don’t know @howard … don’t you have a toneprint amp already ? (yeah I know about the 50hz issue but they will send you a working amp) not sure a Spectra Drive would do much more than the toneprint function ? if I understood well (which is not sure at all) it’s more or less the same thing ?
If I understood well, which is not sure at all, your amp could have a compressor function with the toneprint thing and that would be great. I have a TC Electronic Nova System (guitar multi effect) (which I never use, by the way) and this thing proves me TCE knows how to make digital effects well. This thing sounds impressive, really, and I’m pretty sure the Toneprint function is at least as good.
As you might know I’m a very big fan of the Ampeg sound. my bass amp is an Ampeg and when I do studio work I use Ampeg modeling. well, yeah, you’ve heard my Precision into an Ampeg on the covers, you know it’s my thing … but I’ve been pretty unimpressed by this Ampeg preamp. the sound routing is just weird, no real logic. it sounds OK but not very good, and I won’t spend much money for this …
Don’t know if it’s available worldwide but I have a Behringer BDI21 preamp, this thing is a copy of the BDDI, it costs almost nothing and sounds great. I modified mine a bit but even stock it was cool. For the price it’s a must have, I’m really not sure the pricey Ampeg preamp would not do much more.
just my 2 cents, 'hope it helps.