preamp pedals
A preamp pedal is a special type of guitar stompbox that allows you to plug directly into a mixer or powered PA and give the impression that you are still playing through an amplifier. We can also connect one straight into the power amp section of a guitar amplifier to introduce additional tone shaping options.
The term preamp is being slammed on a lot of pedals these days – and it can be a bit confusing because what actually defines a preamp pedal? To understand this, let’s look at how an actual amplifier works.
Dawner Prince DIKTATOR Preamp
Geddy Lee Shape-shifter Signature SansAmp
Your guitar amp consists of a preamp stage and a power amp stage. The preamp stage takes the super-low output that comes from your guitar cable and introduces it to voltage gain and EQ. This voltage gain pumps up the signal to line level, so the power amp can work with it and actually move the coil of your amp’s speaker, which enables you to make loud beautiful music.
A preamp delivers a bunch of the good stuff that shapes the tone and dynamics of your sound. To add to the complexity, a lot of ‘preamp’-labelled pedals aren’t true preamps; they don’t pump up your output to line level. Most of these pedals are often boosters, drives and distortions with the dynamic headroom, EQ options and/or gain characteristics of an actual amplifier, designed to work in front of an amp.
The Jack Hybrid Guitar Amplifier
Ryan Adams DEFCON4 Preamp
It’s common to just place a preamp pedal early on in your chain, like you would a normal overdrive pedal. But a lot of preamp pedals actually work exceptionally well at the end of a signal chain, especially if you play through a pretty neutral-sounding clean amp. If you set the preamp pedal’s gain fairly low, you can impart a different type of amp-like compression and break-up crunch to your entire signal chain.
You can leave it ‘always on’ and let it become a part of your new signature core tone, or turn it on when you need a second sonic colour to paint with. Due to the high headroom and natural compression of preamp pedals, they will not kill the dynamics of the rest of your pedal chain. Instead, they will often glue your sound together in a nice organic way.
PZ-Deluxe Acoustic Preamp
Aguilar Tone Hammer Preamp
Preamp pedals actually tend to come alive when you feed other drives into them, while the EQ section on a preamp pedal can be great for carving out clarity when using a lot of washy delay and reverb before it.
Cab-Sim Enhancer
It’s more popular than ever to play an amp-less rig these days due to the extreme convenience, flexibility and consistency that comes with it. Hence the gear world has seen a massive surge in cabinet simulator pedals that simulate the sound and response of a mic’d guitar cabinet and power amp.
Caline CP-509 Stack Attack Preamp
The Kraken Preamp
This is a pretty neutral starting point. Playing your guitar directly into a cabinet simulator will often sound pretty plain since you’re lacking the colour and organic sag from the preamp section.
By having several preamp pedals, you can create a multi-channel setup with a clean and dirty channel. This type of setup also gives you a lot of room to experiment with time-based and modulation effects. If you place them before your preamp pedals, you will get the effect of running your pedals directly into an amp. If you place them in-between the preamp and cab sim, you will get the effect of using an amp’s effects loop. And if you place them after the cab sim, you will get the sound of applying effects in post, like you would when using effects plug-ins in a DAW.
Bass Butler Bi-Amp Bass Preamp
EarthQuaker Devices Preamp
J. Rockett Audio Analog Preamp
Catalinbread Epoch Pre Preamp
Effects Loop Hack
The effects loop on an amplifier was originally designed to let you place other effects in between the preamp and power amp section in your amplifier – allowing you to get clear and defined modulation, delay and reverb trails, while using your amp’s in-built distortion.
MXR Bass Preamp
V4 The Sheriff Preamp Pedal
If your amplifier has an effects loop then you have the freedom to bypass the in-built preamp and replace it with a pedal preamp for a totally new core tone from your amp.
The effects loop Send is connected to the output of the amplifier’s preamp, while the Return is connected to the power amp’s input. So take your preamp pedal of choice then connect your guitar to the pedal’s input, and the pedal’s output to the effects loop Return. Now you’re playing through the pedal directly into the power amp.
Revv G2 Green Channel Preamp
The effect of this is often surprising to a lot of players and can breathe new life into preamp pedals that only sounded okay in front of your amp. You’ll often notice that your pedal will suddenly sound bolder and with more midrange focus because it’s no longer being affected by the tone sculpting of the amp’s preamp section.
BassRig ’64 Black Panel Bass Preamp
V4 The Duchess Tube Guitar Preamp
This trick can be very handy when recording, so give it a try. Stacking similar takes with different core tones can really make a rhythm part or solo come to life. I truly hope you learned a couple of new ideas on how to use preamp pedals. They can really add the final sonic touch in today’s modern rigs.
Recommended Preamp Pedals
VALETON Dapper Bass DI Preamp
Dapper Bass is one bass multi effects pedal which contain TUNER, BOOST COMP AMP OCTAVE CHOROUS and FX LOOP Guitar Bass Effect Pedal & Bass Multi effects processor
JHS Clover Preamp
The Clover is an end all preamp/boost circuit for any electric, acoustic, or bass player. The EQ is simple, powerful and doesn’t allow a bad sound.
Caline CP-509 Stack Attack Preamp Overdrive
With two switchable compression options pre-calibrated to deliver outstanding sustain and just the right amount of ‘squish’ and a preamp based overdrive circuit inspired by a US classic. The drive is intensely musical and covers your needs from ‘a little push’ to medium gain heaven.
Darkglass Alpha Omicron Bass Preamp
Darkglass Alpha Omicron Bass Preamp OD Pedal
Bass Preamp/Disttion Pedal with Dual Disttion Modes Blend Control
MXR Thump Bass Preamp
The MXR Thump Bass Preamp is a tone-sweetening, signal-boosting, and altogether groove-enhancing machine. This pedal was conceived when the MXR design team and our in-house bass players discovered that the Echoplex Preamp’s sonic secret sauce made for just as delectable a pairing with bass as it does with guitar.
Electro-Harmonix Battalion Bass Preamp
The Electro-Harmonix Battalion Bass Preamp and DI is a compact, flexible pedal that delivers powerful tone shaping capabilities in a rugged pedalboard-friendly package. Battalion is loaded with features that will appeal to tone-conscious bass players and includes a four-band equalizer, fully-featured MOSFET distortion section with three signal path options, a compressor, a noise gate and comprehensive I/O.
Fishman Platinum Stage EQ/DI Analog Preamp
Classic Fishman tone centers with sweepable mid is combined with a switchable guitar/bass EQ mode, making it more musical for bass instruments, and more universal for recording and performing musicians.
You’ll find a ton of different options available when looking at preamp pedals, so it’s difficult to recommend any single unit. Budget-friendly models which are simpler and less feature-rich will appeal to players looking to test the waters, while boutique options that include a wealth of features are going to be more suited to professional musicians.
Jackson Audio Prism EQ / Preamp
