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Posts: 3736
Location: Sunshine State, Australia | Can anyone tell me something about this,
or this
or even this?
I know Al's not a fan of Behringer gear. What's 'Art' stuff like.
Apart from the obvious guitar application, I'm also looking for something to get a crunchy blues harp sound with my green bullet mic. The Behringers seem pretty versatile.
Any opinions? |
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Posts: 5881
Location: Colorado Rocky Mountains | Not cheap, and no longer produced by Mesa, these are tone monsters with dual tubes. One of these anchors my electric pedal board. I don't use it with acoustics.
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Posts: 5750
Location: Scotland | Ok, a little history, First there was MXR. The best pedals ever for a long time. Those guys eventually fell apart and became 2 companies; Alesis and ART. Both of those companies to this day produce really good cutting-egde gear, not the cheapest, but really good. Behringer just rip them off, them and several others including Mackie, Roland and whoever their lawyers think they can fight. Behringer actually have some reasonable products, but their business practices are appalling. |
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Posts: 7210
Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | I am quite satisfied with Behringer in over all bang for buck, and that's the key.
If you have $100 to spend on a mic pre-amp, I would get a Behringer and nothing else. If you have $500 to $1000 for a tube pre-amp, there are a few other choices depending on exactly what you are trying to accomplish.
I have used ART tube preamps and I don't know if it's my taste or lack thereof, but ART gear seems to have a "sound". Neither good nor bad, but identifiable as ART with one exception. The ART Power Plant pre-amp. It's solid-state, but as warm and full as you could want in a pre-amp if that is what you are looking for. |
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Posts: 5750
Location: Scotland | The fact is that Behringer have "stolen" everything they do from Mackie and a bunch of others. It's not about the sound of Behringer over whoever. It's about what's right. And their continual theft of intelectual copyight and subsequent out of court settlement is wearing thin. They are theives. END OF STORY. If price is all that's key we can kiss the industry goodbye. |
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Posts: 5750
Location: Scotland | Originally posted by muzza:
I'm also looking for something to get a crunchy blues harp sound with my green bullet mic.
Any opinions? Try an amplifier modelling pedal, maybe a Boss FDR-1 or FBM-1 which model a mid-60's deluxe reverb and 50's Bassman respectively. I've been using the deluxe pedal for lapsteel for the last year and it's pretty good. You could also try the Tech 21 amp simulator pedals. |
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Posts: 10581
Location: NJ | i have a few pieces of ART gear and I like them
don't get me started on behringer |
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October 2005
Posts: 4026
Location: Utah | Muz, i've got an ART Pro Studio preamp. It's a $30 unit that is pretty darned good. The tube, though, is Chinese and is pretty harsh. You can drive it to distortion but it isn't a smooth or mellow distortion.
I replaced the tube with a Ruby Tubes 12AX7 and the sound is wonderful. However, the Ruby Tubes is a low gain tube and can't be driven to much distortion. I am seriously tempted to mod the circuit to get more distortion, probably only requiring one resistor to be changed out.
Anyhow, the ART is a nicely made unit, especially for the price. Though the one I have is a different model, I would be concerned that the tubes in that one are Chinese and might be harsh when driven hard. You can get replacements for about $10 to $20 in the USA. Also, the unit you linked to doesn't look like it is designed to go to distortion. |
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Posts: 3736
Location: Sunshine State, Australia | Originally posted by FlySig:
Also, the unit you linked to doesn't look like it is designed to go to distortion. How can I tell? |
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February 2002
Posts: 5750
Location: Scotland | Originally posted by muzza:
How can I tell? Generally, anything with tubes designed as a studio mic preamp is intended to stay clean, and any distortion will be very subtle when used correctly and pretty horrible if driven hard. Anything similar designed specifically as a guitar preamp will produce much higher levels of distortion, as that is part of the intended purpose.
Check out the Boss Tweed Bassman pedal. Back in the day the Tweed 4X10 bassman was the amp of choice for harp players. I'm sure that pedal will do what you want. It's not a tube pedal, but it works very well. |
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Posts: 4389
Location: Capital District, NY, USA Minor Outlying Islands | Have you tried using a tube screamer clone type pedal? |
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August 2005
Posts: 3736
Location: Sunshine State, Australia | Thanks Paul and AN4340. I haven't tried anything other than plugging the green bullet straight in to my solid state practice bass amp. Sounds OK, but not quite 'there'.
I'll investigate the bassman and screamer.
Here\'s another one that sounds like it'll be a clean 'studio' preamp. If I go by Porltee's advice, this one won't go to distortion either? |
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August 2005
Posts: 3736
Location: Sunshine State, Australia | I\'m gonna go for it...
Beats lugging a valve amp around too... |
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August 2005
Posts: 3736
Location: Sunshine State, Australia | It arrived yesterday. I'll give y'all my (limited) opinion of it after a test run or two. |
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August 2005
Posts: 3736
Location: Sunshine State, Australia | I still haven't taken it out of the box yet.
It's going back on eBay - it could've been perfect - I'll never know.
Coz I just bought this! |
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January 2006
Posts: 5881
Location: Colorado Rocky Mountains | Looks very cool. Keep us posted on how it works for you. |
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August 2005
Posts: 3736
Location: Sunshine State, Australia | Will do Brad. I reckon AJ's UKII will sound SICK played through it. (As long as someone else is playing it...) |
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December 2001
Posts: 10581
Location: NJ | I had a discussion a couple of days ago with a guy on preamps. His thought was that tube preamps bring in a level of distortion that you don't get with solid state preamps.
I am not so sure I agree with that statement but it did get me thinking..... |
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January 2006
Posts: 5881
Location: Colorado Rocky Mountains | I have a relatively inexpensive Digitech RP100 modeler that has 80 different tone combinations that can then be modified with maybe another dozen different amp types. About half of the presets represent some form of overdrive/distortion. This was the first modeler I invested any time in figuring out and while the sound from this thing isn't the best on the market, it provided me with a relatively good introduction to various types of distortion. The impact that different amps can have on a specific overdriven or distorted tone is huge. There is just so much available that it is hard to determine what sounds good to you and what doesn't. Everybody is chasing after a tone that only they can hear. So many different colors are available. My preference is for more of a crunchy blues overdrive sound, not really so much distortion as just some overdrive. Either I find I am able to obtain it from a number of different set-ups, or my ears aren't sufficiently sensitive to recognize and appreciate the difference. |
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Info / review of valve preamps
