Re: [Harp-L] Pre-amps

["Tim Moyer" <wmharps@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Joe Ferbeats wrote:
>     Back in my salad days, I received the best harp advice EVER 
> from Mr. Stress ... 
>   he told me about the Astatic and Green Bullet mics and said to 
> always use a pre-amp between your mic and the amp!  
<snip>
>       If you can "dial-in" a nice "volume-to-gain" ratio BEFORE 
> the signal hits the amp/p.a/ whatever; the amplifier doesn't have 
> to be overdriven as hard to get "that" sound.  

I use a tube pre-amp.  In my case it's a PAiA TubeHead which I built 
from a kit (http://www.paia.com/tubestuf.htm).  It has both a solid 
state and a tube (single 12AX7) preamp stage, and you can dial the 
amount of tube compression using a pre/post "blend" control.  I use 
one channel on tube for and overdriven sound and one channel on 
solid state for a "clean" sound.  

I run the output of the tube head through a couple of effects boxes 
(Alesis Midiverb IV and Alesis DEQ230) before boosting the signal 
with a solid state amplifier.  This lets me dial the tone regardless 
of the volume, and also gives me a line-level out I can run to the 
PA.  

-tim

Tim Moyer
Working Man's Harps
http://www.workingmansharps.com/