NPAD (New Preamp Day!) Big Racks inside...

[Kamanda~SD]

A Glorious ADA MP-1. Wanted one forever and finally scored one cheap (one output does not work, back jack. Easy fix but no need at the moment).

So far only have a couple hours on it but it does exactly what I expected it too...80's tone in a box. Got Michael Wagener's settings from the Skid Row/Extreme/White Lion (ew!) settings and have been tweaking from there. LOVE the chorused out lead tones you can get on this thing...I own a few chorus pedals but this just has 'that' sound.

Any tips on this guy for me? Still lots to play with on this. So far in comparison to the jmp-1 it is simply a different flavour. Seems a little less meaty but at the same time I have owned the JMP-1 for over 5 years so I definitely know it better and how to tweak it to my liking.


Below is the rest of my 'home' setup, taken days before the MP-1 showed up as well as showing off 2 guitars I am tracking leads with atm. The 800 only gets used at home for recording, hence why its out at the moment (the other is permanently at the jamspace and I swap them back and forth) whereas the rack is home use only. I've got a long closet in behind that wall where I have a 2x12 with V30's all mic'd up as well. Generally the 800's I use for rhythms and the rack for leads when at home.



Top to Bottom:

-Weber Mass Lite Attenuator
-Korg Tuner
-Phonic Power conditioner (aka glorified power strip)
-Alesis Quadraverb
-Marhall JMP-1
-Lots of misc pedals. Back line in front of amp, front line in loop
-Radial loop switcher
-Peavey Classic Series 60/60 Power amp with JJ 6L6's
-1983 Marshall JCM 800 2204 Modded.

 

[treyhaislip]

Re: NPAD (New Preamp Day!) Big Racks inside...

Awesome man! Bob Hartman of the band Petra used one–actually has his listed for sale (EDIT: one of his outputs is broken as well lol.) I believe this is the owner's manual for it (in case yours did not come with one.)

Never used one, so I apologize but no tips on that bad boy other than just plug and play! lol

Enjoy!

 

[dystrust]

Re: NPAD (New Preamp Day!) Big Racks inside...

A few things come to mind.

First and foremost the tone controls in the MP-1 are all band-pass filters and the Q is too narrow, so there are certain gaps that the EQ can't touch. Running an outboard EQ in the loop helps, but it's cumbersome to use in a live situation because you'll frequently want to make different corrections depending on how the patch's EQ is set. The distortion voicing also tends to be noisy, so I ran a gate in the loop and set the loop 'on' in all of my distortion patches. As my frustration with the EQ gaps was starting to get to me, I reached out to one of the mod guys on ADA Depot and asked if it was possible to fix the issue. He told me it was "Part of the MP-1 sound" so I sold it. A few years later I bought a Voodoo Amps modded MP-1, and they managed to fix the EQ. The modded MP-1 also has a slightly lower frequency focus so I'm not fighting the bright quite so much. It's a shame they're not modding MP-1s anymore as it's a huge improvement.

The other big drawback of the MP-1 is that the effects loop is mono and located before the onboard chorus, so it's pretty useless aside from EQ / Dynamics / Gate.

 

[jeremy]

Re: NPAD (New Preamp Day!) Big Racks inside...

nice! i used to have an rg550 just like that. loved that thing!

 

[El Dunco]

Re: NPAD (New Preamp Day!) Big Racks inside...

Ahah, the good old MP-1. Damn that's a good unit, it can do anything. You wanted to know what ADA setup I have. Behold! The rig of doom I alluded to earlier.

 

[Kamanda~SD]

Re: NPAD (New Preamp Day!) Big Racks inside...

Thanks guys!

Trey - That's exactly where I got the manual, thanks! And that's a pretty good price he's selling for. Honestly, prices have shot up huge in the last 5 years and have gotten quite ridiculous.

Dystrust - Great insight, thanks! I am planning on getting an EQ for my rack setup at some point. Noise is not an issue for me as my rack setup hasn't seen the stage in years. However, I do have noise suppressors if the time were to come.

Jeremy - This one is from Oct 1990. Love it...

Beer$ - So are you running both of those in tandem?

Next step for me is to open er up, check the version, check the tubes, swap some tubes for fun, and maybe fix that jack. Sounds to me like the jack is ****ed as I can get low output out of it if I jiggle around a bit. We'll see...

