Rocktron Replitone MP Preamp

This is an add to the former review i wrote about a year ago.
I used to use the replitone mp for direct recording for which is still great - i used to record with an 8 track hd-recorder - now i record with an apple powerbook on cubase and logic. still the replitone mp sounds grat for me - every sound is possible - from the cleans of the cleans to dirty to high gain distorted new/death metal sounds.
i got myself a solid state amp - the g100-210 3 combo from yamaha.
i run my guitar into the mp and the mp into the clean channel of the yamaha combo. i was so impressed that i had to write this review.
man, it?s un-be-fucking-lievable!!!! on gigs i used to play the marshall jcm 900 tack. fuck it - the combination of the mp (with speaker simulation on) with the yamaha blows everything out of the water!!! the most powerfull, defined, high-end guitar sound i ever heard. the other guitar-player in my band uses a mesa-rectifier - forget it - my new sound is everything i was ever looking for - i didn?t know until i heard it - i will never play through anything else!!!!!!

Guitar pre-amp, 16 presets, speaker-emulation, several amp-simulations, effects, stereo output - the replitone mp has all common guitar-sound-editings, nothing special but also there's nothing missing. besides the internal effects (chorus, tremolo, flanger, etc. this gear has an effects loop for external effects too. this rack gear is very intuitiv to use - i don't have any manual but it took me only 10 minutes to ckeck out how it works, how i can store and restore and edit it's sounds. by manual you can use 16 channels - if you have a midi-foot-controler you have 128 channels!!!! so go and get one!! i have to get also one for myself.
for the features i give it only a 9 because you can only use one effect at the time.

i was looking for a long time to solve my home-recording sound problem. i've tried yamaha, ibanez, digitech, zoom and many many other modellers and guitar-effects. in the beginning i was really satisfied even with those cheap plastic gears from zoom. really they don't sound too bad, even sound-freaks found my recordings soud o.k. but there was a lack of, i didn't know of what, i only knew there's something missing. so i tried another gear and another, etc. but every gear had a lack of something like brilliance or power of dynamics. then i tried the replitone mp and bingo! now i know what i missed all the time. this thing sounds like an amp with a speaker! even better! no noise, you can get every sound you want out of it! it's amazing! i don't need anything else! forget all the plastic crap pod's and vamp's and digitechs and all the zoom-shit!!! once you felt the rocktron sound you will never want anything else.

the replitone mp is a tool for studio work or home recording.
on stage you need an amp and a speaker - i use a marshall amp and speaker on stage. of course you could use the mp also live:
you could run it directly into the pa system or in your amp.
but i got this babe to do my "homework".

got it used - no idea about customer support.

this thing saved my guitarplayer-life! it's no plastic-shit, its absolutely professionell in construction and sound.
i'm playing for about 15 years and tried lot's of gear. i thought about getting myself a pod or something from roland.
no more platic gear!no more plastic sound! this is simply the best guitar sound i ever had. i can get any sound out of it - from the cleanest clean to absolute brutal distortions and of course everything between. i wish i could use 2 or 3 effects at the same time but i'm absolutely satisfied with only one effect. with it's effect loop i could run another effcts board into it - but effects are not too important to me. the mp feels and sounds real!!! and that's the main difference to other modellers and pre-amps. i would buy it again!

You can read about the features from the other reviews or from Rocktron's website.

I use this preamp with Strats that have single coil and humbucking pickups. It's a cool sounding pre-amp. Some have said it sounds "fuzzy" going direct. You have to use a Y-cable in order to take advantage of the onboard speaker simulator. If you don't have a Y-cable then you can insert a dummy-cable into the "direct output" and then use the "pre-amp outputs" direct into the board. If you don't insert a dummy-cable into the "direct out" jack, then it will sound like crap and you'll get that fuzzy, buzzy distortion. I wouldn't say it sounds exactly like a real "amp / microphone / speaker cabinet" but it does sound good enough that most people won't care or notice. Unlike a lot of direct recording devices it doesn't sound thin.

I've had other Rocktron stuff in the past and it always was reliable and held up well, so I can expect the same of this preamp.

