Home › Forums › Help/Technical Questions › Using the 12ay7 mic pre with electric guitar direct

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  • February 20, 2011 at 7:33 am #81386
    Electricblue73
    Member

    Does anyone know if you can plug an electric guitar direct into the EH 12ay7 mic pre to get a true tube signal going into the audio interface/recorder? I can’t mic amps right now because of the noise issue, but would like to get a nice warm tube signal for my guitar and thought the EH mic pre might help in that.

    I am using a zoom r24 recorder which has a Hi-Z input and of course phantom powered Mic preamps

    Will I need a DI box b/n the guitar and the mic pre?

    The mic pre doesn’t have a 1/4″ input jack though……….so I would need a 1/4 to xlr male instrument cable.

    I just want a true tube circuit preamp to warm up my guitar signal a bit.

    Will this preamp work with a guitar plugged in to it, and then to my R24?

    February 26, 2011 at 4:56 am #114482
    t.shamone
    Member

    I’m not sure about that model but you could use the LPB-2ube with your guitar. It”s a stereo device that has 1/4″ ins and outs. You can cascade the two channels together and drive the tubes at different levels. Each channel has it’s own drive and volume so you can do master volume type things. I’ve found if you drive the right tube hard and the left tube soft you get classic overdrive sounds. If you do the opposite, right soft and left hard you get clean warm fat sounds. Drive both, play with the volumes, I’m still playing with it.

    February 27, 2011 at 10:27 am #114497
    Electricblue73
    Member

    I was also wondering about the LPB 2ube, how much overdrive can you get if you run your guitar through the 2ube and direct to a recording DAW or multitrack recorder? What kind of quality sound can you get this way (without a tube amp)?

    I tried going through a DI through the EH 12ay mic pre and it definitely warmed up my signal pretty nicely and thickened it a little when I pushed the tubes on the 12ay7, so when I applied some overdrive effect through the zoomr24 it sounded better then without the 12ay7.

    I’m curious about the 2ube though, if it’s overdrive will sound good when direct recording. I play a lot of funk & bluesy stuff so that thick and warm overdrive tone is important, but I don’t have the luxury to mic up an amp right now.

    Do you have or can you provide any audio samples of the 2ube that you can share, especially when you cascade the 2 channels for higher gain?

    I only found a couple samples on the internet, but would like to hear one going direct into a DAW as opposed to being mic-ed to an amp.

    By the way, I just ordered a black finger and can’t wait to use it, it will probably make a huge difference in my overall sound.

    Oh and was thinking about using the BF with the LPB 2ube pedal, but I need more convincing on the 2ube before pulling the trigger, and there’s not that much audio samples on the web right now which kinda sucks.

    Thanks for the info!

    February 28, 2011 at 2:01 am #114502
    t.shamone
    Member

    Well I don’t have sound samples yet, but assuming one channel of the 2ube sounds similar to the mic pre, both channels together does sound very different.
    You can get some real nice overdrive out of this box but as with all gain stages, you have to be careful about noise.
    Live it might not be as noticeable but you said you want to go direct to record.
    For me, it’s about tube feel, the two stages respond to touch and dynamics very nicely, breaking up and cleaning up with your picking. I don’t really use it as a “distortion box” but just to get that tube overdrive. I use an AdrenaLinn 3 before it so I would call up a distorted amp model and send it through the tubes.
    The Black Finger looks like a cool piece, try it out first. I took the plunge with the 2ube based on what I know about tube equipment(I have a studio with tube mic pres/equalizers/compressors and Boogie Mark 4/Vox AC-30/Gibson GA-5 amps) and what other people were saying. I’m very happy with it.

    March 1, 2011 at 7:00 am #114522
    Electricblue73
    Member

    I am in the same boat when it comes to achieving the “tube amp feel” when playing & recording. I think I’ll give the LPB 2ube a try, since I have a nice dual cab sim that would work perfectly with it. What’s neat about the cab sim is that it has 3 switches (vintage, modern, blend) plus gain & vol knobs for further possibilities so if I throw in both the black finger and the 2ube, I should get a great warm tube & feel signal to my audio interface. I am ultimately going to be using some amp modeling through the Peavey MkIII software (you can swap tubes here too), so that is why I wanted to get that warm thick tube signal in the first place so it will make the final guitar sound the way it should, and from what you’re saying, the 2ube should give me some great tonal abilities and I like that it’s stereo and cascadable for more overdrive. Plus the fact that you can swap out tubes is a huge plus too, probably will experiment with different ones too.

    I’m actually now caught between the 2ube and the english muffin, but I think I’ll go with the 2ube for now because it would be better suited for my purposes and the english muffin is probably better for real amps, but then again I never tried one recording direct with the speaker sim and a tube preamp thrown in there.

    I’m kind of surprised though that I can’t find that much info (reviews, audio demos/videos, etc…) on the 2ube pedal, but in the little that I found, ppl were saying good things about it.

    Oh, and the BF is on its way, all the reviews and demos I read & viewed convinced me to pull the trigger :) Can’t wait to try it out

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