use a variety of guitars - Fender 68 RI Strat, Music Man Super Sport Axis, PRS Custom 22, and a Gibson Les Paul Custom. Everything sounds great thru the PSA-1. I am extremely satisfied with the cleans and the distorted patches. I run it through a Peavey Classic 50/50 eith the TC Electronics G-Major for effects. Awesome!!!

Extremely versatile. Easy to dial-in whatever you want. No effects but that is ok since the sounds aren't masked by a wall of effects. I am still not use to the lack of an "on'off" switch.

I purchased the unit used and it has never had a problem. Despite it's flawless record I would "never" go without a backup.

Immediately after purchasing the unit I e-mail Tech 21 with a couple of questions. I received a reply within the hour. Very impressively!!! They seem like a friendly bunch of people.

I also have a Carvin Quad-X preamp in the same rack but this is my main sound unit. If this was stolen or lost I would definitely get another one. I have compared this to the POD Pro and the JMP-1 and the PSA-1 blows them away. An increadible bargain when purchased used.

i bought this thing by faith, because EVERYONE at a store recommended it over the JMP-1 which i intended to buy. since i could return it, i figured what the hell.

when i first plugged this thing in, i have to say i was disappointed. the sounds were all a tad bit scratchy and harsh. i soon found out, however, that this is not an amp that sounds good out of the box. this may sound cliche, but you really do have to tweak it. i've made several killer presets, anywhere from a mesa recto without the muddiness, or a marshall jcm-900 without all the harsh treble, to a gained out, hot rodded plexi.

this thing sounds EVEN BETTER on stage than it does in the bedroom (not something you can say for most solid state units :-D). some of the harsh treble which comes through mine gets lost in the mix and it sounds really killer. i'm almost positive, though, that this treble is my fault for running 2 preamps in a row (the psa-1 followed by the preamp in my valvestate). yes, the distortion IS brutal. yes, the gain IS powerful. and yes, the clean IS beautiful. this thing can model 49 different amps so your tonal pallette from which you build your presets is just immense.

i have noticed some hiss at high volumes, but it doesnt get to me.

I thought i had written a review for this a while ago but i guess i havent. anyway, here goes:

This thing is versatile as hell. its a midi preamp with 49 user presets and 49 factory presets. its all solid state, but it uses FET's rather than transistors which allow it to provide a more organic tone. it also uses its FET's configured in a push-pull circuit like that of a class AB tube amp, unlike other solid state units. this makes the tone a lot more responsive.

NOW, what gives this thing the real kick in versatility is the use of BUZZ, PUNCH, and CRUNCH for controls. this is NOT bass, middle, and treble. these knobs adjust the amount of BREAKUP in low, middle, or high frequencies, respectively. a tight modern sound, for example, calls for LESS buzz and more punch. this allows you to rework the very tonality of the simulated amp, giving changes in character that are similar to those you would get with mods to the respective amp. this feature also allows you to shape the tone in a way that other modelling amps most definitely do not.

the way you adjust the actual amount of frequency in there is with the LO and HI knobs. my ONLY beef is that there is no mid knob. it's still possible to make a scooped or raunchy, nasal sound without it, but it requires more tweaking. adding a mid knob would make it easier.

FOR REFERENCE: my setup is as follows:
Guitars:
-Ibanez RG7420 7 string, stock
-Cort Solo w/ EMG 85 in the bridge

Poweramp/cab:
-none. i run this into the input of my marshall valvestate combo set to a VERY clean sound with the EQ knobs all at 12:00

i got this thing christmas of 2001 and it hasnt gone down on me yet. one potential problem is that there's no on/off switch. however, the manual says it's not a problem, and that recording studios that use these things leave them on 24/7 with no problem. sounds good to me. i flip off the power switch at the wall at night just in case tho ;)

havent had to deal with them yet

im really pleased with it. i've been playing for almost 5 years now. if it were stolen or lost id DEFINITELY pick up a new one. i did compare it to the marshall JMP-1, and decided against it because the marshall only makes 4 sounds, whereas this makes 49. one of those 49 happens to be a JMP-1 preset, which is a very good representation imo. again, i wish it had a mid knob but i can do without it. if you cant, you may want to invest in an EQ pedal or a rack EQ of some sort.

