The Steel Guitar Forum

Brad Sarno · From: St. Louis, MO USA

The Preamps are finally ready. I won't be in Dallas, but TC Furlong will have a couple of these to demo/sell in the Jackson room.

Introductory price for this first run is $695.

Enjoy!
Brad

NOS Allen Bradley 1W plate resistor and JJ ECC83 tube

Ben Jones · From: Seattle, Washington, USA

that is very handsome Brad. congrats.

Keith Hilton · From: 248 Laurel Road Ozark, Missouri 65721

Quality stuff from a quality guy! I am happy for you Brad, keep up the good work!

Tommy Shown · From: Louisiana, USA

That is a nice looking unit there Brad. I'm gonna have to work a lot of overtime. Tommy

Brad Sarno · From: St. Louis, MO USA

In Dallas, be sure to check out TC's combo amp that uses this preamp mounted up inside it. He'll also have a free-standing unit to check out as well.

Brad

Randy Reeves · From: Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA

Allen Bradley Co.. after high school I got a job there for the summer before college. I made those things. hundreds of them a week.
I worked three summers there. punch press mainly.
it was amazing to me to see boxes and boxes of parts not knowing what the heck they did.
now I see things I made all the time. my favorite was the Reset button I stamped out for two months.
they are everywhere.
congrats on your project. nice to see Allen Bradley come up here.

Brad Sarno · From: St. Louis, MO USA

Yeah, I fortunately was able to score a good number of these 1-watt Allen Bradley resistors from my secret electronics surplus store. Ron Wickersham, the founder of Alembic, designer of the Dead's Wall Of Sound, and who was also a top tech at Ampex in the '60s told me this about the AB carbon comp resistors. He said there's never been a more rugged and reliable electronic component made, ever. These things are still the military spec for any still-flying B-52, they were used extensively in the Apollo program, and really, they're all over the place in critical applications dating back before the '80s. Even early and mid '70s Fender amps used these things. They tend to be a bit quieter than most CC resistors, and they are very stable and rarely get sputter or noisy as other CC's do.

So I've got a bunch on hand for my preamps. I put them in all the Rev's and Tonics, and now they can go in the new preamp as well. I only use them for plate load resistors. Carbon Comp's have a sound when used there. It's warmish with a bit of a harmonic halo. CC's are unique in that their actual resistance value changes as the voltage across them changes. This means that as the audio signal swings up and down, the changing value of the resistor will introduce a very subtle, warmish and musical set of overtones (aka, harmonic distortion), but not in the sense we tend to think of distortion. This can still be considered extremely "clean" to the ear. It's in the realm of euphonics.

I also offer the good miltary spec metal film types for a more crystal clean bell-tone sound if anyone wants those instead.

Brad

Brad Sarno · From: St. Louis, MO USA

Brad Sarno · From: St. Louis, MO USA

Jon Light · From: Brooklyn, NY

Looks just great, Brad. Stupid question.....what is that input jack? I noticed this on my Freeloader too--the contour of the nut is just so damned elegant looking. It's just one thing out of many that dresses your stuff up so fine.

Brad Sarno · From: St. Louis, MO USA

Thanks Jon.

That's a style of Neutrik jack. That design has been around since the 40's or 50's I think. It actually is more practical for certain types of mountings, and it adjusts nicely for various panel thicknesses. Plus it looks cool.

Brad

T. C. Furlong · From: Vernon Hills, Illinois, USA

Please allow me to be the first to comment on the sound of this new preamp. I put it in one of my new 15" combo amps last night and I must say...Brad you've done it again! It sounds just superb. To say it is straightforward would be an understatement. No bells or whistles, just pure tone! I tried it with a 12" closed-back SPLIT cabinet and another new combo that I call the SpliTonic with a "convertible-back". Equally great. It really is the most elegantly simple and wonderful sounding preamp on the planet.

TC

Randy Beavers · From: Lebanon,TN 37090

Brad, it has the ultra "coolness" look. I can't wait to try one. I imagine it's killer!

b0b · From: Cloverdale, California, USA

Brad Sarno · From: St. Louis, MO USA

Thanks bOb.

It's actually a 24bit digital "hall" type reverb with a medium/long decay of about 2.6 seconds. I had thought about a real spring reverb, but to do it right in conjunction with such a small chassis, it takes the big type reverb tank mounted in a bag outside of the chassis and away from the power supply transformer. The digital module was more practical, and really sounds quite good with steel.

Brad

Len Amaral · From: Rehoboth,MA 02769

Hey Brad, the new unit looks sweet. Have you tested the SMS Classic preamp with the Freeloader? If so, were was the tone shaping capabilities?

