Need help choosing preamp for use with PC

[Noplasticrobots]

I have a friend who needs a preamp for recording into Audacity on his computer. Currently he uses a Smokey at very low volumes with a 1/4 inch to 1/8 inch reducer to his PC's sound input. The resulting signal waveforms are always clipped and above 0 dB (when viewed in Audacity).

I've looked at quite a few preamp schematics but I don't know which one to choose to fix his problems/my criteria. Ideally the preamp would be easy and cheap to assemble with readily available parts (i.e. 2N3904 trannies or 386, TL082 and 741 opamps.) Also, does the signal need to be line level?

Any help is appreciated!

[theman]

the smokey amp is already a hot signal -- in fact, it can drive a 4x12 cabinet! it will definitely be clipped already since that is the distorted sound you hear. if you record this direct, it will sound terrible (too harsh and trebly).  to record this properly direct into a PC,  you will need a preamp and a cab sim/direct box. technically, you don't need the preamp with such a hot signal, but it will definitely help in conditioning the signal (and color the sound) in a good way, and you'll be able to use it for mics as well as other instruments.

a good inexpensive preamp is the studio projects vtb-1 for $100. then try getting a behringer ultra-g GI100 direct box ($35). both can be gotten from musicians friend.  the ultra-g can take an input from a line level or even a full power amp, and produce an xlr balanced output which has a 4x12 speaker cabinet simulation (essentially a low-pass filter, but with certain characteristics). you would hookup the guitar to the smokey amp, take the output of the smokey into the ultra-g, then take the xlr out into the xlr in of the vtb-1. the output of the vtb-1 is either balanced xlr or 1/4" which can then go into your soundcard or whatever.