Hi everyone,
To my surprise I can’t seem to find a very cheap already built electric guitar preamplifier to pair with a weiliang tpa3116 board (the 100*2 yellow one).
I would really like to find something ready to use that boosts my instrument level signal and that has some basic distortion features (man did I think I would be flooded by things like that when I went for a quick search on Aliexpress, but I didn’t have any luck).
Maybe I could go for a DIY preamp build, but my experience is close to nonexistent and I got lost in the threads here and can’t seem to find my way out 😀, so I have no idea about how much a basic build would cost.
Let’s say I would like to keep it below 30 euros, if at all possible?
Speaker-wise, I was thinking about taking out the 12” woofer from some old wharfedale dovedale 3s which keep frying the tweeters and aren’t used anymore. I have no idea if the woofers without crossover are high efficiency; I doubt it, but I would only have to use them at relatively low volume and they sure are vintage 😛
Thanks for the help, and I wish you all the best.
To my surprise I can’t seem to find a very cheap already built electric guitar preamplifier to pair with a weiliang tpa3116 board (the 100*2 yellow one).
I would really like to find something ready to use that boosts my instrument level signal and that has some basic distortion features (man did I think I would be flooded by things like that when I went for a quick search on Aliexpress, but I didn’t have any luck).
Maybe I could go for a DIY preamp build, but my experience is close to nonexistent and I got lost in the threads here and can’t seem to find my way out 😀, so I have no idea about how much a basic build would cost.
Let’s say I would like to keep it below 30 euros, if at all possible?
Speaker-wise, I was thinking about taking out the 12” woofer from some old wharfedale dovedale 3s which keep frying the tweeters and aren’t used anymore. I have no idea if the woofers without crossover are high efficiency; I doubt it, but I would only have to use them at relatively low volume and they sure are vintage 😛
Thanks for the help, and I wish you all the best.
Behringer Preamp Booster PB100 Pedal. And assorted diode/resistor networks between live/ground on the output.
But if your time is free see RunOffGroove. Sound clips for everything too.
But if your time is free see RunOffGroove. Sound clips for everything too.
Thanks to both.
About the speaker, I believe it's got a rubber surround, or at least so it says on an old review. I don't really care how it would sound though, I would only use it out of curiosity and, well, because it's free.
About the behringer pedal, it looks exactly like what I'm looking for, but I can't find it anywhere used or new; looks like its production time is long gone. I've found some old zoom or behringer multi fx for very little, and they have a headphone out so they should work, but I don't like the idea of having to deal with such old and probably abused pieces of tech.
Since a friend of mine is ordering stuff from thomann, I was looking at what they have right now. I see a very cheap behringer multifx (fx600) , but it says it doesn't have line out on the description chart, and that's unlucky.
If I really can't find any ready made preamp pedal or board I think I'll make the stretch and get the zoom g1x four and be done with it.
Thanks for helping me, but if anything comes to mind that would help me (especially something available on thomann) it would be very appreciated. See ya
About the speaker, I believe it's got a rubber surround, or at least so it says on an old review. I don't really care how it would sound though, I would only use it out of curiosity and, well, because it's free.
About the behringer pedal, it looks exactly like what I'm looking for, but I can't find it anywhere used or new; looks like its production time is long gone. I've found some old zoom or behringer multi fx for very little, and they have a headphone out so they should work, but I don't like the idea of having to deal with such old and probably abused pieces of tech.
Since a friend of mine is ordering stuff from thomann, I was looking at what they have right now. I see a very cheap behringer multifx (fx600) , but it says it doesn't have line out on the description chart, and that's unlucky.
If I really can't find any ready made preamp pedal or board I think I'll make the stretch and get the zoom g1x four and be done with it.
Thanks for helping me, but if anything comes to mind that would help me (especially something available on thomann) it would be very appreciated. See ya
Sorry for double posting, but I might have found a solution. What if I use a mini mixer like the t.mix minimix 22 (which has an instrument in and a headphone/line out that I would connect to the power amp) and whatever distortion pedal I can find on thomann? It should work fine, right?
That will work, but may not be the cheapest, or best-sounding, simple approach.
Instead, I would suggest using one of the Joyo pedals designed to do exactly what you want: to imitate the sound of an actual tube guitar amp. I think all of them are under $35 USD, and while none of them will sound exactly like a real tube amp, some come surprisingly close, and at the low price, it's hard to complain too much.
