Recommend me a new preamp.

I currently have a rocktron piranha, love the basic tone, the gain and operation, stuff like that.

What i hate: TOO MUCH flexibility. I find myself fine-tweaking alot more than i play. Every time i seem to dial in a good tone i think "hmm, maybe adjust this just a tad" and there i go tweaking again. There's just too much knobs, too many sounds in one unit. The mesa syndrome x 1000..


Needed features:
Some midi support would be nice but not absolutely necessary.
Easy to dial in (Treble, middle, bass, gain, volume).
Somewhat flexible, a usable clean, killer rhythm, decent lead
Tight, articulate, focused, biting, clear, crunchy, PUNCHY grinding modern extreme death metal distortion.

I like the sound of the Ampeg VH140c on record at least.. never seen much less played one in person.

Price: whatever.. just be reasonable, Engl 580 is out if the question..

What i have in mind right now: Randall RM4.. with suitable modules.

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Tight, brutal punchy grind? Rocktron Pro Gap. They almost never sell for over 120$, go look em up on the german or US ebay. I've been watching for one for a while on the US ebay though, no luck so far.

Some clips>

http://www.ffri.hr/~dmanojlo/powerchording.mp3
http://www.lightningmp3.com/live/file.php?fid=1062

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I could always go head->cab too.. :-/

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NVM. I tried out the following in a store (well several stores) today:

Engl 570 - Very decent. A little raunchy mids, bottom end VERY tight, i just couldn't get it to "round" off when maxxed (i don't really like diming stuff, i like it when I'm just on the edge of "too much").. They're asking way too much for this though, i mean, components are actually hot-glued to the board several places, there's glue and tape everywhere, no really good socket retainers etc.. Cheaply built, exclusive price.. what a ripoff.
Recto recording pre: with everything on noon, very similar to my piranha on "hyper dist", just muddier and not as defined. Plus the piranha can do so much more at 1/10th the price.
Randall RM4 w/1086 - real nice, polished but raw, but i could nail everything this one could do on the piranha. Hehe.
Randall RM4 w/Ultra - Pretty decent, stressing bottom end, just way too much of it (think Line6 Insane). Very processed and liquidy-sounding, i can't quite get there with the piranha but it sounds like.. slipknot.. it's a shitty tone anyways
Randall RM4 w/XTC - Very middy and pronounced, clear and tight, a little short on gain for me and somewhat shallow bottom end.. I can nail this with the piranha.

So overall.. hmm... the RM4 was nice but none of the modules were "IT" for me, they were nice but not like on the piranha where i can nail the tone of just about every band that ever existed just by tweaking the gain & mid freq.. Bassman cleans (if you can get it to not break up ), Plexi rock tone, JCM heavy metal, 5150 rawness, Powerball tight&focused-ness.. it's all there..

I think i just need to sit down for a few hours and program presets. I have so much to do nowadays though.. And I'm getting in new pickups and a complete retube.. wonder how it'll sound later, my pickups right now are the worst that has ever been produced me thinks.. :-/

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I recommend the RM4. I am actually going to buy this once i have enough money. The Blackface module would be good for cleans, Recto/Treadplate would be good for rhythm if you like that type of sound and the Ultra XL would be good for leads and rhythm IMO. Then, you could choose whatever module you want as the 4th one. I'd choose the Plexi or SL+ module since i play classic rock as well. If you can try to find an RM4 that you can try out and demo all of the modules that are currently in stock.