Preamp for idiot guide please

[Philosoful]

I'm still having trouble understanding these, the folks on rig-talk.com have been way helpful and explained alot of stuff to me but I feel I'm being a pest there with constantly updating a post and only ever asking questions so...

 :lol:

Basically I've heard of tons of people 'pushing' their amps via using preamps but I don't understand exactly how they fit in? + the knobs on them are generally just EQ right?

I know you can do the wet dry rig thing with a hot plate, I'm not sure I want to do that, but I have some rack effects that I use in a serial loop and I want to maybe try some preamps with my Herbert if I can learn to understand them first.

Cheers!

[Spitfire]

a diezel herbert already has a preamp in..

are you talking about a boost/overdrive pedal to place before your amp?

[Philosoful]

Hmmm, I understand you can get tube screamers and such which 'push' the tubes but I thought it'd work as an 'add on' on all amps, not as a replacement. Like a guitarist I like says he uses a Peavey rock master but I'm not sure how he does so, he uses Marshall's though.

[Kilby]

I'm slightly guessing what you are asking and theres a couple of ways of playing about like this

Some people (Randy Bachman for example) cascaded the output of 1 amp into the input of another and caused a lot of blown amps. The Garnet Herzog took this idea into safer realms (Check this link for Herzog info http://www.lynx.bc.ca/~jc/garnetAmps.html ) The Original version of American Woman is an example of this (not the awful Lenny Kravitz version)

Basically the above is just sticking a mad amount boost into the front end of your amp (think of a tube screamer on steroids (& crack))

The other route is to connect a preamp to the fx loop (this was discussed a few weeks ago but I can't remember where) thereby bypassing the amps own pream. I'm sure there there are some caviats on which amps allow this.

[gingataff]

The term "pre-amp" has two connotations:
 
The first is some kind of boost to put before your amp, such as a tubescreamer or similar. This will simply drive your amp harder.

 The second is as part of your amp itself, meaning the first part of the amp, where the guitar signal starts to get shaped and boosted before being passed onto the power amp which makes it loud enough to hear through the speakers. These may be in the same box as in your Herbert, or separate in the case of a rack system.

It can be confusing because these two things are not the same but often share the same name.

[Philosoful]

Ahhhhh, thanks, that's really quite helpful. In context of tubescreamers and such, what would you guys recommend for a fairly typically set up Herbert? (High gain channel 3, rock n roll style channel 2 distortion and prestine clean channel 1), how do tubescreamers sound on clean?

[the guitar repair workshop]

in terms of a gain/ booster pedal, there's plenty around - best do some research to get a balanced idea.

A custom builder I know has been building Klon style boosters that are heavily tweaked and have more of an edge to em. The first 3 people that tried em snapped my arm off to buy them, I cant get enough of them.
in fact there's a new model being R&D'd with 2 boosters in because everyone says that they dont want to switch the thing off!!
worth a look if you're round this way anytime anyway. they dont even have a brand name yet, they look a bit 'just got out of prison, no frills' and are built like tanks. All hand wired etc and about 3rd the cost of a klon.
cheers
steve

[Woogie]

Isn't this possible with poweramps too?

[Philosoful]

in terms of a gain/ booster pedal, there's plenty around - best do some research to get a balanced idea.

A custom builder I know has been building Klon style boosters that are heavily tweaked and have more of an edge to em. The first 3 people that tried em snapped my arm off to buy them, I cant get enough of them.
in fact there's a new model being R&D'd with 2 boosters in because everyone says that they dont want to switch the thing off!!
worth a look if you're round this way anytime anyway. they dont even have a brand name yet, they look a bit 'just got out of prison, no frills' and are built like tanks. All hand wired etc and about 3rd the cost of a klon.
cheers
steve

This sounds very intriguing :D

[Emperor]

DUDE!!  You have a diezel Herbert... you totaly DON'T need any overdrive to tighten things up or add any gain.  you have all what you want in there !!   

I'd push marshalls, peavey's, mesas.. but not any german amps.

that's my 2 cents ;p

[Philosoful]

 :lol:I'm still learning about them and such, now power amps are confusing :lol: and I've just been learning about speaker emulators :lol: