Custom Audio Electronics 3+ SE Tube Preamp

3 chanels,1 bright switches for each chanel and a eq section. very versatil preamp y play blues-rock, heavy metal and pop.
this unit do all the work.

first chanel is the clean one , it is the best clean sound i ever heard, the clean is perfect and it reacts very good to effect pedals.
the preamp its a klittle bit noise i run it with a vht power amp but with a noise gate the problem ts over.
2 chanel: for me its an overdrive it depends in the amount of gain that you put it you can also clean the chanel by turing the volumen down.
3 chanel: its the heavy channel, i like this a lot because you can control the mids with the bright switch and the treble knob.
One of the best distortions i ever play.

when ups knock my door there where things that sounds from inside of the preamp i open the up chasis and there where 5 screws rolling around! i put the screws in ther position and it seems everything was ok.
it looks like a solid unit

Customer support was ecxelent! Bob Bradshaw responds my mails in a matter of hours and he took the time to explain me some things that i ask.the preamp took 2 weeks from the first day i writte bob to ups knock my door. they forgot to send me the footswitch and they did it in one day shipping.

If your looking at this, you already know what this amp does.

Over the top tone! I went backstage at kelly clarkson show a few years back and was very suprised to see her guitarist, sebastian luciano's guitar rig. He had all CAE including TWO of these pre amps! I was so in awe of his tone and versatility that I just had to have one!

Hand built like a tank

Everything is hand built when ordered by bob or shawn. Takes 6 mos to a year to receive it. I'd like to see better turn times

There is no better pre amp

If your looking at this, you already know what this amp does.

Over the top tone! I went backstage at kelly clarson show a few years back and was very suprised to see her guitarist, sebastian luciano's guitar rig. He had all CAE including TWO of these pre amps! I was so in awe of his tone and versatility that I just had to have one!

Hand built like a tank

Everything is hand built when ordered by bob or shawn. Takes 6 mos to a year to receive it. I'd like to see better turn times

There is no better pre amp

#+ SE preamp. Made in 2002. 3 channels, EQ, 2 rack spaces, deep, not very heavy. Lots of sound options.

I bought this amp with the idea that this was the absolute "holy grail" of preamps, other than the Bogner. I found it to be a very, very good preamp, but not the best I've ever heard. The clean is spectacular. It deserves a "10" on it's own. Channel 2 is very nice sounding, and can cover alot of ground on it's own. It goes from bluesy to AC/DC. Channel 3 is where I was a bit disappointed. It gets saturated quickly, is a bit loose on the bottom end, and can have quite a bit of hiss. Sounds good for liquid leads, but is just not my style. I'm playing through both Les Pauls and strats, and they each sound good through this pre.

Looks really well built. I have gigged with it frequently, and feel confident using it without a backup. No problems so far.

Slow returning phone calls, but fast returning emails. Works for me.

I've been playing over 20 years, and have been touring for about 5 years straight. You know good gear when it falls off of a truck, and keeps working the way it should. My whole rack came down off of a lift once, and thank God for shockmount racks, only a couple of power tubes in my VHT power amp broke. I honestly think this is a very good preamp, but for a third of the cost I just got a Voodoo Lab preamp that I think sounds just as good, but it has a tighter high gain sound. That needed a few tube changes, but it's awesome. I'm more impressed with the Mesa Studio preamp and the Voodoo Lab preamp, but keep in mind that the CAE is still up there.

I've had this amp a couple of days now.

It's a 3 independant channel tube preamp, with a boost with it's own eq.

Some people say it needs an effects loop, first l say learn about amps, the effects loop goes between the pre and power amp, so there's ya effects loop there.

I run this amp through my g-major with the relay switching, some people have told me that this amp doesn't do relay switching with the g-major, well it can, maybe they had an older model or something.

The 1st channel (clean) is just that, clean, sparkling clean, it's the best clean sound l've heard, without any breakup, but if you want that breakup you can turn up the gain.

Channel 2, has enough gain for me to do rythum playing, l even play solos on this channel, you can turn the gain right up and get a great distorian sound to play rock hard rock, and get that early Van Halen sound, but without the tininess.

Channel 3, produces such a clean and smooth gain.

It's hard to say what this amp sounds like, it's not a boogie, it's not a marshall, it ain't a fender, it's a Custom Audio Amplifier, and it has it's own sound. Yeah note can be heard clearly, when playing chords and solos, so this preamp isn't for a sloppy player, or a player who wants their playing to stick out, cause this preamp magnifys your stengths and weaknesses in your playing.

