ART Tube MP mic-pre-amp ??

Larry Hendrickson · Post by **Larry Hendrickson** » 2 May 2000 8:12 pm

Have any of you guys ar gals tried one of these units with a solid state amp to try to get a warm tube sound? I would be using it with a Nashville 400. This is the small unit with one 12AX7 tube. Thanks, Larry

Jerry Gleason · Post by **Jerry Gleason** » 2 May 2000 8:55 pm

I have one of these preamps. It's a useful tool to have around for a number of applications, but to my ear, it doesn't do anything wonderful when used with a combo amp for steel or guitar. You can overdrive it slightly if you like a hotter, grittier sound.

It's nice for recording, to get a slightly fuller, less brittle tone into a mixer. The best application other than as a mic preamp seems to be for bass. It really makes an electric bass come alive, for some reason. Much more noticable improvement than with steel or guitar. I also have used it for phase reversal when sending a signal to two amps. I don't know why the two amps didn't agree, but it sounded much better when I hooked up the ART to one and hit the phase reverse switch.

Earnest Bovine · Post by **Earnest Bovine** » 2 May 2000 9:20 pm

I tried one as a buffer amp once and it did a nice job. For this application you need to put it on a short cord (only a couple of cm long) near your pickup.

Dave Robbins · Post by **Dave Robbins** » 3 May 2000 1:30 am

I've got one of those MP1's too. They are a very versatile and economical unit. I've used mine for a lot of different things. Sometimes I like to use it as the last thing inline going to the board for direct recording as a tube D.I. for mono use. Another way I use mine sometimes is for playing live with an amp. I place it between my rack and the amp so I can send direct to the house instead of using a mic. That way when the house engineer turns me up he's just turning my guitar up instead of anything around me that would normally get picked up when using an open mic. I use my digital reverb in the rack and turn of the reverb on the amp. In this application you are only using your amp as a monitor and the engineer will be setting your house level (provided you have a good one you trust!ha ha!)You'll have to use both the xlr and the quarter inch outputs to do this. Xlr to the board and the quarter inch to your amp and reset the output of the MP 1 so you don't ovedrive the input of your amp.
They're a good and portable little unit. [This message was edited by Dave Robbins on 03 May 2000 at 02:31 AM.][This message was edited by Dave Robbins on 03 May 2000 at 02:36 AM.]

Joe E · Post by **Joe E** » 3 May 2000 6:16 am

I would agree with most everything said above. I think the unit is a great unit. The biggest problem is the mis-use of the settings. This unit should be able to warm up a solid state unit no problem. Try experimenting with the settings. Start with the output all the way up and the pre all the way down. Work all the way through until you have the pre all the way up and the output all the way down. If you try this method you should hit every posible sound that the unit will offer. I think you will find that somewhere in the middle is where you'll find your sound. Oh yeah, your pickups will have a big influence of where you will find that sound your looking for.

Joe

Greg Derksen · Post by **Greg Derksen** » 3 May 2000 9:00 am

I think the little tube EQ would be more
useable with the steel! Greg

Larry Hendrickson · Post by **Larry Hendrickson** » 3 May 2000 8:37 pm

Thanks for all the replys. I haven't bought an MP yet so you all gave me something to think about. Greg, do you mean the small ART 5 band tube equalizer? Larry

Kevin Post · Post by **Kevin Post** » 22 Jun 2000 8:31 am

ART makes a brilliant piece of gear called the Tube Channel. It contains a tube gain stage, a photo-optical compressor, and a 5 band parametric EQ. It's about $300.

It's made primarily for studio vocals, but it sounds great plugged into the (power amp in) of your Nashville 400. I use it on my main gig with Terri Clark. I set it with the tube slightly crunchy at full volume with a little bit of compression. I boost 120Hz & 3KHz and pull 600Hz.

It fattened the tone of my indestructible, too dumb to die Nashville 400 a hundred times over.