Why do you want a pre-amp that's colored? It would seem to me that you would want the most pristine ones you could find. You can always muddy it up later!
Why do you want a pre-amp that's colored? It would seem to me that you would want the most pristine ones you could find. You can always muddy it up later!
The TAB/Telefunkenwerk V-78M is a great 'colored' kind of pre for under $1k. The really cool thing about it is that the 'input sensitivity' switch actually changes the impedance of the input giving you a fairly wide variety of available tones and textures without costing a fortune.
Thanks Fletcher. With all the new preamps and channel strips out nowadays, I kind of forget about things like the Telefunken stuff. Really fat warm sounding pre's that may be the prefect thing for this poster.
DOT named the two pres I was looking at in that price range. I chose the Sebatron ONLY because it gave me two channels for < $1200. I'm very, very happy with the Seb, but if I could have afforded two channels of Great River that would have been my first choice. If I ever do get a GR pre, I won't be unloading the Seb!
You can't go wrong with any of the Old School Audio stuff (I prefer the L and L3 for vocals in general, although they are all good)....$1200 is a nice budget for a 1 channel preamp, so you'll have lots of choices from many manufacturers. The thing is, is that one preamp won't do it all, so you want to get something that is a workhorse. Nothing too dark or bright, or too colored or clean.