budget but sweet sounding tube preamp w/ true clean channel to use with a distortion pedal?

[liquidsmoke]

Hello all. I hadn't been on here in awhile and since I have a new email address I just created a new profile.

I'm looking for a lower cost but good sounding tube preamp with a true clean channel that likes distortion pedals that would be going into a solid state power amp. Rack or pedal design. Our drummer is LOUD and tube amps tend to sludge out on me too much however I love the creamy richness that they add but I'm convinced that it's mostly from their preamps which tend to be pretty high quality. I use a high gain Amptweaker TightMetal pedal which sounds amazing through my Carvin XV 100 watt head(converted combo, same design as the old X100B) at somewhat lower volumes but when I get closer to practice/gig volume levels the low end/low mids flubb out even when I turn the bass way down. I've had issues with tube heads in the past, you dial in a perfect tone but it all goes splatty/flubby/too sludgy as you approach higher volumes. Turning down the preamp distortion or pedal distortion to compensate changes the tone and you are quite far from where you started. I like a very tight sound for low tuned(B standard) power chords and palm mutes and what not. A friend of mine has a Mesa 'Studio' preamp(similar to the II or IIC+ I believe) which sounds fantastic and very tight into solid state power amps but still very rich and warm so I know this hybrid combo can work. If the Mesa Studio had more distortion on tap I'd probably just buy one and get rid of the TightMetal. I did try the TM through it's clean channel however and was not impressed, it wasn't a good match even at lower volume levels.

A couple of details: our rehearsal room isn't very big which makes the drum volume fairly oppressive which forces us to turn up pretty loud(power trio). Intead of using two 4x12s I use two 2x12s. It was partly a cost issue and partly because I hate carrying 4x12s up and down stairs by myself. I realize that I wouldn't have to crank as loud with 4x12s but I don't have the cash to custom order two 4x12s compact enough to fit in my car and I'm not sure that would solve all of my problems.

Wondering if any of you could recommend a budget but sweet sounding rack or even pedal tube preamp(high volts, like in tube 'heads') with a true clean channel that is tight up to high volume levels and likes distortion pedals.

[Drummer44]

Maybe easier/better/cheaper to just turn the dummer down.

-D44

 

[WRGKMC]

Tubes in the preamp arent going to do that much. Plus most tube preamps you find are not tue high voltage designs, they are what you call a starved ncircuit design that run on low voltages between 9~12V. They use the tube to color the sound only. The gain winds up being 1:1 or less so they arent really amplifying the signal. In order to have a real tube preamp you need between 200 to 250 voltes which requires a large transformer like you find in tube guitar heads.

Starved tube designs can be cool for some coloring of course. I have an ART SGX2000 that has a tube in it as well as regular solid sate drive options. I have sevral others as well and none of them sound like an actual tube guitar amp because tube amps get most of the good warm tube saturation from the power tubes and output transformer and thet get sag from a Rectifier tube.

What you might want to try is getting a small 1~5w amp that's a true tube amp, and install a sleaker emulated line level output. If the small amp has good tone at low voluems you can simply use it to drive your power amp.

[liquidsmoke]

"Maybe easier/better/cheaper to just turn the dummer down."

 

Just from the volume of the drums alone we all have to wear earplugs. If I had the Carvin at the sweet spot recording level volume I probably wouldn't be able to hear it much myself. My bandmates wouldn't be able to hear it at all. Tuning low with a lot of distortion and doing lots of palm muted power chord type metal riffing is much more sonically challenging for amps and speakers than traditional E tuned hard rock playing.