Looking for tube guitar preamp

[high-fi]

Hey, here's my situation:
I have a 130watt transistor amp and frankly, the sound is crap. What I'm looking for is a tube preamp I can rig up as a clean and dirty preamp and plug into the 'Power Amp In' on my guitar amp. This way I have a good tube distortion and the smooth clean sound, with a more reliable solid state power amp (this amp takes a fair bit of abuse live).
Does anybody have a schematic?
I was thinking maybe i could mod a mono tube preamp to work as well... any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
Mike

 

[tschrama]

I don't think it is that simple... look at http://www.harmonycentral.com and find the links at the guitar section.. plenty of schematics ... goodluck
thijs

 

[GRollins]

Mike,
There are numerous places on the web to find schematics for guitar amps. One such would be http://www.triodeelectronics.com
(They also have stereo schematics for those interested in tube gear.)
Aspen Pittman has a large book of guitar amp schematics called, oddly enough, The Tube Amp Book. There are schematics in there for Fender, Marshall, Ampeg, etc.
However, getting good tone from a solid state power section is an iffy proposition. The tone you get from an overdriven front end isn't the same as you'd get from the power section. If you want tube tone, you may need to go to an all-tube head.

Grey

 

[high-fi]

Awesome, thanks for all the help guys. I think im gonna try a separate tube preamp and power amp. That way i can use the solid state power amp on stage and tube at home.... if i can get it all together

Mike

 

[Troy H]

Try PAIA electronics. http://www.paia.com/tubestuf.htm#siab.

They have lots of projecs for musicians. The Stack In A Box is designed for exactly what you


Troy

 

[vdi_nenna]

http://nanaimo.ark.com/~pat/

 

[dsanders]

As a fellow guitarist I would suggest looking into line 6 stuff. Maybe the POD thing, its not tube but it has a bunch of amp simulators and from the little I've heard sounded pretty good. Can be kind of pricey though. My friend bought used a tube head pretty cheap never heard of the brand though. I would think you could maybe find a Marshall JCM800 or JCM900 head fairly cheap. Still may be out of your budget.

 

[elementx]

a little search goes a long way

http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?postid=437018

 

[voivodata]

Here' s a link to the schematics of the GT TRIO preamp. http://www.schematicheaven.com/newamps/groovetube_trio.pdf
I"ve built myself a distortion simular to the Scream channel of the Trio and was very happy with results. I used a power supply from an old tube radio which supplied about 300V to plates. Finding a suitable enclosure may be difficult.
Good luck!

 

[poobah]

Definately look into the LINE6 effects pods etc... You won't believe it!

 

[croat47]

London Calling

www.londonpower.com.

Not only does he have liturature that is well written and easy to understand, he sells kits for guitar and bass preamps.

Regards.