Found a great acoustic guitar pre-amp!

[jonkay1]

I recently bought an ART Tube MP preamp ($60) to use with an electric violin. It didn't work out too well because it amplified bowing noises and general scratchiness of the fiddle. So I threw the preamp in a drawer and figured that that was sixty bucks shot. So this evening I got it out and plugged an electric acoustic guitar into it, and was totally floored by how well the guitar sounded. I usually use a Fishman, but the ART blows it away.
Then I plugged a Breedlove mandolin in to it, and that mandolin never sounded better. I highly recommend it. It's cheap, and it sounds great

[DMace]

Thanks for the heads-up! That sounds like a great deal.

[teledweller]

At one venue I play pretty regularly they always run my guitar through an ART tube preamp and it sounds great.

[TelecasterSam]

Had you tried any other preamps before this? I've used an ART SGX2000 Express as a preamp, but it is pretty big to haul around for that. It is a rack mount processor. Do you think the ART Tube MP would serve the same purpose as well? Of course it wouldn't have the reverb and other effects, but I can get effects elsewhere.

[jonkay1]

I've had so-so guitar preamps from Barcus Berry, MXR, and probably others.
For several years I've been using a Fishman preamp, which I considered
to be the best of all. The ART preamp has a 12ax7 tube in it, and the overall effect is a nice warm acoustic sound, warmer and more natural sounding than the Fishman, which is still pretty good, but not as good as I thought.