I have a late 50s Gibson GA-6, which I think is close to their version of a tweed Deluxe - last night I was recording it with a Firebird and it was coming across as too thick for a rhythm track played with fingers.

I plugged the Balls Rangemaster in, set bright at unity or a slight boost, and it was perfect. It sounded like an insane country thing.

I know its considered best for an english rock thing, but that treble boost has a lot of utility in my eyes

NICE!

Well i've got the start of a Redd 47 type preamp built, i'm just waiting on the output transformer to wrap it up and start testing it. Its basically the same thing as the original but with a much more simple power supply with notes taken from the "Mila" design that FM Bassdriver shared with me. Voltages look correct and fingers crossed everything will be good to go once the OT comes in. Panels are:

Front
Pad (3-way switch)
Gain Setting (3-way switch)
Fine Gain Adjust (pot)

Rear
In/Out
Power cable connection
On/Off Switch
48V on/off

Once I get it complete i'm gonna do some testing with some friends around here and see if 1) it works, and 2) If they have any notes or desired changes. If all goes well, after that I might try send the prototype out on a little tour to interested PRFers to let them try it out. It's a little big right now (11" x 7" x 2.5") but once i'm confident in it I can probably design it into a smaller enclosure.

Pics to come....its bowling playoffs time right now.

Shiiiiit!!

If I may... I would suggest putting a polarity switch on there as well, for people who live in analog land.

If you could cram a pair into a 2U rack, that would be fantastic.

I have an 8-channel preamp/mixer and the only thing I wish I could change about it would be to have the +48v switches on the front.
But I am not a pro and I don't use it very often. I'd be curious if others have a preference on that.

(Also: If you (ever) need any help with faceplate graphics or vector art, please let me know. I have way more experience with that than professional pre-amps.)

Nate Dort wrote: Tue Jul 11, 2023 8:37 pm If I may... I would suggest putting a polarity switch on there as well, for people who live in analog land.

If you could cram a pair into a 2U rack, that would be fantastic.

Yeah polarity switch would be quite easy to add. A friend also suggested a Hi-Z input, which would also be rather easy. And yeah a 2U rack would have plenty of room for two.

Here's where i'm at right now. I tried to make use of a lot of existing bits I had around for the prototype, thus the rather chunky shielded 2-conductor cable and a few other things. I needed a way to mount the input transformer and tubes and saw a similar approach elsewhere so I just mounted straight through an eyelet board which works pretty nice. It's maybe a bit macroscopic and could be condensed to fit in a smaller enclosure. I ha my eyes on one that was more like 9" x 6" x 4" but for the first hack I wanted some room to play with it.

That looks fantastic!

I second the suggestions of: polarity switch, hiZ input, 48v on front, and two in one rack.

tommy wrote: Wed Jul 12, 2023 9:33 am 48v on front

On the front specifically? On the proto its on the back but I suppose it could go anywhere.

Dr Tony Balls wrote: Wed Jul 12, 2023 9:40 am

tommy wrote: Wed Jul 12, 2023 9:33 am 48v on front

On the front specifically? On the proto its on the back but I suppose it could go anywhere.

Desktop style it doesn’t really matter. In a rack unit it makes things easier when you’re mic swapping and your rack has several things in it and it’s maybe hard to get to it in the back. I curse my audio interface periodically for putting it on the back…