Roland SIP-300 Analog Guitar Preamp

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High and Low Gain Inputs

Distortion with Overdrive and Output Level Control

Foot Switch Overdrive Bypass

High-Impedance, Rear-Panel Effects Loop, Pre-Equalizer

Low-Impedance, Front-Panel Effects Loop, Post-Equalizer

Three-Band Equalizer with Selectable Frequencies

Low Band Frequencies: 40 Hz/50 Hz

Middle Band Frequencies: 50 Hz/1 kHz

High Band Frequencies: 6 kHz/9 k Hz

Low-Cut Filter Switch, 60 Hz

High-Cut Filter Switch, 6 kHz

Volume and Master Volume Control

Front Panel Balanced, XLR Output

Front and Rear Panel Unbalanced Output

Heavy-Duty Construction with Quality Components

All-Analog Construction

 

 

In the early 1980’s Roland produced some of its most acclaimed rack mount effects processors. This series included the SIP-300 guitar preamp, the SIP-301 bass preamp, the SBF-325 voltage-controlled, stereo rack-mount flanger, the famous SDD-320 Dimension D chorus unit, the SRE-555 rack-mount version of the RE-501 tape-delay/chorus, and the SPV-355 pitch-to-voltage analog synthesizer.

 

The SIP-300 is a dynamic, flexible, analog guitar preamp. There is a high and low gain input, followed by an overdrive section. The overdrive can be disabled using a foot switch. After the overdrive section is an optional effects insert, then a very flexible three-band equalizer, with high and low cut filters. Each band in the equalizer has two selectable frequencies as well. After the equalizer there is another effects insert! Then a volume control which feeds directly to the front panel XLR output, and a master volume control that feeds to a pair of unbalanced outputs, one of the front panel, and one on the rear panel.

 

The SIP-300 is a fully professional unit that can be used simply as a direct box for guitar or any high-impedance input, or it can be used as a additional processor to add some analog quality sound to any sound source.

 

Below are some quick demos I recorded to highlight this great preamp. I quickly turn each equalizer knob, to show how musical the center frequency is. You can tell that there is enough cut and boost in the right places to dial in just the guitar tone you are looking for. Also, there is a demo that shows off the Overdrive section as well. With all the modeling effects available today, I was pleasantly surprised at how good the Overdrive sounds for a basic overdrive circuit, and I was impressed to hear that the circuit definitely has its own unique sound character.