ART Tube MP Preamp

[RobRR]

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/ART-Tube-MP-Studio-Mic-Preamp?sku=180581

I ordered one of these little guys last week and just got it today. Ive read ALOT of great reviews on it, and for $30, I thought Id give it a try! I mainly wanted it for infront of my TonePort UX8, but I think Im going to try it infront of the Vetta too.

First off, this thing is built like a tank! Metal housing and is HEAVY for its size! Has a real tube, a 12ax7. On a clean channel, it really warms things up... and if you pump up the gain on it, its distortion isnt too bad either. On a distortion channel, I found that if you use some of the gain from the ART, and roll off the gain on the channel, it really comes alive! Gives the "modeling" a nice tube-y feel.

All in all, if youre into amp modeling, and like to experiment, drop the $30 for one of these! Not much to lose and alot to "gain"! :ROTF:

Im probably going to upgrade the tube, as it comes with a cheap Chineese 12ax7... what would be a good brand to try? I have NO experience with tubes.

[åron]

You hybrid tonemeister, you

As far as tubes go, I'm not sure about any 12ax7 for studio gear use. If you want more gain out of that thing the TungSol tubes are a good bet. Preamp tubes don't really wear out in normal use, so buy few, try 'em out, and trade the ones you don't like to your friends.

[Infernal Death]

Actually i am not sure how much the tube contributes to the sound as this device is not a true tube preamp. Those things normally have a starved plate design. So i wouldn't go out and buy too many preamp tubes for changing. Maybe only buy one tube and see if it really makes a difference.

Flo

[Inazone]

I bought a Tube MP many years ago, when the base model was still around $90 and there were no other models. I used it to improve recorded tones going into my old Tascam cassette four-track. I experimented with it a bit when my ART Tube EQ died, using it to fatten up my tone, but it wasn't quite what I was looking for at the time. Maybe I should give it another shot.

[emperor_black]

Someone suggested putting this in the fx loop of a modelling amp. And put the loop the last in the chain to get an overall tube effect. Dont remember if it was this one or the valvulator...but give it a shot and let us know.

[nandrewjackson]

REPLY to thread

I've experimented a bit with swapping tubes in that particular preamp. It really does show the differences in each tube pretty well. The most distortion I've gotten out of the art tube mp was from a chinese ax7. It sounds really well with an aT7. It will still break up into overdrive, but the clean sounds are simply awesome! I also have a few NOS sylvania USA AX7's and the clean sound from them was killer, but the overdriven sound was poopoo.

nandrewj