1) Mesa Boogie: The sound was incredibly beautiful and spacious, just like I always heard from Paul Franklin!! But when I turned it on right away, it had a lot of background noise. When I opened up my Hilton volume pedal all the way, the sound distorted. When I clicked the button from clean to drive, it made a loud bang in the speaker. The reverb buzzed and was terribly bad, unlistenable. Plus, it's a very heavy and bulky preamp.
2) Effectrode Blackbird: IT SOUNDED EXACTLY THE SAME AS THE MESA!!! But with these HUGE DIFFERENCES in quality!! When you turn it on, there is zero background noise. When you activate it from the bypass, it automatically and completely eliminates that little hiss you hear in your speaker created by your amp/power amp. It has two separate Clean/Drive sections with two drive modes, so even at high volumes you will struggle to hear a little hiss in the speaker. Even at high volumes, in the clean section you will never hear a little distortion, but you will only hear that perfect clean sound you have heard for years in your Mesa preamp. It is small and very light, and you can connect it in front of your amp or in the output of your power amp or return of your amp, and you will hear the same sound as the Mesa Boogie Studio Preamp, but with these huge differences in sound quality. It also has a dedicated output for studio recording, or you can connect it directly to a PA mixer. You can select the sound of the tubes as you like, depending on the pickup you use or the type of tube you use. I have 3 JJ 12AX7 tubes that were installed from the factory and are perfect, and I never intend to change tube types. They make it in England, and it's a truly handcrafted preamp. If you visit the Effectrode website, you'll learn how it's built, along with much more. I've been using it since 2018 in my Dire Straits live shows, even at very high volumes, and it's never given me any problems whatsoever. It's never let me down, and it's always been impeccable. A few months ago, I sent it to Effectrode for a complete checkup, given how much I use it. They emailed me back that my pedal was in perfect condition and that nothing needed to be done. They just cleaned the inside of it, dusted it, and sent it back to me. For Mesa Boogie Studio Preamp owners, if you try this gem of a preamp, I'm 100% sure you'll be retiring your giant, heavy Mesa STP. I hope my post is helpful to those who love the perfect tone. Best regards to all you steel players out there. Francesco from Italy.