Very easy to setup, the sounds are great, there is basically no need of manual, although it is well written and comprehensive. I love this unit, as pretty much anything else SansAmp puts out

Excellent sound quality. It has pretty much eq tailoring (low and high) and buncha other contour knobs, what it lacks is a mid eq knob, though. Aside from that it rules.

no probs with it yet

great cust support

I play mainly metal. This amp has been a godsent - the best frigging distortion. I run it thru Peavey 50/50 classic tube power amp and it sounds killer. Some of the clean setting are not that helpful, but I bought it mainly for its distortion sound and this is great!
For the price new it might be a bit expensive, but I got mine used and I think it is a great value. Definitely easy to use and in sound quality it beats all the amp simulated effects, like the POD pro.

I use it with a gibson sg Standard with EMG-81 pickups in it.
I Play in a band called FULL COURT PRESS www.fcponline.net and we play hiphop infleuenced hardcore.
It just has a killer brutal sound or else the verry good clean sound of a fender etc.

A VERRY GOOD pre-amp, it's verry easy to save your presets, controlling it with any midicontroller...
Just say it's verry nice!!!
Has midi in/out, 2* outputs xlr and 1/4 jack.
I use it with a mesa simul 2:ninety and it souds KILLER, i previous had a Dual REctifier and i've sold it cause this setup sounds MUCH BETTER, believe me.

Good

Verry Good, they always answer your mails directly.

I've bin playing for about 6 years now and use the sansamp with the mesa Simul 2: ninety, behringher ultrafex pro sound modulizer, tc electronic G-Major, and i use a Korg DTR-2 Rackmount tuner.
My guitars are a Gibson SG Standard with EMG 81 pickups, and i gonna buy myself a Gibson LesPaul Smartwood.

The crunch is pure brutal!
I Love it..
But.. again i would give this a 10 but cannot:
Does the terms LOUD AND OBNOXIOUS white noise and hiss/hums offend anyone else?
Well, thats about all this does at "real" volumes if you even pause/break for a millisecond..
Even with my Rocktron Super C Hush and an additional gate from my compressor it does this and can not be remedied.
I am very unhappy about that!
As for clean tones..
Its pretty bad too.
Oh, they sound great! but they cant be set up to match the levels of the gains..Not unless you throw your dc mix all to heck..
So you go from blistering loud crunch to an acoustic sound that is drowned out by the drummer and singer on stage.
Real dissappointed in that too.

Even with my lower ratings, I still beleive its the absolute BEST pre amp on the market in its class.
I would rocommend it to anyone!

I would have to agree with most of the posts here on this baby!
Its is the hottest pre amp I or any of my freinds have had the chance to pleasure!
Unfortunatley, while its the best sounding unit.. and i have had almost every avbailable pre amp made in my 15 years tenure as a guitarist.. But the features are awful..
I dont want to have to MAP my presets to channels 50-55 etc.. It would be much better if the user presets were the first block of 50 and vice versa..
Big let down there..

They guys over at Kaman are pretty nice. I spent alot of time with them trying to figure out how to get thru the above mentioed issues..
Ultimately, they said there was no way around it and it was the characteristics of the unit.

They were helpful.

this is a great sounding pre amp.
I say the best!
if you can get past the problems i have with it or just dont care as much about them as i do, Then you will be one happy cat!
I highly recommend it!
As for giving this or any other unit a 10.. the unit would have to be absolute perfection in all aspects...No piece of gear will prbably ever merit such a level.
Your ears may tell you that now, but in 2-4 or even 10 years down the road.. these opinions always change as does the gear....

