A Fly-by Over ADA City

[Cagey]

That's true. Some things are just unwieldy, so you can't use your strength as effectively as you'd like, which makes them feel heavier.

 

[dmraco]

I get all my tones out of this and a reverb pedal.  I will say I am so interested in the Virtual amps.  Axe FX and Kemper are the top of my list....

 

[Wolfie351]

I picked up a 1988 ADA MP-1 for a great price after going on a "vintage" guitar pre binge

I've got a closet fresh, 30 year old ADA T100S power amp if you'd like to complete your ADAness.  I bought two MP-1s and two T100s.  Gigged with one set, kept the other as a backup and still have it. 

 

[davegardner0]

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.

That old ADA stuff seems pretty cool! I don't know much about the amps but I do have a set of two 2x12 vertical cabs that I've used off an on. Makes a nice mini-stack with a Traynor head I have:

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

I had the Microtube 200 1U poweramp that I used for a good decade and I loved it.

In retrospect, as much as I loved all that gear, I do not miss lugging around a 20 space rack + 2 2x12 cabs.

 

[bagman67]

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.

That old ADA stuff seems pretty cool! I don't know much about the amps but I do have a set of two 2x12 vertical cabs that I've used off an on. Makes a nice mini-stack with a Traynor head I have:

I got nothing to add here but this:  Nice Comanche!  I love those G&L split-coil pups.

 

[davegardner0]

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.

That old ADA stuff seems pretty cool! I don't know much about the amps but I do have a set of two 2x12 vertical cabs that I've used off an on. Makes a nice mini-stack with a Traynor head I have:

I got nothing to add here but this:  Nice Comanche!  I love those G&L split-coil pups.

Oh yeah that guitar is my #1! It's 4 years old I think and already in desperate need of a refret.
I love G&L's and this one has a custom wide neck and saddle lock (fixed) bridge. Those Z-coils are the real deal, it's like a heavy and huge sounding strat, while retaining the quack and twang:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xs2ks1QTLAw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oftLB3KDnF0

 

[Cagey]

What a coincidence! I've always desperately wanted to refret a Commanche! Some nice, big stainless wire to make it play like a dream...Mmm... what could possibly be wrong with that?

 

[davegardner0]

What a coincidence! I've always desperately wanted to refret a Commanche! Some nice, big stainless wire to make it play like a dream...Mmm... what could possibly be wrong with that?

It already has Jumbo frets, and I'm definitely thinking Stainless Steel for the refret especially now that I've experienced them! I remember when I bought the guitar stainless frets were a $400 upgrade so I didn't spring for them. Seems like it doesn't really cost that much more to have them put in or put them in myself though, but I had no idea back then.

 

[TBurst Std]

This thread has me go decades back. Back then it was a Mesa MKII, a JTM45 and a Reverb Deluxe. Always wanted an ADA rig. I find myself wanting a model of it in my Axe currently.  Hmmm a model of a model.  Stranger tides

 

[Wolfie351]

Hmmm a model of a model.

I wouldn't consider the MP-1 to be a modeling amp, it has earned it's own identity.  It has multiple drive channels, ability to go from solid state to tubes, and a highly configurable tone stack that was able to create a huge variety of sounds including the ability to mimic popular amps of the day.  Of course, there were presets of those name brand amps and it may have been a selling point to a lot of players, but it was never advertised or intended that's it's primary ability was a modeling amp.

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

I was an ADA endorsee, and a beta tester on several products, including the MP2, Micro Cab, Ampulator, and the Rocket Amps.
I know Dave Tarnowski personally as well as other former ADA employees.

I can make the following statement with qualification and certainty.
None of the ADA units are "modelers" even remotely.  They are 100% analog signal paths with the only digital anything being that of memory recall, akin to having servo motors on potentiometers to twist knobs to desired settings, but far more sophisticated, especially since this was back in 1988.

 

[Kostas]

The MP1 was the first serious guitar equipment I bought in the late 90's. A friend later bought the MP2 and I liked it even more, it was more versatile if I remember correctly. Then Marshall released the JMP-1 and everybody were buying that, it was the next hot thing at the time. Although good products they didn't have the tone of the Soldano, Bogner and Egnater preamps that cost about three times more. I remember a local dealer had in his personal rack all three preamps, the Rocktron Intellifex for FX, the VHT Classic power amp and handmade cabs with Celestion speakers. After I heard his Anderson guitar through his rack my teen illusions about vintage gear's superiority were destroyed in seconds...

 

[Cagey]

[The MP-1] was never advertised or intended that's it's primary ability was a modeling amp.

Nothing was referred to that way back then; "modeling amp" is a modern term of art. But, that unit along with the others mentioned here were certainly that. The marketing weenies just hadn't gotten around to conceptualizing and subsequently convincing people of the idea that an amp could be modeled. Nobody then had the balls to say "this is a model of a [insert desirable amp here]". That was the intention of the technology, just not the labeling. The idea then was twofold - to escape the looming obsolescence of tubes, and to provide greater versatility in smaller/lighter packages. Fast forward to today, and now everything is a model, whether it sounds like what it's supposed to be imitating or not.

