ISP Theta Preamp Pedal - Love it!

  • Thread starter Thread starter nigelpkay
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nigelpkay

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I just got this recently, along with the ISP Stealth power amp, and my god I love it through my Marshall 1960a cab. I feel like it's the tone I've always wanted but never quite got there with my Marshalls.



It is totally a high-gain Marshall vibe, but without the need for a boost pedal, or even a noise gate as it has a decimator built-in to it. Tons of gain, and the EQ is super responsive and you can really dial in sounds easy depending on your guitar or pickups. The mids have a mid-sweep knob that you can put the centre mid at anywhere from 300Hz to 6KHz so you have a ton of control over where you want to cut/boost your mids.

I'm a tube snob like most people, but man this pedal just floored me. With the Stealth power-amp it makes for a very portable rig to carry around and to be honest this is the closest I've come to the sound in my head.

Only test I haven't done yet is run it full on with a band, otherwise, sounds amazing in the room.
 
Right on. I'll have to give this a listen on proper speakers (on my phone now). I dig my Stealth with my Kemper. Great little power amp.
 
JerEvil":2i1l5cei said:
Right on. I'll have to give this a listen on proper speakers (on my phone now). I dig my Stealth with my Kemper. Great little power amp.
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Yeah I have an unpowered Kemper too, and it works great with the Stealth. However, I've sifted through hundreds of profiles and I've never been totally happy until I got my Theta ;)
 
Sounds good for leads...not too sure on low fast riffing, since he does none.
 
I've been running this into the clean channel of my JVM for some different flavors of gain when wanted and I've been catching myself jamming on it for hours.....lol. It really is a cool, versatile pedal.
 
nigelpkay":1huj5mtc said:
JerEvil":1huj5mtc said:
Right on. I'll have to give this a listen on proper speakers (on my phone now). I dig my Stealth with my Kemper. Great little power amp.
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Yeah I have an unpowered Kemper too, and it works great with the Stealth. However, I've sifted through hundreds of profiles and I've never been totally happy until I got my Theta ;)
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Interesting. I've had the same experience with the Kemper units I have had.
Will have to check this pedal out. The ISP stuff seems really nice!
 
I wasn't really aware of much of their other pedals.. I use and love the original decimator. I gotta say, this thing sounds pretty awesome. It has the cut and detail I feel are missing from the clips I hear of other pedals (like the bogner red/blue) Clearly I am a modded Marshall or straight up Marshall guy. The stealth power amp looks interesting, anyone compare it to the magnum .44 ? For me the key would probably be running this guy in the front end of a Marshall or through the loop to make use of the poweramp. Good price on it too..

As for the demo, Ethan is a wicked 80's player but slow down those chops a little! It is ok to have some space between notes :rock:
 
I saw Ethan on that tour and his tone was very good. Didn't know he was playing the ISP?
 
IceMan":1qblr14e said:
I've been running this into the clean channel of my JVM for some different flavors of gain when wanted and I've been catching myself jamming on it for hours.....lol. It really is a cool, versatile pedal.
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It's much better if you run it into the JVM fx return as its own preamp. I tried it front of my JVM410HJS clean channel just now and it sounded like crap.
To me it sounded really good with the Stealth power amp and also through the power section of the JVM which speaks very well for the Stealth.
 
nigelpkay":24mf2qn5 said:
IceMan":24mf2qn5 said:
I've been running this into the clean channel of my JVM for some different flavors of gain when wanted and I've been catching myself jamming on it for hours.....lol. It really is a cool, versatile pedal.
Click to expand...

It's much better if you run it into the JVM fx return as its own preamp. I tried it front of my JVM410HJS clean channel just now and it sounded like crap.
To me it sounded really good with the Stealth power amp and also through the power section of the JVM which speaks very well for the Stealth.
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Yeah - that's one way to run it. But I prefer to not bypass my other channels in order to just make use of the JVM power amp. If I was going to do that, I'd run it that way on one of my single-channel amps or just use a separate power amp. This way, I get MORE options.

Maybe the voicing differences between the standard JVM and the JVM JS gave you negative results, but every Marshall I've ever owned - including this JVM - LOVE to have drive pedals run out in front......including this Theta pedal. Different strokes for different folks...........
 
I've always loved the clips of the Theta that i've heard. A Theta preamp pedal, Electro Harmonix 44 magnum power amp pedal, a delay pedal, and a 1x12 cab could make quite a cool little bedroom rig methinks.
 
Looking REALLY hard at one of these at the moment. Intriguing.
 
Can this be powered by my PedalPower 2? or do I have to use their specific unit?
 
It comes with it's own special 9vAC adapter, you can't use a power unit or onespot with it as far as I know, depends on the specs and current.

"The Power Jack is connected to the supplied 9VAC power adapter. The THETA pedal internally converts the 9 volt AC signal from the power adapter to a professional +/- 15 volt DC power supply. This allows a 30 volt internal signal swing required for proper headroom and professional level performance. The THETA pedal will only operate on a 9VAC power source, do not use any other power adapter or damage may result.

You need to either use the 9VAC adapter supplied with the unit or use one of the available power suppliers that offer 9VAC with a minimum of 800 milliamps available current."
 
metalwars":1ctehhyn said:
Has anyone used the ISP Stealth amp?
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Yes.

It's a great power amp for home. I can't comment on gigging, cuz I don't. I use it with an AX8 into a Marshall 425A cab with 25W Celestions, running stereo, and it sound great. Plenty loud with the volume at 12:00.
 
compared to all other analog distortions ?? for example jhs pedal AT bogner burnley or suhr riot ? Sounds maybe a little compresed and thin or not ?
 
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