This is not a ten because (1) there is no "mind-to-circuitry" connection (you actually have to turn the knobs with your hand or feet) to shape your sound, and (2) the terms "buzz", "punch", "crunch", etc. aren't used much on units by other manufacturers-- but these terms ARE in guitarists vocabularies and in MHO descriptive and cool.

It is so easy to record with this. I don't have to mess with micing an amp. And most important is that there are no compromises in tone.

I consider myself a tone afficionado. Cut to the chase: This rack unit rocks my world completely. I write songs and have a pretty amazing home studio. I also have a choice collection of guitar pedals. With the PSA-1 you can dial in with fine detail just about any guitar tone that a multitude of amps would otherwise require. For the past several years, we have heard so much propaganda about having real tubes for getting the best tone. What a load of marketing crap! This unit is solid state. No tubes. It is all analog, too. It sounds extremely responsive to your playing and very organic. It can shred, do SRV, country-- any style.

My setup: My main axe is one I never heard anyone else having. It's a Ibanez Roadster (this spelling is correct). There are nonstock EMG's in there. I bought it new in 1980. It is a strat copy that I suspect was too close so it disappeared quickly (my theory-- could be wrong). This guitar goes into the Empirical Labs "Distressor" (the most awesome compressor ever made), then into the SansAmp, then into the Ensoniq DP/4 (one of the best ever delays-- by the way, it is digital and very WARM sounding; putting guitar, vocals, whatever through a bit of this will easily warm up otherwise thin sounds that are a result of recording digitally), then finally into the Lexicon LXP 15 II. You come out of the Lex in stereo at the end of this chain, and you will be in heaven. You will feel that whatever pro sound you want, you'll be able to get. There-- there are all my secrets just handed to you on a silver platter (well, maybe not all...).

I have other guitars, like a Fat Tele, and they all sound fabulous in this chain.

I might add a pedal in this chain, depending on what I'm going for. Maybe a Ross Phase Distortion, Guyatone Wah Rocker, whatever, for that special sound.

The original review for the PSA-1 appeared in Electronic Musician in October 1994. You can still buy this all these years after. Obvious to me is that this is a modern classic piece of gear and a reliable, time-tested design. I bought mine used several years ago and I have been around the world with it. It is completely reliable. I never had a problem with it.

I have never dealt with them. I guess they are in NY, NY I believe, so I'd expect an attitude.

Overall, if you are really picky about tone and have gone through various pedals searching for what will give you the sounds you want, get this for a million different guitar sounds. Get your head straightened about about needing tubes; the PSA-1 is soooo organic and responsive and tube-like. You won't miss your tube amp! This makes life sooo easy for recording. Once you get comfortable with the controls, you'll feel like god, in control of the Universe of Guitar Tones. I went through half a store load of different gear before finally finding this and I wouldn't want to play guitar without it. One caveat, though, is that I AM talking about the sound I get through the chain mentioned above. But just the PSA-1 and the Lexi coming out in stereo is heaven, so you don't need the expensive compressor to sound great with this. Overall: This thing will go down in guitar gear history!

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.

I got an Epiphone "Ace Frehley" Custom last week, so that is what I plugged into the PSA-1. To be honest, I have not put good pickups in the guitar yet, so I really didn't expect to get mindblowing sound out of the PSA-1.....I was wrong. This amp is the answer to my prayers. I have tried so many amps, effects units, etc. Pedals had good crunch but bad tone. Amps had good tone, but not enough gain. The list goes on and on. Everytime I tried out something, it didn't have enough gain. I actually had to turn the gain DOWN on this thing!

The crunch on this thing is unreal. The absolute best preset on this unit to me is #24 Rectifier. Once I turn to that, I tweak the drive button a bit and can capture Metallica's Black Album or ...And Justice for All tone. It really does sound like this thing has tubes. This thing is not an "emulator" like a POD or J-Station. It is a SOLID STATE preamp. Probably the best comparison is an ADA or Rocktron rackmount of some kind. If there are any POD users reading this, the PSA-1 can capture the Dual Rectifier setting that the POD does so well. The sound of the PSA-1 is more "in your face".

