Rack gear is insanely expensive now

  • Thread starter Thread starter saxxamafone
  • Start date Start date
itsgoodnow said:
100%. Those units have unique mojo that imparts a specific sound onto an amp that apparently can't be properly emulated. The PCM 70 and 80 instantly come to mind for this. The TC 2290 also is staying for that reason. One day I'll go full insanity and put an SSL E series EQ in my guitar rack...
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Yep, the PCMs have a nice ‘color’ as well as the SD3000s…I prefer the SD color just a bit more. Both are unique, and sound killer.
 
Racerxrated said:
Yep, the PCMs have a nice ‘color’ as well as the SD3000s…I prefer the SD color just a bit more. Both are unique, and sound killer.
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I would still buy an SD (and was actively looking for one for several months within the last year). I would also pick up a few other boxes just for the coloration. The flavors are very unique. For clean to mid dirt I used to toss any one of those units in front of a matchless and it was instantly awesome. I feel the SD would excel there.

For filthy distortion the pcm 70/80 and 2290 really seemed to give up the goods to my ear very easily.

…I want to buy a chieftain and an SD upon reflection.
 
One of the reasons I'll always run a 2290 is because this " sheen" that it puts on my guitar signal.I dnt know what's going on with that, but I love it. And with my 2290 freshly serviced and good for another 30 yrs+ and a spare tucked away,all is good. Now,tc was supposed to make the 2290 into a pedal form but we've not seen any evidence of that yet.
 
Bought a Replifex last year and it's collecting dust now. Haven't been interested in rack stuff after that and see it kinda overrated.

Pedals get you really far nowadays.
 
Shask said:
The problem with that is adding more gear starts to lose the small, portable part of why these can be useful.
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Ok but I'm literally not doing that and quite frankly don't know what you're talking about.
 
I've noticed the Bradshaw/Huff/Lukather/Landau fans are doing re-builds of old rack setups. So that plus the scarcity is likely pushing prices up. Check the "Huge Guitar Racks" facebook page.

I've always loved the rack concept and still have a JMP-1 rack setup I use for recording. Wish I kept my ADA MP-1.
 
Was just about to sell the SDE3000, until this thread. I might even get the Midiverb III up n running.
 
ghosty999 said:
I've noticed the Bradshaw/Huff/Lukather/Landau fans are doing re-builds of old rack setups. So that plus the scarcity is likely pushing prices up. Check the "Huge Guitar Racks" facebook page.

I've always loved the rack concept and still have a JMP-1 rack setup I use for recording. Wish I kept my ADA MP-1.
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I have an ADA MP1 for a while. Brought it back out. It sounds great. But I’m really enjoying my Myasnikov Superlead in its place. The ADA has a really cool chorus effect though. Too much stuff, not enough space. I have gone all rack as of late. The sound is unbelievably nice (for me). Now I am just waiting for my custom cabinet to be built.
 
Shask said:
I meant if you ran it with a mixer to have an analog dry-thru. The mixer adds more gear.
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I was talking about using a parallel effects loop with the effect's kill dry on or the mix set to 100% wet. I prefer this over an analog dry-through because I retain full control over my dry & wet signal. That's how I use my Helix for fx only.
 
I remember ~15 years ago you could find MP-1s, JMP-1, Triaxis, even the occasional H&K Access, sometimes even in decent shape, but without having to pay crazy money. I still prefer the modularity of rack over head-and-cab. I just want signal into the rack, then a cable out to my cab. Pop the cover, plug in, done. My back can't do that in a single rack now, but I try to play places with few stairs, or where the stage hands handle that stuff.

For rack stuff I've been using Synergy with a Randall RT2/50, and loving it. Outboard effects are where it feels like we've lost a lot of ground. People want pedals, and now you have more computing power in a pedal than what would have taken a rack space or two 15 years ago. The new Eventide H90 mounted on a rack tray may be the closest to what I'm wanting.
 
Even used Eventide Eclipses are scarce today, and not much less than new retail. You'd seen them used for ~$1000 3-4 years ago.
 
I was happy to get my PCMs over the last few years for a decent price. Same with the FX cards for the 80, which also took off. Of course there's always the flip side. One day you find yourself digging thru a MIDI Implementation manual re-learning Most vs Least Significant Bit and SysEx.

And you think... "man, a USB cable, an app, and a Save button sounds pretty good right about now."
 
retrorack said:
I was happy to get my PCMs over the last few years for a decent price. Same with the FX cards for the 80, which also took off. Of course there's always the flip side. One day you find yourself digging thru a MIDI Implementation manual re-learning Most vs Least Significant Bit and SysEx.

And you think... "man, a USB cable, an app, and a Save button sounds pretty good right about now."
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Lack of modernizing on these old units is definitely what killed them off.
 
Bossman415 said:
@ClintN667 hope KSR follows through with a 100 watt rackmount version. Bonus points if it can be switched between mono & stereo and able to use any of the major octal poweramp tubes in a mix match. I’d love to run my Rectifier Recording Preamp through a KT66/KT88 power amp.
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I’m using a PA50 with a quad cortex. As soon as I plugged it in, I quickly began to learn the ‘tube’ thing isn’t just hype (I didn’t have a ton of experience with tubes prior to that). Control over the NFB is super helpful too. I also tried it out with bass and some bass cabs and it was still surprisingly hardy, though I didn’t try it with a band or live (plan to soon!)

If he released a 50/50 version (or even higher wattages) that could bridge to mono with the same features as the PA50 — I think I’d sell a kidney immediately to buy one and use it stereo for guitar and bridge to mono for bass

Though I think I’d prefer it in a head shell, but that’s just me.
 
PansyFlowerpot said:
If he released a 50/50 version (or even higher wattages) that could bridge to mono with the same features as the PA50 — I think I’d sell a kidney immediately to buy one and use it stereo for guitar and bridge to mono for bass
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Fryette LXII.
 
I'd like to get another Rack Tuner. I fried mine by accident..
They are double in price now..
 
DennisTheMenace said:
Fryette LXII.
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I’ve been tempted by this, but I’m curious/nervous about it not having the necessary iron in the transformer department to support bass playing, which I’ve been told is important (but I don’t have any direct experience with it)

Fryette also said that their PS100 would likely be lacking in the fundamentals, but hadn’t tested it much. They didn’t comment on the LXII but I just assumed it would be similar. The unfortunate part of it is that the equipment is prohibitively expensive to buy just to test and nobody really talks about using these amps for bass.

No real way to tell if a KSR offering would be much better vs an LXII, but I was impressed with the PA50 for bass so I would think that it would fall in line!

I probably really just need a Peavey classic 120/120 ;)
 
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