Possible to Use Guitar Preamp Instead of a Guitar Head?

[johnbarnesiii]

Hi guys,

 

I would like to know if its possible to use a guitar preamp in place of a guitar head?

 

I understand that typically they are used together, but I'm wondering if I can use the guitar preamp INSTEAD of the guitar head, and simply plug it straight into my guitar cab?

 

Thank you!

[Mr.Grumpy]

No. A guitar head contains both the preamp and a power amp, which is needed to power the speaker. A preamp doesn't put out a strong enough signal to power a speaker.

 

What are you wanting to do?

 

[1001gear]

Meanwhile, there are tiny pedal sized and guitar sounding amps that make plenty enough power to drive a guitar cab.

[WRGKMC]

A power amp that produces 100W can produce a steady 28V and nearly 4 amps. Enough power to kill you dead as a door nail.

 

A preamp outputs less then 1V and maybe 1/100 or an amp. That's about .001 watt

 

Given those differences do you really think a preamp has enough power to drive a guitar speaker?

you might be able to hear a faint sound using headphones, but you need to be careful. only certain types of line outs double as headphone jacks. Unless your manual states its used for headphones or like outs, you should never connect it to anything but what its designed for or risk damaging it.

 

You can use a preamp to drive a PA, and you can connect a different preamp to your amps power amp using your effects return (which connects directly to the power amp) which bypasses the preamp and connects you directly to the power amp.

 

I own several different pedal type preamps which will works for this. The Joyo American sound for example can give the amp a Fender sound, The AC Tone produces a Vox tone and the Joyo British produces a Marshall sound. They make a California for a Boggie amp tone too. I run the three I own in series then select whichever one I want the amp to sound like. These produce what you'd call a Low Tech Amp Modeling for a live rig.

 

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You can use any type a rack preamp like this so long as its got a line level out and your amp has an effects send/return that allows you to connect directly to the power amp.

 

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I use my ATR SGX which was a top of the line, very expensive rack multi effects unit back in the day to drive the power amps in my guitar rigs. it does have a instrument level out for connecting to old school amps that have no power amp input too, but the noise is typically higher and the extra EQ and gains of the preamp are unnecessary. The whole ide of using rack gear is to eliminate the need for two preamps and drive power amps directly. Of course this one has stereo effects so it sounds best driving an actual power amp that's driving cabs and do without the guitar amp all together.

 

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If your amp didn't have a line input adding one is tricky business best left to a professional. any of these can be connected to a PA's line level input. All are completely useless without some kind of power amp to make them loud enough to drive a speaker.

 

Of course you can buy a small class D power amp or just buy an entire class D guitar amp with the preamp built in. you can find many of them for under $200 that will produce from 5W up to 150W like the one below

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[DeepEnd]

Mr.Grumpy gave you good advice. You could use your preamp with a separate power amp or with a powered speaker but you'll definitely need something to bring the signal up to the point that it will drive a speaker.