I had a Tech 21 Trademark 120 amp, and I can tell you that the combo amps from Tech 21 and this thing are like night and day. Those amps are not a "PSA-1 with speakers". You can fine tune your sound so well with this thing. The knobs PREAMP, BUZZ, PUNCH, CRUNCH, and DRIVE all help you tailor your sound. They affect your picking attack and other things in ways other amps can't change on the fly. The amp only gets noisy with everything cranked to "10". Trust me, you don't need everything up that high. You can cover any musical style with this thing. Distortion is the most brutal. I love this thing!

Brand new amp! I play a little bit of everything, and this amp covers it all. From pristine B.B. King to raging Death Metal tones, this amp absolutely covers every base. There are 50 preset channels and I think you can make 50 of your own. There is a recessed "save" button which is cool so you don't wipe out your presets, etc. Eight knobs controls on the front cover your gain, tone, etc. and there are two "up" and "down" knobs to go through presets. There is an effects loop, regular "outs", XLR "outs" and even a decibal control button. I have not dug too deep into the features yet, but there are a good amount. There is no headphone jack, but I think plugging into the "out" covers that. The unit is very small. In fact, when I opened the outer box from Musician's Friend, I thought they sent the wrong thing. The box was so small that I thought they sent me a footswitch or something. Very light. Surprising, since it sounds like it has a pack of tubes in there. As far as missing features go, I would really like to see them include footswitches with the unit. Even if it is the cheap one. Also, I wish there was reverb built-in....but, that would probably ruin the unit and jack up the price. Probably better to just buy a separate one. Manual is small and simple but you really don't need much more than that.

TECH 21 stuff seems to be real solid. I was a bit paranoid when I opened the box because the "up" button was recessed at bit. But when I pressed on it, it popped right back into place. I think it moved a bit during shipping. It is a nice solid little box, and I can't imagine it every breaking down, etc. I guess you can only "wait and see" with stuff like this.

I have been in contact with someone at TECH 21, and he always has responded to my emails when I had questions about my TRADEMARK 120. When I decided I wanted a PSA-1, the company was real helpful in telling me what power amps would be good with it, etc. By the way, people say this things smokes through a P.A. system.

I pretty much know right away if I am going to keep something for the long haul. This amp has the reliability of solid state amps I have owned with the tone of a good overdriven tube amp. I know that you can't capture the sound of a tube amp completely, but I was really surprised at this thing. I researched this thing to death before I bought it, and downloaded soundclips, reviews, etc. Almost everyone who buys this thing loves it and thinks it is worth the money. While researching, I found out that a lot of famous people use this unit. Geddy Lee from Rush has been using one for his bass sounds for years. If you want a great sounding unit right out of the box without a lot of tweaking, etc. then this thing is for you.

Update to an earlier posting. This unit never stops amazing me. Here is my current signal path... Parker guitar - PSA-1 - effects processor (Behringer DSP1000P Virtualizer Pro) in the loop - BBE - Carvin VT50 tube amp (in the power amp in, only using the power amp (EL84) not the pre) - Marshall mini stack (looks like a small full stack with two Celestion G10L-35 speakers). This set up is absolutely amazing. I have A/B this with many different setups including the Carvin VT50 by it self and the PSA blows everything else out of the water. This rig is simply the best I have ever heard. Spanky Fender clean, rich clean with a little hair, JC120 clean for funk or jazz, blues in every color, SRV, EJ, Hendrix, Old school rock, New Rock, Metal... everything!!! I would gladly put this system up against anything in a blind test. A friend with a Bogner tried it and dialed up a tone he thought was very Bogner like but better !!! This is the most versatile and tuneful system I have ever heard. Not only is there a million great tones in the PSA-1 but it responds so well to volume control and picking dynamics that there is infinite variations within each patch from your guitar. I can go from a nice almost clean rhythm sound to a searing SRV lead tone using only the guitar volume knob and picking dynamics. I no longer have a need for tube amps!!! This sounds better. Well I am using a tube power amp because I like the sound. Did I mention this this sounds great for bass and recording. I have been searching for my tone (SRV, EJ, Via, VH, Ford, Knoffler, me, more...) for 15 years and here it is. I think the G.A.S is finally over :>) Try one out and give it some time. I was not that impressed when I first got the unit but after some tweaking... WOW. Note: there are a lot of variations in this unit, you only need to more the knobs a little to have a whole new and great sound. This unit is the shit my friends, try it. Thanks.

