Suppose you have a guitar amplifier with an excellent sound, an extensive EQ section and sufficient options to adjust your guitar sound completely to your liking.
That literally and figuratively sounds like an ideal situation. In this case, why would you want to add an extra preamp pedal to your rig? That seems, to say the least, rather redundant. If the preamp of your existing guitar amp is enough, why should can you add a preamp? And isn’t it a problem if your guitar signal goes through two preamps?
A preamp pedal provides a wide tonal palette
Some guitarists like to keep it simple and of course there’s nothing wrong with that. These guitarists bring a guitar, an overdrive, delay and a reverb and an amp (or just a guitar and amp – you can do that too) and they’re done. There are also guitarists who want the widest possible sound palette and stack different overdrives and/or preamps to get their tone. This gives a little more choice and flexibility in different timbres. On the other hand, it also introduces more complexity.
The wonders of a preamp pedal
If you belong to the second category of guitarists and want to get a little more out of your existing equipment and/or add more flavors, a separate preamp pedal can do wonders. A typical preamp pedal has at least volume and gain knobs and often a good equalizer. Some bass preamps have a direct out so that your sound can go straight to the mixer or a sound card.
What does a preamp pedal do?
A preamp pedal provides amplification and coloring of your guitar signal. A preamp pedal is by itself, with all knobs in the neutral position and the gain at 0, almost always transparent. That is also the big difference with an overdrive or distortion. They are almost never transparent, even if all buttons are in the neutral position. Those pedals color your sound as soon as you turn them on. A preamp ensures that the signal can go as strong as possible to the power amplifier. The power amplifier further amplifies the signal and transports the signal to the loudspeaker(s).
What can you do with a preamp pedal?
There are roughly four functions of a preamp pedal, you can use it a) as extra EQ / boost, b) as extra overdrive, c) for consistent sound across different amps and d) as compensation when using multiple guitars.
Use it as extra EQ or boost
You can use it as an EQ/boost. This works best if you put the pedal in front of your other overdrive pedals. The preamp then boosts or colors the signal before it moves on to overdrive. You then use the pedal to give your existing overdrive extra overdrive (boost) or give it a different color (EQ). With a preamp you can often also remove any mud that sometimes arises with overdrives.
Use it as an extra overdrive pedal
In addition, a preamp itself also has distortion. So you get an extra overdrive that you can use in addition to your existing overdrives. Preamps can often also be mixed well with other gain pedals. Especially when you don’t use too much gain on both pedals, very nice fusions can arise. This is mainly a matter of trying a lot and also switching the order of pedals to see which combination is the best for you.
Consistent sound across different amps
Furthermore, a preamp is a very suitable pedal to get a consistent guitar sound when you play across different amps. This is especially useful if you perform a lot and are dependent on existing backlines. For example, one night you’ll be playing over a Marshall JCM and the next over a Fender Twin Reverb, and in both cases you’ll want a consistent guitar sound. If your preamp has an extensive EQ section, you’ll be able to color up your sound a bit.
Compensation when using multiple guitars
Finally, a preamp pedal is a handy tool to fine-tune your sound when you switch guitars. This is especially useful if you’re playing live using multiple guitars with different output levels. For example, an active guitar has a higher output than a passive guitar and that affects your different gain levels. A preamp can compensate for this.
Where do you place the pedal?
Pedal placement will depend on what you’re using the pedal for, but you can include a preamp at just about any position in your signal chain. In most cases you will want to put it behind a possible fuzz pedal. This is because most fuzz pedals are designed to plug directly into a guitar. But there are golden rules for this, especially use your ears and experiment with the order.
Overview Preamp Pedals for Guitarists
Preamp pedals come in all shapes and sizes. There are many different options for guitarists. For example, Two Notes has some interesting preamp pedals based on clean Tweed Fender amps, Two Notes Le Clean. In addition, with Two Notes Le Crunch light and heavy distorted sounds based on Marshall Plexi amps. Two Notes Le Lead is for guitarists who especially focus on the heavy distorted metal genre. Chase Bliss will come after the summer of 2020 with their flagship Preamp MKII Automatone. A preamp pedal with motorized faders based on a Benson Chimera amplifier and a fuzz pedal. Benson also has a Preamp pedal based on the same amplifier but without the motorized faders. JHS has an interesting preamp pedal with the Colour Box V2 based on a vintage mixing console and JHS The Clover is based on the Boss FA-1 FET Preamp. Catalinbread Epoch Pre is an authentic reproduction of the legendary Echoplex EP- 3 preamplifier. Xotic has with Xotic BB Preamp V1.5 a very good and affordable preamp pedal, where BB stands for Big British.
Overview preamp pedals for bass players
For the bassists among us, Sadowsky has now made their popular built-in preamp available as a pedal. The Sadowsky SPB-1 is an extended version and the Sadowsky SPB-2 a stripped version with less options. Two Notes has a special bass version of their preamp, Two Notes Le Bass. Electro Harmonix has a very comprehensive preamp including distortion, compressor and noise gate called Electro Harmonix Battalion. Xotic has designed the Xotic Bass BB Preamp to sensitivity and tone of your bass, but with a whole range of gain settings.