Chase Secret Preamp

[Adoom]

Allegedly a VERY true to the inspiration version of like, the Roland SE-3 preamp that a lot of people like.

It is also black.

I am looking for something to add a little tonal variation to my ss/bs Fuck > Gibsonette combo beyond the volume knob.

Anyone know anything about these little boxes or recommend something else?

[qersty]

Never heard of that preamp. Is it the one Greg Ginn used? I know he had some roland rackmount in the 80s

[mcatano]

Isn't the secret based on the preamp section of an echoplex?

[adamajah]

People talk fondly of the ClinchFX EP-Pre/Pico-Pre

[Adoom]

Never heard of that preamp. Is it the one Greg Ginn used? I know he had some roland rackmount in the 80s

My flag isn’t black enough to know but I’m sure the dude used something to goose the signal. I hadn’t heard of these or indeed the company at all either, I was just looking at the Xotic EP booster and I think this one came up on a Reddit discussion on the Googles.

Isn't the secret based on the preamp section of an echoplex?

You’re right mcatano, my mistake.

People talk fondly of the ClinchFX EP-Pre/Pico-Pre

I have not heard of those adamajah, thanks chief. I’ll look into them now! I am looking at one of those Bogner Harlows now too. Considering the amount of tapping/open chord stuff I’m at, a compressor makes sense. More so the Harlow appears to, with some on the fly knob tweaks, be able to act as a compressor/boost/light drive. It seems more versatile, and I wouldn’t mind having an option for a little extra colour on what is basically a 6 pedal Nano+ setup.

The Harlow is ticking a lot of boxes for me at the minute. The possibility of having something to give my El Capistan a very authentic Echoplex vibe at partsnis appealing though.

[Gone Fission]

Shikawkee/Ed Pettersen said on one of his YTs that he and Henry Kaiser switched to the Clinch echoplex pres after using the others. I would probably try that first.

I know there is a TGP fandom of the Secret Preamp but I never knew what it was before now. Never was curious enough to open the main discussion. They like weird things like John Meh-er.

[Jwar]

Found one for sale for 600 plus....too expensive. LOL

I'm assuming this is what you were talking about?

https://reverb.com/item/4788473-roland- ... ykQAvD_BwE

[Adoom]

I never visit the gear page.

John Mayer played with Frank Ocean, which is good, but also John Mayer is John Mayer, which is not good. I would give both the thumbs down.

Jesus. It’s a lot, I thought you were just talking about the pedal though. Still a lot, but there’s a WEM Cooycat going for like €450 in the city here. Maybe the dude is just pricing high?

[qersty]

Found one for sale for 600 plus....too expensive. LOL

I'm assuming this is what you were talking about?

https://reverb.com/item/4788473-roland- ... ykQAvD_BwE

That's the one! Kinda the price you'd expect for a rackmount pre but doesn't really feel like a deal

[Jwar]

From the small amount of research I did, I found the price ranging from 200-900 dollars the last few years. I agree it doesn't seem like a great deal. I'd expect to snag it for like 200 or less honestly if I were in the market. It's old and it's a rack, sooooo yea. Cool though that you can snag one if wanted. I bet a deal will come up if you look hard enough or wait until someone realizes no one will pay that (which who knows).


This seems like a pain in the ass to clone but I'm surprised I'm not finding many options. The cascading gain sounds delicious.

Here's what the bass option offered

High and Low Gain Inputs
Vintage Dual-Optical Compressor Circuit for Smooth Compression
Foot Switch Compression Bypass
High-Impedance, 20K ohm, Rear-Panel Effects Loop, Pre-Equalizer
Low-Impedance, 800 ohm, Front-Panel Effects Loop, Post-Equalizer
Three-Band Equalizer with Selectable Frequencies
Low Band Frequencies: 35 Hz/45 Hz
Middle Band Frequencies: 250 Hz/500 kHz
High Band Frequencies: 4 kHz/6 kHz
Low-Cut Filter Switch, 60 Hz
High-Cut Filter Switch, 6 kHz
Unbalanced Output Volume and Master Volume Control
Front Panel Balanced, XLR Output
Front and Rear Panel Unbalanced Output
Built-in Crossover Network for Bi-amp Applications
Dimensions: 482 (W) x 92 (H) x 247 (D) mm
Power Consumption: 9 watts

[jirodreamsofdank]

I have a ClinchFX Pre - there's no obvious thing that it's doing but when you switch it off it's noticeably absent. Clean/edge tones are just a bit rounder and fuller. I think there was a suggestion it was doing something with phase? They're both emulating the preamp of an Echoplex - both are switchable between EP-2 and EP-3. The Belle Epoch Deluxe does that too, tied to the delay.

The Chase Tone Secret Pre and ClinchFX both sell for $150-200 used/new.