kfa888@hotmail.com

Never had an issue... can't say that about the Line 6 stuff i have had!!!

Don't know :>)

Awasome.

It does take an effort to use this unit; it is not set up like your typical amp/preamp. It's not a problem though, I find that if you start with the presets and tweak away, you'll find your sounds.

I'm using this with a Mesa/Boogie 2:90 power amp, a BBE sonic Maximizer and an old Alesis Quadraverb. My cabinet is an old Marshall 4x12 with EV speakers. I got this preamp to replace my Mesa triple rectifier that was loaned to a friend and then accidentally destroyed by a rowdy crowd and an overzealous bouncer. Anyway, my wife (god bless her) went to Sam Ash Music and consulted with one of the sales people and he reccomended the PSA-1. For the first few weeks, I didn't have a power amp, so I ran it through my P.A and it sounded insane! Finally, I got a mesa 2:90 power amp and could not believe how tremendous this thing sounded! I prefer this preamp/power amp combination over my old triple recto(R.I.P). I play in a Hardcore band and this thing gives me all the distortion I need and then some. I usually just use a tweaked version of preset 28 (a mesa setting called too much gain), but I also like the Marshall plexi setting. My guitars are Les paul standards and customs with emg's in them. All I know is that my setup sounds great.

It seems pretty reliable, it is solid state.+-

never had to deal with them.

I love this thing. I've been playing for over 15 years and this is by far the best tone I've ever gotten. This is only my opinion, so check it out for yourself.

This is a response to the rant below concerning solid state vs. tubes in pre-amps. I repair, mod, and build clones of vintage amps as a hobby and occasionally make a little cash in the process. I do not work for Tech21, but I couldn't let this blatantly ignorant bash slide. Let me tell you guys, the only place tubes make a large differance in sound for guitar is in the power amp. It is the interaction between the output tubes, transformer, speaker, and power supply that makes a tube amp rock - not the pre-amp. When is the last time you listened to a pre-amp (tube or not) direct . . . without a speaker or power amp. What do you hear? A thin irritating buzz. It is the power amp that gives an amp the thick, punchy, heavy sound. A __properly designed__ solid state preamp through a __properly designed__ tube power amp is nearly indistiguishable from an all-tube unit.
I do not own a PSA-1, but I record in a studio that uses one. I agree, the Fender cleans sounds just aren't as "bouncy" and "full" as a real Twin. I believe this is due to the compromises that had to be made in the circuitry for it to also have a great distorted sound. But once you add just a touch of dirt (all the way up to Metallica grind) it sounds FANTASTIC . . . as long as it is being pumped through a good power amp and speaker combo. I know that Tech21's instructions tell you to use a solid state power amp, but this is wrong (in my opinion). We use a either a modded Marshall SL-X FX return into a variety of 4X12's for distorted tones, or a Boogie Classic 50 into a 2x12 open back cab loaded with Jensens for cleaner stuff. It sounds like GOD . . . much better that the Marshall pre in the SL-X. As soon as I convert my stuff to .WAV's it post a couple.
I think most people that have problems with the PSA-1 either don't take the time to learn to operate it or are trying to plug it into the preamp input of an amp. It will sound like crap in front of another preamp.
I challenge anyone on this board to do an A/B test. I will bet that as long as you keep the tones a little dirty (what the PSA is designed for) your fingers and ears will be unable to distiguish between a __properly set up__ PSA-1 and a tube preamp.
Unlike the other persons post, I will give my real email for comments. If you agree (or disagree), send me your comments at ballsybottom@yahoo.com .

