I just recieved my Presonus TubePre today in the mail. After doing a LOT of research on preamps in the $100 range (that's my budget right now) I kept seeing rave reviews of it. So I was anxious to try it out. I have an Acoustic brand amp I jusy got and was so dissapointed that my soundhole pickup was so quiet it made the amp almost useless. And I know it has some volume, the guitar I tried it with at the store sounded great, and loud! But it had built in pickups and preamp.
So anyway I researched and researched for the best preamp for that price. Kept coming up with the Presonus. So I plug it in and the volume increase was great.....but the hum and hissing, not even tolerable. Especially for recording. I turn the gain down and it's better, but then the reason for getting it was to boost the gain. I don't even touch the "tube" settings. Not interested in that. So now i'm thinking I got a dud? Why does everyone give it rave reviews? I think it sucks, just a fancy toy, sounds like turd. It's plugged into a grounded outlet. But when I touch the endpin jack the hum goes away. The hissing remains. Sounds perfect when I take the Presonus out of the picture. Very dissapointed with this. If this is just how it is, I'm returning it immediately. I don't want to screw around with junk if this is common. I don't know what I can do to fix the problem. Some say a new tube, but who wants to pour more money into something they don't like right off the bat? Not me!
Any ideas/advice?
Thanks!!