Tube Amp PLUS Tube Preamp

[St. James]

I have recently been coming across a lot of guitarist who use great Tube amps (on the clean channel mainly) who also incorporate a rack mounted tube preamp as the last "effect" in their chain directly before the amp.

It seems as if most players leave the preamp on at all times. To me, I would think this would change the sound of your amp, and maybe that's the point, but could any of you preamp users explain this to me?

Is it to act more like an EQ? Can you plug a rack mounted tube preamp directly into an amps input? Why use one?

Thanks for your insight!

[St. James]

Bump (sorry)... I'm sure someone must have an answer to this. Or at least a speculation?

[rburkard]

External tube preamp into a tube amp results in a lot of unwanted compression and noise. I prefer IC technology to drive tube amps. The results are a more direct and more dynamic sound experience. However it is all a matter of taste and some people might have different takes on that.
Rene

[DannyG]

I used a Boogie Studio pre into a Boogie 50/50 Power Amp for a few years but I never used it as an effect. Pre amp had two channels. Clean/Dirty. So, it acted like a regular two channel amp. Guitar->Pre->Amp->Speakers. Efects still ran thru the Pre effect loop. Pedals out front.

[bsrguitar]

I used to run into a Mesa Formula, out to the floorboard, and then return to a Blues Jr. As mentioned, can compress it a bit, but that was OK for me. I used the preamp so I could have the 3 channels, and the floor board in the middle worked as a quasi effects loop.