Presonus Bluetube w/out the tube?

[KingZeph]

I did a search on the bluetube and it seems most people on here don't like it very much. Maybe it is crap, but I have one, so I have a couple of questions.

Like many others have posted it's very noisy. I was thinking that the tube may be bad, but I don't know how to tell for sure. I'm thinking of picking up a new tube to see if that fixes it (for $10 it's worth a shot).

The other question I have is will the thing work at all if I just remove the tube and use it for the phantom power, or will that screw it up?

Thanks.

 

[craigmorris74]

The solid state circuit which does most of the amplification in these things is usually relatively quiet. The tube just functions as something to add noise, and if the tube is a real cheapie or if it's gone bad, will be really noisy.

You won't hurt anything trying it without the tube. I'm not sure if it will work, but it might, because the solid state electronics aren't just providing phantom power, but doing much of the preamplification as well.

That said, the noise will probably be greatly reducded with a new tube. I would NOT put a high dollar, NOS tube in a box that is just using the tube for the addition of noise, though. An electro harmonix or other decent new tube will probably work great.

Craig

 

[rayc]

I agree with Craig.
I have a Bluetube & it works pretty well as a solid state pre - I sometimes use the tube section when I'm using the thingas a pre into a guitar amp but not for anything else.
Don't waste money on a super tube.
Intesetingly I've found that my BT doesn't really provide proper spec phantom power - it's a little under & won't run a couple of my mics.
I bought it cheap & it does a pretty good job for my circumstances.

 

[tc4b]

I replaced the tube with an EH for <$10, and have a BT which provides some pretty clean gain for the price.