 

[idsnowdog]

Re: NPAD (New Preamp Day!) Big Racks inside...

First and foremost the tone controls in the MP-1 are all band-pass filters and the Q is too narrow, so there are certain gaps that the EQ can't touch. Running an outboard EQ in the loop helps, but it's cumbersome to use in a live situation because you'll frequently want to make different corrections depending on how the patch's EQ is set. The distortion voicing also tends to be noisy, so I ran a gate in the loop and set the loop 'on' in all of my distortion patches. As my frustration with the EQ gaps was starting to get to me, I reached out to one of the mod guys on ADA Depot and asked if it was possible to fix the issue. He told me it was "Part of the MP-1 sound" so I sold it. A few years later I bought a Voodoo Amps modded MP-1, and they managed to fix the EQ. The modded MP-1 also has a slightly lower frequency focus so I'm not fighting the bright quite so much. It's a shame they're not modding MP-1s anymore as it's a huge improvement.

The EQ is what I found frustrating with the MP-1. You could get a decent distortion tone out of it but the frequencies weren't centered on Marshall, Fender or Mesa frequencies so you were always a little off.

 

[idsnowdog]

Re: NPAD (New Preamp Day!) Big Racks inside...

Thanks guys!

Trey - That's exactly where I got the manual, thanks! And that's a pretty good price he's selling for. Honestly, prices have shot up huge in the last 5 years and have gotten quite ridiculous.

Dystrust - Great insight, thanks! I am planning on getting an EQ for my rack setup at some point. Noise is not an issue for me as my rack setup hasn't seen the stage in years. However, I do have noise suppressors if the time were to come.

Jeremy - This one is from Oct 1990. Love it...

Beer$ - So are you running both of those in tandem?

Next step for me is to open er up, check the version, check the tubes, swap some tubes for fun, and maybe fix that jack. Sounds to me like the jack is ****ed as I can get low output out of it if I jiggle around a bit. We'll see...

I ran a EH 12ax7 in the first tube slot and a Ruby 5751 in the second slot. I liked how each tube distorted differently and how that added to complexity of the tone. I thought it sounded too thick with 2 x 12ax7's.

 

[El Dunco]

Re: NPAD (New Preamp Day!) Big Racks inside...

Beer$ - So are you running both of those in tandem?

Yeah boii. The MP-1 takes care of the upper midrange body and snarl and the mesa blends in with a devastating crunch and sledgehammer bottom frequencies.

 

[dystrust]

Re: NPAD (New Preamp Day!) Big Racks inside...

Thanks guys!

Trey - That's exactly where I got the manual, thanks! And that's a pretty good price he's selling for. Honestly, prices have shot up huge in the last 5 years and have gotten quite ridiculous.

Dystrust - Great insight, thanks! I am planning on getting an EQ for my rack setup at some point. Noise is not an issue for me as my rack setup hasn't seen the stage in years. However, I do have noise suppressors if the time were to come.

Jeremy - This one is from Oct 1990. Love it...

Beer$ - So are you running both of those in tandem?

Next step for me is to open er up, check the version, check the tubes, swap some tubes for fun, and maybe fix that jack. Sounds to me like the jack is ****ed as I can get low output out of it if I jiggle around a bit. We'll see...

The ROM version will flash on the LCD when you power it up. Most stock MP-1s I've seen are v1.38; the ADA Depot and Voodoo Amps modded ones are typically v2.01.

 

[LLL]

Re: NPAD (New Preamp Day!) Big Racks inside...

...

 

[LLL]

Re: NPAD (New Preamp Day!) Big Racks inside...

...

 

[Kamanda~SD]

Re: NPAD (New Preamp Day!) Big Racks inside...

Thanks for the tips guys! I know Michael Wagner said he preferred the sound of v1.38 even though 2 was quieter, and I will be trying tubes out whenever I get a chance (I have lots laying around).

Beer$ - Makes sense. I typically will do similiar when I am in a space and can record 2 amps at once (or reamp, but harder to get the right blend when theyre not going together).

LLL - Thanks again! I have been through that forum many times and already did the factory reset. Even put in Wagners MP-1 Settings in the same slot (#45). I am also familiar with the battery replacement as I learned the hard way with my JMP-1. Luckily I had backed it up with that editor they had around....

