The SVTP uses a single 12AU7 tube. There is no trap door to replace the tube, but the design of the preamp does not require frequent tube replacements, anyway.
The SVTP is manufactured in the USA.
The following are facts and subjective impressions about the Speakeasy Vintage Music Tube Clone Preamp, which I was provided for review. For those of you who are not familiar with this author, a little background on this particular review: I run a website and discussion list for Hammond organ clone products. Normally, I provide a review of my gear on the website after I've owned the piece for about 2-3 months. This is the first instance where I have reviewed unowned gear, but I'd been hearing a lot of good feedback from owners of the Speakeasy preamp, so when Steven Hayes, the designer of the preamp, called and asked if I wanted to look at his product, I quickly agreed.
The Speakeasy Vintage Tube Preamp (SVTP) is a single-channel tube preamp, designed for use in connecting a combo organ to a Leslie or other sound source. Speakeasy makes several variations on the main theme: a model with a 6-pin Leslie interface, one with a Motion Sound motor control interface, and a preamp-only model (reviewed here). The basic idea is to duplicate the important parts of a Hammond organ preamp, in order to provide the user with the same sound source as a real Hammond B-3 would. It also allows the tube's natural compression and harmonic enhancement to "warm" the sound. The SVTP uses old-school, point-to-point tube technology, just like any classic amp or preamp from the 50's and 60's would.
As with any gear, there's pros and cons in the SVTP's design, but I believe it is a very effective re-creator of the classic "tube sound", and while the price isn't bargain basement, it's on- or below-par with most of its competition. This preamp is a good choice for keyboard players who need something to take the digital edge off their organ clone, particularly if that "something" doesn't include a Leslie.
Compared to tube preamps made for guitar or bass, the SVTP sounds much smoother: less distorted and "buzzy", and its controls are well-tailored to the needs of the organist. It's not a perfect replacement for using a B-3 with a Leslie 122, but it's pretty damn close.
Note: All comments in this review are based on using the SVTP as an organ preamp. That's what it was designed for. I didn't attempt to use it for warming synths and guitars, or as a recording preamp.
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The SVTP comes in a solid, extremely durable medium-sized wedge-shaped cabinet,
suitable for foot pedal use as a Leslie speed controller. The front surface includes a wide
pad of sandpaper-like material to prevent the user's foot from sliding. A heavy-duty AC cable
is permanently mounted to the unit. Although I only used the preamp for a couple of days, I got
the feeling that the unit would last for years under normal use.
The SVTP uses a single 12AU7 tube. There is no trap door to replace the tube, but the design of the preamp does not require frequent tube replacements, anyway. The SVTP is manufactured in the USA. |
The controls on the preamp are also pretty Spartan: a foot-operated On/Off switch, a red neon power indicator, Volume, Bass, and Treble controls. (The Leslie and Motion Sound versions also include a speed control switch.) Not much to fiddle with, but the SVTP wasn't meant to be constantly fiddled with. You find your settings once, and then you pretty much leave it alone.
Personally, I wish that the Output jack was on the top next to the Input, but it's not a big issue.
I used the Speakeasy preamp to fatten the sound of a new KORG CX-3 organ in two situations: direct to the PA, the way most players would use it in a Leslie-less environment (its intended purpose); and as a "growl-maker" ahead of my MOSFET-driven hot-rodded Leslie. (The MOSFET amp adds 15dB or so to the volume of my organ, allowing me to compete with rock guitars, and while it overloads a lot like a tube amp, it doesn't overload as quickly, so I need a little preamp help.) As such, this review will concentrate on the unit's capability to warm a solid-state sound, and its ability to provide an overloaded sound at lower volumes, in an organ-only environment.
First test: warmth. I set both units to a moderate volume level, with neutral tone (by my calibrated ears!), and used four settings --
| 88 8000 000 | percussion 3rd, normal, fast | no vibrato | Green Eyed Lady sound |
| 88 8800 000 | percussion 3rd, soft, fast | C-3 vibrato | stock jazz sound |
| 88 8864 448 | no percussion | no vibrato | the Yes Album sound |
| 88 8888 888 | no percussion | no vibrato | all stops |
The sound is of the SVTP is excellent -- 12:00 on the bass is a little heavy for my liking, but setting the control to about 10:30 fixes that nicely -- with a very smooth sound. I was able to EQ the dual-stage art to get a similar sound (a little more treble roll-off, a little extra bass), but not quite as smooth as the SVTP, especially in the 2-4kHz area, no matter what I did. I especially preferred the 88 8888 888 sound of the SV preamp. Warmth Test: Speakeasy wins, score of 10 vs. 7, native; 10 vs. 8.5 after EQ'ing.
