When the Guitar Industry Lost It's Way
Somewhere in time the guitar industry forgot who it was. Like a boy who grows to be a man, learns what he values in life, knows where not to step and what he values. Then he grows old. And with senility, he forgets what he learned. He returns to youthful ignorance.With our pursuit of guitar tone, we perfected the use of vacuum tubes. We learned what didn't work and what did. We combined effects and equalization techniques to refine that sound, and even though digital simulations and modelling technologies held promise, we always returned back to an all analog signal path driven by tubes. In order to manage all of the configurations, EQ and effects and make it usable in a performance situation, we embraced programmable switching, MIDI communications and modular packaging in rack mount form.
Then senility set in.
I almost forgot what it was like before guitarists and our manufacturers lost their minds.
I have two great tube amps.
A pile of pedals.
I can make great sounds. My Mesa sounds amazing. The AC30 is classic. My pedals are can do incredible things.
But we have regressed.
We've returned to an age of simplicity and antiquity. Tube amps that are merely modern iterpretations of the amps of old. Pedals that are re-hashed designs or simulations of innovations from the beginning of the rock era.
Once upon a time, we married all the amazing automation and control of modern technology with the purity and warmth of what we valued in the original designs.
While I remember some of the great manufacturers of that era - Randall Smith (Mesa/Boogie), Mike Soldano, Bogner (Fish Preamp), Bob Bradshaw, Rocktron, and effects processors from TC Electronics (2290), Eventide (H3000) and Lexicon (PCM90) - I almost forgot about ADA.
Discovery
I just happened to be at Long & McQuade Music, and my friend Graeme showed me some rack amp they received. He told me nobody in the store knew anything about it. I knew what it was immediately. An ADA B200S Stereo Power Amp. Some guy brought it in for quick cash. Must have really needed cash, because I took it home for about the price of two pizzas.
The ADA B200S was a 2U rackmount stereo MOSFET power amp, producing 135 watts per channel into 4 ohms.
When I got it home, I plugged it into my Mesa 2x12 stereo cabinet. Turning the volume knobs, all I heard was the crack and scratch of failed potentiometers.
I opened it up and replaced the two 10Kohm Logarithmic pots, then returned it to the guitar rig.
With my Bogner Ecstasy Blue and Strymon TimeLine into the ADA amp, I finally heard what I wanted to hear. My guitar in Stereo.
But where was the matching preamp?
I remember the ADA MP1 Preamp being quite a legendary machine in it's day.
Within a week, I found a veteran of the ADA era with an ADA MP2 for sale. I managed to procure it, and the matching ADA MPC foot controller for less that I paid for my Bogner pedal.
In fact my whole ADA rig - preamp, power amp and foot controller cost me less than the Bogner pedal!
Once I had it all connected, I played for a few hours. I edited the programs. I basked in the ability to change my sound with one tap of my toe. But most of all - it sounded AMAZING.
And then it hit me. We lost our way somehow.
The Box That Truly Does Everything
It is a single rackspace guitar preamp that is based on a completely analog signal path under total control of digital automation. It was the successor to the MP1, and had a massive list of features:
- Two 12AX7 tubes for everything from crisp cleans on the edge of breakup through Rectifier-sounding distortion
- 10 tube voicing modes - from AC30 to tweed to Plexi to Boogie to SLO, it's all here.
- Bass, treble, mid and presence passive EQ
- 9-Band graphic EQ. Shape it any way you can imagine.
- Noise gate - Very effective.
- Wah - pedal controlled, oscillator or triggered (autowah). Cry Baby to MuTron.
- Tremolo, with a "surf" waveform, giving that vintage Fender/Marshall feel;
- Stereo Analog Chorus. One of the best I've ever heard.
- Parallel Stereo Effects loop with programmable mix levels per channel - Stereo effects!
- Real Time MIDI - assign expression pedals or MIDI controllers to any number of parameters.
- 128 memory locations to save your settings.
- Six outputs - one pair to your stereo power amp/speakers, the other two pairs have a 2x12 or 4x12 miked speaker simulator and are either a pair of TRS balanced 1/4" outputs or a balanced XLR pair. You can use all 6 outputs at once.
- MIDI in/out and thru - with a MIDI implementation that rivals most synthesizers.
The wah, tremolo and chorus are spectacular.
But then I found the one feature that I didn't expect to mean so much.
Real Time MIDI.
You can't do that with modern gear. Imagine this:
You have a guitar tone that resembles a Vox AC30. A bit of break up. Jangly EQ, a chorus and a wash of reverb through the effects loop.
With the slow tilt an expression pedal, it shifts into the tone of a Mesa Rectifier - with scooped mids, punchy bass and massive presence, no chorus and only a hint of that reverb mix.
The 10 tube preamp voices include 3 clean types, 3 vintage types and 4 high-gain types. The clean and vintage voicings are unbelievably quiet, you can barely tell if the amp is turned on until you hit a string. The high-gain voicings have a bit of background noise. They require you to use the noise gate, especially if you have single coil pickups, but the gate works exceptionally well. Palm-muted staccato power chords leave your ears confused where the audible bullets are coming from. And speaking of bullets - this thing has gain. Loads of it. It can hold it's own against Rectos, Soldanos and Diezels.
The other complaint is that the chorus seems like it's a full 180 degrees out of phase from left to right. This makes for a really wide stereo image, but it also means that you get some signal cancellation. It would have been nice to have a Stereo width adjustment, but then again, I'm just picking on small things.
Now what do I do with this Mesa 5:50 plus head, the Vox AC30CC2 and the Bogner Ecstasy Blue pedal? They won't be leaving my stable any time soon, but they are going to have to deal with being a bit quieter.
The 10 tube preamp voices include 3 clean types, 3 vintage types and 4 high-gain types. The clean and vintage voicings are unbelievably quiet, you can barely tell if the amp is turned on until you hit a string. The high-gain voicings have a bit of background noise. They require you to use the noise gate, especially if you have single coil pickups, but the gate works exceptionally well. Palm-muted staccato power chords leave your ears confused where the audible bullets are coming from. And speaking of bullets - this thing has gain. Loads of it. It can hold it's own against Rectos, Soldanos and Diezels.
Downsides
If there is any thing I don't like about the MP-2, It's this: Editing with the up/down buttons is a pain. Even though they accelerate when you hold them down, I wish it had an encoder knob. You can use a MIDI controller, but a knob on the front panel would be a nice inclusion that would make editing faster.The other complaint is that the chorus seems like it's a full 180 degrees out of phase from left to right. This makes for a really wide stereo image, but it also means that you get some signal cancellation. It would have been nice to have a Stereo width adjustment, but then again, I'm just picking on small things.
Results
Every time I power the ADA up, I get a whole new world of tonal experiences that keep me wondering how this disappeared from the market.Now what do I do with this Mesa 5:50 plus head, the Vox AC30CC2 and the Bogner Ecstasy Blue pedal? They won't be leaving my stable any time soon, but they are going to have to deal with being a bit quieter.
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