My unit came with a European power supply. I e-mailed Rocktron and they sent me a U.S. power supply right away. Their customer service is awesome and can't be beat.

This is a keeper. I like this pre-amp better than my Rocktron VooDu Valve and my Yamaha DG1000 preamps. ( To be fair, the VooDu isn't a modeling pre-amp; I believe the Yamaha is, but it's an old unit which isn't being made anymore ). It's simple to use and sounds great. I like the fact that you have real knobs on the front panel and don't have to scroll through a bunch of comlicated menus and algorithms. To my ears, it sounds fat and full, not thin like a lot of others. The distortions are teriffic, even better than the ones in the Roland VG-8 EX, which I also own. For the price, you can't do much better.

2003 Repliton MP Demo Unit bought directly from Rocktron on Ebay for $250.00. This amp has all the sounds I could possibly ever need. Has built in digital effects, and stereo speaker emulator.

This thing sounds awesome. I can get everything from Polytone jazz sounds, Fender tweed sounds, old and new Marshalls and modern high gain amps. Every sound is pretty convincing, and very useable. The clean sounds are rich and full, and the distortion sounds should please even the fussiest metalheads. Witht he built in Hush, there is no unit noise. Throw in the onboard effects, and this thing is the real thing!

Haven't had it that long, but I used a Rocktron ProGap for 11 years of solid gigging and never had one problem with it. I also have had an Intellifex for about 3 years with no problems.

When my Replitone arrived, I noticed one of the knobs was broken on it. I e-mailed support and they not only sent me a new know via UPS, but they threw in a Rocktron T-shirt. Since their stuff has been so reliable in the past, I'm not sure customer support will ever be an issue.

I've owned a lot of amps over the years, Fenders, Yamahas, Boogies, Pearces, Traynors, as well as both the SansAmp and Johnson J-Station direct recording preamps. This this blows all of them away. The amp sounds are rich and creamy, and the speaker sim works great. I'm currently doing our 2nd CD using it direct into the board. If I were in Spinal Tap I'd give it an eleven!

When I first opened the box I immediately liked the look and feel of the Replitone MP. It's well made, and has a quality, pro level charateristic to it...

These days, I play a combination of 80's style heavy rock guitar, fused with progressive electronica & world/ethnic influences. I primarily record in my home studio via a PC setup. So the Replitone MP "direct recording' feature and speaker simulation where of great importance to me.

The HUSH is definitely the "best" noise reduction system I have experienced to date. Even with it hardly turned on the unit is very 'quiet' using the high gain settings...

The online "preset manager" via MIDI is great (and very easy to use) for tweaking all the regular parameters, such as: chorus, delay, flanger, phaser, compression, tremelo, etc...and allows one to customize each patch very effectively.

Overall, I would rate the features as very good. The only exception, in my opinion, is that one cannot use "Chorus" in combination with any other EFFECT in the preset manager. Delay & Reverb are seperate standard features, and can be combined with any one of the 10 effects...

I use both Fender Strats and Gibson guitars...I'm generally looking for a clean sweet/fat kind of High-Gain tonal quality for my lead licks. Lot's of distortion/gain yes, but with a clean, crisp presence & edge.

This is one category where the Replitone was/is very dissapointing. The 'clean' amp sims are very good, just how I would expect from a Rocktron product....however, ALL the "high gain" sounds have a FUZZY/Bee-like edge to them, that is impossible to eliminate, no matter how much one tweaks the parameter in the preset manager, or turns the knobs on the unit itself.

At first, I thought that with a bit of effort I would be able to get a crisp/clean high-gain sound, but after approx 6 weeks of trying - I have given up - it's just not possible. IF you are looking for that crystal Dave Gilmour type lead tone - forget it, the Replitone MP, doesn't even come close. In fact, in my opinion, 99% of the high-gains are unusable, unless one specifically wants that fuzzy edged processed quality. Please note*** This "fuzzyness" is most evident when used in the "direct recording/speaker simulation" mode into a computer sound card.....when used with a power amp, in a live situation, the high-gain tones do not have this unwanted character near as much....However, this is not supposed to be the case. In either mode, the Replitone MP "should" produce the SAME tonal qualities...