I use EBMM Luke guitars with EMG pickups, and this preamp suits these guitars to a t, a nice clean sound on the neck, neck/middle pick ups, and you can get a mean dorted tone on the bridge pickup.

I play mostly rock, hard rock, and this amp suits me perfectly, l'm currently using my Peavey 5150 poweramp until l find a more suitable poweramp, it's sounds great through this poweramp, but l think el34's would sound better.

Well l've only had it a couple of days, it's seems to be well built, well it's already been flown around the world from California to Melbourne Australia and it's survived without a scratch.

Ok, l've heard some people say some bad things about Bob Bradshaw, l found Bob a great guy to deal with, he answered all my questions l had regarding this preamp, but before and after l bought it, and it was a real pleasure dealing with him, hell he's on the other side of the world and he treated me better than some punk at my local music store.

But what you have to realize is, Bob works pretty much by himself, these aren't mass produced amps like Mesas, these are hand built high quality amps, and at times he's busy, but he still took the time to answer questions and be patient with me, regarging questions, transferring money and whatnot.

I've been playing for just under 20 years now, l've used alot of gear, Peavey (which l love), Marshall, Mesa (kids toys), randall etc etc, and this amp blows them all out of the water.

If this amp was stolen l'd beat up whoever stole it and l'd get it replaced in a second.

Whats not to love about this preamp?????? it's sparkling clean to it's smooth gain, and everything in between.

There's no way Bob can improve on this preamp, well done Bob.

The Amp was made in 1998. The amp has three channels with individual bass, mid, treb., gain, treble switch boost and master setting. There is also a EQ section with a booster (+/- 20db !) in the output stage. One input at the front side, one input on the back, two output jacks (with/without grounding), 3 control jacks inputs (channel 2,3,EQ).
7 tubes inside are working. No midi switching, no FX loop. (this is why i give it a 8 rating)

I use this amp in a little rack setup: prs swamp ash with emg pickups into 3+se - rane mixer - lexicon lxp 5 parallel fx setup - boogie 20/20 power amp - marshall 1936 2 x12.
I'm'playing a great varity of styles : rock, oldies, funk.
The great thing about this amp is the superb soundquality in all of the 3 channels.
Channel 1 is great for the funk music I'm playing. With the bride switch activated it sounds unbelieveable. Very fast attac, "round" crisp soundstage. No distortion at all. Fender / Dumble sound. Put a tube screamer in front of it and have fun!
Channel 2 is very versatile, reacts like a dream when pulling the volume on the guitar down, unic sound.
Channel 3 has lot of sustain and distortion, while the single notes remain "clean". Every tone within a chord is seperated. Rich and harmonic sounding.
The amp is great for chaning tubes and finding your own sound. Even metal sounds are possible depending on EQ settings and finding the right tubes.
The seven tubes inside are working in gain stages, so the overall sound is very rich and complex without geting muddy at all.
The Boogie 20/20 works well with the preamp, only a bit of overhead and bass power is missing.
Will try a VHT 2150 bc this seems to be a great mach.
The sound of the preamp is a league on his own. If you are a nu-metall head: stay away.
If you like delicate sound quality: go and get one while you can.
Hard to find - extremely long wait after ordering.

Very reliable. Never broke down. Pro quality. Bob Bradshaw.

Company don't answer.

I'm playing for 30 years. Never had a better pre. sounds like a real amp when main eq is on. Use the backdoor guitar input: it sounds better, I don't know why. try different tubes. find your tone. play.

this preamp was built in july 2003. It's an awesome preamp, and it is extremly versatile. (I do use other amps as well, but this might be my favorite). Three totally seperate channels...(see "sounds" below)...
What makes this preamp extra cool is the 20db boost function...
I run it through the poweramp of a great head that I have (a different manufactor), but I plan on building up a stereo-rig in the near future and get me a seperate poweramp.
Today there are so many amps out there with different extra features, but this one has what it needs, imo.

