Sinvertek N5 MGAT-1 Hyper Preamp

The Sinvertek N5 MGAT-1 Hyper Preamp is a preamp pedal from Chinese boutique maker Sinvertek, designed by Mr. Wu and built in a compact 1590B-style enclosure. Rather than a typical overdrive or distortion pedal, it puts a full amp circuit in pedal format, aiming to reproduce the tone of five of the most popular Marshall amps: the JTM45, JCM800, 1959 SLP, 1987X and the JVM¹²³.

Guitar Pedal X's Stefan Karlsson called it "the most capable and authentically amp-like preamp format I've yet encountered"⁴. Production was limited to 250 units, each made entirely by Wu, sold in three batches between October 2022 and January 2023⁴².

A Marshall-style amp circuit in a pedal

The MGAT-1 is the fifth major iteration in Sinvertek's N5 series, a format that started about seven years before its release, and Wu owns the whole line himself². Delicious Audio describes it as a Plexi variation on the company's popular N5+ drive¹.

The circuit platform is called MGAT-1, short for Multistage Gain Generator & Advanced Tone-shaping system, platform 1. Wu conceived the idea about five years before the pedal arrived, with the goal of achieving what he calls 100% amp tone, and the builder's notes state that goal was finally achieved in the summer of 2022¹. Delicious Audio reports that the circuit is the same as an amp's preamp circuit, with the same frequency response, dynamics and touch sensitivity as a real tube amp¹.

Wu's own claim about the result:

Guitar Pedal X, reporting the designer's statement⁴

Each of the three channels maps to a specific slice of Marshall history⁴:

Guitar Pedal X also breaks the gain voicings down further: the green channel is compared with the JTM45's bright channel, the orange channel is compared and modified from the 1987X bright channel, 1959 SLP bright channel and JCM800 HI input, and the red channel is compared with the orange and red states of the JVM410H's OD1 and OD2 channels⁴¹.

Channels, gain structure and controls

The three channels are formed by increasing or decreasing the number of gain stages in the circuit, which is what gives each one a distinct character rather than a shared voice at different amounts of gain¹. The OD1 and OD2 channels share a 3-level selectable gain structure and each has an independent 3-level selectable gain saturation, which is how the pedal reaches 19 different gain tones, covering clean to ultra-gain¹⁴.

The control count is 14, up from 12 on the previous N5+ editions⁴. Six are knobs: Volume, Gain, Presence, Treble, Mid and Bass, in other words a 4-band EQ². The rest are switches, four affecting tone and four affecting gain, all hand-wired¹. Delicious Audio's Matthew Wang summed up the design as "Two gain and 4 EQ knobs are integrated by switches offering 4 tone and 4 gain options, delivering hundreds of sonic possibilities"⁵.

The limited run and earlier N5+ editions

The N5 MGAT-1 sits at the end of a line of N5+ editions that each had 12 controls, several of which were themselves limited runs⁴³. The MGAT-1 raised the count to 14 and was restricted to 250 units, built by Wu in three batches⁴²:

1. Units 1 to 90, October 2022
2. Units 91 to 180, December 2022
3. Units 181 to 250, January 2023

Karlsson's own review unit was number 2 of 250². The pedal was sold directly via email and PayPal, with a typical cost of $349 plus a $10 PayPal fee and $20 shipping, around $379 total⁴.

The MGAT-1 did not end the story. It is essentially the fifth pedal in the N5 series, a format that started some seven years earlier, and Karlsson has owned them all². The last few editions of the N5+ have been limited runs, and the MGAT-1 itself was restricted to around 250 units⁴. Karlsson later wrote of the platform: "It is the most capable and authentically amp-like preamp format I've yet encountered"⁴.

What reviewers said

Guitar Pedal X's full review was unambiguous in its verdict:

Stefan Karlsson, Guitar Pedal X⁴

The same review found the pedal "gives you incredibly authentic flavours of all those key and legendary Marshall Amps, but it delivers even more beyond that"². In Guitar Pedal X's 2025 extended-range Marshall pedal round-up, the MGAT-1 Golden Era DS99 was described as "a magnificent 14-controls long-term favourite that has the highest gain range here and most shaping ability"⁶. Delicious Audio added the pedal to its guide to the best Plexi-style pedals and Marshall-inspired distortions in 2025¹.

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