Thoughts on tube preamps?

[new05002]

yes I believe Verellen is doing a true tube preamp, literally taking his amp preamp and putting it into a box. Its not an easy thing to do since tubes require a certain power supply design. Of course if you like the way it sounds in those ART pres, by all means buy them so long as ur cool knowing its not like an amp preamp persay.

[univalve]

i wrote something similar in another thread that i can't find right now:
i have very good experience with a tube based overdrive pedal and the behringer guitar DI-Box with speaker sim afterwards. I set the the tube overdrive to a very slight breakup and on the recording it sounds pretty tube-amp-ish.

[goroth]

I've got an art preamp and it's decent enough at what it does - amplifying the signal. As to toneshaping, it does nothing. If you drive the input hard it sounds like ass. A nice tube in it makes a slight difference to the sound, but it doesn't do all that much if you ask me. I'm not a bassist, so I know little about going DI, but as a guitarist I'd be more interested in something with both an amp and speaker sim in it. AMT electronics makes an awesome cab sim, and some really nice amp sims.

I'm currently recording direct for demos with a Damage Control demonizer, using the direct out with cab sim. The tubes run at 300v and it's designed with a pre and post tube stage. I've also used a H&K Cream Machine (I've got two for some reason), which has a built in Red Box sim and pre and power tubes running at decent voltages. I dunno, I can't get any sounds that are really alive like an amp and a cab, and I don't really hear anything that is better than a decent distortion or OD running into a nice cab sim. Of the two I like the Demonizer more, but it is noisy as shit. Cream Machine + Pisdiyauwot is way quieter.

As an aside, using a Demonizer in front of the amp was ok, but the Elements is better. For me it's not worth the weight and size to run tube pedals, and anyways, regardless of the voltage (I've also got a Guyatone Metal Monster runs hot but not 300v) I prefer solid state pedals and nice amp.