The Steel Guitar Forum

I'm looking to try a preamp/ power amp stereo setup. What are your preferences for preamps for steel.

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Dave Krute
Carter D10 Nashville 400
Strats, Teles, Precision Bass
and of course Mesa Boogie amps for anything with six strings

Since you're a Mesa Boggie guy, I like the Mesa V-Twin rackmount. I used Tubeworks stuff for a good while, and I find this more to my liking - cleaner, better EQ. I changed out the tubes for slightly less gain, but I still like to dial in just a little grit. You should be able to come across one on the used market for a reasonable price. My $0.02....

Tons of players use GD Walker's "Stereo Steel" either preamp or preamp/amp combo- www.stereosteel.com ~ there is a real good reason why~ do a search on "Stereo steel" in the forum<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Jim Palenscar on 12 April 2003 at 10:55 PM.]</p></FONT>

Stereo Steel...
Hey Steve, have you changed your email address?

Tommy - incoming....

I use the Mesa V-Twin with a Mesa 50/50 power amp, and a Lexicon MPX-100 between them. I'm very happy with the sound I'm getting.

I'd like to try the new Mesa Recto Recording Preamp, but I'm not quite ready to plop down a grand for something that might not be much of a change.

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<small><img align=right src="http://b0b.com/b0b.gif" width="64" height="64">Bobby Lee - email: quasar@b0b.com - gigs - CDs
Sierra Session 12 (E9), Williams 400X (Emaj9, D6), Sierra Olympic 12 (C6add9), Sierra Laptop 8 (D13), Fender Stringmaster (E13, A6),
Roland Handsonic, Line 6 Variax

Alembic F2B.

If you can ask for preamp specs here is what I would shop for:

1)lowest noise figure/high sensitivity(dB)
2)low distortion even at higher input level(headroom)(% at specified highestinput level)
3)sufficiently wide bandwidth (kHz)
4)high input impedance and low output impedance (100's Kohm in , dozens of ohms out)

tone control, VU overdrive indication

The preamp will set the noise figure of your setup . Any loss before the preamp will add to (degrade) the noise figure. Any loss after the preamp is partly "masked" by the gain of the preamp (the higher the gain, the greater the masking). That is part of the reason you are using a preamp, besides providing gain to a signal in the microvolts range .

I always thought the preamps built into Mackie VLZ PRO Mixer strips were really good in the above 4 figures of merit. They have good headroom too.

If you like to digitally record I have found the Mark of the Unicorn 896 ( motu.com) to be flawless and virtually noiseless , and at times we use a Mackie 1604 VLZ PRO mixer for premixing.

I know the Walker preamp is a good one. Not sure if he's got numbers published but maybe you can find out.

Then again I'm a tube addict but dont get me started on that. Low noise 12AX7's are starting to cost too much.

Real amplifiers "glow in the dark".

Rick Barber

Question for you Stereo Steel users...can the pre-amp be used independantly from the power amp in the combo version? Just curious if I were to put the combo in a rack set-up, but wanted to used just the pre-amp and effects into someone's combo amp(NV1000, etc.)and leave the speaker cabinets at home.

GD Walker could give you the definitive answer to that: gdwalker@mei.ws

Mesa Boogie Studio Preamp in "Buy and Sell".

Michael T.

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UTILITY MAN PRODUCTIONS
'73 EMMONS D10 FATBACK, '92 EMMONS D10 LASHLEY LEGRANDE,
'85 DOBRO 60DS, '95 DOBRO F60S,
'95 MELOBAR CUSTOM, 1955 FENDER TRIPLE NECK STRINGMASTER. EVANS, FENDER, PEAVEY,
and MESA BOOGIE Amps.

Roland GP-100 has been my choice for the past couple years.

Roger, you can do what you describe by using the XLR outs. These are essentially preamp outputs. The only trick is if you are driving a 1/4" unbalanced input, which you might be in the case of plugging into the power amp input of a combo amp such as a Nashville 400,1000, etc. In that case you would want to make up some special cables with a xlr on one end, and a 1/4" TRS phone plug on the other, with the ring tied to the sleeve. This properly unbalances a balanced connection. I think this is right but check with Gerry to be sure. And somebody correct me if I'm wrong. I've only had one cup of coffee....

While I brew up a cup of joe for Tommy, I think you can go to Radio Shack, Roger, and get an adapter that does the same thing that he is describing.