Ever convert a small amp into a head type preamp rack...pedal?

[Stephen]

I have heard of converting like a 10 watt amp into a head type of preamp distortion unit......
Has anybody done this?
You would than run into your amp......

[mac dillard]

I have done it with a 5 watt tube amp. You have to add a "Line out" to the amp..Was done by a builder named Herzog for one of the Rock bands. I forget which. Google and look for Firezog for the circuit used to modify the FireFly amp. Pretty simple Mod.

[Stephen]

I heard ZZ TOP used a 10 watt Marshall Mini stack amp head converted into a preamp for some of his sounds??  Might be cool to do!!!

[RDV]

I heard ZZ TOP used a 10 watt Marshall Mini stack amp head converted into a preamp for some of his sounds??  Might be cool to do!!!

Pretty sure those have a line out in them, at least a headphone out. Gibbons hooks up many many amps when they play live. I miss the days with the huge Rio Grande stacks.

RDV

[mac dillard]

A little research  and it was Garnet Gillies of Garnet Amps and it was built for Randy Bachman of Guess Who..Used in "American Woman"

[Stephen]

You cant just run the headphone out into an amp input can you?

[ashcat_lt]

You cant just run the headphone out into an amp input can you?

Why not?

Maybe not optimal, but definetely not dangerous.

Don't run a speaker out to an amp's input, but the headphone out should be fine. 

[Stephen]

Has anybody done that........ or use a sound like that?
Most input are 2-3 volts max ..I have never checked a heaphone maybe should!!!

[Doug_H]

Firezog clip here. Bottom of the page:

http://dhammond_1.tripod.com/sounds.htm

The "woman tone" thing near the end was done by turning the guitar tone down on the bridge pup.

[ashcat_lt]

Not sure what we were supposed to get out of that link...

Somebody around here posted some numbers and things on this very issue not too terrible long ago.  I don't know anything about that.  I can tell you that I've run headphone outs from many different sources (guitar amps, cassette players, mixers...) into different inputs (guitar amps, recorders, mixers...) without frying anything.  If you see smoke, there's something wrong with your equipment to begin with.

I am not making any claims that the sound you get will be worth anything, just that it can't hurt to try.

[Doug_H]

Not sure what we were supposed to get out of that link...

Basically what it sounds like to do this:

I have done it with a 5 watt tube amp. You have to add a "Line out" to the amp..Was done by a builder named Herzog for one of the Rock bands. I forget which. Google and look for Firezog for the circuit used to modify the FireFly amp. Pretty simple Mod.

as a method for doing this:

I have heard of converting like a 10 watt amp into a head type of preamp distortion unit......
Has anybody done this?
You would than run into your amp......

Pretty apropo IMO. Hopefully more helpful than yet another stab-in-the-dark of "it can't hurt to try"...

[Stephen]

A sound worth experimenting with I would imagine!!!

[ashcat_lt]

okay, i didn't mean any disrespect.  there were several samples on that page, and I wasn't exactly sure which one you wanted us to check out.  I did a Edit|Find for "woman tone" and couldn't find it.  The "it doesn't hurt to try" was re: his ? on headphone outs, and I guess I was assuming he already had a headphone out and (he) was thinking it might save him some trouble.

[Stephen]

I was intereated in a fender frontman scrapped out into a head type and using it as a preamp...It has a headphone out I guess there are no mods to do ..


What would you do?

[ashcat_lt]

Well, I can't solder my way out of a paper bag, so I would at least give the headphone out a try.  If it does what you're looking for then use it.  Otherwise, mod the thing.

One of the things I was thinking was that the headphone out would probably be after the preamp but before the poweramp section.  In tube amps a lot of times the sound of the thing cranked to 11 has something to do with those power tubes saturating.  Therefore you wouldn't get the full amount of dirt possible by using the headphone out.  This turns out to be a solid state amp, though.  Don't know how much the power section adds to the sound there. 

You also might find that the headphone out doesn't give you enough output to be particularly effective.  You will likely be able to hear this, especially if you do some A/B tests.  It seems like it should give you more output than a line out would, but I'm not completely sure on that.