A Fly-by Over ADA City

[fdesalvo]

I picked up a 1988 ADA MP-1 for a great price after going on a "vintage" guitar pre binge (JMP-1, MP-1, Sansamp PSA-1).  I'm in the midst of restoring this one to its former glory and thought I'd post a few pics. 

There is a literal city of electrolytics on board and all of them should be replaced; some of the ICs will be upgraded throughout the audio path to lower the background noise.  Tons of fun!  I've got a crate from Digikey arriving in 48 hours with all the caps and ICs.  The circuit boards will all be washed; jacks, switches, etc will be cleaned and conditioned.  Everything works on this one.  No Issues.

The chassis looks really nice despite the age.  I may have it reanodized, so it'll be perfect.  The faceplate is also really clean.  If I end up flipping this, I want the next owner to have a unit that will provide great tones for years to come.  Chances are I'll be keeping this one as it's quite special. 

Despite the 30 year age of this unit, the tone is really fantastic. Sweet cleans and molten Marshall tones with added shimmer.  I'll be posting up another thread of my JMP-1 refurb soon.

Cheers - hope all's well with you and yours!

~f

 

[stratamania]

Cheers, Frank.

Its funny now looking at this stuff as I remember these types of things coming out and being the cool gear to have.

 

[rgand]

Nice find, Frank. What fun to put one of those back to mint condition.

 

[Cagey]

Interesting project. Those were pretty popular for a while, I'm sure you'll find some good sounds in it.

 

[fdesalvo]

Yeah, gang, these bring back some memories and I’m such a sucker for gear that tickles the ol’ nostalgia ticklies. 

I remember having just gotten into the guitar in 1988 when I was an 8th grader and I took it very seriously. I leaned of these in 89 after seeing the name pop up in a few of my fav album inserts and the search began.

Once I found out how much it would cost I started harassing my neighbors for grass cutting and car wash jobs.  It took quite a while, but I eventually saved up enough money and orders it online from the musicians friend magazine that I used to receive. 

I was so cluess about gear in general and I had this running through a tiny peavey or crate combo with my stereo speakers hooked up in parallel and strewn about my room lol. I just knew that the more speakers, the better.

Anyway, I never truly heard what these were capable of back then. I was quite surprised by what I heard tone wise. Enough to inspire me to take on this resto/upgrade.

It’ll be interesting to hear what a few updates ICs can offer in the right spots.  I don’t want to sterilize her, just make some minor improvements to components that were chosen due to form factor limitations back in the day.

 

[fdesalvo]

Over 40 caps and a handful of resistors later, SHE ROCKS. I'm just going to post a rambling, incoherent, solder/caffeine-fueled impression below.

Holy hell, I've forgotten what these are capable of!  Almost dead silent now and so much more gain than any one man should handle, this thing is full of the nicest modded Marshall and Fender tones I've ever heard in one place.  The midrange available is massively musical and not boxy or papery in the least.  Cranking up the mids and presence NAILS Rust in Peace tones.  Tweak a few parameters and it's SRV or EVH.  Tons of high end shimmer, too.  I cannot wait to start tracking with this.  I haven't even touched any of the ICs at this point and most likely won't; it's just perfect as is.  I was going to flp it, but am really struggling with the idea of that now having heard it (and now that it's pretty much fully restored). Its funny how gear trends come and go; what's cool today isn't so tomorrow in lots of cases.  These are true classics in my mind and playing through one for the first time since 1988 is a really nostalgic and extraordinary experience; I've wasted so much money on gear that couldn't provide half of the tones.  This box could easily replace my pedal board and amp for that matter.  I can't wait for the JMP-1 to arrive next week.  I've got a heap of resto parts waiting for her, too. 

 

[Cagey]

Looks good! Considering what you paid for it, why not keep it? Unless you're hurting for space, It's not gonna cost you anything to have sitting there for when it'll come in handy.

 

[fdesalvo]

That's the truth.  My desk of DAW only has 4 rack spaces, but I can make this work by kicking out the Tuner and Power Hub and moving them elsewhere.  I've got that JMP-1 a'comin and she's got a permanent home here, too. 

Cheers, bro!

 

[Cagey]

Speaking of "Desk of DAW", I finally got realistic about space and bought a 12-space rack, which after sitting on casters puts its very close to the same height as my work desk (28"), effectively extending my top space ~21" wider at roughly the same depth...