 

[DrNewcenstein]

Re: NPAD (New Preamp Day!) Big Racks inside...

IIRC, the primary designer of the MP-1 went to work for Digitech when ADA folded, resulting in the 2101 preamp. He then went to work for Marshall, and the JMP-1 is considered "what the MP-1 was meant to be".
Or something like that. I know they're all 3 related somehow along those lines.


Anyway, I run mine (v2.01) with a flat EQ in all my patches into a Digitech TSR-12 for the tone-shaping EQ, as well as fx, and have been since about 1993. I don't recall if the guy I got it from said it had been modded. I wanna say he had a noise-reducing mod done on it? Like I said, can't recall, and don't know enough about it to look at the board and tell a difference.

I run my front panel Output knob at 9 o'clock, and it's not noisy at all.


I do use the internal EQ for tweaking the final tone in addition to the TSR-12's EQ, but not much. I think there's a few Steve Vai presets running around he posted some years ago - one seemed impossible, but sounded pretty good - IIRC you max all the EQ/Presence but cut the Mids to the max. Gets kinda MOPish, but also has some top-end buzz and hiss, so it may be one of those layered-track-only type of things.

The "One Bad Output" thing is part of the design, apparently :lol: Output B, right? :lol:

Speaking of the 2101, I had one a few years ago and after dedicating both processors and 3 internal EQs, which took up all the internal RAM, I was able to replicate one of my MP-1/TSR-12 combo patches. Seemed excessive to me, so I ditched the 2101.

Get the MP-1 set right and you can get the Jazziest cleans this side of a JC-120. I think when in Solid State Voice Gain 1 is the Compressor. I'm down to using 10 patches these days; one clean and 9 increasingly dirty dirts.

 

[dystrust]

Re: NPAD (New Preamp Day!) Big Racks inside...

Speaking of the 2101, I had one a few years ago and after dedicating both processors and 3 internal EQs, which took up all the internal RAM, I was able to replicate one of my MP-1/TSR-12 combo patches. Seemed excessive to me, so I ditched the 2101.

Get the MP-1 set right and you can get the Jazziest cleans this side of a JC-120. I think when in Solid State Voice Gain 1 is the Compressor. I'm down to using 10 patches these days; one clean and 9 increasingly dirty dirts.

I only ever liked the 2101 for effects. For any Smashing Pumpkins fans out there, pretty much all of the modulation effects on MCIS were done with a 2101. Like Dr. Newc I never cared for the preamp itself and didn't hold onto it for long.

On the MP-1's SS clean voicing, the compressor is gain 2.

 

[JOLLY]

Re: NPAD (New Preamp Day!) Big Racks inside...

I like big racks and I cannot lie.

 

[PFDarkside]

Re: NPAD (New Preamp Day!) Big Racks inside...

Cool! I have a secret desire to build a rack with both MP-1 and JMP-1 preamps, Marshall rack power amp (100/100?), Peterson tuner, Voodoo Lab effect loop switching, wireless and MIDI Switching.

Have fun!

 

[BloodRose]

Re: NPAD (New Preamp Day!) Big Racks inside...

I like big racks and I cannot lie.

Yep, and for guitars too!!!

Awesome score!!! I too have lusted for one of those for years. If I was a better player, Id be more serious bout getting one. cant justify the cost currently, especially with the way they are climbing. Im a total 80s metal geek.. can those be run with a regular amp head? I assume so..I wouldnt want to have to buy a power amp. I have a rack mount Rockman chorus that I need to get a rack for ..

 

[BloodRose]

Re: NPAD (New Preamp Day!) Big Racks inside...

Awesome man! Bob Hartman of the band Petra used one–actually has his listed for sale (EDIT: one of his outputs is broken as well lol.) I believe this is the owner's manual for it (in case yours did not come with one.)

Never used one, so I apologize but no tips on that bad boy other than just plug and play! lol

Enjoy!

they hard to find people to service them??

 

[dystrust]

Re: NPAD (New Preamp Day!) Big Racks inside...

they hard to find people to service them??

It can be pretty difficult and parts are getting scarce too. I'm planning on selling mine for that reason and because I really don't use it anymore.

To answer your earlier question it can be used with a head either into the effects return or into a clean amp if the MP-1 output isn't too hot. The first Smashing Pumpkins record was recorded with an MP-1 into the low input of a JCM800 head.