Running a preamp in front of an amp - No Bueno?

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Shark Diver

Shark Diver

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I know people run overdrive pedals in front of amps, can you run a preamp like the Fish or Triaxis in front as well? Problems? :confused:
 
Ironically, I met a man doing just that this weekend. Running a ADA MP-1 into the front end of some type of Traynor.

Not sure if it's a good/bad idea for the amp itself, but i know it didn't sound great.
 
CaseyCor":15o3aojq said:
Ironically, I met a man doing just that this weekend. Running a ADA MP-1 into the front end of some type of Traynor.

Not sure if it's a good/bad idea for the amp itself, but i know it didn't sound great.
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Yeah, I'm thinking because a preamp is line level it wouldn't work very well. But I have an amp with no loop and was thinking this might work rather then starting a pedal merry-go-round.
 
Jason_86_951":2ocoix3a said:
It totally depends on the type of output the preamp has and the input your amp has.

In the 90's I ran a JMP1 preamp into the "Low" input of a JCM800. It kicked MAJOR ass for thrash metal. :rock:

Most of the time a preamp's output will be much hotter than your guitars output. So you may have to put in a low gain preamp tube into V1 of your amp to knock down the gain. Try a 5751, 12at7, 12au7....etc in V1 to make your amp happy to get such a hot signal. Some preamps also have a -20/+4 switchable output that will help you knock the signal down a bit too.

As long as your preamp's output is not too hot, or not hot enough it will work fine.
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Thanks for the info. I'll play around with it. I didn't want to blow out the front end of the amp.
 
I've seen instrument to line level converter boxes ( I think?); are there line level to instrument level boxes? If so, that may work so you don't have to change tubes?

edit: or maybe something like the Radial Dragster?
 
Shark Diver":2lrotmu3 said:
I know people run overdrive pedals in front of amps, can you run a preamp like the Fish or Triaxis in front as well? Problems? :confused:
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I saw a video on the utoob of someone doing this...a triaxis or recto recording pre into the front end of some old amp's clean channel and it sounded very good!
Yes you can do it, but I'm not sure if it's good/bad for the amp.
But you CAN run a preamp into your other amp's fx return and just hit the power section.(you probably know that already)...OOPS just re-read your post and saw that your amp has no fx loop.

Is the signal leaving the preamp not line level? I thought it was.
 
If you can adjust levels, you can make it work. The problem is that you are running into basically 2 eq's, your signal will be eq'd yet again, usually producing something not nearly as good as if you just run a preamp into the power section, bypassing the input stage yet again. I have found that to sound much better in comparison.
 
You should be able to use line level as long as you can control the output.

I use to use a Chandler rackmount tube driver in front of my JCM800. It kicked ass.
The Chandler did have instrument and line level though.
 
I used to put a Rocktron Prophesy into the front of a Super Lead it sounded great. In fact, later when I bought a power amp, I went back to the Super Lead, it sounded better.
 
Keep the levels in check, and everything should be fine. Tweak a clean sound from the preamp, and turn up the level of the preamp until it`s not clean sounding. Back down a little, and you should be fine. It`s usually the cleans that have the spikes anyway. Overdriven sounds are usually more compressed.

I`ve run three preamps into my old JCM 800, and it was fine.
Old pod
PSA-1
ADA MP-1 (which has an instrument level switch)
 
I'm doing some repair work right now for Rusty Milner (ex-Marshall Tucker Band), and back in the day he used an ADA MP-1 with an Alembic F-2B in the loop!
Now he uses a Bogner Triple Giant into a Hafler G150 solid-state poweramp and still sounds amazing. :doh:
 
I ran my JMP-1 into the input of my 1959SLP with the channels jumped for a long time. Had no probs at all and it sounded fucking sick! I just made sure ti use the -10db setting and it worked great. :thumbsup:
 
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