If you want a classic Fender guitar amp sound, the Joyo American Sound comes close: Amazon.com: Joyo JF-14 American Sound Effects Pedal Amplifier Simulation with Voice Control: Musical Instruments
The Joyo AC Tone tries to sound like, well, a famous guitar amp with the letters "AC" in it (VOX AC 15/ AC 30): Amazon.com: Joyo JF-13 AC Tone Vintage Tube Amplifier effects pedal, analog circuit and bypass: Gateway
If you want a vintage Marshall emulation, there is the Joyo British Sound: Amazon.com: Joyo JF-16 British Sound Effects Pedal with Classic Brit-Rock Era Amp Simulator and Unique Voice Control: Musical Instruments
The Joyo California Sound might be your thing if you like Mesa Boogie amps: Amazon.com: Joyo JF-15 California Sound Effects Pedal with Modern Ultra-High Gain Amp Simulator and Unique Voice Control: Musical Instruments
Note that you can follow the Joyo with a separate reverb and / or delay pedal if you want; electric guitars tend to sound much, much better with at least a little reverb or delay added.
-Gnobuddy
Wow, thank you so much, that's exactly what I was looking for. It adjusts the output impedance and boosts the signal at the same time so it can be used as preamp, that's awesome. You just saved me from spending 150 euros on a not-so-good Zoom multifx. I guess I'm gonna go with the Vox one, since on my local Amazon it costs a fair bit less than the other ones. I'm probably going to add a reverb pedal as you are recommending, thank you again 😀
Ahahahahahah you're right, I had just peeked at the joyo vintage overdrive and it looked familiar. The Harley Benton ones cost even less 😛 I love you guys, and I love this forum 
Some days, the Internet is a very nice thing! 😀😛 I love you guys, and I love this forum
Glad to help! 🙂
I have a Zoom G3 and G5, but in my opinion, the Joyo American Sound in particular (which I also have) sounds better than the Zooms. Because it has real knobs for each function on the front panel, I also find it much easier to dial in the sound I'm trying to find.
The nice thing is that you can buy both the Joyo / Harley Benton and a decent reverb pedal for less money than the Zoom pedals I've looked at. 🙂
I just spotted this TC Electronic reverb for 31 euros: tc electronic Skysurfer Reverb – Thomann UK
(I don't know anything else about that particular reverb, but TC Electronics has a very good reputation with guitarists.)
I have an older budget reverb, a Biyang RV-10 "Tri reverb", which is usually under $50 USD: Amazon.com: Reverb Guitar Pedal,Biyang Stereo Effects Pedal 3 Modes Hall Spring Room True Bypass Guitar Mini Multi-effects Pedal Full Metal Shell: Musical Instruments
I know some musicians are extremely fussy about their reverb, and there are $500 reverb pedals to satisfy them. Personally, I'm not that picky about reverb, and to my ears, the Biyang sounds very good, quite natural sounding, not at all fake and "plasticky" like cheap reverbs used to sound fifteen years ago.
-Gnobuddy
+2. All the digital boxes I've ever bought (except some delays & reverbs) rapidly ended up in the cupboard for these two reasons.
I do hear nice things said about the Boss Katana amps, specifically by pros doing the dance/wedding/covers thing who really don't want to cart around lots of gear so they can match the sounds of 60 different bands.
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Honestly I don’t think I would’ve cared much about the minute sonic differences; the only thing that really bugs me with those cheap multifxs (is this even a word!? 😀) is that I can’t have everything on hand without going into submenus or scrolling banks. If I had the money, going with a Helix would be a no brainer for me, and I probably will one day.
In the end I didn’t read the reverb suggestion in time, because we ordered everything yesterday, but I decided not to buy one for the time being and think about it later when I need one.
Changing subject of the conversation, I’ve just ripped out of a pair of old Criterion 100b two 10 inch woofers that I’ve read good things about (one guy was even claiming of having used them as replacement speakers in a Fender Champion xd or something like that, don’t remember). To avoid building a cabinet from scratch, I was thinking about using both of them in one of the original cabs and leaving them in free air. Do you think these would be a better bet than the original Wharfedale Dovedale 3 woofers?
In the end I didn’t read the reverb suggestion in time, because we ordered everything yesterday, but I decided not to buy one for the time being and think about it later when I need one.
Changing subject of the conversation, I’ve just ripped out of a pair of old Criterion 100b two 10 inch woofers that I’ve read good things about (one guy was even claiming of having used them as replacement speakers in a Fender Champion xd or something like that, don’t remember). To avoid building a cabinet from scratch, I was thinking about using both of them in one of the original cabs and leaving them in free air. Do you think these would be a better bet than the original Wharfedale Dovedale 3 woofers?
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I think the Katanas mark a watershed moment for digital valve guitar amp emulation - it's the first time pro (or semi-pro) guitarists, en masse, have had nice things to say about a modelling amp that's neither a cheap and cheerful $100 practice amp, not an uber-expensive $2000 Kemper or Axe FX.
It's been a long time coming. Line 6 amps were making the noxious sounds of "Fifty different kinds of kazoo in one box!" in 1996, twenty three years ago. Roland (which owns Boss) was making weird noises with guitar synthesizers long before that, starting in the late 1970s, more than forty years ago now.
Those Roland GR500 guitar synths were certainly not valve guitar amp amp emulators, but still, they were devices that electronically massage electric guitar signals to sound like something else - just like today's Katanas. I think there is some shared conceptual DNA there.