Thanks,

Lenny

Brad Sarno · From: St. Louis, MO USA

Lenny,

they really sound good together. Since the new "Classic" doesn't have the buffer stage like my other pre's, the FreeLoader can play that role instead. The black box does a good job too. Personally I'm pretty hooked on having a vari-z control and a buffer up front, so when I take this preamp out for gigs, I'll probably drag a FreeLoader with me.

Brad

b0b · From: Cloverdale, California, USA

Cool idea, mixing digital reverb right inside a tube preamp. I would have never thought of it.

What power amp and speakers do you recommend?
_________________
©Bobby Lee, a.k.a. -b0b- | Twitter | FaceBook | Wine Country Swing | The Burnside Scramblers
email: Quasar@b0b.com | now playing a Desert Rose S-8 because EIGHT IS ENOUGH!

Brad Sarno · From: St. Louis, MO USA

Bobby,

really there are so many options. I think that many of us have found our favorite sounding speakers and cabinets over the years. I'm personally a big fan and user of TC Furlong's powered 12" box, and his new powered 15" combo boxes also sound quite fantastic. Real light, clean, accurate, and loud.

But I know a lot of guys have had success with their old JBL D130's or K130's or Black Widows in various cabinet styles, closed and open backed. Some guys really like the sound of a good Mosfet power amp like the Haflers or the Mosvalves because of their sweet midrange and treble, although they're kind of heavy. Others find the compact Stewart power amps to be nice and clean and accurate, as well as fairly light weight. A good handful of people really like using the Peavey Nashville series of amps strictly as a powered speaker box, or the PX300 which actually is just a powered speaker box. One of the best sounds would probably be with something like the VHT or Boogie rack mounted high-power tube power amplifier. All tube signal path from preamp input to speaker. That would be sweet. Nothing beats tube power amps in my opinion, but the power to weight ratio makes it generally impractical. Plus, since most of us like steel to be real clean, the tube power amp factor just isn't a critical thing it seems.

So really, there are tons of options. To me a lot of the mentality here is to attain a tone much like what a classic Fender Twin is capable of, but with ultra clean high power and all at a weight well below that of a real Twin Reverb amp. It's a hybrid mentality that has tubes in the preamp and solid state for light, loud, and clean delivery. But really anything goes.

Brad

b0b · From: Cloverdale, California, USA

I bet it would sound sweet with my Mesa 20/20 and 12" alnico/hemp Tone Tubbies. Smile

Is there an effects loop? Or would I just patch my Rotosphere between the preamp and power amp?
_________________
©Bobby Lee, a.k.a. -b0b- | Twitter | FaceBook | Wine Country Swing | The Burnside Scramblers
email: Quasar@b0b.com | now playing a Desert Rose S-8 because EIGHT IS ENOUGH!

Brad Sarno · From: St. Louis, MO USA

Brad Sarno · From: St. Louis, MO USA

The webpage for the new preamp is finally up. It's preliminary, but it's up.

http://www.sarnomusicsolutions.com/products/smsclassic.html

Brad

Brad Sarno · From: St. Louis, MO USA

Bump.

Brad

John Groover McDuffie · From: LA California, USA

So Brad, what does the future hold for the Tonic Tube? It and the SMS Classic cover almost the same ground - will they continue as "fraternal twins" or will the Tonic be phased out?

Brad Sarno · From: St. Louis, MO USA

John,

the Tonic has a lot more features:

-buffer input section with vari-Z control and tuner send (pre volume pedal)
-color tone control (mid sweep)
-external/parallel effects loop
-transformer balanced XLR output
-and a bass expand switch that tailors the bass curve

I'm just about out of Tonics, so for a while all I'll have is Rev's and SMS Classics. When I get back out of the $$ hole and can make a new round of Tonics, they may have a facelift, including possibly being in a similar chassis to the SMS Classic, easily rack mountable. The Tonic was originally meant to travel in backpacks or suitcases and sit on top of an amp or speaker. But so many have wanted to rack mount the Tonic, that I may just go that route. But it's gonna be a while, maybe this Fall. I'm literally down to my last 3 or 4 Tonics, and then that's it. I know that this new one is priced the same as the Tonic but features less. That's partly because the new chassis are a LOT more expensive to make, and also the Tonic has been held at an intro discount price ever since I started. We're doing some brainstorming around here for what the future may hold, so please, anyone and everyone, feel free to share your thoughts and suggestions. I'm trying to create solutions for the working steel player.

This new SMS Classic is intended to be light on features, and rich on simplicity and familiarity for those who just want to plug in and go, just like they did back in '68 with a Fender Twin Reverb or the like. The SMS Classic has a number of subtle improvements here and there that bring the noise down and the purity up.

Brad