John Hardy Preamps!

Tim Brown

Tim Brown

New member
Holy Moly!! :eek:

I remember when Jensen sold the M1 and I think it was called the M4 (4 channels in one rack space) and it was around a quarter of what these things go for these days!

http://www.mercenary.com/johharmicpre.html

I have the Schematics for them somewhere around here...I think I'm just going to build my own one day.



Tim
 
i don't believe jensen ever sold an m-1 type pre...i'd be interested to see it as i'd scrounge for one used. do you have info on that? they sold the boulder which was a dual 990 thing. hardy and jensen were friends... i met john in chicago and he said he wanted to build a twin servo thing but jensen had it already...

the john hardy mic pre is amazingly inexpensive next to anything that can touch it. especially with the options you don't have to take. i use mine sans output transformer and with just the pk meter option. i have used it for 11 years and never had a problem with it...ever. i cannot say the same for my api's and 1272's which i've had for 4 or 5.

i paid 2 grand and 50 bucks for four channels in 95 and i think they cost the same today. his prices have remained the same for years.

i've had two clients buy their own after using mine.

i dunno - john's a class act, tim - your post insinuating they're over-priced really isn't.

Mike
 
Actually I think Jensen had John make the dual servo about the time John was designing the M-1. Its all written on John's site.
 
I've had a Hardy M-2 for a few years. That's just an M-1 but with stepped gain controls. For my uses they are wonderful preamps for solo fingerstyle acoustic guitar.
 
bigtoe said:
i dunno - john's a class act, tim - your post insinuating they're over-priced really isn't.

Mike
Click to expand...


Mike,


I just didn't expect them to be so much because the last time I checked on them they were around $400 at the time- and that's when it hit me - that was almost 20 years ago! :eek:

So that was a shocker - not so much the price, as it was the actual combination of the last time I checked on them they were in expensive....and it was a Jensen Model back them. I found it - it was the 4 channel 990, but I thought the model I saw in RE/P (Recording Engineer/Producer) said it was model M4. They had two, a 1 channel single channel version, and a 4 channel Rackmount version. http://www.johnhardyco.com/JTS990Details.html



John Hardy was building them, and Jensen decided they didn't want to bother with it anymore, and told him - Why don't you just market it under your own name. So he did.

http://www.johnhardyco.com/JTS990Details.html

But the sticker shock was a big Whoah, especially when my intent was to buy 16-channels in one shot. I've used them before and thought they were great preamps.


So, now I'm also looking at API as well - I loved API's on the drums, so if I'm going to have to "buck up" for preamps, I think I'm going to try to get a variety of them.


Oh, and any of you DIY's, you can get the Schematics for these Mic Pre's right at Jensen's website. I found that out last night after the shock I got at Mercenary Audio's site.. :)


Tim
 
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i actually think he hasn't changed his prices in 20 years. :eek: the card itself is still 350 no options.

i could be wrong, but your history doesn't seem quite on target with who designed what. there are two different preamps yer talking about...the m1 and the twin servo...

Mike
 
bigtoe said:
i actually think he hasn't changed his prices in 20 years. :eek: the card itself is still 350 no options.

i could be wrong, but your history doesn't seem quite on target with who designed what. there are two different preamps yer talking about...the m1 and the twin servo...

Mike
Click to expand...

Mike,
re read the last post - I said in the last post that it was a 990, and not an M1.


Tim
 
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