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Pre-amp between head and cabinet

Ellery

Ellery

Mar 25, 2015
3,310
5,400
#1
The other night I was watching a band and was really impressed with the bass sound. This guy had a Gallien Krueger 1001RB head with an old Ampeg 4-spkr cab. I also use this same head, so I later asked him about his rig. He pointed out a rack mounted unit he was using, calling it a "pre-amp". He told me it was hooked up IN BETWEEN the head and the cabinet, making it louder and giving it a "tube" sound to it.

Is anyone familiar with this? I had always thought of a pre-amp as being between amp and instrument only. I would like to understand this equipment better, any comments?
 
#2
I don't see how one could place a preamp between the amp and speaker, perhaps in FX loop, but definitely not after the power amp section. The only things that can be hooked this way are some DI-boxes that can work at speaker levels.
 
#4
blr2 said:
I don't see how one could place a preamp between the amp and speaker, perhaps in FX loop, but definitely not after the power amp section. The only things that can be hooked this way are some DI-boxes that can work at speaker levels.
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I tried to be very clear and asked him again, I could swear he was telling me it was in between the head and the cab. But a misunderstanding is possible. If it was in between instrument and amp, what kind of unit would that be?
 
#9
There are thousands of preamps. Without a picture it's impossible for us to tell you what kind it was.

It's also possible you did hear them correctly but it doesn't mean it's the right way to connect it. People do all kinds of weird things because they don't understand how it's supposed to be connected.
 
#10
Dave W said:
There are thousands of preamps. Without a picture it's impossible for us to tell you what kind it was.

It's also possible you did hear them correctly but it doesn't mean it's the right way to connect it. People do all kinds of weird things because they don't understand how it's supposed to be connected.
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That's a good perspective but I got the impression this guy knew what he was talking about. Besides, his amp wasn't on fire! :)
 
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#12
OK folks I got an update, you were right, this was not connected between the head & cab. It was a Tech 21 SansAmp bass drive with a "tube emulator" feature. Does anyone have any experiences or opinions in regards to this unit? If I were more impulsive than frugal I'd be shopping online for one right now.
 
#16
Ellery said:
It was a Tech 21 SansAmp bass drive with a "tube emulator" feature. Does anyone have any experiences or opinions in regards to this unit?
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There is tons of info on these. The search feature will be your friend. SansAmp BassDriver or BDDI for short...

You might as well add the ParaDriver, VT Bass DI, and Programmable BassDriver to your list of stuff to read up on. I have a ParaDriver and a VT Bass DI.
 
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#17
Ellery said:
The other night I was watching a band and was really impressed with the bass sound. This guy had a Gallien Krueger 1001RB head with an old Ampeg 4-spkr cab. I also use this same head, so I later asked him about his rig. He pointed out a rack mounted unit he was using, calling it a "pre-amp". He told me it was hooked up IN BETWEEN the head and the cabinet, making it louder and giving it a "tube" sound to it.

Is anyone familiar with this? I had always thought of a pre-amp as being between amp and instrument only. I would like to understand this equipment better, any comments?
Click to expand...

Id just about bet money he was using a sans amp RBI, rpm or psa. But perhaps it was a rack compressor or something else. I use the RBI and gt2. Sans amps are a great solution for getting warmer and particularly dirtier tones direct where using a pedal in front of an amp for dirt you'll more likely prefer to mic up a cab because the super high frequencies that go through the xlr sound bad.
 
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