The Steel Guitar Forum

Does anyone use one of these rack mount preamps for steel? Pros and Cons? Is it worth $99? How does it compare to other tube preamps?
Thanks
Dennis

Dennis, there are quite a few players using these with steel. Bear in mind that there are Tube Works preamps with a steel guitar modification and that is probably what you'd want. My ears tell me that there's a tiny bit of distortion in the ones w/o the mod. Mine is the 924 Blue Tube II with the steel mod. and it's very clean. For steel, you flip the channel and stack switches down. You'd want to add some delay and reverb. I use the Tube Works 921 rack reverb and it's awesome sounding. This rack sounds fat and warm when I play my Tele thru it too. For steel, it has a bright sound to my way of thinking and some people have swapped out the tubes for something else and gotten a more mellow tone. You might ask, could you have Genz Benz do a mod on the unit you're looking at? Their answer is no, they're only doing mods on their later (or latest) unit, the 9002, for $100 plus shipping. I've asked. Is the one you're looking at worth $99. Probably, if you're just going to use it for elec. guitar. Hope there's something here that's helpful.

And I forgot something. Turn the first six knobs off, that's starting at the left and working to the right.

Dennis, there are quite a few players using these with steel. Bear in mind that there are Tube Works preamps with a steel guitar modification and that is probably what you'd want. My ears tell me that there's a tiny bit of distortion in the ones w/o the mod. Mine is the 924 Blue Tube II with the steel mod. and it's very clean. For steel, you flip the channel and stack switches down. You'd want to add some delay and reverb. I use the Tube Works 921 rack reverb and it's awesome sounding. This rack sounds fat and warm when I play my Tele thru it too. For steel, it has a bright sound to my way of thinking and some people have swapped out the tubes for something else and gotten a more mellow tone. You might ask, could you have Genz Benz do a mod on the unit you're looking at? Their answer is no, they're only doing mods on their later (or latest) unit, the 9002, for $100 plus shipping. I've asked. Is the one you're looking at worth $99. Probably, if you're just going to use it for elec. guitar. Hope there's something here that's helpful.

Good grief, I don't know how my post showed up twice, sorry.......

I've been using the TubeWorks 9002 preamp (with the steel mod)to great success for the past two years. It comes with three sets of tubes and you have to read the spec sheet to decide which set to use. I opted for the 12U7 as they claim that these get the cleanest sound at some sacrifice of volume. I would love to find the TW reverb unit to use with it. My digital reverb (ART) leaves much to be desired.
--JR

I play with a full set of Tube Works components in my rack. Starting with the Blue Tube II preamp, the spring reverb and amp. I love the full, rich sound. Not too long ago I replaced the original tubes with Sovtek 5751s both in the preamp and the reverb. They both take the same tubes. The 5751s were sposed to warm up the sound and I think they did.
Erv

Hello Dennis- I would at least try a Hilton Digital Sustainer before I did anything else; now I know that these are intended to do entirely different tasks, but when I hooked up the Hilton, I immediately was aware of greater, cleaner, warmer gain, and it provided the single most effective improvement to the sound of my Session 500, seeming to remove the harshness that I could not eq out. Anyone else having similar experiences? All best Jon

Hi Jon! How's that ShoBud Crossover treating you?
I've had a Hilton pedal for a couple years now, which has the sustainer built into it. Great product. I'm just curious about tube preamps. I saw the Tube Works 902 at a pawn shop and was curious about it.
Dennis

Are you sure the 902 is a preamp? I thought that was the number for a Mosvalve amp.
Erv

Hi Erv....I think it's a tube preamp? It's a rack mount Real Tube brand. Model is Tube Works 902. Not sure how many tubes. It has basic tone controls and a tube bias control. Might be more for rock and rollers?
Dennis

Dennis,
For steel you should keep your eyes peeled for a "Blue Tube II". That is what I use and it doesn't even have the steel mod in it. It still sounds good!
Erv<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Erv Niehaus on 07 March 2003 at 07:31 AM.]</p></FONT>