Tsakalis AudioWorks unleashes Mothership Quad Channel Tube Preamp with Cabinet Simulation and MIDI Control

There’s been quite the trend for Tube Preamp pedals of late - what with Friedman’s IR-D and IR-X, ThorpyFX Electric Lighting, Tubsesteader Lightkeeper and Magnesium, obviously some fairly large format solid-state types too like Thermion’s Freeway. And longer-term players too like Kingsley and Victory Amps. There’s never been more choice! And so much of what is now available is fantastic.

This new Tsakalis Mothership is another really smart take on floor-based tube amp / preamp with 2 channels - where you can A/B the Volume and Gain on each - making for a 4 Channel Amp essentially.

And this twin ECC83 / 12AX7 tube preamp has some really elegant added smarts. Moreover everything is on the surface - there aren’t really any hidden or secondary settings - it’s pretty much a WYSIWYG situation. And what you get here is 128 MIDI Presets and 3 x Cab Sims per Channel 1-2 with output latency below 1.2ms. Channel 1 + Channel 2, have A/B Modes on each and 3 Gain Mode per side - Low, Medium, High.

We don’t get any specificity or proper references for the 3 Cab Sims - as to what exactly they cover - but I would imagine it’s the usual combination of largely Celestion Speaker Type IR’s with different Cabinet arrangements - 1 x 12, 2 x 12 etc.

This is very much the essence of a 4-channel amp / preamp, but one for the floor!

Controls - CH1 } Volume B, Volume A, Presence, Treble, Mid, Bass, Gain B, Gain A, Cab : 1/2/3, Gain Mode : Low / Medium / High; CH2 } Volume B, Volume A, Presence, Treble, Mid, Bass, Gain B, Gain A, Cab : 1/2/3, Gain Mode : Low / Medium / High, Footswitches } A-B, CH 1/2, On.

Rear Ports / Controls - In, Send, Return, Amp Out [PWR/PRE], Cab Out [LIFT/GND], MIDI In, 12V DC [-] 700mA, USB Type-B.

There really is much to like here, with the only real challenges being in the footprint go the pedal and the high power / current draw requirement - which happens to be the same as the recent ThorpyFX one - even though that one can work @ 500mA on 12V.

In any case great to have another option here - Christos has properly thought this one out really well!

Available right now from the Tsakalis AudioWorks Webstore for €549.99 / $499.99 / £479.99, and of course imminently at International Dealers.