Your experience with poweramps for rockmaster pre?

[Gmork]

I feel so lost on what direction i should go with my peavey rockmaster rack pre.
Tell me about your experiences with different poweramps with your rockmaster.

Would love a fryette but thats way outside of what i want to spend. Im tempted to go with the rocktron velocity 300 but hhhghgh i dunno. Feel like maybe i should just wait for who knows how long until i find a deal on a decent tube poweramp.

 

[sevenfoxes]

I paid $600 for a USA model on Reverb about a month ago, and its pretty clean. I didn't have to wait that long for it to pop up either.

$1300 is a scam.

 

[Gmork]

I paid $600 for a USA model on Reverb about a month ago, and its pretty clean. I didn't have to wait that long for it to pop up either.

$1300 is a scam.

Hey sorry, something glitched when i was naking the thread and it posted twice so i turned this into a different thread. Woops

 

[MaxOfMetal]

Look for an old Carvin T100/TS100. Those Rockmasters sound great through EL34s.

Perhaps an older Mesa Strategy if don't mind the heft.

 

[USMarine75]

Mine sounds great through a Fryette PS2 50w 6L6 for now or the FX return of one of my 5150s. Can’t wait to try an EL34 though.

 

[Bearitone]

Dude try an Orange Pedal Baby 100. It’s great and sounded awesome with my TMPro. Loud af

 

[Chris Bowsman]

Nothing to add, except I miss the hell out of my Rockmaster. Had an MP-1 later on, the Peavey was so much better.

 

[op1e]

I had a 9005 with my Rockmaster and that was pretty dam good. Had an old Velocity 250 before that with an MP-1 and wasn't bad. Reactance didn't seem to make the speakers jump like a Peavey though, just looser. Coolest rig I ever had was the 1101/Rockmaster/DST-4/9005. I put a HT-Dual in the crunch loop of the Rockmaster and split the input from the 1101 to the HT-Dual. Was like having a cool British tone to go to amidst a pseudo "JCM-5150". My goal is to recollect all the stuff I've had to sell in November cause of the many bad years the shop had before business picked back up.

 

[wedge_destroyer]

Long time Rm owner currently bouncing between a Tube Works Provalve, and a Qsc Rmx1450. It's not all that picky of a preamp. Give it something flat and loud it won't have many problems. I've ran mine through the a slew of random PA amps, for SS power amps stick to Class AB or D. As far as tube amps, I've tried the old Carvin T-100, Marshall el34 100/100, Peavey Classic 50/50 and 60, a Mesa 295? plus a bunch of fx loops. I settled where I did because I like the Provalve and I can get Qsc cheap lol.

 

[vick1000]

Mesa 2:50, can't beat 'em....except the 2:100 if you have the back for it.

 

[Valdra]

I have an old Carvin T100 and an old Rocktron Velocity (Bass) 300. I just went out to my barn and tested them back to back and I will say the Rocktron has more of a gooey feel to it (in a good way), and a healthy amount of bass response. It honestly feels real nice with the Rockmaster; dare I say better? I had the bottom knob dialed in at the +9 mark with the Rocktron.

The Carvin is definitely more treble heavy, not a whole lot of bass even with the Rockmaster bottom knob dimed. Probably would be the perfect amount if I was playing with a band, though. Maybe gives a more british sound? I don't really know how to describe it. I should add I have the presence knob dialed back to just above 0.

The Rocktron get's hella louder. I keep it at 9 o clock in bridged mode and the Carvin puts out equal volume at about 2 o clock bridged mode. If I go much higher on the Rocktron my 2x12 starts to smell like burning plastic or something... which is a good sign that I'm pushing too much power to it and need to back down....

I should also add that I don't know how different my Rocktron is from the modern day equivalent. I wouldn't be surprised if they're still very similar despite the "bass" tag mine has. They probably realized that they could market it to more people if the dropped that, but maybe someone else can chime in better on that.

Really these are the only poweramps I have experience with outside of full tube heads and what not.

 

[vick1000]

The Carvin rack tube amps are more for hi-fi, or flat response, than guitar applications. Even though they were sold as guitar amps, kind of defeats the purpose of tubes.

 

[WarMachine]

Unless you don't plan on playing anywhere that won't mic you up, i'd pass on the V300. It sounds amazing, good price but in a full band context live you will disappear. I'd look into anything tube you can/can afford. I haven't priced them for years, but maybe check into the peavey classic power amps? They used to go for basically nothing but that could've changed.

