reasonable way to warm up my CX-3

Hi all, this is my first post!

I've recently got hold of a vintage Korg CX-3 and I'm running it through a 1978 Echolette Leslie, made in Germany. I know it's nothing like a real B3 into a Leslie 145 , but I like the way this humble rig sounds and feels to my ears and fingers.

Anyway, in an attempt to optimize my sound, I'm thinking about getting some tube preamp, but the Speakeasy Vintage Tube Preamp far exceeds my budget.

I have an Ibanez Valbee 5-Watt tube amp with fx loop which I was thinking to try, using the pre out directly into the leslie input. I can't try now because I have it in another town, but soon I'll do. What do you guys think?

Any other sensibly priced alternative?

Thanks in advance!

Hello to Spain,

glad that you appreciate our Leslies - I have a '78 Echolette, too, and I'm living half an hour from the factory where they made them

You might want to try a Hughes & Kettner Crunchmaster, which is what I'm using in front of my MEIIs. If something like

I don't know anything about preamps, but...

I bought a Seymour Duncan Twin Tube Classic for my Rhodes. I don't know if it sounds good compared to other tube preamps, but it works for me and I like the way my Rhodes sounds through it. I paid something like $129 for it new.

Are all these devices intended for keyboard use (line level output)? Or are they more likely for guitar?

I've never had issues with line signals going through the HK gear. Originally, they've been designed for guitar, though.

Please, take a look at this:

http://www.thomann.de/es/cat.html?gf=preamps&ls=100&oa=pra

There's a lot of preamps for about 100

I have the higher gain SIB Varidrive which I am not sure is made anymore, but that is a really nice tube-based overdrive. I think that might have more distortion than you are interested in having. This preamp is a possible choice:

SIB FatDrive

There are reviews in the effect area here for it, too. I had a Presonus Blue Tube for a while that was a nice little microphone preamp. It would work fine with keys, too, but I am not sure if it is designed to get the warmth you are looking for, which is basically a little bit of harmonic distortion. The FatDrive is designed to go into saturation bit and give some of that tube "warmth". It looks like PedalGeek is sold out now and so is MusicToyz. You might want to call Willie's Guitars in St. Paul ((651) 699-1913) if you want one; they carry SIB products (bought my VariDrive there) - I dunno if they have a FatDrive in stock.