Universal Audio 6176 vs Vintech X73

[thebarnstudio]

I'm in the market for a new preamp and was looking at the Universal Audio and Vintech pres... I'm kinda looking for a thicker warmer tone for guitars and bass. My Trident pre works awsome for drums but sounds kind of thin on gutiars. What would be a better choice between the UA and vintech pres? Also how does a Avalon 737 sound?

[jonnyc]

If you can live without eq on the preamp then you should take a look at a Great River. People absolutely rave about them on guitars plus you'd save a few hundred bucks left over.

[xstatic]

Tough question. I would go with the Vintech. Not so much because of the pre (which I find more versatile than the UA preamp), but for the EQ. Then again, the UA in question here has that sweet compressor on it....

The Avalon is a cool unit that kicks ass on bass, and also has a sweet EQ, but never really stunned me on guitar.

In the end, the way I see it...
The better preamp (for the way I do things) would be the Vintech.
The better EQ (once again subjective) would be the vintech, but the Avalon 737 EQ is also really cool, but in a slightly different way.
The better compressor.... easily the Universal Audio in my opinion.