Guitar : Pre-Amps and Power-Amps

D

David Katauskas

New member
I want to record a very dry and very dirty metal sound for my gits. Here's what I have today:

- Tech21 PSA-1 Pre-Amp
- Crate XT120R 212 Combo Guitar Amp

Thought #1:
Get rid of Crate, replace with Mesa/Boogie 20/20 rack Power Amp and speakers

Thought #2:
Save a lot of money and get a Mesa/Boogie 1/2 stack single rect

I'm getting closer to achieving a better sound for recording my gits, but am guessing that I need just another push in the right direction. Most of my frustrations are probably from the Crate ss amp.

Hearing from many sources that most of the sound comes from the pre-amp, I've also read that I can get a much better sound by just replacing the ss power amp with a tube power amp...? I'm so confused.
 
  • Like
Reactions: NL5
I would recomend not wasting your money on a tube power amp for your crate. Although it may be an interesting change, metal distortion comes mostly from the preamp, and it wouldn't change your tone as getting a different amp would.

My philosophy with buying gear is buy it once and be happy, which may mean saving up. It can suck when you buy something and after the buyers high wears off you realize you wish you had something else. :o
 
Ahh i see! I'd say take your pre-amp into guitar center and test out the boogie poweramp, and the different 1/2 stack rectifiers side by side and see which you think is better.

and then buy your favorite.
 
While tube power amps do color and distort, they also need to be turned up pretty good to really get the characteristics of the tubes to come into play......of course there's always a attenuator. :)

Rick
 
Save yourself the trouble and skip straight to the mesa rectifier!!!!! I have a dual rectifier trem-o-verb among many other amps......If you want chunky, speaker ripping tone put a dynamic(57/re20....) and a condensor (insert nice mic here....telefunken U47 :D....although my TLM103 does fine) on the 4-12 and crank it up :) :) :)
 
Another idea... can your preamp and pick up a V-Twin. This thing even makes my 60's Ampeg Gemini I sound like a Mesa (on accordian input no less). It also works great direct, and I typically hate direct guitar.

Jay
 
I offer the cheapest and easiest to try idea:
Check the BACK of your amp and look at what type of input jacks you might have. Most combo's and larger amps will have a preamp out, and sometimes a "power amp in" jack. My old Peavey has these and I used to run stereo outputs from my pre-amp into the amplifier, effectively bypassing the amp's own preamp and merely amplifying the signal from the pre-amp.
Why is this good??
Because EQ and the right gain structure are everything when it comes to geetting a metal sound. Cascading one preamp into another (which is what you are going when you amp up a preamp) does funky stuff to the eq and gain. You will get a tighter, crisper sound bypassing all that.

The pre-amp is a keeper, imo. Even if its not metal enough for you.... its good for other things, and even if you try out the v-twin approach like someone suggested you will have something that will give you another type of sound- and variety is always good.
 
Thanks for all of the replies. As mentioned above, I want to do this once more and get it right. You've made me see that there are more options to do research. Thanks again!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top