Grateful Dead Music Forum

Brad,
I have been eyeing the SMS pre for quite sometime. I have seen your power amp recommendations and down the road I will end up picking up a Mac (my gear outlays always must fly under the wifes radar whcih means I do a fair amount of gear flipping to keep the balance sheet square), however in the interim, I was wondering how you think the SMS would sound using the Power section of a Mesa Boogie Mark 2a . It has an input in the bottom of the chassis that just use the power portion of the amp.It is a 60/100 so I can go to 4 or 2 6L6's

If I am not mistaken, this is similiar if not the same as what Trey did over the summer with your pre, but I am after a more Jerry'ish ballpark. Will I still be there with the Boogie Power section?

The Boogie should be just fine. I'm now installing a rear knob on the SMS Classic to help pad down the output level when interfacing with devices or amps with sensitive inputs. The SMS Classic can easily overdrive the Boogie's rear effects return jack. That is a great place to tap into the Boogie to get direct access to just the power amp, but you'll want to pad down the Classic's output and then use the Boogie Master to get the level right. That should sound great. That is exactly what Trey did this summer with his setup, but his Classic doesn't have the rear pad, so he may have run into some unwanted clipping with that setup.

The McIntosh is a very cool and authentic sound, but there are some rack mounted tube amps that are also quite cool. I'm waiting to hear reports on the affordable Carvin. I know that the VHT/Fryette is pretty amazing and brutally powerful. I've heard the Boogie rack tube power amps are also quite nice. Really there are a number of solid state power amps that should work well, but some are better at handling clipping and transient peaks better than others.

Best,
Brad

http://www.sarnomusicsolutions.com

I've used my Mesa 50/50 for all sorts of applications and it always sounded great.

Eaton runs his HT cabs with a Mesa 2:90.

If someone has some cash, it sure would be cool to hear it with a couple of Mc275's. I think those things are well over 2 grand a piece these days. I believe (and please correct me if I'm wrong) that the Mc275 is what Jerry was using for tube power with his Twin preamp in '72 and maybe earlier. But I think that was his power up till the major switch over to transistor power with the Mc2300 came along in '73.

Yes/no anyone?


Brad

The MC275 has been a Holy grail of mine for years, but I think they are closer to the 5 grand! range now.

SarnoMusicSolutions wrote:If someone has some cash, it sure would be cool to hear it with a couple of Mc275's. I think those things are well over 2 grand a piece these days. I believe (and please correct me if I'm wrong) that the Mc275 is what Jerry was using for tube power with his Twin preamp in '72 and maybe earlier. But I think that was his power up till the major switch over to transistor power with the Mc2300 came along in '73.

Yes/no anyone?


Brad

I am not sure about Jerry using the MC275, proabably did at some point, but I am 90% sure that Phil did in that same time frame, and I also think that a few MC275's made up their first decent PA, as they were in Bears home stereo set up.

"Supposedly" Alembic sound was using MC275s onstage with Jerry/GD as early as 1969 according to Ron Wickersham. I haven't seen any pictures to prove it though. This is just what Ron said. I wonder what if anything Healy can recall?

Jim

mijknahs wrote:"Supposedly" Alembic sound was using MC275s onstage with Jerry/GD as early as 1969 according to Ron Wickersham. I haven't seen any pictures to prove it though. This is just what Ron said. I wonder what if anything Healy can recall?

Jim

They can be seen in the 8/27/72 film, possibly some shots from E72 as well... off to Jerry's right side. Phil is already using MC3500's iirc.

I'll take a look. Thanks.