anonymous
17 August 2009
Could anybody recommend a good preamp (tube or solid state) that would give me the capability to get nice saturation/distortion. I've got the bluetube, but the tube seems to have died. Turning up the tube drive doesn't affect the signal. I'm into a lot of 50s, 60s, 70s stuff. Want something that would give me some nice, warm distortion, if I want it. At this point, my budget is in the $500 - $1000 range.
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Any pre where you have 2 gain stages - input and output and uses
Any pre where you have 2 gain stages - input and output and uses either a tube (in either or both stages) or a transformer (in either or both stages) should do the trick.
In that price range, you're likely to find yourself somewhat limited to a small handful of preamps. There are quite a few "transparent" preamps in that range and there are quite a few "saturated" preamps in that range, but not much in the middle that can do both well.
I know there's mixed results on the Summit 2BA-221, but I've used a pair of them with great success and they can do clean and saturated and everywhere in between.
The GT Brick is a bit saturated at all times. The Manley pres are as well. Focusrite ISAs are great, but they stay pretty darn clean at all gain levels.
Both UA and Daking make single unit preamps that can be driven differently based on either creative uses of pads or by altering input/output levels.
SSL makes a few single channel pres near that price range too but I know absolutely nothing about them.
Just some thoughts -
J.