I have only owned the unit for 2 months, so I cannot answer this question with any true validity.

One thing I will say about Rocktron is that they do answer your emails very promptly....However, I have had a problem with them trying to get my "fuzzy tone" issue corrected, as the unit is only 2 months old, and of course, still under full warranty.

At first, when I reported the "fuzzy" high gain issue to them...their head engineer tested a unit with a PC, and agreed that the 'high-gain' tones were indeed too "harsh" and "top-ended" which was creating the bee-like edge. he also quickly offerred to FIX the unit, and said it needed a "software upgrade" (his words).....

So, I thought great!!!!....the problem will get resolved....but, when I suggested to him that I thought Rocktron should cover the shipping charges (as it was a definite defect in the unit, to begin with)...he suddenly became quite hostile, and then flat out refused to even fix the problem......

Now Rocktron refuses to fix this defect - period, and in fact, now deny that any defect exists....I cannot believe a large company like this would act in such a manner....and I shall be taking matters further...so naturally, I can only give them a 1 star "thumbs down" rating. Whatever happened to good ole customer service? Actually, I'm now pretty pissed!!!!!!!!!!!

I believe that my request, as a paying customer, is quite reasonable

AS only 1/2 of this equipment works up to standard I can only give a 5 rating

this is an update of the first review of this product. I'm now gigging pretty heavily and recording with 2 groups at the moment. I just plug the recording outs into the mixing desk live and it sounds awesome, this is also working out amazing for direct recording as well eating the studios Pod Pro and triaxis (YES MB TRIAXIS!) which dont seem to give that UMPH when recording.

I've added other amps to my ever changing collection and my fave at the moment is the VHT pitbull classic 3 channel, I picked up a dual Rec 3 channel head and a Demeter TGA3 which i love as well but I'm currently ABing them with the replitone and producing some very similar patches (which you can also save using the rocktron replitone PC program). The only thing I miss is an LCD showing me the setting like the chameleon but thats it.

i bought this unit new, so i assume it's made in 2002. heck, sure it's versatile as this is the reason i bought it: i needed a very versatile 19" midi switchable preamp, so this one pretty nailed it.
it features 16 amp models, 3 band eq, reverb, a stereo line-out (plugged in the unit adds speaker emulation), master volume, and an effects unit which is a nice gimmick, but not all combinations are possible. only hush (noise surpession, very good one, though bothers me sometimes because i love to play with harmonic feedback) and delay can be used together with other effects. the sound quality of the effects is excellent, and you can also control them by a midi-capable expression pedal. the effects' rate is indicated by a flushing led and can be adjusted my pressing a button in the desired rate twice.
i don't use the effects loop because it has a major drawback: it's always on.

my main axe is a fender mim 60's strat which i really love! i sometimes use a samick les paul copy, mostly for different tunings. i manage to get awesome sounds out of both. noise isn't really an issue, and on high gain settings of course it's supposed to be a bit noisy.
the amp models are very convincing, especially the fender cleans and the vendetta high and mega gains.
the fender models sound very sweet and sing nice, and in connection with the boss blues driver i get a bit crunch in as well.
the rocktron models provide everything, bonebraking distortion, growling low end, roaring tones, as well as a bit big muff-reminding sound. very versatile and convincing!
marshall and vox are very good as well but they aren't that what i'm searching for in real amps as well. so far i didn't manage to get nice tones out of the fuzz (not an issue, i hardly use fuzz) and the mesa (which i don't really like as well) models.
when switching channels, it takes about a quarter second until the emulation of selected amp comes really through, but i've seen this on a gt6 as well, so that's probably an issue with all modeling preamps and amps. but hey, i can live with this.
the effects unit is, as i mentioned before a very nice gimmick, with very good sound qualtiy but not that versatile as you would expect. i don't use effects that much though. a big plus is that you can control the effect parameters (wah frequency, flanger depth etc.) with midi expression pedals.
i give it a 10 for the amp models and a 7 for the effects, overall a 10 because i would have bought this as well without effects, it's just a nice-to-have.

