Rackmount Gear (guitar and bass)

[Space Pickle]

I've been thinking about upgrading my home studio setup and moving from a 2-channel interface to something with more inputs. This lead to the idea of assembling a small rack...to that end, I've been looking for rack preamps...there's lots of stuff for bass but almost nothing for electric guitar. Does anybody have recommendations for a good guitar preamp that is rackmountable? AFIAK I don't need the poweramp portion as this will be for essentially direct recording.

I don't want something like Axe-FX or a Kemper (way to expensive), I want an actual tube pre. I think the Lexicon Signature 284 would have been great, but they stopped making them like 15 years ago.

There is an Engl e530 on my local craigslist for $500 that I am thinking about.

 

[RoadRanger]

As long as you're careful to NEVER, EVER clip your I/F you can add what a tube preamp does with a plug-in. The issue with using any "coloration" at all when tracking is that you can't remove/change it in the DAW.

 

[Dave W]

There are lots of rack mount preamps for guitar they're just not nearly as popular as they were 20 years ago.
Most of them have been discontinued. Here are some that I remember off the top of my head.

Marshall JPM-1
Mesa Triaxis
Mesa Formula
Mesa Racktifier
Pretty much anything made by Rocktron
ADA
Bogner Fish

 

[Passinwind]

Hafler made a few too.

 

[Space Pickle]

There are lots of rack mount preamps for guitar they're just not nearly as popular as they were 20 years ago.
Most of them have been discontinued. Here are some that I remember off the top of my head.

Marshall JPM-1
Mesa Triaxis
Mesa Formula
Mesa Racktifier
Pretty much anything made by Rocktron
ADA
Bogner Fish

Yeah, this is the problem. It seems like almost nobody makes them. Everything is from the 80's or 90's and discontinued. The Ractifier is out (don't need a 100w power amp), the Triaxis is a possibility although I think it's quite expensive as well.

 

[Dave W]

Yeah, this is the problem. It seems like almost nobody makes them. Everything is from the 80's or 90's and discontinued. The Ractifier is out (don't need a 100w power amp), the Triaxis is a possibility although I think it's quite expensive as well.

By Racktifier I meant the Rectifier Recording Preamp, I just couldn't remember the actual name of it.

The Triaxis is around $2K new and usually around $1K used. It's an awesome preamp, I think the newer ones have the clean channel of the Lonestar, Rectifier Orange and Red modes, and Mark series channels too.

I have a Marshall JMP-1 which is great overdrive but the cleans aren't exactly great.

If I were to buy another pre for the purpose of recording, I'd be looking at the Triaxis or Bogner Fish (which are almost impossible to find and very sought after). But then again I'd probably just go with an Axe-FX II-XL or a Kemper.

 

[Space Pickle]

Thanks, the Mesa Recording Preamp looks like it is still for sale. The Rocktron stuff is hilarious. "Do you want BRUTAL METAL TONES????"

I may pick up the Engl although after listening to demos the high gain settings seem to be completely useless.

 

[Dave W]

I had an Engl preamp pedal (Tube Toner) that was pretty sweet for OD and high gain tones but I wasn't happy with the cleans so I dumped it.

The Rocktron Prophesy II isn't too bad. It's got a ton of options and lots of useless factory patches, but it sounds pretty good.