G. E. Popenoe wrote:
One respondent to my inquiry indicated that only a guitar preamp
section in a tube head will do if you want a fat bluesy sound.
Otherwise a tube mic preamp will just warm up your sound ....
which isn't a bad thing in general.
There's always someone who wants to say there's only one way to
get "that sound".
The tube preamps that I prefer are ones that have both a solid state
and tube preamp sections with a "blend" control to set the amount
tube used in the signal. They will also have an input (gain)
control and an output control. I don't know specifically whether
the ART Studio MP model that was discussed has those features. I
use a Studio Projects VTB-1.
The secret is to find the right combination(s) of input level
(gain), tube/solid state blend and output level to drive whatever
your final amplification source is going to be. I generally set the
tube saturation pretty high, but don't like to drive it too far into
clipping. The output control will determine how much you send
downstream to the amplifier, PA, or whatever is boosting your
signal. With a setup like this, assuming there's a PA already
there, I can load in in one trip with just a shoulder bag containing
harps, wireless receiver, tube preamp, microphone, and a number of
cables to accommodate whatever I need to connect to.
I don't use a bullet mic either.
-tim
_______________________________________________
Harp-L is sponsored by SPAH, http://www.spah.org
Harp-L@xxxxxxxxxx
http://harp-l.org/mailman/listinfo/harp-l