suggestions on a good tube preamp please?

[Terry Sneed]

I'm lookin for a good quality tube preamp. Don't necessarilly have to have effects. I'm gettin an RV-3, and delay and reverb is about all I ever use anyhow. I just want one that will give me a nice warm tube sound. I've seen the Art tube mic/instrument preamps, and a couple of Blue tube preamps, and a Zoom 9150 tube preamp with effects.

Can you guys help me with these different preamps? I don't know a thing about any of them, so I need some guidance please. It don't have to be any of the tube preamps above, I just want a nice warm tube sound.
Thanks

Terry

[Ken Fox]

http://eugene.craigslist.org/msg/715981906.html

[Terry Sneed]

Thanks Ken, but I forgot to add, I don't have but around $200 to spend on one. And that's only if it has good resale value. But I do appreciate your help.
Would you happen to know of one for around that price?

Terry

[sonbone]

In that price range I think the only preamp that uses high plate voltage is the Electro-Harmonix LPB 2ube preamp. It has a street price of $189 from a number the usual vendors including Guitar Center, etc. Electro-Harmonixs also makes a tube eq pedal that might work as well or better than the preamp pedal.

Although I haven't tried it yet, a number of guitar players have been getting good results by replacing the 12AX7 tubes in some of the starved plate voltage preamps (ART, Behringer, etc.) with 12AU7s. That might be something to consider as an ART Tube MP Studio preamp can be had for a street price of $30-$40 and a decent 12AU7 will run in the $10-$15 range.

My guess is that you'll probably like one of the Electro-Harmonix pedals better, but I haven't tried them and I can't say for sure.

[Brad Sarno]

The Electro Harmonix tube pedal will be FAR FAR FAR superior to the ART crap. The ART stuff is not really tube. It's deceiving advertising, criminal in my opinion. It's actually very cheap, bottom of the barrel solid state stuff, but they do have a tube in there just barely running, and it's only used to add a hair of tube overtone into the otherwise solid state signal path. They're really not special at all. In a true tube preamp, the very first stage should be a tube because that's where the tube thing best happens. Word has it that they sort of fake the warmth in that unit by darkening the treble response. A true tube unit will be as clear and bright and detailed as anything, but will still have that smooth, silky tube warmth. But for $40, it's worth a shot. They're tremendously popular, so you may want to ignore my personal opinion on the thing.

THe Electro Harmonix tube pedals are true tube devices running at good, reasonably high voltages. No false advertising there. They're actually "tube" preamps.

Brad

[Terry Sneed]

Thanks Sonbone and Brad, I really appreciate ya'lls help. I'll take a look at the Electro Harmonix.

Terry

[Lynn Oliver]

If you do a search here you should find some discussion of the Seymour Duncan SFX-03 Twin Tube Classic Preamp Pedal. It seems to garner a lot of positive comments.

[Gary Richardi]

Are you looking for a mic preamp or a guitar preamp?

For a guitar preamp, I've got an older Peavey Rock Master 2-ch w/boost rack-mount pre that I absolutely love. They're no longer made but you can find 'em on ebay or thegearpage.net every once in a while and they go fairly cheap. It's one of the best guitar pre's ever made, IMHO.

[Bill Hatcher]

Pay the extra money for the F2B. One of the greatest sounding preamps ever made. Almost a direct copy of a Fender preamp section that is filtered much better and runs at a good high voltage. I have several of these and for electric bass there is no better pre. For steel it sounds amazing.

If you to to Ebay and look for a used Peavey TG or TB RAXX preamp, you would get more for your money than you might imagine. They usually sell for a little over a hundred bucks. They are a bargain. Don't get the rock and roll Peavey pre with all the channel switching chainsaw stuff.. not what you need for steel.

[Darvin Willhoite]

They may be a little out of your price range, but the Digitech 2112's, and 2120's are great tube preamps and you get lots of nice effects also. I've had two of them for several years and they sound great and have been really reliable.

[Terry Sneed]

Thanks guys for your suggestions. I ordered the Electro Harmonix LPB 2ube . If I'm not satisfied with it, I can always send it back, and try something else. I'll let ya'll know how I like it after I get it and piddle with it a couple days.

Terry