Chapter Four: The Two Pre-Amplifiers; Channel One; Channel Two; Pre-Amplifier Tubes - Diezel Einstein Owner's Manual

Chapter Four: Two Pre-Amplifiers
4.1 Pre-Amplifiers and their Jobs
The Diezel Einstein comes equipped with 2 different and totally independent preamps.
This allows the artist to play through nearly all musical-styles without having to make major
changes to his/her amplifier. The preamps are voiced to deliver the most wanted guitar tone
flavors: Clean, Crunch, Heavy, Lead. This design concept delivers stellar guitar sounds with
excellent playability, warm dynamics and razor sharp equalization possibilities. The tone
controls work in an unusually wide range, so a little adjustment does quite a lot. As with so many
things, less is often more. We suggest you start exploring the channels with all controls set to
12:00 o'clock, and the master volume just slightly cracked open. (To avoid hearing damage)
4.1.1 Channel One (low to medium gain)
Clean Tone is a very sensitive subject, because there are so many different ideas on how a
clean amp should sound like. Clean tonal textures require much higher dynamic range than
distorted sounds. From hard and percussive sounds to soft, warm, and blossoming tone. Einstein
was designed to offer as many of the clean varieties as possible. Your choice of guitars and
pickups will have a large part in this equation.
Channel one has three modes, selectable by a toggle switch near the channel one gain
knob. The modes pre-select different gain stages in the pre-amp, allowing this channel to span
the range from extreme clean to a heavy crunch. A player that does not require a clean channel
can use these modes for alternate distortion sounds.
4.1.2 Channel Two (high gain)
This channel is voiced for single notes, or for very heavy and massive rhythm guitar. Due to
its slight midrange accent and very high gain, it possesses a good punch, will play with ease, and
gain authority to rule any stage, or studio. The "less is often more" rule applies here also.
4.2 Pre-amplifier Tubes
The pre-amps are equipped with 12AX7 tubes in all positions. The pre-amp tubes are not
designed to produce high power output. Therefore, their life expectancy is much higher than that
of the power amplifier tubes. This is not to undermine their utter importance in overall sound and
response of the amplifier. Also, annoying defects like crackling noises and low dynamics are
directly related to defective pre-amp tubes. Like all other tubes, 12AX7 tubes come in many
different gain stages, and offer a wide variety of tonal behavior. Our choice for production was
made to ensure a wide variety of tones, with low noise and good reliability.
4.2.1 Micro-phonics and Bad Noises
The overall performance of pre-amp tubes is easily influenced by external mechanical
factors. Malfunction in these external components will manifest themselves by a sudden,
high-pitched feedback sound. The input stage is especially suspect to these phenomena. If one
encounters microphonic tube behavior, then the first tube should be checked as a rule. Pre-
Amplifier tubes can also cause a hum or other bad noises, like crackling or ticking.