The True Systems P-Solo Ribbon Mic Pre Is In The House . . . Oh Wait . . .
As you may (or may not) know Sweetwater Sound ran a Twitter contest and I won! Yay me! I’ve never won anything in my life, so this is a great first for me.
The prize? A True Systems P-Solo Ribbon mic pre, retail value $535.00! I about soiled myself when I won. 
I had just seen Ronan Murphy review this unit in a shootout he did over on Ronan’s Recording Show.
Against a Black Lion Autere and a FMP RNP, the P-Solo stomped them according to Ronan. He also compared it to a few of his very high end mic pres and it fared very nicely. After I saw that I said to myself, “Self, I think you’re going to have to get one of those some day soon!” Little did I know.
The Sweetwater engineer handling this contest is John Grabowski, Director of Purchasing. After I won he contacted me right away and had the unit shipped out the very same day. Yeah, go John!
So, as I eagerly waited for the FedEx truck I tracked the progress across the US from Sweetwater’s location in Fort Wayne, Indiana using the tracking area of their web site.
Today the big day came and I took delivery of my prize. Time for a small victory dance!
I took it out of the box. Looks good…real good. Nice all metal case; feels solid. I can’t wait to try it out with my Shure SM7.
Next, I clean off a space on the top of my rack for it and get it all set into it’s new home. I pulled all the cords from my current pre and wired up the P-Solo. Cool, all ready to give it the first test.
I hit the power switch . . . NOTHIN’!
Check the voltage switch on the back, it looks good. I try the switch a couple of more times . . . still NOTHIN’! DOH!
Ah! Maybe there’s an outlet problem. I try it in an outlet across the room. Nothin’. Different circuit maybe? I try an outlet in the hallway…the kitchen…the living room…ARGHHHHHH!
Oh! Wouldn’t it be funny if this was just a case of a bad power cord? Of course, it’s always the simple things. I plug in a fresh cord…GAHHH!
Oh, the manual says it has fuses, that must be it! They probably got all wonkers in shipping and just need to be reseated. I pull out the fuse tray, reseat the fuses, push the tray back in, plugin it in. Nope. I must’ve missed something so I do it again. And again. And again.
DOUBLE DOH!
It’s time to face the music (or the lack of it) . . . it’s DOA, Dead On Arrival. Well, at least it looks good, as you can see by the picture below.
The True Systems P-Solo Ribbon Mic Pre
And now it’s the weekend and Sweetwater won’t be open again until Monday. By the time all is said and done it’s going to another week or two until I get a working unit. Blerg. I sent out an e-mail to John explaining what happened. This way he’ll get it first thing Monday morning
But, I was about to get a surprise. John e-mailed me back, on a Saturday! Here’s a little of what he said after issuing instructions to the service department on my behalf:
“Allen, looks like you’ll get to experience our tech support / service department firsthand. We’ll get you taken care of right away.”
Short and sweet and just what I needed to hear. Sweetwater has never let me down in the customer service department and it looks like that tradition continues.
Oh well, I’ll just sit here and stare at it and imagine what it might sound like.
I’ll keep you posted as the Saga Of The Busted Pre continues to unfold.
Meanwhile, here’s the episode of Ronan’s Recording Show featuring a working P-Solo:
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