Xploration • Curation • Recommendation
Daniel Hooper's Hoopla Pedals Tinnitus Preamp / Overdrive is a really cool take on the MESA/Boogie Mark Five Amp
Key Points
Daniel Hooper’s Hoopla Pedals Tinnitus Preamp/Overdrive captures the MESA/Boogie Mark Five’s output and character, with a notably tight, elastic bottom end and pronounced bounce.
Controls: Pre, Gain, Master, Bass, Mid, Treb with a 3‑band EQ. Range is mostly decent, though it doesn’t gain up as much as expected and overall output is a touch low. Black‑on‑black legends can be hard to read. The unit benefits from a boost to reach ideal volume.
Preferred settings: Pre 4 o’clock, Gain 3 o’clock, Master Max, Bass Max, Mid 4 o’clock, Treb 3 o’clock.
Readers should recall that this pedal / preamp was my choice to represent the MESA/Boogie Mark V amp for my recent 16 Iconic Amps feature. It doesn’t particularly carry any of the amp’s aesthetic DNA - that is to say the design details that makes that amp so innovative - while it certainly captures the essence of that amp’s output and character rather beautifully. Its character and texture certainly and distinctly brings to mind the sound signature of the amp that it’s based on, and it has the most fantastic tight and elastic bottom end. The low end of this pedal has some serious bounce to it - much more than any other pedal currently on the board.
Controls - Pre, Gain, Master, Bass, Mid, Treb.
There is mostly decent range across the 6 controls and including the 3-Band EQ - while I could really have done with a touch more output volume - as I pretty much have that maxed out all the time, and would still want more for some of the subtler settings.
I need to call on my trusty Strymon Sunset to boost the output of the Tinnitus - where it then sounds incredibly satisfying. I like the full-on open but saturated nature of this pedal - with that wonderful bouncy bottom end - it really is a distinct and memorable voicing.
The black on black legends make it a touch hard to read the labels - while it all becomes second nature fairly quickly. This pedal just needs one killer demo to really show off of its true potential and that beautifully balanced character.
It doesn’t gain-up as much as I expected , and the output is a touch lower than it ideally should be - while in every other way this pedal is pretty magnificent - it certainly sounds the part.
I’m always bemused by how differently calibrated each of these gain tend to be - and where for comparative outputs you find the dials in quite different positions - owing to nature of tone-stack, frequency cluster focus etc. I’m no expert necessarily on the % authenticity of MESA/Boogie tones - but this Tinnitus certainly sounds pretty distinctly MESA to me - and delivers its tones with verve.
My Preferred settings are Pre @ 4 o’c, Gain @ 3 o’c, Master @ Max, Bass @ Max, Mid @ 4 o’c, and Treb @ 3 o’c.
This is obviously a somewhat under-the-radar pedal - while it really deserves to do well.
I would probably only look to boost the output volume a little - in not wanting to mess with the otherwise beautifully balanced character of its core voicing.
This one really sounds great most every way - would be cool to hear insights from any of you that have tried one of these!
Demos