That's no knock on modelers - some of them are so accurate it's spooky - I'm just saying the early units were modelers regardless of what they called them. You didn't buy a JMP-1 to sound like a JMP-1, you bought it on the promise that you'd get several different Marshall heads shoehorned into a single rackspace. Same with the MP-1, Mesa's Triaxis, etc.

 

[TBurst Std]

[The MP-1] was never advertised or intended that's it's primary ability was a modeling amp.

Nothing was referred to that way back then; "modeling amp" is a modern term of art. But, that unit along with the others mentioned here were certainly that. The marketing weenies just hadn't gotten around to conceptualizing and subsequently convincing people of the idea that an amp could be modeled. Nobody then had the balls to say "this is a model of a [insert desirable amp here]". That was the intention of the technology, just not the labeling. The idea then was twofold - to escape the looming obsolescence of tubes, and to provide greater versatility in smaller/lighter packages. Fast forward to today, and now everything is a model, whether it sounds like what it's supposed to be imitating or not.

That's no knock on modelers - some of them are so accurate it's spooky - I'm just saying the early units were modelers regardless of what they called them. You didn't buy a JMP-1 to sound like a JMP-1, you bought it on the promise that you'd get several different Marshall heads shoehorned into a single rackspace. Same with the MP-1, Mesa's Triaxis, etc.

Thank you clarifying my intention. Years ago I asked Fractal to put an ADA model in.  Their response was a modeler of a modeler.  I always wanted an ADA system.  Was in the process of getting one back in the day when it became I could no longer play professionally then.

 

[aarontunes]

It's an exercise in semantics, really.

The intention has always certainly been the same: to have access to the sounds of many iconic amps from a single device. The distinction is the approach...the technology that was employed to achieve (or try to achieve) the intention.

In my mind, "modeling" is technology that reproduces tones based on digital "recordings" (AKA models) of different amps and/or cabinets. Devices like the ADA and the SansAmp didn't use that technology, because it didn't exist then. The designers hadn't "modeled" anything. Instead, they were attempting to mimic a variety of amps via analog circuitry. I've often seen this approach referred to as "emulation", which seems like a good distinction to me.

However, lots of people use all these terms interchangeably nowadays. Nothing new, and life goes on.  :icon_thumright:

 

[swarfrat]

Not to get too picky about the semantics, but their response is not invalid. What would an MP-1 model sound like? Sure you could model some of its presets, but trying to call one "the MP-1 model" would surely fall short given the signal path options the MP-1 has.

 

[Wolfie351]

Nothing was referred to that way back then; "modeling amp" is a modern term of art. But, that unit along with the others mentioned here were certainly that.

I can name a dozen 80s-90s Digitech products alone that qualify as a "modeling amp" where their primary use was to digitally capture the sounds of popular amps of the day.  If you want to lump in analog rack pre-amps into that category, I respectfully disagree.  I also seem to remember you stating the MP-1 was a "multi-effects unit" in a previous thread so I'm not exactly sure you have a familiarity of the product.

The marketing weenies just hadn't gotten around to conceptualizing and subsequently convincing people of the idea that an amp could be modeled. Nobody then had the balls to say "this is a model of a [insert desirable amp here]".

ADA had specific presets called "Marshall".  They had balls

That was the intention of the technology, just not the labeling. The idea then was twofold - to escape the looming obsolescence of tubes, and to provide greater versatility in smaller/lighter packages. Fast forward to today, and now everything is a model, whether it sounds like what it's supposed to be imitating or not.

The MP-1, JMP-1 and Tri-Axis all had tubes  :dontknow:

That's no knock on modelers - some of them are so accurate it's spooky - I'm just saying the early units were modelers regardless of what they called them. You didn't buy a JMP-1 to sound like a JMP-1, you bought it on the promise that you'd get several different Marshall heads shoehorned into a single rackspace. Same with the MP-1, Mesa's Triaxis, etc.

We must run in different circles then because no one I knew back in those days ever bought a pre-amp because it sounds like <insert amp name here>.  They chose the MP-1, JMP-1 or Triaxis because they all had their own sound, massive versatility and are still quite popular today for that reason.  If you want to lump that in with a 1991 Digitech GSP-21, so be it.

 

[Wolfie351]

Not to get too picky about the semantics, but their response is not invalid. What would an MP-1 model sound like? Sure you could model some of its presets, but trying to call one "the MP-1 model" would surely fall short given the signal path options the MP-1 has.

Which is one reason why the Kemper is superior to Fractal.  I modeled all my favorite MP-1 presets with the necessary EQing and now the pre-amp sits in the closet.  Especially happy since I can now use drive pedals with those presets, the MP-1 HATES pedals.

 

[fdesalvo]

Not to get too picky about the semantics, but their response is not invalid. What would an MP-1 model sound like? Sure you could model some of its presets, but trying to call one "the MP-1 model" would surely fall short given the signal path options the MP-1 has.

Which is one reason why the Kemper is superior to Fractal.  I modeled all my favorite MP-1 presets with the necessary EQing and now the pre-amp sits in the closet.  Especially happy since I can now use drive pedals with those presets, the MP-1 HATES pedals.

Yep - you'd have to bypass the input buffer in the MP1, which would ruin it for everything else.