Greetings!

I have a question concerning these rackmount preamps. Can you run one of these into a normal tube amp head and just use the power section of the head somehow? Is that common? How is this be accomplished correctly? Does that cause any stress to the preamp or poweramp section of the head? A guy has a preamp for sale and I was wondering if it would integrate with my all tube amplifier head. Also... what exactly is speaker emulation? Thanks all!

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i think you can run the preamp through the effects loop of your head and it takes preceddence over the head pre amp, but i m not to sure. I remember alex skolnick talking about that somewhere. Give it a bash

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Yes you can, all you need to do is plug the preamp into the FX return of your amp.

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I ran my engl 530 into the fx return of my powerball nand it worked perfectly.

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like they sayd, run it through the fx loop, since the fx loop bypasses the preamp section of the head, youll only use the poweramp section of the head...

kinda useless post i guess but i figuerd id explain why it works.

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Speaker emulation means that you can run the preamp directly into a mixer, and straight into a computer. It's basically just a fancy EQ (you can get somewhere in the region by setting the EQ curve to be a 'sad face' with a little dip at the top (so you get two peaks), basically copying the response curve of a speaker). But it makes the world of difference, as you don't get that nasty 'fizzly' sound as you normally do when you plug directly into a computer. Won't really help much if you're going into an amp -> speaker, as you've got an actual speaker there, so there's no need for emulation

And as others have said, plug it into the FX return... or get a Laney tube amp, which has a 'Power Amp In' connection

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Excellent replies all! So let me get the terminology correct. FX return is the equivalent of preamp in or power amp in? What is FX send? Thanks all!

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FX send is basically your amp's preamp-out, so you can send your amp's sound through all the pedals in your rig, sending it back into the return. The FX loop is essentially a gap between the preamp and poweramp where placing modulation effects tends to work best.

And yeah you can use this to bypass the amp's preamp completely by plugging in a preamp into the FX return, just using an amphead as a poweramp. You can make very good use of a shitty amp head like this.

A lot of people use Peavey Classic 30 tube heads like poweramps running PodXT's into their return.

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Awesome! That's what I wanted to know. I never knew exactly what the fx send and receive were but now that you explain it in terms of the preamp and power amp sections of the amp, it makes perfect sense. Much appreciated. Anyone familiar with the Marshall JMP-1? I got a guy that has one for sale for $400 in mint condition. Anyone care to comment goods or bads about this preamp? Thanks!

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What kind of tone do you want? The JMP-1 does that hotrodded 80's-90's marshall thing quite well. Overall tight, open, non-compressed, marshall-y character, which means there are a lot of high mids and not so much low mids, as opposed to a more "modern" focused compressed sound with less high mids (ENGL, Boogie). Think "a little brighter 5150 with a little less gain" type of tone. Nice for leads and rock'n'roll.. Test it before you buy it.

Heard it is decent for what it does, that price is good if you're in the USA.

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I ran a preamp into the Slave Input on my Laney.

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Interesting characteristics. I'm not really sure what I'm looking for. I'm currently running a Peavey VTM120. It really gives me that crunchy high gain rhythm sound, but doesn't stand up for leads. Leads sound muddy and have no cut. This marshall might be just the thing I need. Thanks for the reply!

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Uh before spending cash on a spare preamp, why not try an EQ pedal with your amp for leads if you already like it's rhythm channel? Boost mids in front of it or in the loop.

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It has some dip switches on the front of it... low mid and high boosts. I never really messed with them much, but the tubes need replaced badly, so that's my first thing to do. I was just wondering about preamps because this dude is wanting to get rid of this Marshall JMP-1.

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An EQ pedal will do more shaping than those switches, but it doesn't hurt to try them. Buy a cheap EQ like an MXR 6 band with your new tubes and with a little patience I'm pretty sure you won't be lacking any definition in the lead department.

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Be aware of one thing......if you use an eq pedal in your fx loop to boost the amp for leads, it may not work out the way you want it. Why? Becuase most amp fx loops like to see line levels, and pedals are not line level. You may get unwanted distortion if you try a pedal in the loop. Does the amp have any level knobs for the fx loop? If not, get an Alesis Quadraverb processor and use it's eq and delay, and set the patch as a volume boost. It has in and out level knobs on the front, a bypass jack so you can turn it off with a simple switch, and is very cheap....I just bought one for $80. It will work out better, since you'll get some cool delays or anything else you want for leads. Better value.

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The FX loop is meant to be used with effect pedals man. I've used various pedals including EQ even for line/volume boosts with great success in the FX loop of several amps, no unwanted fizz or tone loss of any sort. The only thing you shouldn't be using in the loop is a wah or an overdrive.

Why would he buy a reverb unit if all he wants is some different EQ?

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There are no controls for the level of fx loop. The conversation is how I could get a better lead tone out of my amp, since I was looking into a preamp, but this raises a good question. Is it better to run pedals and/or multi-effects processors through the fx loop or through standard in on an amp?

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It really depends the kind of effect you want. If you want to clear the mud out of a guitar and give it a nice little sensitivity boost for leads, you want it in front of the amp, with a mid spike and the volume control a bit up. Same with overdrive(they really only work in front of amps). BUT an EQ in the loop can also make HUGE changes in your amp's overall tone. Use the same setting(parabola shaped mid spike with a slight volume boost) for leads and it will make a dramatic change in your sound, like if it was a perfectly studio'd up solo. Or use it to slightly boost bass response to get more mass and chunk out of thin sounding amps, it'll do wonders on combo amps.

FX like delay, chorus, reverb, phaser, and flanger etc. 99% of the time in all high gain music will sound better after the distortion, therefore in the FX loop. They'll sound more saturated that way, but tape delays are commonly used in front of amps too, however it's mostly used for that slap back 50's rockabilly guitar effect.

You just want better lead tone, so get an EQ pedal and take advantage of what your VTM has to offer. If you're still not satisfied with the VTM after you experiment with it and an EQ, then sell it and get a different amp or a rack setup(ie: that marshall JMP and a normal poweramp).

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Killer post Soreu! Appreciate the info bro.

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