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the BG Lead. In practice this preamp
produces a light sound, with what is
definitely describable as distortion rather
than overdrive.
BG Lead
Plenty of lower end character here. Again
the bass frequencies drop off at a similar
rate to Blues from 60Hz down, but a deep
cut at 100Hz followed by a slow recovery
up to 6kHz gives this amp a shallower but
much wider mid scoop. The treble end is
not boosted at all and drops off sharply
via a low pass filter from 15kHz. In
practice this preamp gives a very muddy
boomy distortion perhaps suitable in its
raw form to fuzz.
[GTx-PRE-MS1959.jpg]
Well, here are the Marshalls. Three very
similar preamps. All three pretty much
share the same mid scoop between 70Hz-
5kHz, with minor variations due to
extreme cuts in bass or treble. All three
give a typical Marshall overdriven sound
but I wouldn't go as far as to say it was a
distortion sound. Definitely more an
overdrive sound.
MS1959 (I)
The (I) drops off from 70Hz, but has a cut
bass anyway. Mid scoop is exactly the
same here as the others. The scoop
recovers to a non boosted treble which
follows the GT-3 reference from 6kHz
upwards.
MS1959 (II)
The (II) is similar to the (I) except the
bass has not been cut so much. Here it
drops off from 60Hz. The mid scoop is
similar to the I except the treble has been
cut significantly, and before he mid scoop
has had chance to recover at 2kHz a
rounded low pass filter cuts in to knock
off a large amount of high end.
MS1959 (I+II)
A pretty good combination of the two.
The mid-scoop again remains pretty
similar, but here you have the Bass
response from the (II) and the high end
response above 800Hz from the (I). Also,
this preamp still has the notch at 125Hz
which marks the start of the mid scoop.
[GTx-PRE-SLM5MD.jpg]
OK, now let's look at the three heaviest
distortion preamps. Again, all three
preamps have a characteristic mid scoop.
All three preamps have boosted bass and
© Copyright 2000-2002 Barry S. Pearce et al.
Section 14
treble in differing degrees. Also all three
have low pass filters cutting the higher
frequencies at a lowest value of 15kHz,
which puts them all exceeding all the
other preamps. All three also have a notch
at 100Hz which recovers partially by
150hz before starting the mid scoop.
SLDN Lead
Medium bass boost in the 40-85Hz
region, before notching at 100Hz and
starting the quite deep mid scoop. The
mid scoop then recovers earlier than the
other by 2kHz before boosting the treble
significantly before it drops off at 15kHz.
This preamp has 'medium' bass and 'max'
treble of this group. The SLDN gives a
reasonable middle of the range type
distortion. It is slightly crisper than the
Metal 5150 or Metal Drive.
Metal 5150
Of the group the Metal 5150 has the most
boost to the bass, and a medium boost on
the treble but only just above that of the
Metal Drive. Apart from the lower bass
boost, the bass and mids of this are
identical to the SLDN. However, the mid
scoop takes longer to recover, not
recovering until 3.5kHz above which a
medium treble boost is apparent. The
most significant feature here is a very
sharp drop off of high frequencies starting
at 15kHz. Definitely a full on metal
distortion comes from this preamp—not
as crisp as the Soldano but definitely
heavier!
Metal Drive
This preamp has a very much boosted
bass region of 30- 90Hz, again with the
100Hz notch starting the mid scoop.
Unlike the others where the mid scoop is
centred on 500Hz the boosted bass has
shifted the scoop to centre on about
630Hz. Again the mid scoop recovers by
3.5khz to enter a treble boost that is the
least of these three preamps. However,
whereas the Metal 5150 has an extreme
drop at 15kHz, this preamp doesn't
continuing in a natural drop off instead,
paralleling the GT3 reference response.
Very similar to the Metal 5150 with the
sparkle taken off the high end. Probably
suited to more boomy styles.
Again I am not going to present any new patches here. For a
basic sound start with 'Clean' and then add the preamp you
want. This will give you a basic preamp patch to work from.
Preamps
73
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