Musician Gear & Tech Discussion

Was given an A.R.T. Tube preamp by a friend last week. Apparently handed down to him, he thought of me and passed it along.
May become one of my favorite pieces of equipment?
Paired with my GIBSON ES339 / MARSHALL CLASS 5 it is a whole new ballgame.
Threshold db gain control and a +20 db pad button, phase conversion, limiter/compressor and output control.
With my amp set at 9 o'clock, the ART pad active, the ART gain at around 2 o'clock and the ART output barely on. I get a nice distortion without the extremes in volume. Even better with the amp set between 10 - noon I get a very reactive and pleasing full bodied 1970's sounding crunch with still somewhat less volume than my amp does alone with the volume maxed out.
Think I will design a clamp / mount for it so I can have it on a mic stand near my pedal board for easier adjustments.
I like it much more than the TUBE SCREAMER I've been toying with as I feel it enhances the tonal quality of my Class A amplifier, not just push it with the artificial thin buzz sounding quality I seem to get with most 'boost' pedals.

Hope to post some recordings utilizing this little piece of equipment soon.

Which model is it George - which tube(s) in it? There's a $40 ART that I have not heard much good about, but there are higher-priced models that seem pretty good.

Hell if I know . . . LOL

It was given to me, I hooked it up and love the way it sounds.
When I venture out to my shop I'll see if I can find a model number or something.

ART Tube Pac Microphone Preamp and Compressor (Model 131)

Apparently a 12AX7 tube.

Found some manuals online.

Will be doing a little cursory research.

That's one of the mid-priced units, they are a bit hit or miss for quality (some are noisy), but good for guitar work (rather than vocal preamp) - have a spare tube avaialble, they blow out quickly in this unit, unlike a tube amp where the tubes just fade away in quality.

Thanks for the heads up Mike
I need tube spares for my amp as well.
Hopefully some paying gigs will crop up soon and I can afford to invest again.

No noise at all noted on this particular unit.
In fact when I first hooked it up I was concerned that it was already fubar.
Only took a little knob tweaking to prove me wrong.
Thank goodness.

I have it between my effects board and my amp.
Some of the reading I've done would indicate it functions better between guitar and the effects board.
I'm going to test this theory latter today.