Members flanging_fred Posted July 30, 2010 Members Share Posted July 30, 2010 Earlier this year I was given an old pre amp from the mid sixties. A learned friend of mine has looked at the circuit diagram and told me it is very similar to the old rangemaster. This thing puts out a fixed gain boost of about 38dB. When I run it into my amp it sounds utterly amazing but I'm worried that giving the amp such a hot signal will kill it, (blow valves etc). So will a 38dB boost kill my amp? Also has anyone come across a WALgain pre-amp. Made in the UK in Farnham about 1965? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Jupp Posted July 30, 2010 Members Share Posted July 30, 2010 38dB won't damage it, i think...because the Way Huge Angry Troll has 50dB and doesn't do any damage as far as i know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members dZjupp Posted July 30, 2010 Members Share Posted July 30, 2010 38dB won't damage it, i think...because the Way Huge Angry Troll has 50dB and doesn't do any damage as far as i know. I have the angry troll, it hasn't blown up my amp yet AND I USE 6 FISTS BABY Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wartoxin Posted July 30, 2010 Members Share Posted July 30, 2010 This is a common question, "what will damage an amp". The only thing I know of is too much current/wattage, which means too much output volume. Will a boost cause that? Depends mostly on the model of amp. Obviously most of the time it just distorts the hell out of the signal and causes no damage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members JorisBlack Posted July 30, 2010 Members Share Posted July 30, 2010 I think, but I'm really not sure about this, that hitting a tube amp with a hotter signal will decrease tube life. I don't know if it's a significant change. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members cobalt-60 Posted July 30, 2010 Members Share Posted July 30, 2010 Wasn't there a little amp in the 60s that was made to drive another amp. It looked like an external reverb, big old box with knobs on it. Thing was gnarly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SonicVI Posted July 30, 2010 Members Share Posted July 30, 2010 The Garnet Herzog Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Cirrus Posted July 30, 2010 Members Share Posted July 30, 2010 You can boost the signal a lot with a guitar. The first valve, however much input it's getting, can only put out its maximum headroom. After that it'll just get more and more distorted, but it'll act as a limiter and hence nothing downstream will be damaged. On the other hand, eventually it'll just sound bad and who wants that? But that stage doesn't come for a long time. The idea that boosts can break amps comes I think from amps with underspecc'ed transformers or speakers and clean preamp sections designed to push the power section - designed to sound pushed, and in those cases you run the risk of blowing things because components are being pushed to the limit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members p00n Posted July 30, 2010 Members Share Posted July 30, 2010 Speakers can blow though Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Kap'n Posted July 30, 2010 Members Share Posted July 30, 2010 Pretty much what is said above, as long as you've realistic. You can't throw a 100V signal in there and expect it not to blow up. Supposedly, really old-school amps with contact bias for the preamp tubes can get burnt up with too much input signal. These are preamp tubes with no cathode resistors and a multi-meg grid-to-ground resistor, like TV panel tweeds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mistersuperfly Posted July 30, 2010 Members Share Posted July 30, 2010 I blew up a power tube in my Hiwatt by cranking the master and slamming the front end with a AbSynth -> Swollen Pickle -> Fuzz Factory... it was ridiculous. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members claytonjohn18 Posted July 30, 2010 Members Share Posted July 30, 2010 I blew up a power tube in my Hiwatt by cranking the master and slamming the front end with a AbSynth -> Swollen Pickle -> Fuzz Factory... it was ridiculous. This. Also, it depends on the individual amp and whether or not you're already running it hard. But probably no harm, just terrible sounds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members duncan Posted July 30, 2010 Members Share Posted July 30, 2010 Speakers can blow though Boosting the preamp of an amp causes the power amp to put out more power than its capable of? HOLY {censored} DICKS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Dolf Posted July 30, 2010 Members Share Posted July 30, 2010 Boosting the preamp of an amp causes the power amp to put out more power than its capable of? HOLY {censored} DICKS. This. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Kap'n Posted July 30, 2010 Members Share Posted July 30, 2010 Boosting the preamp of an amp causes the power amp to put out more power than its capable of? HOLY {censored} DICKS. No. It's all about duty cycle - area under the curve. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members flump Posted July 30, 2010 Members Share Posted July 30, 2010 This much boost: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members kefka_hates_you Posted July 30, 2010 Members Share Posted July 30, 2010 to many flux capacitors can blow an amp so can a Zvex Super Duper with both sides boosted at full tilt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members christianatl Posted July 30, 2010 Members Share Posted July 30, 2010 The Garnet Herzog OK, now I need this. I hate this place. Also, American Woman. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members OnWingsOfLead Posted July 31, 2010 Members Share Posted July 31, 2010 That Garnet thing looks sweet. Someone on the Local CL sold a Garnet head a couple months back...looked sweet! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members p00n Posted July 31, 2010 Members Share Posted July 31, 2010 Boosting the preamp of an amp causes the power amp to put out more power than its capable of? HOLY {censored} DICKS. It depends on the speaker rating, especially when it's close or under the amp's wattage. AC15s are usually paired with a single Celestion Blues rated at 15 watts. Sure a boost doesn't push the power amp any harder, but it does increase the chances of speaker failure when pushing it's upper volume limits. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Cirrus Posted July 31, 2010 Members Share Posted July 31, 2010 Yeah even if the amp isn't putting out more than it's rated max, if the signal is pretty much bouncing off the rails the rms signal level will be very high and if the speaker is rated close to the amps rating, if you keep that up for a few hours the speaker can get pretty hot... I tried to cover that in my well thought out and resonable post above. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members gambit Posted July 31, 2010 Members Share Posted July 31, 2010 i boosted the hell out of a Marshall MG15.. totally destroyed it.. i think it was turbo rat, muff, and 20db clean boost all cranked. i'm less scared of massive amounts of boost with decent valve amps, but i'm sure it must be 'damaging' or at least wearing on the valves/circuitry to be pushed that hard all the time? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Instrospection Posted July 31, 2010 Members Share Posted July 31, 2010 I had a Fender Performer 1000 (solid state/ 12AX7 hybrid--Fender's first in that design) that lunched eventually after running a boost that was fairly higher above unity gain. Dunno specifically if it was that that had killed the amp, but I had always wondered if that type of boost was good for that amp..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members christianatl Posted July 31, 2010 Members Share Posted July 31, 2010 I have been running the green Russian Muff cranked with a 25 db boost behind it into my Marshall Super Leads for a little over two years without any issues. It's worth noting that I use the low inputs though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members sfarfsky Posted July 31, 2010 Members Share Posted July 31, 2010 This much boost: wtf was that used on? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.