 

[c7spheres]

I use to play a Rockmaster when they first came out in the 90's with a Valverb and Peavey Classic 50/50. It sounded great to me but Rockmasters do lack in the low end dept and are a bit fizzy for my taste so I eventually went with a V-Twin rack after trying numerous other preamps and pedalboards. I've tried the Rockmaster through the Peavey Classic 50/50, Mesa 50/50, Mesa 2:90, Qsc Solid state Pa amps, Carvin something, Mesa 20/20 and various combo power input sections. They all sound like a Rockmaster character mixed with that power amps character. I never felt like they became one unit working together really. The best one for that classic metal sound it's so good at is the Peavey 50/50, imo. It's just voiced to work with it, it seems. I also tried it with a Peavey 120 mono power amp from that era and it was even better, from what I remember, but I only tried it like twice with that amp. A solid state amp vs tube with a Rockmaster I don't think makes a huge difference like it does with other preamps. To me a Rockmaster is almost like playing through a solid state preamp or something. I never got that tube character from it like I do with other tube stuff, kinda like Marshall's. There's just no tube dynamic breakup happening like with a Mesa or VHT etc. I'd rather go with a JMP-1 or ADA MP series than a Rockmaster honestly, unless you really do like that sound for what you do. Someone is selling a Peavey Classic 50/50 on Ebay right now for about $450 though. Remember though, 8-el84 tubes cost a lot of money for a retube plus anything else it might need.

 

[Gmork]

Bump.
Just made an offer on reverb for a rocktron V300 for $275 canadian +$40 shipping which was accepted.

Pretty excited to try it out. If its not up to my standards ill grab a mesa if i ever see one for a good price but if the V300 is more than sufficient at that price id say its a win for me.
It seems both the peavey and V300 are only like 9" or 10" so i can use a shallow case too!

 

[c7spheres]

Bump.
Just made an offer on reverb for a rocktron V300 for $275 canadian +$40 shipping which was accepted.

Pretty excited to try it out. If its not up to my standards ill grab a mesa if i ever see one for a good price but if the V300 is more than sufficient at that price id say its a win for me.
It seems both the peavey and V300 are only like 9" or 10" so i can use a shallow case too!

I had a Velocity 300 for a short time before I got the Peavey 50/50 (mid 90's?). It is a super tight and punchy amp. It sounds really good from what I remember. Never had any gripe about it I just went with the tubes when I had the chance. It is solid state but with the reactance knob? it gives a pretty decent tube-like pump. It may work better for fast metal stuff too than some power amps even because it responds very fast. It gets loud but if you're driving a 4x12 it may or may not suite your needs when getting to jam/ drummer levels, depending on the cab/speakers wattage. Good score for sure, especially at that price. I used it with the ART SGX-2000 and the Rockmaster too.

 

[sharedEQ]

I feel so lost on what direction i should go with my peavey rockmaster rack pre.
Tell me about your experiences with different poweramps with your rockmaster.

Would love a fryette but thats way outside of what i want to spend. Im tempted to go with the rocktron velocity 300 but hhhghgh i dunno. Feel like maybe i should just wait for who knows how long until i find a deal on a decent tube poweramp.

In the meantime, get a Peavey Ultra or JSX for 300-500.

Then sell the rockmaster.

The rockmaster is an ultra circuit, early version of the XXX and JSX.

 

[Gmork]

I had a Velocity 300 for a short time before I got the Peavey 50/50 (mid 90's?). It is a super tight and punchy amp. It sounds really good from what I remember. Never had any gripe about it I just went with the tubes when I had the chance. It is solid state but with the reactance knob? it gives a pretty decent tube-like pump. It may work better for fast metal stuff too than some power amps even because it responds very fast. It gets loud but if you're driving a 4x12 it may or may not suite your needs when getting to jam/ drummer levels, depending on the cab/speakers wattage. Good score for sure, especially at that price. I used it with the ART SGX-2000 and the Rockmaster too.

Not loud enough?!? My seymore powerstage170 is beyond loud enough with my LOUD deathbmetal band and only 170w. Ill be using the rocktron bridged at 300w surely it will pull through just fine no?

In the meantime, get a Peavey Ultra or JSX for 300-500.

Then sell the rockmaster.

The rockmaster is an ultra circuit, early version of the XXX and JSX.

Ive thought about getting an xxx and would reeeally like an XXL.
Had a jsx and kind of hated it, while i do realize theyre all from the same line the RM and jsx definitely sound quite different. I really like the RM and wont be selling it.

 

[sharedEQ]

Not loud enough?!? My seymore powerstage170 is beyond loud enough with my LOUD deathbmetal band and only 170w. Ill be using the rocktron bridged at 300w surely it will pull through just fine no?


Ive thought about getting an xxx and would reeeally like an XXL.
Had a jsx and kind of hated it, while i do realize theyre all from the same line the RM and jsx definitely sound quite different. I really like the RM and wont be selling it.

I've owned them all except the XXL, except not at the same time.

They are all slight variations of bees in a bottle. IDK how you could like the RM and dislike the JSX. The JSX has the best power section with res/presence control.

 

[Spinedriver]

Not loud enough?!? My seymore powerstage170 is beyond loud enough with my LOUD deathbmetal band and only 170w. Ill be using the rocktron bridged at 300w surely it will pull through just fine no?

Honestly, it should be. I used to use a Line 6 Pod XTL w/ a Mosvalve 962 poweramp which is 160w bridged and I ran it into a Marshall JCM800 (300w) cab and it was plenty loud for band practice. Part of it really depends on how you eq your preamp as well. If you don't tune your eq to the rest of the band, then you'll need more power to punch through. Get the eq right, then you can be heard with less power.