absolutely reliable, a solid 19" case, no problem here.
knobs also seem very robust.
obviosly there's no need to change tubes ;)
i would never gig anything without a backup!

never dealt with them.
the program offered on rocktron's website to change the stored program settings on the pc is bullshit though.

i've been playing for about a year and i was sick of having dozens of stombboxes so i decided to buy a midi controlable modeling preamp. excellent decision :)
my other gear is a ny big muff, ny small stone, ibanez fl99 flanger, nobels ds1 and a boss bd-2. the rocktron replitone pretty much replaced all these boxes, i still use the blues driver as booster though. my amp is a peavey studio pro 65 watt amp, of which i only use the power amp unit right now. i'll replace it with a cab and rack poweramp someday.
i can only compare it with a marhsall jmp1 preamp, which a friend of mine uses. it's also midi controllable, a classic and offers the classic marshall sound (which i'm not a great fan of) in a box. in it's versatility and gain reserves it's rather limited compared to the rocktron.
i planned to buy the pod pro, but when i saw the replitone i knew which choice i have to make!
also get a good midi-controller, without one the replitone (as well as other midi-preamps like the jmp1) is more or less worthless.
i would definately buy it again if it was stolen!

Check web site.Easy to use & set up for sounds.

Like the reviewer below stated, it has a more "amp like" sound to it than most of the other modeling units.The high gain channels are nice & has a lot of gain(I`m a metal head..so I don`t use the term alot loosely!!).More than the voodoo valve by far.I just wish it was a little more tight in the bottom end.I felt the same way about the VV. & chemeleon too so it may just be me.I didn`t like the marshall sims ,but I never do. The effects are very good & easy to control.The cleans are as good as anything shy of a fender twin.
Compared to the other modelers I give it a 9 as it is very near the top IMO.

Just got it.

I`ve been playing for 16 years & have had alot of equipment.As far as the modeling thing goes I like this better than the j station, pod pro, v amp,or flextones.
I think this may be rocktrons best sounding preamp.I have the VV & chem. & maxe & jamed on the prophacy.The RP wins.

Set out like a standard amp but with various modelings of Marshall, Vox etc. Includes effects. Check out Rocktron web site for full details. The phantom power comes from the unit without wallwart, to my midimate which is really great as you only need one cable on stage

I bought this for easy changes in a covers band I'm playing and and it sounds awesome through either my Velocity 120 power amp or Groove Tube D75 Tube power amp. As with all modeling toys you never get exactly the same sound but I've found the rocktron to be more amp sounding than the pod pro and it puts to shame any digitech stuff.
The clean sounds are awesome and the OD sounds are great. the effects are as good as the replifex I own but lack the control of separte effects unit. However they do get a very good analog tone and cover most of the covers work I do. We play everything from Britney to Nikelback so that gives you the idea of the scope I need

I've never had a problem with Rocktron kit and I've currently got Chameleon 2000, original chameleon, midi mate Egnater TOL100 head, 2 of Velocity 120 power amps and a replifex

Since the buy out the service seems to have suffered though I have had some great responses from Jim and would not expect anything higher from other manufacturers

Excellent piece of kit, I already own the chameleon 2000 but the new band I'm in requires quick changes and I like the replitone because it is like a real amp. The Chameleon 2000 is in my backup rack with a spare power amp as we are gigging like crazy at the moment.
I've been playing for 18 years and have owned Boogie MK and rectifiers, hiwatt, vox, marshall, orange and am really picky about tone but have found the rocktron equipment to me the most realistic sounding out of the hole lot. I always go back to this kit for material that needs lots of different sounds but for my original band use the egnater ABed with a marshall silver anniversary to give me the edge I look for however I still use the replifex in place of pedals as it sounds so good.
So this preamp is exactly what I've been looking for, very close replica sounds of the classics, Analog effects with a user interface even a monkey could use. Paired with a good power amp (the velocity 120 is really good but go for Tube to get reall body)