19" guitar preamp for recording?

Hi, after more than 3 years with my POD 2.0 I was thinking about integrating a more flexible, real tube preamp into my recording rack (e.g. rocktron gainiac or Engl 530). Does anybody have similar experiences? My question is: How do they integrate into a recording chain concerning sound? Do I need a DI solution to get good results? Which ones can you recommend (under 1000$)? Thanks & cheers, m

Good luck with your quest... it's indeed a very difficult one. I have been really blessed by managing to get a Hughes & Kettner Crunch Master (unfortunately discontinued in the 90s) for literally peanuts. It's basically a half rack size, 1 watt valve amp with a built-in dummy load. This means I can either drive one of my cabs or just get the amp out (after the power amp stage) and put it through cab IRs. Pretty much all guitars in all my songs posted here were recorded with it going through cab IRs. Really love the sound and feel of playing through it.

you mean the vox tonelab?

So it is you, Nik! I was wondering... are you using REAPER now? Anyway, good to see you around these parts. That just goes to show how much these things are personal. I could not get on with the Tonelab (desktop version) at all. I spent quite a while trying to get what I was looking for from it but I just felt it never delivered. H&K Crunch Master = one trick pony but that is the trick I'm after pretty much 100% of the time. I've got other things for other sounds, if needed.

That's cool. That's what it is all about... finding what works for you.

As they say... the proof is in the pudding! It'd be great if people can post some sound clips or links.

Thanks, I followed some demos on youtube showing the behringer. No need for another device like that :-) Maybe I'll find a unit on my trip to USA... I'm up for more researches.

I'm also curious to hear them Randall Modules preamps...

me too. And anybody got the digitech gsp-1101? I know, it's digital, but I don't care as long as it's flexibel soundwise and sounds good ...

Well, I have no desire to re-amp and I do need a complete guitar tone at line level, cab simulation included, to mix with guitar synth and loops when performing. So amp sims and cab sims in software are out of the question for me. Don't like Sansamps. Had a PSA-1 for a few months and loved the user interface (knobs) but it just sounded like a bunch of solid state op-amps being overdriven - which is what it is.