Bought A Rocktron Gainiac To Experiment With................

[Jeffblue]

I am not into the death metal thing and I wanted to see what changing the tube variant would do to this unit. I removed the cheap Chinese 12AX7 and installed an NOS 5814A (military grade 12AU7) and the tone was much improved and the gain lowered. I wouldn't be able to use the unit as it was. Now it is useable. I tried it on my rack rig and it didn't fair well since the rig is already good. I then switched over to my Fender Super Champ X2 and it was like striking gold. sounds excellent. I don't use channel 2 at all and the Gainiac does really well with the SCX2.

[BlueSnMettle]

Re: Bought A Rocktron Gainiac To Experiment With................

Congratulations on striking gold!

[Jeffblue]

Re: Bought A Rocktron Gainiac To Experiment With................

Congratulations on striking gold!

Well........maybe not gold. I would prefer gold.........but the unit will do for now.

[Rex_Rocker]

Re: Bought A Rocktron Gainiac To Experiment With................

Glad it's working for ya after the tube swap!

Nothing wrong with the cheapie Chinese 12AX7's, tho!

[Jeffblue]

Re: Bought A Rocktron Gainiac To Experiment With................

I may be a tube snob because I always change out the foreign tubes for an NOS variant.

[treyhaislip]

Re: Bought A Rocktron Gainiac To Experiment With................

Congrats on finding a good tone! Any chance you can post clips?

[El Dunco]

Re: Bought A Rocktron Gainiac To Experiment With................

People bash on it a lot, is it as bad as they say or are they just wanting more functionality? They don't make them anymore so I never got the chance to try it and I can't justify buying one.

[Jeffblue]

Re: Bought A Rocktron Gainiac To Experiment With................

Congrats on finding a good tone! Any chance you can post clips?

Sorry, I don't have the means to record. I hated the sound with the 12AX7. It sounds great with the 12AU7 variant.

[Jeffblue]

Re: Bought A Rocktron Gainiac To Experiment With................

I like it with the tube swap. I didn't like it so much with the 12AX7. I have a collection of tube pedals and I like some better than others. The Gainiac has a good tone and I also picked up a Rocktron XDC which is a 2 channel exciter and distortion. This unit isn't tube but does wonders for the tone clean or distorted. I find that I like exciter on the clean channel and using my Radial Tonebone Classic with a 5814A (12AU7 variant tube) The distortion of the XDC isn't as good as the Radial Tonebone pedal.

[treyhaislip]

Re: Bought A Rocktron Gainiac To Experiment With................

Sorry, I don't have the means to record. I hated the sound with the 12AX7. It sounds great with the 12AU7 variant.

Bummer! But congrats on the good tone!

[moshpit817]

Re: Bought A Rocktron Gainiac To Experiment With................

I bought a Ganiac off Ebay about 10 years ago and I liked it quite a bit,at the same time I bought a Digitech Valve FX rack unit and liked it better and sold the Ganiac,I didn't switch the Ganiacs tube but to me it had a good distorion sound and was easy to dial in.It had a solid build and was overall a good buy.

[Jeffblue]

Re: Bought A Rocktron Gainiac To Experiment With................

I like the unit. I bought it used from Guitar Center Tucson and the person who packaged it enclosed the wrong and improper power supply. The Gainiac requires a 9 VAC 1.5 (1500 milliamp) power supply and they sent me a lousy, cheap 9 VDC 150 milliamp power supply. They attempted to make it right and sent me a 9 VAC 650 milliamp power supply which could overheat and melt, fail or cause a fire. Why can't Guitar Center hire people who know something or actually care? Anyway, the guys at Guitar Center Pasadena GAVE me a 9 VAC 2.0 amp (2000 milliamp).

[moshpit817]

Re: Bought A Rocktron Gainiac To Experiment With................

I would definitely buy another one if priced right,I should have kept mine because the Valve FX with the floorboard one controller and the Ganiac with a rack tube amp or seperate head would be a great simple rack setup.
I did try a Ganiac 2 years ago and the original model like you have sounded so much better.I'm glad you like yours,kinda makes me want to try to find one and buy it..Mild GAS attack!

[Jeffblue]

Re: Bought A Rocktron Gainiac To Experiment With................

I have several guitar rigs. I own 3 Peavey Rockmaster preamps, one is used as a preamp for a Stromberg-Carlson PA amp converted for guitar, one is mounted in a Carvin Bel-Air amp cab with my 1969 Fender Banter Reverb head and I mounted one vertically in the lower rear panel of my Trace Elliot Bonneville 4X10. The Gainiac is being used with my Vox Lil' Nigh Train head. I have a Rocktron XDC which is a exciter/distortion unit with my Fender Super Champ X2 head. It kind of makes my SCX2 sound like EVH.