tube preamp curious ,, what's your experience?

[Toneboner]

Synergy, Alta and now Morin have gotten me curious what use cases and experiences u guys have had with those or the various pedal format preamps. How would you compare tones and feel vs good ol fashioned amp/cab? What power amps did you pair with them or how integrated into live rigs (or bedroom/recording/etc rigs)?

I'm thinking about a really versatile and light pedal board rig with a few pedal pres + multi fx, PS2a + 2x12.

 

[Toneboner]

The only experience I have with that concept is using axe fx. Amps only, no power amp or cab modeling (into mesa 50/50 usually). Digital "pres" sound pretty fkn good! I suspect dedicated toob units will sound better. Wondering how much mojo is lost without a whole amp"s dedicated pi and power section intermingling...

 

[The Polish Hammer]

The preamp part is your choice, and there are so many it'll make your head spin.
For power amps I can honestly recommend the Rocktron Velocity ones.
I have a Velocity 100 and it is great. Even Dave Friedman recommends them.
A 2-12 like you mentioned, a power amp and power conditioner in a small rack case and whatever amp based floor unit you choose would be a killer setup.
Quad cortex, Fractal floor units, line-6, etc.. the choices are just too many..
If you have a amp/cab setup already that you like, stick with that..
No sense in spending money on something you already have... Yah know.. *shrug*

 

[romanianreaper]

I have two Synergy modules and use them i. Thr Synergy 20IR. Soon i'll have the Syn-2 with a Feyettw PS-2A and will get to see for myself how different an EL84 and 6L6 power amp can affect tone.

 

[Solarflares]

I liked the Peavey Classic 50/50 power amps.
They’re even better with Jan Phillips 5751 (pre) and Mullard CV4024 (splitter) valves in them.

The best ‘pre-amp’ though, is always a cranked amp head into a load box.
I use Palmer PDI-03’s and the Sequis Motherload Elemental.

 

[S̷͖͑m̵͎͂á̵̺s̸͚̈́h̴̬̑]

Synergy with sloII module into a 2/90/2 power amp is the best sound and feel I have ever experienced.

It took awhile for my current setup to get beat out, but that is what did it. And it wasn't even close

 

[blackba]

I use a direct rig on Sundays using a tube preamp pedal and a two notes cabm.

Sure I could just use a helix, but I like the flexibility of being able to adjust on the fly and the warmth of the tube preamp.
My one board is a Tubesteader Roy (Vox) and Kingsley Squire BF. I switch on one or the other as I feel like it. Other board has a Kingsley Constable JTM/Plexi. The Constable is missing pushing that phase inverter, which you really hear when you run it into a power amp wound up.
Kingsley ans Hagerman amps have small power amps like the crucible and power baby to help with this.

I think tube preamp pedals with the direct rig like I have are a good approach, but not sure I would opt for tube preamp pedals and a tube power amp. Part of what is nice is with the two notes, I can switch up the power amp and speaker sim on the fly, not easy to do with a tube power amp and a speaker cab.

I also see alot of people using the tube preamps in front of their amp. In fact most of the tubesteader fans seem to opt for this method with reportedly great results.

 

[Solarflares]

Fucking hell

 

[Toneboner]

Constable is missing pushing that phase inverter, which you really hear when you run it into a power amp wound up.

Thanks for chiming in. I wonder about just that,, how much is lost without the other parts of the chain. I guess the Royalist has an interesting way of preserving cranked pi section tones. Seems pretty smart.

I watched a couple thatpedalshow episodes with preamp pedals in various configs and they do NOT sound very sexy to my ears. I think I was hoping for a free lunch,, like being to switch to a Uber ultra pre in the loop of my quickrod, then back to native hotrod Marshall tones. Maybe high gain amps are not as dependent on overall topology the way vintage amps are...?

Always some compromise between big versatility and boner tones, I guess.

Maybe it's time to get an axe3 already!

 

[Toneboner]

Fucking hell

Lollll
u mean using a preamp in front of an amp? Seems rather unholy to me too.

 

[Solarflares]

Good rig would be an AxeFX3. Run a loop to a cranked valve amp, into a Palmer PDI-03 or Motherload, and back into the Axe fx.

 

[The Polish Hammer]

Or just use what you own already and not try to fix what isn't "broken". *Shrug*
The clip you posted the other day sounded pretty tasty... I don't see/hear anything wrong with what you are rocking out on now.

 

[Toneboner]

Or just use what you own already and not try to fix what isn't "broken". *Shrug*
The clip you posted the other day sounded pretty tasty... I don't see/hear anything wrong with what you are rocking out on now.

I thought the rules of this site are explicit about being greedy and more is better when it comes to amps

Fr tho,, thx allot. That's very encouraging!

 

[The Polish Hammer]

I thought the rules of this site are explicit about being greedy and more is better when it comes to amps

Fr tho,, thx allot. That's very encouraging!

No thanx needed... Lol
Of all the stuff I own the most fun I have playing is a 1-12 Peavey combo with a MXR Carbon Copy in the loop..
If you want to spend some money don't hesitate to ask me what new guitar I want..

 

[Toneboner]

If you want to spend some money don't hesitate to ask me what new guitar I want..

That Bravo is pretty nice! I'd fk w it. But you're gonna have to hit up one of the Wizard rich guys for that new guitar

Good rig would be an AxeFX3. Run a loop to a cranked valve amp, into a Palmer PDI-03 or Motherload, and back into the Axe fx.

I think I get what you're saying here now. 4cm is my favorite way of using axe, too. Which is hilarious and dumb. No amp models, No iRs, No power amp modeling....

 

[The Polish Hammer]

Lol @ "I'd fk w it".

 

[Solarflares]

I think I get what you're saying here now. 4cm is my favorite way of using axe, too. Which is hilarious and dumb. No amp models, No iRs, No power amp modeling....

Pic below.
You could use all this with the Axe FX as a hub.
Amps/load-boxes/compressors on 2 separate Axe loops.
You get all the amp thing, and have all the advantages of a 4CM - without the downside of messing with the amp’s own fx-loop.
At any time you can switch out the amps, and use the Axe FX on it’s own.