Preamp suggestions needed!

[teemuk]

This preamp is not the Fender Blackface solid-state clone it claims.

Very few clones are. Most have just a couple of similaritites with the things they mimic. For instance, the RedCircuits preamp has similar response from tonestack and distorts if overdriven. Close enough? Maybe.

Likewise, GT-2 isn't a clone of Mesas, Marshalls nor Fenders although it boasts with catch phrases like "California", "British" or "Tweed". Close enough? Many seem to feel that way.

If we start to argue how many stompboxes / preamps manage to precisely nail a specific circuit design and performance of some other unit then we can likely come to figures of about 1% or less. For sure we could exclude most of the DIY populars - a.k.a. "FET versions" - (DR. Boogey, etc.) out of discussion and stick with commercial modeling units that get right down to minuatie details.

If you want to build something moderately simple though, I feel there is no such option and you go with "close enoughs".

[Roly]

If it were 10, 20 or even 50% off I might still agree with you, but somebody has to call a 100mV clipping level an abomination.

It has a Fender tonestack, but to call it a "Blackface clone" is grossly misleading and does violence to the language.  It's like calling a food blender a "hair dryer".

[teemuk]

...somebody has to call a 100mV clipping level an abomination.

That it is. But it ain't that bad... the famous "Fetzer Valve"  ...supposedly a "clone" of the Fender input stage... already clips close to 20 mV (peak) input while the real Fender input stage can tolerate close to 2 V (peak) input signals before notable clipping. I don't even want to go to issues of frequency response, gain and bias point varying CRAZILY whenever you adjust those stupid 100k drain trimmer pots. They pretty much ensure that each "clone" will sound different from another...and an ungodly amount of field effect transistor -based "clones" are essentially based on a similar circuit.

So I guess I'm kinda saying that I agree with your trife but it's also something that will fall down to deaf ears. These things mimick circuits and for some people it's enough reason to call them "clones". IMO, the whole term is a pretty loose definition to begin with.

[Roly]

Steam powered iFhone;

[Loudthud]

The word clone is often misused. A clone should have the same DNA as the original. So for a Fender Blackface amp, the clone should use tubes. So what word would describe something that sounds like a Fender Blackface but uses FETs? I think Impostor (sometimes spelled imposter) fits. Definition: "one that assumes the identity or title not one's own in order to deceive"

Can anyone suggest another word?

[stormbringer]

Emulator.

[Roly]

I guess I just think that any circuit that says it's a clone/imitation/homage/blah of a Fender Blackface (or whatever) should be functionally equivalent, or at least very similar.

You know, a vac and a hair dryer both move air, but are no way functionally similar, and that is how I see this circuit - it is so far functionally removed from what it claims to be that the claim just becomes an excuse to associate the circuit with an iconic amp, and in my view so unjustified and misleading as to be simply dishonest.

[michelterres]

You know, a vac and a hair dryer both move air, but are no way functionally similar, and that is how I see this circuit - it is so far functionally removed from what it claims to be that the claim just becomes an excuse to associate the circuit with an iconic amp, and in my view so unjustified and misleading as to be simply dishonest.

At least they're not trying to make money with that circuit...
But it's quite disappointing when I see a circuit that claims to be a clone of something I like, and when I build it sound totally different.