Which reminds me, the Joyo pedals I recommended in this thread are evolutions of the original Sansamp, which dates from 1989. That's thirty years ago, now. 😱
It's amazing how long people have been trying to do solid-state emulation of valve guitar amps, and it's amazing how utterly unsuccessful most of those attempts have been!
-Gnobuddy
Hey guys, could you please quickly tell me if the two cables 'mono jack male to mono jack male' and 'mono jack female to two rca male' will work to connect the preamp pedal to the amplifier? I think it should, but I can't ever be too sure (I haven't found a singe cable that did exactly this, so two it is). Thanks
Yes, I think that is what you need.
Usually I hear the word "jack" only used for the female 1/4" connector, and the male one is called "plug" rather than "jack". So I was a little confused by "mono jack male", instead of "mono plug male" or even just "mono plug". But I think I understood your description, and that's what you need to connect your Harley Benton pedal to your stereo power amp.
If and when you eventually get a reverb pedal, you might consider using a reverb pedal with stereo outputs. The Biyang RV-10 is one example of this type of reverb - it has two outputs, and if you feed them separately to your two power amps, you will get a bigger and airier sound.
It's not really stereo (since there is only a mono signal to start with), but it tricks the ears and brain into hearing a bigger, wider sound stage.
-Gnobuddy
You're right about the cable description, I was in a hurry and English is not my first language. You understood correctly. In the end, anyway, the guy who I thought had already ordered, in fact didn't. So I added a cheap Harley Benton tuner pedal and the tc electronic reverb you were talking about. Can't wait for the stuff to arrive.
In the meantime I finished my little guitar cab project. Looks very rough but the sound should at least be interesting. I'll post some pics when I can. Bye
In the meantime I finished my little guitar cab project. Looks very rough but the sound should at least be interesting. I'll post some pics when I can. Bye
I haven't heard the Helix, and maybe it really is wonderful. I don't know, because back in the nineties and 2000s, I was stupid enough to buy not one, not two, but three different Line 6 amp emulator products: two different Spyder modelling guitar amps, and one Pod.
My guitar, put through any of these three Line 6 wonders, sounded almost exactly like this: YouTube
Or this: YouTube
Or this: YouTube
You know what they say: fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. Well, I was fooled three times by Line 6 advertising claims and positive reviews from presumably tone-deaf musicians, so I guess it's double shame on me.
At any rate, I eventually learned my very expensive lesson. No more Line 6 products for me. I would have to be a complete moron to fall for their B.S. a fourth time.
There's no way to guess, really. Just try them both, your ears will tell you quickly if you like one better than the other!
-Gnobuddy
No worries, your English is a million times better than my Italian. 🙂
And now the waiting - oh, the waiting! 😀
(I ordered some Russian 6N2P tubes a while ago, and they are supposed to take a month to arrive in Canada!)
I suppose we are all really spoiled now. Just imagine how long it took to get something from Russia to North America in the days of camels, horses, dog-sleds, and sailing ships!
-Gnobuddy
As promised, I'm sharing with you my not-so-new 2x10" guitar cab. I've chosen to place the speakers like that for three reasons: it looks cool, even though the woodwork sucks (or maybe THAT is why it looks cool), it was the only way to make them fit in that old speaker cabinet and it gives me a wider horizontal dispersion.
It's something put up in one afternoon, I didn't really care for pretty aesthetics since the speakers will be covered by the grill. I sure enjoyed not having to worry about Hi-Fi stuff for once.
I still obviously haven't really tried it out; but I've watched a video from a guy who was going straight from the Harley Benton AC TrueTone pedal to the DAW and thought that it might approximate what I'm going to hear, and I really liked what I've heard. If my ears don't betray me, these woofers should have a very pronounced spike in the mid frequencies, because they were literally drilling by eardrums. I've connected the cab to a Lafayette 44w (but I think more like 4w) amp which is probably as old as the speakers and distorts just as much. Maybe I'm even going to end up using this one instead of the TDA3116d2, who knows.
Anyways, hope you liked the pics. Wish you all a good weekend
It's something put up in one afternoon, I didn't really care for pretty aesthetics since the speakers will be covered by the grill. I sure enjoyed not having to worry about Hi-Fi stuff for once.
I still obviously haven't really tried it out; but I've watched a video from a guy who was going straight from the Harley Benton AC TrueTone pedal to the DAW and thought that it might approximate what I'm going to hear, and I really liked what I've heard. If my ears don't betray me, these woofers should have a very pronounced spike in the mid frequencies, because they were literally drilling by eardrums. I've connected the cab to a Lafayette 44w (but I think more like 4w) amp which is probably as old as the speakers and distorts just as much. Maybe I'm even going to end up using this one instead of the TDA3116d2, who knows.
Anyways, hope you liked the pics. Wish you all a good weekend
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