Monique is about love for Bass

We all want the sound and playing characteristics of the great all-tube Bass amps like the Ampeg SVT, but few of us want to carry that much weight around. Monique is not a Bass Amplifier. Imagine an all-tube bass amplifier with the perfect tone and the perfect touch - but without the power output section. That is Monique.

Monique gives control of the session back to the Bass player in a DI environment. Often, we walk into a session with only our Bass and a small DI. Saves a lot of hassle, and keeps us from buying a larger van. Trouble is, when we do that our sound is entirely out of our hands.

Monique returns control to the you, the player. Your input "Sensitivity" is fully adjustable from pristine clean to grungy bottom growl for active and passive pickups. Pull the "Sensitivity" knob out for a 4db gain increase. Monique has two separate outputs and level controls for Line Out (1/4") and the balanced (XLR). She is ready for work in the US 120VAC 60 cycle power or in areas where the power is 240VAC 50 cycles. She will go wherever you want to make music.

Small in size at 10" wide, 6" deep, and 8" tall, Monique is a whole lot easier to get to the studio or the gig than an SVT. She weights almost 5 pounds. You can have her in the gorgeous hardwood cabinet shown on the left or the very sturdy all steel configuration on the right. The choice is yours.

From the technical side, Monique has two entirely separate outputs that you can use together or independently. Both outputs come out the back of Monique. There is a 1/4" Line Level output. This 1/4" Line ouput level is controlled from the front of Monique with the "Line Level" control. You can hear some very well prepared A/B sound tests of Monique versus some other popular DI's here.

Monique also has a separate balanced XLR output that is fully level controlled with the knob on the back. This balanced XLR output is driven by its own dedicated Cinemag Output transformer. This is a gorgeous sound with just the right amount of "mojo" for nothing but great performance in the studio and on stage.

The three phase EQ of the Monique is a Baxandall type, very similar to that used in the Ampeg SVT. This EQ has 20db plus and minus from the center of each control. This also means that this is a non-interactive equalizer.

In the Studio, Monique sounds astounding and plays incredibly. She has exceptionally low noise levels (way lower than any tube Bass Amplifier). This also makes Monique a very good re-amp box to liven up that last cut. Already, Monique has been tapped for mastering duties at one studio. The recording studio characteristics of Monique are largely a result of the collaborative engineering work done with my friend Mark Sampson (Matchless Amps, Bad Cat Amps, Star Amps). If a tube piece of gear must sound right in the recording studio, there is no better engineer than Mark Sampson.

Monique is completely hand made here in the United States. The chassis is American made. You can see the Monique owners manual here. Even the transformers are American made. All the point-to-point wiring in the Monique is done by hand in Santa Cruz California. There are no printed circuit boards at all. There is nothing solid state in Monique. She is all tube and all love.