I'm playing everything from PRS to Anderson pickups through this preamp. It's so sweet. i also play EMGs through it, but that makes it sound too Lukather/Landau-ish, so I rarely use this combination on my personal material.
It's so versatile that I use it for all the kinds of music that i am playing but jazz. For jazz i need a different amp...
It's great for so much...
I've noticed that the single-coil loaded guitars are making a little more noice than through the other amps that I owe, but as soon as I turn of the TV it's gone, haha....
Channel 2 is my favorite because I love the way you can make it crank up. From clean to pretty dirty...you can even gain it up so much that you can approach great sustain.
Channel 3 has one of the fattest sounding tones that I have heard in a long while. And you can play full chords on all channels and actually hear every tone. Check it out and strum a few jazz chords...you'' hear it all.
The clean channel is worth its price in gold...totally outstanding...
It isn't even distorted unless you gain it up...
The preamp fits everything from porn-pop to heavy!!

This is a preamp that would be killer to use live onstage...can't wait. The only thing about it is that the Van Nuys produced tubes are not too easy to get a hold on everywhere in the world

CAE standard support...

killer

My 3+ SE was built in April 2003. It is versatile enough for me; before I had it, I had a TriAxis, but was using 3 presets out of the hundred-and-some available. Mine came with the Smart Foot Controller, but I sold it immediately, and purchased an Axess Electronics CFX4 to switch channels using MIDI.

I use a variety of guitars and pickups with this preamp: Peavey Wolfgangs, Gibson Les Pauls, Gibson SGs, Fender Stratocasters, Fender Telecasters, and Charvel/Jacksons. Pickups range from stock Peavey, Gibson, and Fender pickups, to Tom Anderson and EMG.

This unit suits my music style just fine. I like hard rock and heavy blues, and the channels fit those styles to a T. Channel 2 can get an AC/DC sound if you try hard enough. Channel 3 is liquid.

This is the first preamp I've ever had that gets the sounds I've had in my head out of my amp. It doesn't mess around. It's easy.

My 3+ SE is new. It better not break down.

I've been playing for over 25 years. I have Furman power regulators, Rocktron Super C, Eventide Eclipse, BBE 882, and VHT Two/Fifty/Two in my rack. If I lost it, I'd try hard to replace it, but the wait is incredible. I compared it to several higher-end preamps on the market and chose it because of it's simplicity and sound.

3 Channels with a EQ/Boost channel to boost your sound for leads or change the tone of the base channel. Not a lot of options here...pretty simple setup.

Ibanez Guitars, Ernie Ball Music Man Axis. Had a great lead sound but rhythem sound for metal was not for me. It did not remain crisp when palm muting, it got muffled unless you backed the gain way back.

I play in a lot of bands and cover a lot of different music so this was not the best amp for that.

Looks well built. Not enough time with it for a score.

The company from my opinion was extremely poor on the customer service end. I emailed them various times and either got no response or it took about 4-5 days for an answer. It took six monthes to get the product out to me, yes I understand it is custom built, but giving me an update monthly at the minimum would be nice when I just dropped almost 1800 dollars for a foot controller and preamp.

It sounds like a modded marshall or a hotrodded soldano. It is definately its own sound, but thats the closest comparison I can give it.

I picked this up on eBay used. It is the newer silver faced version. 3 channels plus an EQ that is switchable. Everything is tube driven. No effects loop, but you don't want one on a pre-amp since a true effects loop should be between the pre and power.

I play a Musicman Luke guitar which has EMG pickups and I play varied musical styles from Jazz to Metal. The first thing I noticed about this amp is how responsive it is. The dynamics are amazing. Channel 3 has more gain than should be allowed and I can clean it up by backing of the volume control on the guitar. Amazing! The Clean channel is just that. It is pristine, transparent, smooth...I could go on for days! Channel 2 goes from Blues to what would be a Lead channel on most amps. I run the gain about half way and on my neck single coil I can get a sweet blues tone, but switch to the Humbucker and it sounds like a Marshall on steroids. Beautiful! The 3rd channel is the most wonderful tube driven saturation I have ever heard. It would make a lesser man wet himself! 8 - ) I love it! I add a little pitch spread and delay and man it is sweet! I am running this unit in a rack rig.

I have a buddy that has had his for several years and has had no problems. This one has worked great for me for a couple of months and before that a Nashville cat was using it.

I have spoken with these guys before. They are slow getting product out, but they are very responsive when you have a question. I don't think support would be an issue.

I have used Egnater, Marshall, Boogie, Engl, Seymour Duncan and this is by far the best amp I have ever owned! I would search high and low for another if it was stolen!