If you are familiar with Combo amps, then you'll find this really easy to use. Get to know the different characteristics - given the names of buzz, crunch, punch etc. - and you'll find it very easy to get the sounds you like. The manual is very easy to understand and will help you get to grips with the programmable and MIDI aspects of the unit. I would have given this a 10 if there was a Mono output option.

I use an Epiphone Les Paul Standard, and a Digitech 2120 for the effects only (the digitech has its own preamp which just didn't do it for me. so I bypass it).

No-one believes me when I say it doesn't have any valves!! I find it very easy to create sounds ranging from bluesy Hendrix/SRV tones to driving rock tones to saturated metal tones. On the cleaner side, I can have glitzy bright sounds as well as smooth, warm tones. I play many different styles - it seems that whatever you play, you can get it out of the PSA-1.

Hasn't done a single thing wrong yet.

Wouldn't know.....which is a good thing!

I love the versatility of the PSA-1, it's the only preamp I need to play a plethora of different styles. I've owned it for nearly 2 years and it hasn't let me down. I would definitely use my insurance money to buy the same unit, if it were stolen or lost. Like I said, I would give it a 10 if I could have a Mono output.

The PSA-1 is basically set up like a guitar amplifier, although I noticed it does require a bit more effort to dial in a new sound from scratch than my Fender. Then again, it can produce a much larger variety of tones. That said, operation is very straight forward. You have eight knobs and you twist them until you like what you hear. Saving patches is easy, although my unit was inexplicably shipped with some weird settings (pots were disabled, write protect was turned on). I just reset it to factory settings and everything was fine from then on.

I use this with a Gibson Nighthawk, a Fender P-bass, and a Danelectro 12-string electric. One of the reasons I like it so much is because it has settings that work very well with bass guitar. I have it plugged straight into my Mackie 1402 VLZ. From there, it's into my PC via an M-audio Delta 44 sound card. An Alesis MidiVerb IV is patched into the Mackie's send. It sounds pretty sweet on all settings I've tried. Some of the distortions are noisy, but then again so are guitar amps so no points off for that. One inexplicable thing is the factory patches 48 and 49. When you scroll past those, make sure your levels are down or else you're liable to blow your speakers. Why they programmed these particular presets I'll never know. Overall, I'm in amp heaven. I sold my Peavey Stereo Chorus 440 last week, and I'm selling my Fender Hotrod because I don't need it any more. The PSA-1 doesn't sound exactly like the Fender, but it comes darn close.

I have had it for about a week, so I can't speak to the reliability yet. Seems like a pretty solid unit, I'm pretty confident that it will be in my rack for a good long time.

I did e-mail Tech 21 support about the first and only problem I had with being unable to save patches. They responded in a timely manner and their solution worked beautifully. So far, so good.

I play all kinds of music, from indie pop, to punk, to 60s garage rock, to reggae or whatever I feel like that day. This unit seems to cover the spectrum quite nicely. It really is like having a collection of expensive amps right in your rack. I was hesitant about replacing my "real" amp with a "preamp", but now I see that this is not just a preamp. Not only that, if I ever get into another band, I can just slap my PSA-1 into a hardshell case, pop it on top of a Tech 21 PowerCube 60, and bam! I can go live, and I'm already dialled into my favorite tones. Plus, it will be cheaper than buying a new amp. Overall, this is one of the best pieces of gear I have ever bought. I would definitely replace it if lost or stolen because I've never heard anything else that can do what it does. I can jam the full on Black Sabbath riffs while my 20-month-old son sleeps upstairs. That, and there's no tubes to replace! I've been playing guitar for 24 years, and I can tell you, the PSA-1 is a keeper.

