Steel String Supreme SRV Preamp Pedal Review

THE BEST EVER

If you don't add this pedal to your arsenal you are missing out. I will never be without one ever again. I replaced 3 pedals because of the versatility of this amazing sounding pedal. If you dont beleive me check out the product videos for yourself. The staff at Sweetwater were the best as usual. This is a always left on pedal for me. You gotta get it!

---

Cancel Comment

Love this pedal!

At my age I quit lugging tube amps around years ago. Being able to carry an amp in one hand and a guitar in the other was worth a little loss in tone that most people aren't going to notice anyway. With this pedal I don't really feel like I'm giving up anything. My main amp is a blonde Twin Reverb Tone Master with a tubed preamp in front of it. I was using a Texas Twang and the… read more Vertex Special Overdrive. Sounded great but adding the SSS SRV to it was a game changer. Maybe because it was made to be a good DI box. DI quality signal going into a cheap tube preamp before hitting the Tone Master gives it a tone that many couldn't tell from a tubed Twin. The Vertex Special Overdrive in front of the SSS SRV seems to be a match made in heaven. Most of the marketing seems to be focused on SRV fans but I play a wide variety of music and this pedal does great in all of them. As others have said, it's not a tubescreamer type drive. It's cleaner. More fat than dirty. I was going to get a Bluesdriver before I got distracted by the Vertex pedals and probably still will, I'm sure it will sound much better in front of the Vertex pedals than without them.

---

Cancel Comment

Update

Wow I put this pedal in effects loop on helix floor right before my amp model. Making sure wah and any envelope effects were first. Then I ran them through a compressor mixed 50% and then any distortions. This just gave me 3 new rigs. You can run with it off and you have your sound. Run right button on top knowns all around 2oclock and it's divine. When I turn it off it's like… read more turning off a bbe sonic. Feels and sounds like a blanket over speakers. You can also run just the right button for basic preamp tube amp distortion. Then you can run both on and it's a pushed fender type sound and feel. The cool thing is it reacts well with the different distortions & effects front of it, or behind it. Then throw in a modeling processor and this thing makes it come alive like a amp. I've played out with it in major venues now a bunch, different stages different pa s. I still say one of the best pedals I've ever played or heard…

---

Cancel Comment

Wow it really sounds good

I've now run it into my Vox ac15, my helix floor, and into helix then Vox…. Once I got it dialed in wow. The top row and right button is the power amp like section. I found all at about 2 o'clock gave a nice sound. Clean when light with just a bit of that Dumble breakup when you play harder. Then I use the left button which is the bottom row of knobs which is like a preamp… read more distortion. Dial in to taste. Very much Texas flood pride and joy and John Mayer sounds. It is so expressive and keeps dynamics that the torn and envelope filter and wah all sound great with it right at front of signal chain. I would not have thought that. I don't use it for ever song but wow it's nice. When I play solo shows I loop clean then click on power amp for just a bit of drive sounds like two guitarist. This thing rocks

---

Cancel Comment

Vertex SSS SRV pedal

I needed another drive/amp in a box pedal like I need to give the IRS more money! I saw this one reviewed in a recent Guitar Player issue and something about it peaked my interest, the controls and layout seemed different from all the other pedals of this type. I have never played through a Dumble (RIP) SSS or any of his amps and the SRV thing doesn't matter to me but I will the… read more guy who does the pedal demo on Vertex's web site does an amazing job of coping that sound. I bought the pedal with low expectations having just spent about the same amount of money on a 2 footswitch drive pedal by a well known builder, (it's definitely a good pedal but didn't quite come through for the sound I hoped it would have.) On the other hand, the Vertex pedal is an entirely different beast! Once I got the knobs figured out and messed with it I couldn't stop playing through it! I used my dot neck reissue 335 with 57 humbuckers plugged into a Boogie Mark IIB then into a Boogie Studio 22, both amps set clean. What struck me most was getting the elusive "clean drive/sustain" that is so hard to achieve. It gives nice grind and crunch when you pick hard and cleans up when you back off, same when using the volume knob on the guitar. I haven't used it on a live gig yet but my goal is to see how it works as a leave it on all the time pedal. It's a sound reminiscent of playing a cranked Fender blackface amp that doesn't over compress when pushed hard yet still manages to get nice harmonic grind and sustain giving some controlled feedback. I stated playing in bands in the 60's in pre-pedal times where the only way to get Hendrix, Clapton, Beck, Page, Bloomfield sustain was to turn your amp full out and risk getting the band kicked out of the clubs! Vertex is on to something with this one, so far it's well beyond what my expectations were when I ordered it!

---

Cancel Comment