Greer Amps has released the Soma 63 Vintage Preamp, a must-have for vintage amp lovers that was rewarded the Best in Show award at NAMM 2019. Utilizing Greer’s new XFR platform, this pedal delivers real amp-like tone, including a real transformer to simulate everything about amplifiers; in this case, vintage brown-fronted made-in-California amps—you know the ones.
The Soma 63 employs a real transformer to give you the tone of not just the preamp tubes, but the phase inverter, power amps, and a cabinet simulator, giving you the sound of a real vintage “brown” amp; lock, stock and barrel.
With generous controls for two bands of EQ as well as Gain and Presence, the Soma 63 is the next step in real-deal amp flavor in pedal format. Be sure to check them out at NAMM. – Nicholas Kula
A brave new world of tone, the SOMA ‘63 Vintage Preamp is the first pedal in the XFR series of pedals from Greer Amps. The SOMA ’63 is a true vintage preamp, based on the tone and feel of vintage brown era amplifiers from California. This pedal simulates the entire preamp, phase inverter, power section, and even the feel of the vintage 10 inch Utah speakers that were in those famous brown amps. The tone stack is designed to provide a wide and dynamic range of tonal options to the user. The Presence control works with the tone stack, and is designed to be a wide range control, effecting the overall sound of the entire circuit. The SOMA ’63 features a steel core transformer in the audio signal path. The transformer lends to the overall tone shaping of the circuit, and when the gain is pushed hard, especially with higher output pickups, the small steel core transformer will saturate, just like a vintage amplifier. The SOMA ’63 can be used as a tone-shaping preamp, or as an overdrive pedal. There are a wide variety of tones available in the SOMA ’63, so spend some time with your new pedal, and find the tones that rock your world!
The SOMA ‘63 runs off of a standard, negative center pin 9 volt power supply, and can be ran off of up to 18 volts. At 9 volts, the SOMA ‘63 will have more grit and texture. At 18 volts, you can expect higher headroom, a bit stiffer response, and less overall grit. Greer Amps’ lifetime warranty covers manufacturing defects and component failure to the original owner, it does not cover misuse or abuse.
