Hamptone JFET love?

klangtone · Post by **klangtone** » Thu Jan 12, 2006 4:41 pm

luckybastard wrote:i see alot of people talking of getting different sounds by using the pad. how do you guys go about doing this?

I have the JFET and the pad makes a huge difference. Without, you can get real crunchy real fast, but in a great way. If you want killer distorted drums, use the Hamptone for your overheads and crank it up with the pad off.

Now, as soon as you engage the pad, the pre becomes much tamer and cleaner. So it's your choice.

But yeah... these guys sound big and gutsy. And the DI is truly great. I had that Avalon U5 DI... I just sold it cause the Hamptone blew it away. And that Avalon is supposed to be awesome. To me it sounded lifeless.

Roy

dynomike · Post by **dynomike** » Thu Jan 12, 2006 8:49 pm

I built the jfet. I do love it. Sometimes I wish it had more headroom, but then I think to myself, wait, I bought the jfet (not the tube) so that it could break up easier.. and it does. I'd love to have the tube version as well.

The jfet has done a great job for me on percussion, vocals (gritty OR clean), acoustic guitar, and bass (di and mic'd). I have only my uber-clean ramsa preamps to compare it to. In the "listen to my stuff" section I have some kind of thread going with my first recording with the jfet pre, if you wanna check that out.

Mike

JohnDavisNYC · Post by **JohnDavisNYC** » Thu Jan 12, 2006 9:53 pm

The FET pre has less headroom and is grittier than the tube one? interesting. I don't really know anything at all about preamp design, but how is a FET preamp different from a typical solid state pre? is it discrete? class A? I generally think of most solid state designs as having more clean gain than a tube design...

J

Russian Recording · Post by **Russian Recording** » Fri Jan 13, 2006 6:45 am

The preamp is Class A and discrete, but it utilizes JFETs instead of the valves for the amplification stages. Im not totally positive about this, but I believe this to be an oversimplified explanation. I hope someone who knows what the fuck they are talking about can verify, correct, and then expound upon this.

Re: headroom...
Dynomike,
The headroom problem was a pretty big issue for me when I got my preamps. Even with the pad engaged, I couldn't put a modern LD condensor inside a kick drum without serious break up, and I did not like not having control of this. So I went ahead and made the pad -21 dB instead of the "factory" -10, and now I feel I have much wider dynamic range and tonal range with the preamp. I can keep it clean with the pad engaged and gain set low (and still get good levels), or I can get a little crunch with the pad engaged and the preamp cranked, or I can get a ton of crunch with the pad off and the gain up. The hamptone website has resistor values for the pad modification.

mike

thearnicasync · Post by **thearnicasync** » Fri Jan 13, 2006 8:06 am

That's a great idea...I'm going to check that out. The JFET and tube are both ganiacs. Man, they do sound good.

luckybastard · Post by **luckybastard** » Fri Jan 13, 2006 8:34 am

i can't get any audible overdive out of my tube pre... maybe i need to use higher output mics?

Russian Recording · Post by **Russian Recording** » Fri Jan 13, 2006 9:00 am

luckybastard wrote:i can't get any audible overdive out of my tube pre... maybe i need to use higher output mics?

you should be able to get audible overdrive with most microphones, even dynamics and some ribbons. A problem I had (and I know some others have also had this problem) is that the mogami shielded cable going from the pot to the board will short if heated for too long, and while the unit will still pass clean signal, the gain is drastically reduced. I had this happen on only one channel, so that's how I knew something was wrong. But it is also possible for it to happen on both channels, in which case you would not know that it is happening at all... Another mistake isthat you could have your tubes switched.

When operating properly, the preamp should have OODLES of gain. It should feel very powerful, like 1/4 of the way up and you're clipping your inputs...

mike

luckybastard · Post by **luckybastard** » Fri Jan 13, 2006 9:08 am

oh i have tons of gain. that's not the problem. and i'm not really mad that i'm not hearing too much distortion even with the inputs cranked... just kind of curious to how it would sound:)

honkyjonk · Post by **honkyjonk** » Fri Jan 13, 2006 9:57 am

1/4 of the way up, and you're clipping your inputs?

You mean, with something like a kick drum? Sometimes I'll be recording with a dynamic about two feet away, vocals and acoustic guitar, softer song, and I'll have it all the way up, w/ no pad. But, same thing w/ my N72's.

I'm guessing, just judging from my other preamps, that it's about 60 or 65dB of gain. (I have the tube version btw)

I put some NOS RCA tubes in mine, and replaced the Xicon caps with Nichicon PW's. Yay!

Russian Recording · Post by **Russian Recording** » Fri Jan 13, 2006 10:42 am

honkyjonk wrote:1/4 of the way up, and you're clipping your inputs?

yes, kick drum, loud amps electrics, even some vocalists. With ribbons on quiet sources it gets cranked. though.

what differences did you hear with the RCA tubes and caps?

kayagum · Post by **kayagum** » Fri Jan 13, 2006 2:56 pm

Here's an interesting comparison between the JFET and the RNP:

http://www.mojopie.com/hjfp2.html

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