I was looking to buy a Carvin power amp (solid state) and was just curious if I could match it up with my 1960a cab and use my Blackstar Tube Distortion pedal as the preamp? Thanks
Tube pedal as preamp?
- Thread starter lordofthestring
- Start date
slashvanyoung
Dopefish lives!
Hmm... Power amps are designed to get line-level signals and the output of your pedal is till instrument level if I'm not mistaken. So it's kinda like plugging in an instrument into a line-in. There's an impedance mismatch.
So it will probably work but you may get additional noise due to the impedance mismatch.
Someone correct me, if I'm wrong.
So it will probably work but you may get additional noise due to the impedance mismatch.
Someone correct me, if I'm wrong.
I don't think it will be much of an impedance mismatch, just more of straight levels. Most pedals output under 1 kOhm. But their signal output could be really low for going into the front of an amp.
But that will differ from pedal to pedal. So with the HT pedals it may just work fine. If it isn't loud enough, try an EQ or booster pedal to beef up the output. Or even better, grab a little cheap mic pre for straight gain like a ART Tube MP or something that has DI. Then have that hit the poweramp.
But that will differ from pedal to pedal. So with the HT pedals it may just work fine. If it isn't loud enough, try an EQ or booster pedal to beef up the output. Or even better, grab a little cheap mic pre for straight gain like a ART Tube MP or something that has DI. Then have that hit the poweramp.
Also take a look at the power amp. My old Mesa PA had an instrument level/line level switch on it, so you could go wither way. It's just a simple resistor on the input jack to ground, I'm sure you could modify any power-amp easily to switch between instrument/line level.
Notuern
Bloody vaginal belch
- Oct 20, 2007
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Well... a preamp operates at 120v, a pedal at 9v.. so well, you could use one as a preamp, but dont expect it to sound like a real preamp just because it has a tube!
If the voltage adapter is AC, ie. 9VAC or 12VAC then you can use a voltage multiplier to get to a healthy voltage.
The Blackstar ones state they run at 300V.
I have been meaning to try one since I did like the HT-5 so much. One of the pedals and the Carvin lightweight power amps could make for a nice lightweight rig.
The Blackstar ones state they run at 300V.
I have been meaning to try one since I did like the HT-5 so much. One of the pedals and the Carvin lightweight power amps could make for a nice lightweight rig.
I'm going to try the power amp/pedal preamp out this week but let me tell you something, the HT-Dist by Blackstar is truly something else. I've never been a fan of distortion pedals but this damn thing is so heavy sounding. You'd be surprised at how much that one little tube helps at richening the sound. The pedal gives me more than enough distortion, so I didn't understand some reviews saying to get the dual distortion Blackstar pedal instead. Anyways, give it a try sometime...you'll be really surprised.
TheWinterSnow
Den Mørke Natt
Here is the deal with Power amps. They run line level yes, but their impedance is mostly resistive, meaning that the only issue with a direct guitar would be that the guitar's level could be hot enough to clip the amp into distortion (powertube saturation), while that in some cases is a good thing in tube amps, that is usually the sign that the volume is going to be high enough to take off your head and with a solid state will damage the amp and will sound like crap. I would suggest simply building a small volume device, a 1Mohm Pot wired up in a case so that you basically have a "power amp" volume knob that most amplifiers have, even if the amp has a volume on it, since that was made for line levels you are going to need a little extra as instrument level will be really sensitive.