Then we come to the Dirt-and-Grunge test. The purpose of this test is to find a setting that will allow the preamp to impart the sound of an overdriven Leslie at lower volumes. I'm not talking Smoke On the Water; more like Bob Dylan's Like A Rolling Stone. This sound normally requires a tube Leslie running at just above rated output power, and is nearly impossible to get at dinner-theater volumes on a real B-3/122. To arrive at the sound, I set both preamps so that the lowest two C's held down with 88 8888 888 and "rhythm" volume at full expression just barely starts to overload -- then turn up the volume and expression to 10, set the organ to 88 8860 000 and let her rip, complete with palm glisses and such. I also went back to the Yes Album sound, and played the last 16 bars of Your Move, with the pedal to the floor. Here is where the SVTP falls behind the ART. By careful adjustment, I can get more dirt from the Dual MP, without sacrificing either the warmth or dynamic range. If I adjusted the SVTP's volume control to the point where the full-bore growl was right, I ended up with a not-quite clean sound at rhythm volumes. I guess the best way to describe it is that the SVTP tends to stay clean longer.
For testing, I alternately connected the ART and SVTP preamps into the chain, making no other changes, unless necessary to overcome unwanted timbre, gain differences, etc.:
CX-3 -> Test Device -> MOSFET Amp -> Leslie.
I enlisted three members of my band, all between the ages of 40 and 50, and asked them to listen for any differences in tone between the ART and SVTP preamps. We used a couple of stock rock settings: 88 8840 000 and 88 8844 444. All four of us felt that at moderate volume, the tone of both preamps were pretty close to each other, but the SV provided a little more punch, while the ART provided a good deal more clarity, especially as the volume went up. Rolling down the bass on the SV preamp helped, but the ART's sound was still better defined. The only explanation I can come up with is that the MOSFET amp/speaker system already has 75% of the tone that organists are looking for, and the SV preamp's providing of the same amounts to too much of a good thing.
Then, I ran the same Yes Album distortion test as before. This test is significant, because when dialed in correctly, my CX-3 and Leslie can provide both an authentic mellow Green Eyed Lady sound at 88 8000 000, full third percussion, and the expression pedal set to 50-60% of travel; and then morph into classic Tony Kaye at full expression and 88 8864 448. As in the simulator tests, the SV preamp would not quite allow the CX-3 to bridge the gap: turning up the gain left the clean sound too grungy, while turning down the gain resulted in too little overdrive in the full-pedal setting.
The SV preamp is well suited to "warming" a digital organ sound, but less so to simulating heavy amp overdrive. If you're going to use your organ with the onboard simulator straight into a PA or stationary amplifier, and if the accuracy of your Booker T. sound is more important than your Jon Lord, the SV preamp is the clear winner. If you're using the preamp to both warm and dial in grunge-on-demand, then it may not fill the bill as well.
It's going on two years since I first wrote this review. Far from sitting on their laurels, the folks at Speakeasy Vintage have been listening to their users -- and even reviewers like me -- and constantly upgrading their products. Today, there is a whole line of Speakeasy Vintage Tube Preamps, including models for organ, Rhodes piano, and keyboards. There are rack-mount versions, some of them with stereo capability. There's even a "Howler" version that's specifically designed to provide heavy doses of tube overdrive, one of the drawbacks I listed in my review. In fact, if you get the rack version, you can add an option that provides selection of both the original (Classic) and Howler sounds in one box.
Well, there's more: The new generation of the preamps actually sound better than the old ones. They have more of those hard-to-quantify qualities like "warmth" and "openness," and the rack versions have a bit more gain to allow heavier overdrive using lower-output organs like my CX-3.
I liked the new Speakeasy Vintage Tube Preamps enough to add one to my personal setup, retiring my ART Dual MP. In fact, I liked them enough to become a dealer.
No laboratory animals were used during the evaluation of this product!