I know quite a bit about audio electronics, so I just thought I'd take this time to explain why the PSA-1 doesn't have a mid EQ. It uses a different type of tone circuit than most amps. The traditional tone circuits found on Fenders, Marshalls, and the like are limiting in that they cannot actually provide any midrange boost. That's right, even if you turn up the mids all the way, turn the bass and treble all the way down, and boost the volume to compensate, you will NOT actually boost the middle. That's because of the way this tone circuits operates. The bass and treble knobs also affect the midrange, and since you can only cut, not boost, there is no way to boost the midrange. Also, this also makes fine tuning your sound more difficult, because any adjustment to one tonal range will also affect the one next to it, and you are limited with what you can do with the EQ. The main reason this type of circuit is used is because it makes simple adjustments, like rolling off the treble for a jazz tone or cutting the mids out for a metal tone, easier. The tone circuit on the PSA-1 is a bit more complicated to use, but it is far more versitile. The bass and treble controls can both cut and boost, and they only affect the bass and treble, respectively, not the middle. The way to change the mids is by boosting or cutting the highs and lows and turning the volume knob to compensate for the change in overall leval. The advantages of this circuit are that you can boost the midrange and it allows for far more flexiblilty in terms of perfecting your sound through the use of EQ. The disadvantage is that it takes a while to get used to and isn't as good for quick changes, although with practice it is just as simpleand fast to use as a normal EQ. Hope this clears up any confusion about the EQ.

Easy, read the manual to see what's up.

I hate writing reviews but this unit is so good I thought I better :>) I have a totally wacky setup right now because I am really set up for recording and not live so I an using a combination of stuff to get a live sound and have really stumbled across something. I have had my PSA-1 for about a year now. Here is my setup... Parker guitar (awesome), Tech21 PSA-1 (a cool purple one), Berhinger effect processor in the loop of the PSA-1, BBE (love those also) into a Fender Blues Junior. The Fender does not have a poweramp in so I have to run in right in the pre. I can't believe my ears!!! What the *%$#! I can get some amazing, thick, 3D, sustaining, blues, rock, hard rock, metal... pretty much anything I want. I am a certified gear nut and swap gear all the time to try different stuff so I have tried almost everything, this unit (as everyone else will tell you) is amazing. The only place I could knock the PSA-1 is in it's truly clean sounds. Not as rich and articulate as some tube combos including the Blues Junior. This may be the setup I am running. I am going to look for a 100 watt tube combo 2-12 with poweramp in or a 4-10 cab and power amp and see just how good this can get! I have used it for recording and it does a great job there also. Much more real and dynamic than my POD and other Pre's. Speaking of dynamics this is one of the most dynamic units I have ever used. You can use a fairly distorted sound and switch your guitar to a milder pickup config and roll off the volume and in most cases get a great clean sound. Not the muddy rolled off treble sound you usually get. The unit itself has a huge range of tones and then coupled with the control from your guitar you can go from spanky clean to raging distortion and never touch anything but your guitar. I love that! Want more? This thing is awesome at bass sounds. I can get better recorded bass sounds from this than miking some top brand bass amps (and I know how to mike!!!). Great distorted bass sounds also. Bottom line, buy one and never sell it. This unit has so many different things it can do and do them all well your crazy not to get one. At the $350 you can get them for used nothing else in any price range will do so much for your tone on so many levels. Great for blues, country, jazz, metal (crushing distortion and sustain), pretty much everything except maybe super nice Fender twin like tones. I have never found anything that quite duplicates a good old twin for that good old twin sound. You can however toss all your Mesa's, marshals, Orange's, Hi Watt's, Blue's, everything but the Twin and maybe a Dumble :>). Seriously one great unit. I don't write reviews and have had so much equipment it takes a lot for me to be inspired to do so. I was not all that thrilled with the unit when I first got it and thought is was like a nice distortion box until I spent some time with it. This is an indispensable tool for many things. Great unit, great sounds, and bullet proof to boot. Nuff said.

