pedal board preamp

[mhartington]

So I'm planning to build a Cornish style pedal board, seeing as Mr. Gilmour is one of my favorite guitarist and his pedal board has an object of desire for quite some time. With a few changes in to the actual pedals that are in the signal chain, I also want to add some sort of preamp to the board. Possibly a Fet version of a hiwatt, being practical and much easier to power.

My big concern is if this pedal which i plan to use would be suitable preamp. Its from OLC website
http://olcircuits.com/olc_drwatt.html

If its possible, i'd like to take the circuit and add loop so i can run my other pedals as well. Any ideas if this would be possible? Any comments and helpful ideas are greatly appreciated

[petemoore]

  Dr. Watt is an interpretation of the preamp in the Hi-Watt DR-504 head. The gain goes from mild overdrive to thick crunch and there is a lot of boost available at the output which you can use to further drive your amp.
  This sounds like a circuit that DG might have chosen to have on his pedalboard, distorter/booster with nice knobbage.
  As far as what it is or what it does or the intended definition of 'preamp for pedalboard' is may get better.
  "Preamp'' means anything including what it started out as: an interface between a source [guitar pickup or phonograph needle etc.] and the amplifier [with ability to drive speaker]. Since sources vary greatly in current and amplitude [as well as freq.] 'preamp' tends to grow into some control over frequencies [tone] and at least some attenuation control [volume, gain or pregain] so the amplifier gets enough input to wiggle the speaker, not so much as to pop the coil through the paper.
  "Preamp" is anything that amplifies and isn't an 'amplifier'...according to modern terms: what is called 'preamp' for guitar can consist of a 1:1 unity gain buffer, doesn't do much processing to signal amplitude or shape, just allows larger loads to be driven so they don't soak up enough signal to matter.
  Pete uses tube buffers for all the signal routings IIUiC. Although having the vaccum of earthly space between all the patches drives current and allows high input impedances...a simpler workaround seems more practical...considering the considerations involved with the one things that to all the other things which a Cornish road route would surely entail.
  All that typed out, whether useful or not...I think maybe what you want is a Jfet Buffer stage connected through a stout, not too long cable [if not in the guitar ?]...but you might not too, depends on whether it matters and what it'll be driving. A buffer on the output of the chain is often a good idea.
  What the first pedal is matters:
  How close is it to the pickup ?...if many feet and a few switches are involved in the signal transfer, a buffer is just plain sensible.
  If the first pedal is a Fuzzface or Wah as is often enough the case...etc. about buffer or not buffer...I'm sure there are threads.
  What's the input impedance...say a compressor is first, stays on or goes to buffer/or boost instead of bypass...you might not want the buffer in the SP always.
  So there's many ways to wire an input and impedance matching may vary, if the variables are known, worked out and staying 'good'..simpler hardware [via thought through design] could be the best option.
Many thanks to Jason W. for the suggestion to make this into a kit and to Gringo for his excellent work - as usual.

[mhartington]

  Dr. Watt is an interpretation of the preamp in the Hi-Watt DR-504 head. The gain goes from mild overdrive to thick crunch and there is a lot of boost available at the output which you can use to further drive your amp.
  This sounds like a circuit that DG might have chosen to have on his pedalboard, distorter/booster with nice knobbage.
  As far as what it is or what it does or the intended definition of 'preamp for pedalboard' is may get better.
  "Preamp'' means anything including what it started out as: an interface between a source [guitar pickup or phonograph needle etc.] and the amplifier [with ability to drive speaker]. Since sources vary greatly in current and amplitude [as well as freq.] 'preamp' tends to grow into some control over frequencies [tone] and at least some attenuation control [volume, gain or pregain] so the amplifier gets enough input to wiggle the speaker, not so much as to pop the coil through the paper.
  "Preamp" is anything that amplifies and isn't an 'amplifier'...according to modern terms: what is called 'preamp' for guitar can consist of a 1:1 unity gain buffer, doesn't do much processing to signal amplitude or shape, just allows larger loads to be driven so they don't soak up enough signal to matter.
  Pete uses tube buffers for all the signal routings IIUiC. Although having the vaccum of earthly space between all the patches drives current and allows high input impedances...a simpler workaround seems more practical...considering the considerations involved with the one things that to all the other things which a Cornish road route would surely entail.
  All that typed out, whether useful or not...I think maybe what you want is a Jfet Buffer stage connected through a stout, not too long cable [if not in the guitar ?]...but you might not too, depends on whether it matters and what it'll be driving. A buffer on the output of the chain is often a good idea.
  What the first pedal is matters:
  How close is it to the pickup ?...if many feet and a few switches are involved in the signal transfer, a buffer is just plain sensible.
  If the first pedal is a Fuzzface or Wah as is often enough the case...etc. about buffer or not buffer...I'm sure there are threads.
  What's the input impedance...say a compressor is first, stays on or goes to buffer/or boost instead of bypass...you might not want the buffer in the SP always.
  So there's many ways to wire an input and impedance matching may vary, if the variables are known, worked out and staying 'good'..simpler hardware [via thought through design] could be the best option.
Many thanks to Jason W. for the suggestion to make this into a kit and to Gringo for his excellent work - as usual.

I guess preamp may not be the word that i mean to use then. If you think of the hi watt having an effects loop in it where my distortion, mod, delay, and a buffer could go into. Then i could plug the hi watt into the front end of what ever amp i have available. What I hope to achieve from this is that most of the tone colouring will come from the hi watt with some mild changes from the actual amp. My only concern is if I could and how to add that loop to the hi watt