Need rack preamp opinions

[Chriscec]

I'm thinking about putting a second preamp in my rack,that already has a mesa triaxis and a mesa 50/50 poweramp. I'm looking for something that has a high gain,tight,smooth, more marshall like lead tone, so I can have a full palette of tones to choose from. Does anyone have any suggestions?

[microdmitry]

If your budget is around $1K - get Egnater IE4, you'll get some great Fender tones along with Marshall and overdriven Marshall tones. If money is no problem - get Bogner Fish. If you can't spend more than a few hundred - get yourself a Marshall JMP-1.

[Paul Secondino]

Smooth?No marshall is as smooth as the triaxis lead 2 modes.A JMP-1 for instance is more open sounding than the triaxis but has harsher highs relatively speaking.

The IE4 is a great preamp.It sounds like a Marshall JCm but way smoother adn way better lead tone.I would love to snag and IE4.Great preamp.

You could get a JMP-1 used for like 4 hundred bucks.BUt it is not what I would consider "smoother" it is actually less smooth and less compressed with stronger highs

[Ki swordsman]

yep, the IE4 is absolutely lush!!
mesa quad and Engl e530 are very good too

[Chriscec]

I think I've changed my mind about the second preamp, at least for now. After transporting my rack that I just put together, I realized that one shouldn't have gear that they cannot transport themselves I've decided to downsize my rack to the Triaxis, my 50/50, and possibly an FX processor. Im hoping to lighten it up alot

[Platypus]

I ditched my Triaxis when I got offered to buy a CAE3+SE and I haven't regretted it for a second, it's the best sounding preamp I've ever used.
Steve Lukather and Mike Landau are a couple of other 3+SE users.

[cerealk]

there are numerous threads on this topic

have you tried a forum search yet?

I think I summarised the threads available in one of them for quick reference