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Brand new Spectrum preamp from Brad Sarno! Never seen one for sale and I’m not sure how many of these he is going to build


w/ NOS tube upgrade. Vintage RCA 7025s

and Jan 12AT7wb


Audiophile grade everything! The best of the best Garcia style clean preamp!! I didn’t think the SMS classic could be beat but this tops it

extremely touch sensitive and responsive

if Your looking for the Garcia sound here it is without question !!!!!!


Here’s a little info from Brad

“The Spectrum is a culmination of all my years tweaking the old classic tube preamp circuit. I learned a lot in the early years of our Revelation Preamp, tweaking the voicing of the EQ, capacitor choices, etc. with the wonderful help and ears of Randy Beavers, Buddy Emmons, John Hughey and others. Much of that related to the shaping and range of control of the midrange, the midrange dip, the frequency range. Also influenced by a bit of inspiration from Dan Healy of the Grateful Dead, his mods and tweaks to Buddy Cage's steel amp and Jerry Garcia's guitar preamp, and his shared thoughts on a variety of aspects. All these inspirations and influences mixed with a bunch of my own basically amount to subtle tweaks and mojo and capacitor choices, resistor choices, etc that all add up to something new and unique. And this great forum was no shortage of brilliant minds and great ears and invaluably helpful insights too that helped feed my design work. 

For the Spectrum Tube Preamp, these are some of the aspects I included:
- Hand assembled turret board
- USA stranded/tinned cloth (vintage style) hand-wired throughout. 
- 100% tube (12AX7, 12AT7 reverb driver, 12AX7)
- Add a "Dwell" (reverb send level) control to the spring reverb to control the range from smooth to surfy
- Tubes accessible on the back, no need to open or remove the preamp from the rack
- 2 RU chassis, heavy steel faceplate, aluminum chassis
- Real Spring Reverb tank, external, connected by a cord (like a Fender Amp does it)
- VERY high voltages for the most depth and dimension you can milk from a 12AX7
- Extremely well filtered power supply, very clean DC, very 3D dimensional sounding
- Every single cap and resistor thoughtfully and consciously chosen for its character
- Simple controls: Gain, Bright switch, Treble, Mid, Bass, Dwell, Reverb mix, Master out
- BIG central ground bus bar across the circuit for great noise control 
- Ships with a modern Accutronics 3-spring, medium decay tank
- Tweaked and refined reverb send and recovery circuit to expand the depth and richness of the reverb effect itself. 

The Spectrum really stunned me. I knew what to expect, I thought. But the synergy and culmination of all the factors, the layout, the components, the voltage, it just does the classic tube preamp thing better than I could have dreamed. It's lush, sweet, responsive. I hand build each one myself here in my little garage/shop/factory with a lot of love and a LOT of hours.


*does not come with rack or sms classic

Pictures are for sizing and comparison.

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Listed3 months ago
ConditionMint (Used)
Mint items are in essentially new original condition but have been opened or played.Learn more
Brand
Model
  • Spectrum
Categories
Year
  • 2024

Product safety information may be available here.

Tall and Mean Studios

Richmond, VA, United States
Sales:128
Joined Reverb:2017

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