Yep

Not needed

$350 for all this thing will do... get outa town man.

I love this thing. In my opinion, it has the most articulate and BRUTAL distortion of any preamp out there. The only thing that can match or beat it would be the mesa triaxis, but I refuse to dish out that much money for just a preamp. I play in a metal/hardore band and I needed an amp with crazy, heavier than heavy distortion. I walked into guitar center after a few bong hits(I don't reccommend making any major purchases while high, but in this case, I'm very glad I did) and asked the guy,"what's the heaviest distortion based preamp you've got?" He took me to see the PSA-1. I still can't believe there are no tubes in this thing!! I power it with a mesa simul 2:90 power amp and also use a bbe sonic maximizer to add even more sizzle. I run this all through a mesa recto 4x12. I am 100% happy with my setup. I read some guy trashing this thing, saying that the ones leaving the good reviews were all tech21 employees. What an asshole. He's probobly running it with some crappy amp or something. Anyway, I don't work for them and will tell you that this thing rules! Oh, I forgot to mention the clean sounds! Yep, they're pretty cool too, although I must admit to being more of a distortion guy, so I can't be an accurate judge as far as clean sounds go, but I know what I like, and this I like.

If you're looking for a preamp that goes from clean to metal, this is the puppy for you. You won't believe the variety of sounds you can get from this thing!

no problems yet.

These guys are so polite and helpful, and they really know their products, inside and out. If you don't believe me, just give them a call and you'll see. The kings of customer support!

I've been playing for about 18 years and I've owned a lot of guitars, amps, effects, cabs, etc. As far as amps/preamps go, this is the wisest investment I've ever made. The only other amp I've been this happy with was my mesa tremoverb, that was stolen from a club. I was going to get another one, but decided to check out the PSA-1 which was suggested to me by Kenny Hickey (Type O Negative). He said he loved his PSA-1, so I checked one out and the rest is history.

Very easy to get so many sounds. The presets are so nice I won't have to make too many patches. I got no manual and will never need one.

I have a Ibananez RG going right into the PSA-1 with my Digitech RP-20 in the effects loop at 50/50. The RP-20 also changes patches on the PSA-1 through a MIDI cable (Very Cool!) The PSA-1 then goes into my BBE Sonic Maximizer and then into my Electrix Repeater, and then right into my bands Carvin PA with 15" Avatar Cabs. The distortion is so awesome, I can tweak lots of eqs on my Digitech processor if desired for even more control on the sound. The clean is just amazing. With my effect processor I actually use tubes to give it some extra warmth and to make the volume as high as the distortion patches. I have a nice Ampeg Reverberocket tube amp with a killer clean that I no longer use. (One less thing to drag to shows) I've never had such great guitar tone and I'm not even using a guitar amp for now.

Bought it used and it still looks perfect. Solid state so I feel very comfortable using it.

never dealt with. They had sound samples of the unit on their website and even short songs. That is a major plus! All manufacturers should do that. Not everyone has a huge music store to play with everything nearby.

This is one of the gems I will have for a long time. So many sounds, I picked five presets that I programmed to my RP-20 (Mesa Clean, Rectifier, Too Much Gain, Pantera, and Metallica) if this product was limited to just one the distortion patches it would be worth $350 to me. I bought a ToneBone Hot Brittish and a Soldano SP-77 before this and this can match them both and get hundreds of other sounds, and its midi controllable. I like this so much I actually got my lazy ass to write a review for it. Im sure the actual amplifiers sound better, but for the price I paid, the sound is amazing. And I can keep a whole studio of amplifiers in a convenient 1-space rack. Fantastic Value.