Ampeg have been letting the competition do 'an Ampeg in a pedal' for a while. I think we are seeing the hand of Yamaha here. SVTs are cool, but beyond knackered back line rentals and a few touring acts most folk don't need 300 watts of tube power blasting out of a wardrobe onstage. The future is IEMs, whisper-quiet stage volumes and haptic devices to simulate the kick and punch of instruments. Yamahampeg want to shift lots of goods to lots of consumers; watch out for peg Bluetooth speakers and headphones, I guess.
The problem with preamp pedals is knowing when to stop. Make it an SVT and B-15 in a box and people will want more blend, crossover, sweepable mids, effects loops etc. People already seem annoyed that they haven't just copied a Darkglass design for this.
