[Ed. -- I have been told that this piece of gear represents a "Howler" style preamp.]
I have been looking at the Speakeasy Tube Preamp pedals for a while and have been intrigued by the specs on these units. However, it was not a priority to purchase a Speakeasy until I recently retired my Hammond XK2 in favor of the new Korg CX-3. I had been using the XK-2 with an 1122 kit as the portal to my Leslie 122 via the XK2's 11-pin output. The CX-3 has no such multi-pin output (shame on you, Korg) and I had no other way to connect the CX-3 into the 122.
This being the case, I was on the market for some type of preamp with 1/4" input to drive the Leslie 122 and control the chorale and tremolo speed switching. There are no real "vintage" options for sending a 1/4" output into a 122 since the popular Leslie combo preamp pedals are almost exclusively designed for the 147 series and will fry a 122 amp in a second. There are various new solutions available (Hampton, Trek II, CAE), but the Speakeasy preamp looked more promising based on its old-school design and attention to detail provided by Steve Hayes, the brains behind the technology.
My primary requirement is to be able to play my CX-3 through my 122. Secondarily, it would be nice to have the preamp serve a dual function as additional tube warmth into my Motion Sound KBRm. The ability to have both in the same box makes for a great package. Try finding this feature on any of the other preamps out there (Trek, Hampton, CAE) and you'll be scratching your head wondering why they don't have a 1/4" output. It is truly a great innovation to make a tube preamp with multi-pin Leslie and 1/4" output in the same box. I like the fact that my investment yields such a versatile piece of gear. This certainly helps justify the expense, because I do not use my 122 on every gig and don't really want to drop a lot of money on a boutique device that sits at home most of the time. I select my equipment carefully and if it is not paying the bills, I put it on eBay pretty quickly.
All of this said, I was still hesitant about another pedal cluttering up my pedal board. I currently use a volume pedal, Motion Sound speed switch, damper pedal, wah-wah and various FX pedals depending on the gig. Sticking a huge tube preamp pedal in there would make for a real congested world under my keyboard stand. Not to mention the fact that I cringe at the idea of carting a tube preamp to gigs and packing it in and out of a briefcase for every gig. I had sent Steve Hayes a couple of inquiries about a rack-mount device and he had advised that he was working on this, since his rack-mount Fender Rhodes preamp/tremolo was recently put into production. Steve really looks out for the musician's needs in this respect.
I was sold on the notion of the preamp in a rack version and have now been able to use one. I recently obtained one of the first prototypes Steve built, and it is definitely in a class of its own. I like the rack design oh so much better than having a pedal. It is a 2-space unit, quite similar in appearance to the Speakeasy Rhodes preamp. It has the input and footswitch jacks on the front, along with volume, bass, and treble controls and pilot lights. The knobs are heavy-duty, old-school knobs like the ones on a Leslie amp. Very durable and cool looking. On the rear is a 1/4" output for running into a normal amp and the multipin connector for running into the Leslie 122. It is a very ruggedly built piece of gear all around. One bit of feedback I had was that the round-head Phillips screws on top and bottom preclude the rack from fitting into a typical 2-space Anvil rack or in between 2 other rack units. These screws should have been flat-headed and recessed into the steel. Steve promptly fixed this and the preamp now fits my rack perfectly. No longer an issue. The rack unit travels protected in a rack and can be placed out of harm's way during the gig (rather than being the victim of countless stomps or beer spills like the pedal version).
Anyways, getting to the sound of this little rack-mounted device. I had some problems at first, but was able to master it and work out the issues with some help from Steve. My initial problem was a loud background hum when using the 1/4" output. This was bypassed (somewhat) by keeping the 122 pigtail plugged in during operation. Steve was most helpful in helping to troubleshoot this issue. In fact, he quickly sent me a bypass jumper to plug in to the multi-pin and this was a good temporary solution. The permanent solution was a high/low switch next to the 1/4" output which helps control extra noise. This enhancement was made to my preamp and will be a standard feature for the production model.
Once in action, the unit does its job of warming up the clone sound and meets my initial requirement of driving the Leslie 122 in a very nice fashion. This is the main reason I needed the unit and so my first test was to run the CX-3 into the 122. This test was done at home, and so I did not run the 122 really loud. At a low volume, I was able to dial in every variation of the tone and could get a completely ballsy overdriven sound, ala John Lord, if needed. I was a little challenged to get a clean sound through the preamp as it has a very sensitive gain structure and seems to really shine when the tube is driven. But with some tweaking and experimentation with the CX-3 EQ and other parameters, a great sound can be achieved. The main thing is that it answers my need for a portal into the Leslie.
After getting past requirement number one, I took the rack out to some gigs with my Motion Sound rig. Adding this into the chain was a bit confounding at first, probably because I was still getting used to the (still new to me) CX-3. So here I had an organ with multiple parameters and gain settings going into a new tube preamp and then into the tube pre of the Motion Sound. There are lots of different places to introduce gain and overdrive. I am still perfecting the proper gain structure, but let me tell you…any questions I had about the somewhat lower gain I was getting from the CX-3 by itself are out the window. With the Speakeasy, the CX-3 is totally wide open. All the gain I could ever want and then some. Dialing in the proper amount of overdrive was a little tricky and I am still working on it. I ended up turning the Motion Sound way back to where I was not really using much of its tube sound and instead relying on the Speakeasy rack. The Speakeasy's tube sound is warmer and more pleasing than the Motion Sound tube (which is really good, to its merit).
Once the "sound" is there with the multiple pieces of gear all in sync, the preamp provides a breath of fresh air into some of the more common drawbar settings such as 888000000, 888800000 and 888888888. These are often a bit lame sounding on any clone and the Speakeasy really warmed it up and introduced a full body to the tone. It was definitely noticeable in the upper two octaves. When I edged back to a more mellow sound like 008000004, the sound cut through better than before, although the level of crunch was a bit high. Like I said before, dialing the grunge in and out requires a lot of experimentation. It really comes down to having a fairly clean sound when the expression pedal is about 2/3 up and then bring in the drive by flooring the pedal.
After a couple of gigs, I was pleased with the preamp driving my Motion Sound rig. However, I will point out that the CX-3 into the Motion Sound by itself is still pretty darn sweet. The Speakeasy is like icing on the cake, but could be viewed as overkill by some (not me). If I were in a position of needing to set up and tear down quickly, I would likely leave the Speakeasy out of the chain. But for most gigs, it is a worthwhile addition. If you want to take your sound to the next level, you owe it to yourself to check out this unit.
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