Tube pre-amps for guitar/bass.

Hi guys, Just wondering does anyone have experience with tube pre-amps, particularly for guitar/bass? There are a lot of relatively pricey models which seem to get a lot of attention, UA, Chandler, Mesa Boogie, but I'm wondering what people's own experience with them are, (however subjective that might be)? For myself I'm really just looking to get a nicer input tone before hitting my interface, and subsequently Amplitube, which on it's own adds quite a thin, zingy sort of veil over the input, at least for me. I just thought that maybe a signal wrapped in a slice of tube beef might give the whole sound a little more body. And I'm predominantly looking for clean tones for the most part, but there'll also be room for a little more drive at times, for lead lines etc. Would love to hear people's thoughts/experiences if they'd like to share them. Many thanks. P.

What are you using for your preamp now? I used to have a nice tube preamp, but I sold it when money got tight. I loved it but that was because it just sounded good regardless of it being a "tube" pre. I think any upgrade in your preamp will be a net positive even if it doesnt glow.

Does "Warm Audio" make anything you might look at? I read reviews and their name popped up. They are well thought of. I use a Groove Tubes Vipre they might no be in your price range. Grinder

I pretty much only run my bass through a tube pre for the last couple of years. I wouldn't attribute my liking of it to just the tube section but rather the entire preamp.

I have a couple of old Hughes & Kettner Tubeman pres, which I use fro time to time - at any one time I usually have one working and one down for maintenance - these are OLD. But an awful lot of the time I just use the instrument input on my Octopre or the HiZ input on my Golden Age Project Pre-'73. Iron in the signal path is sometimes just as effective as a valve/tube, depending on what you are going for, sound wise.

As far as actual tube pre's the Sebatron gets used a lot here, it's an Australian mic pre, but it has a very "Fender" feel to it using the DI's. Extremely versatile, it's hard to get it to sound bad. As far as sims we use Scuffham SGear the most.

I run my bass direct to my Focusrite 18i20 and use Ignite SHB-1 bass tube amp sim. Sounds great to my ears.

For bass, there's a "well-known secret" preamp :) : the ART TubeMP. Don't laugh (as I did first). It's starved plate, cheap and all. But it definitely has a sound to it and all levels of drive sound really good with bass guitars.

I use a tube preamp. Either a house-made preamp at our studio or a vintage Universal Audio 1008A. If it's a DI, I will usually run it through a vintage Gates limiter. We have some beautiful pieces where I work! At home, I have an Onyx board, but I will run bass through a Valvotronics tube DI. These are beautiful pieces, well made and sound great. I think there are some on eBay right now with reasonable Buy It Now prices.

Just to put a damper on things and get most if not all of us VERY depressed, the best bass DI that I have ever used was...... A Manley VoxBox.