Thing is, now it weighs about a million pounds so the next time I move I'm gonna have to hire some no-necks to move it rather than rely on my aging circle of friends and family  :laughing7:

 

[fdesalvo]

I’ve been looking at similar. I feel I’m on the slippery slope and am going to end up with a live rack rig the size of a fridge lol. 

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

I love ADA and I had some of my most profound gear head moments while endorsed by them & doing beta testing.
Nothing but love & respect for David Tarnowski.  I actually bought my very first pc computer from him too, an old 486 back in 1998.

 

[Cagey]

I’ve been looking at similar. I feel I’m on the slippery slope and am going to end up with a live rack rig the size of a fridge lol. 

Well, that was my fear, too. But, realistic me said to myself "Self, when's the last time you took your rack out on the road?" Of course, the answer was "many years ago". So, what was I worried about? Yeah, the new unit is immovable without heroic effort, but chances are it's not gonna get moved unless I change residence again before I die.

Worst case, I still have 4 space and 6 space Roadrunner boxes here, so I can grab the essentials out of this rack and downsize to something more portable. But, it's not likely to happen. I'm more likely to just grab my pedalboard and a 112 cab and use that for me and to feed the PA and call it a love story.

 

[fdesalvo]

I love ADA and I had some of my most profound gear head moments while endorsed by them & doing beta testing.
Nothing but love & respect for David Tarnowski.  I actually bought my very first pc computer from him too, an old 486 back in 1998.

TFS you have some of the coolest industry stories, bro. Love to grab a brew with you sometime. Dave seems like a really interesting dude for sure.

 

[fdesalvo]

Why isn’t there a remote control/motorized dolly for these things yet?  :icon_biggrin:

I’ve been looking at similar. I feel I’m on the slippery slope and am going to end up with a live rack rig the size of a fridge lol. 

Well, that was my fear, too. But, realistic me said to myself "Self, when's the last time you took your rack out on the road?" Of course, the answer was "many years ago". So, what was I worried about? Yeah, the new unit is immovable without heroic effort, but chances are it's not gonna get moved unless I change residence again before I die.

Worst case, I still have 4 space and 6 space Roadrunner boxes here, so I can grab the essentials out of this rack and downsize to something more portable. But, it's not likely to happen. I'm more likely to just grab my pedalboard and a 112 cab and use that for me and to feed the PA and call it a love story.

 

[Logrinn]

Going the other way - ie small and light - I ended up getting this a while back:

Very happy with it and it's smaller than a toaster  :icon_biggrin:

Here's another picture/video of the amp so you get an idea of it's size:

[youtube]https://youtu.be/v8L2M41rZZ4[/youtube]

 

[Cagey]

Why isn’t there a remote control/motorized dolly for these things yet?  :icon_biggrin:

Probably because we all remember what happened when ED-209 tried to negotiate stairs...

[youtube]_MS4sLlBvbE[/youtube]​

Hate to see that happen to a nice rack of musical gear  :laughing7:

 

[Cagey]

That little Victory amp is pretty kick-ass! A surprising amount of utility out of such simple controls and small size, and the tone is fantastic!

 

[Sovereign_13]

Why isn’t there a remote control/motorized dolly for these things yet?  :icon_biggrin:

Don't tell Gibson, or we'll end up with Robo-Racks!  Which 4 people will buy in total, and that company will slide even faster toward bankruptcy.

Not sure about motorized, but you just need some of those sliders you see on the bottoms of appliance dollies. 

The little oval bits that slide so you can go up and down stairs.

 

[Cagey]

After the last move, I think one of those dollies is in my future. But, that doesn't change the weight of the thing. My rack box weighs 75 lbs empty. Add all the widgetry, and I don't know where it is. The computer alone is pretty heavy - maybe 40 lbs - I don't think anything else in the rack beats 10 lbs, so add another 50 lbs and we're at 165 lbs. Hmm. Maybe it's not as bad as I thought. For some reason, I had it in my head it was a 300lb box.

 

[Sovereign_13]

It's never as light as you want it to be, but people are not the best judges of weight or strength.  Or anything that can be objectively measured.  Even a 200lb load in something as compact and stable as a rack wouldn't be bad compared to a 200lb washing machine.