Mini tube internal preamp?

[brorbjoern]

I've considered doing this with a 48v phantom powered design... it would demand a mic pre (or someone making bass heads with XLR inputs with that voltage of phantom power), but it would solve a lot of the issues. or alternately a twin power/output cable so that the extra cable wouldn't get in the way of your playing but simply continue 1.5 meters beyond the actual jack/jack cable.

+ doing it in a seperate graphite wing on the bass, with rills in it for cooling and veneer wood for looks, thus isolating the tubes from any wood (nobody wants a bass accidentally catching fire right?), while at the same time giving you a bass with tube glow... +1

of course I'm not a bass builder or electronics engineer (yet! I wanna! u.u) but I think this would solve many of the inherent problems with a internal tube pre.

[father of fires]

Originally Posted by brorbjoern

I've considered doing this with a 48v phantom powered design... it would demand a mic pre (or someone making bass heads with XLR inputs with that voltage of phantom power), but it would solve a lot of the issues. or alternately a twin power/output cable so that the extra cable wouldn't get in the way of your playing but simply continue 1.5 meters beyond the actual jack/jack cable.

+ doing it in a seperate graphite wing on the bass, with rills in it for cooling and veneer wood for looks, thus isolating the tubes from any wood (nobody wants a bass accidentally catching fire right?), while at the same time giving you a bass with tube glow... +1

of course I'm not a bass builder or electronics engineer (yet! I wanna! u.u) but I think this would solve many of the inherent problems with a internal tube pre.

Phantom power won't have enough current for the heaters. You would have to find tubes with special low current filaments.

[SGD Lutherie]

Originally Posted by brorbjoern

I've considered doing this with a 48v phantom powered design...

The most you will get is a starved plate tube preamp... like those tube overdrive pedals.

A clean tube preamp needs high voltage on the plates.

[edwinhurwitz]

Originally Posted by SGD Lutherie

But I did a similar thing with one of my '73 Rics back in the late 70s. I don't remember what I was going to install, but I think it was some kind of parametric EQ. Or a couple of Anderton Super Tone Controls.

I put the Super Tone Control in a bass back in the 80s. For those of you who don't know, it was a state variable filter with a 3 way mixer. It was a bit finicky, but sounded awesome. After a while I got tired of always having to mess with it. An Alembic Superfilter is way easier.