Guitar --> Preamp --> GNX3K
On a whim, I decided to purchase this $30 tube preamp and toss it between my guitar and GNX:
Does anyone else have this sort of setup?
I wasn't expecting much, but man--this little preamp has added a TON of character to my tone. I don't know if it's the volume boost or the tube, but everything just sounds much more rich and complex. The harmonics and overtones are out of control.
I also have the Supermodels set. Before, I had to do a ton of tweaking to get them to sound right--now they sound better than ever, and I have to do little to no tweaking.
Anyway, this sucker was a great freakin' find. I thought I better pass that along.
Does anyone else have this sort of setup?
I wasn't expecting much, but man--this little preamp has added a TON of character to my tone. I don't know if it's the volume boost or the tube, but everything just sounds much more rich and complex. The harmonics and overtones are out of control.
I also have the Supermodels set. Before, I had to do a ton of tweaking to get them to sound right--now they sound better than ever, and I have to do little to no tweaking.
Anyway, this sucker was a great freakin' find. I thought I better pass that along.
Comments
Will have to try it with the GNX4 later.
Cheers!
Mickster.
Its not supposed to distort a mic, infact the specs say THD less than 0.1%
Its not supposed to alter the frequency response, infact the specs say 10Hz to 20kHz (+0,-1dB)
It is not supposed to clip the mic. Infact it has a clip LED which I am sure is not going off when you play the guitar.
It IS supposed to impedance match the mic. Its input impedance is 2K. But hey thats \"wrong\" for a Guitar.
HB pickups prefer 500K or 1M input impedance preamp, else they get \"loaded\". The frequency response and resonance of a pickup will be totally different when driving a 2K load versus a 1M load.
For actives, the impedance of the following stage does not matter.
It IS supposed to boost a mic output. The specs say 60 dB.
The input impedance of 2K might reduce the guitar input signal by 20 dB, so you still have 40 dB of gain at maximum setting.
This will overdrive the following MFX considerably ie all \"clean\" amps should become very dirty if driven with 40dB more signal.
and it IS supposed to compress large signals. But I dont know how the compression threshold is.
So I guess what you are seeing with this in the circuit are
A) Altered freq response due to very low input impedance
This is somewhat equal to changing the HB-> SC and SC-> HB voicings as that is also an equalisation before the distortion
This is equal in most cases to increasing the gain of the MFX
C) Increased Compression. This is equal to adjusting the compressor inside the MFX to higher ratios