I accumulated so much gear over the years that every once in a while I pull some item out and give it another ride.
Some notably very cool and satisfying units were the half rack series from H&K.
The Metal Shredder is simplistic to use and gets you in the zone right away.
Brilliant piece of equipment with an onboard cab sim, onboard 10 watts solid state power section, direct out, etc...
Basically a cool tube preamp with a gamut of options as for means to use it.
You can either record direct or power a cabinet (For practice purposes, not to challenge a drummer!)
(http://i705.photobucket.com/albums/ww56/chucke1963/metalshredder.jpg)
Remember these??
Anyhow, I had a great time using it to lay down tracks (Direct recording using the onboard cab simulator of the preamp) on this original piece of mine, take a listen:
http://chuckypou.bandcamp.com/track/200-mph (http://chuckypou.bandcamp.com/track/200-mph)