Tube amp for maccaferri guitar?

AndyNylon

About a year ago I opened the discussion How do you amplify your maccaferri guitar? and got a lot of great feedback.

Right now my setup is:

- Gitane DG-350 Modele Jan Akkerman (http://www.djangobooks.com/Item/saga-gitane-dg-350)
Right now Im waiting for a guitar being build by Jerome Duffell. If you don’t know him - he’s a british luthier based in Helsingborg, Sweden. He builds awesome guitars with a very clear and balanced tone - and a lot of output. Check him out here http://jeromeduffell.com/gallery/

- Audio-Technica Pro 70 Condenser (http://www.audio-technica.com/cms/wired_mics/e6f7342e8d1ceed3/)
- mounted inside the soundhole with the AT8418 rubber clamp (https://www.thomann.de/dk/audio_technica_at_8418.htm)
- going through Headway EDB 2 preamp/eq
- into my AER Compact 60 (http://www.djangobooks.com/Item/aer_compact_60_2)

This works very well, and gives a lot of flexibility. And the headways eq and nudge filter options combined with the at8418 mount actually gives very loud output while still being able to avoid feedback.

To give my sound a more full tone, i combine this with:
- Djangobucker magnetic hum bucker (http://www.djangobooks.com/Item/krivo-django-bucker-adjustable)
- going through a LR Baggs session DI (http://www.lrbaggs.com/preamps/session-di-acoustic-preamp)
also into to AER.

Im very found of my lightweight setup. Actually all of the gear listed above can fit in my guitar bag. That means that i can have my amp in a bag, my guitar on my back, and I can easily transport my setup on my bike, on the bus etc.

The only problem is that this sound is almost to clear. The digital amplifier combined with condenser mic and django bucker needs some sort of warmer/dirtier modulation.

But my question is:
Im looking for a tube solution. I would like to somehow warm up the tone, and was thinking of getting either some sort of small tube preamp to put between Djangobucker and AER, OR maybe getting a small combo tube amplifier that both sounds good with the Audio Tecnica Pro 70 and the Djangobucker.

Do you guys have any recommendations on this?
What do you use for amplification - and how does it color your tone?
What do you think of my setup - is there something simple i could do - without having to carry heavy gear all around town?

David Lawrence

Just curious, since the headway pre-amp is built to blend two signals, why don't you put the hum bucker and the AT mic through just one pre-amp? I have a very similar set up, using a AT mic in conjunction with a pick-up and I blend with the AER Compact 60. I have not experimented with pre-amps and currently just blend with the EQ on the amp. Do you feel the pre-amps give it a really big boost in sound?

Buco

What I did is I picked up the Art tube preamp
http://www.guitarcenter.com/Art/Tube-MP-Studio-Mic-Preamp.gc
And swapped the tube with
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0018SJLFS/
This pre made the sound warmer and the replacement tube made it a touch more quiet.
I do this with Krivo only. When I use the mic I just use the LR Baggs Para.
I don't mix the two, I use whichever suits the venue or my mood better.

AndyNylon

Sometimes I do blend the hum and the AT in the headway.
The headway gives me a lot of control of the sound, but im not crazy about the sound of humbucker->headway->AER. To me it sounds a bit like putting an electric guitar into a PA system (it kind is).

I will look more into tube preamps. In the studio we use them all the time, so it makes good sense to somehow refine the sound live.

But I guess it actually would do more, to have a tube amplifier. I was encouraged to check out vintage47 amps http://www.vintage47amps.com/VA-185G/
any experience on them?