was this a waste of money?

[ubertar]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... RK:MEWN:IT

I got this on impulse, because I found it in the last minutes of the auction. I figure the tubes are worth that much on their own, if they work. I just hope shipping isn't too much. Anyone have experience with Bogen mic preamps? I've read on the board that some people like using their power amps for guitar. Could this sound better than a modded mp110? (My only other "toob"). I keep telling myself I'm not going to buy anymore gear, but I keep getting shit anyway. Rrrgh. At least I've been selling stuff to balance it out.

[ubertar]

Cool. Shipping was less than $9, so if this thing works at all, it's probably worth the dough. I'm still curious if anyone has used one of these or something like it, and what they thought about it.

[signorMars]

man for 20 bucks plus shipping, it should be worth it for something. you can never have enough gear, right?

[Scodiddly]

Some of that Bogen stuff sounds pretty good for guitar - you occasionally see references to running guitar through a Bogen (first Chicago Transit Authority album is one).

And if it's got a balanced mic input, then it'll have mic transformers you could use with other mic preamps that have a DI input.

[lonesome_tone]

are you serious? (about chicago)?

those are some pretty serious tones for a somewhat neglected band, at least guitar wise.

i mean, 'free form guitar'?? awesome.

[Scodiddly]

are you serious? (about chicago)?

those are some pretty serious tones for a somewhat neglected band, at least guitar wise.

i mean, 'free form guitar'?? awesome.

I think that the CTA album kind of falls apart after the first side, but that first side is amazing. Too bad that guitarist died.

[puffpastry]

You got a very good deal IMO.

The Bogen stuff is actually pretty good--transformer coupling, quality film capacitors, etc. I just sold a Bogen 4 channel solid state mic preamp with EQ and compressor on Ebay last week--it had transformer coupled inputs on each mic preamp, discrete circuitry, and inductor-based EQ section, and a transformer coupled output. More than likely your new mic pre has the same type of build quality. Congratulations on your score!

Not to start an argument, but I've always felt that Chicago/CTA were kind of the Dave Matthews Band of their day. They were long on solos, jamming, and instrumentation, but very short on lyrical quality and song writing skills.

[HuskerDude]

My band uses a Bogen tube PA amp for guitar on occasion, and we're building a Leslie cab around one, too. It sounds great for big, loud rock and roll riffing.

[texlop]

Sounds like a good deal. I'm just a little worried about the small font Sold as is thing. It's almost like they tried to sneak it in. Most sellers put it in caps or something like that. I don't know. Hope it comes out good though. I would love to have had it in my mail box.

[ubertar]

Just got it-- it's a MX6A, series B-62. It's a 4 input mixer into one preamp. The tubes are both 12AX7. There's one telefunken and one GE. The output was an RCA connector at the end of a cable, so I replaced it with a 1/4".

Plugged it into a guitar amp to test, and it works. Both tubes were glowing. I tried a bunch of different mics through it just on my voice, and it adds a nice tube warmth and smoothness to the sound, and some distortion if I crank it up (and turn the amp down). The android-probe-looking University Sound (altec?) mic sounded especially good, better than the few EV mics I tried through it. I'm not sure all the inputs work, but that doesn't bother me... I don't think I'll be using more than one mic through it at a time since there's only one output.

This thing will definitely be useful.

[I'm Painting Again]

try using it at line levels too..i use some tube circuts like that at line level in a guitar chain or whatever..it will have its own amp charater and eq curve and when you figure it out you can use it to make things sit in a mix and or add its special amp sauce to yr sound..

nice score!

[ubertar]

Thanks B_O_B. I just got back from messing around with guitar through it and saw your post. I was plugging into it through the mic input... should I be using the phono input instead? I ended up using it with the amp on 0 and the preamp at around 9. The amp is normally very quiet but with the pre plugged into it, it's noisy. I'll try flipping the power plug over-- it's one of those old school two prongs where the prongs are the same size, could be causing a grounding issue.

[Disasteradio]

hahahah man that's awesome. Here in NZ or Aussie that thing would've gone off. I'd love a preamp that's so close to the word "Bogan". uhm, Bogan being antipodean slang for like, incredibly dedicated metallers. congratulations.

[Wild Bill]

Thanks B_O_B. I just got back from messing around with guitar through it and saw your post. I was plugging into it through the mic input... should I be using the phono input instead?.

No The RIAA curve for Phono is not appropraite for anything oher than phono cartridge. Mabe if can you inject the signal before the channel EQ.

Real nice score BTW....

[ubertar]

Wild Bill, just found this:

Some very old (typically TUBE) equipments had phono input designed for high impedance and high output level CERAMIC cartridge. These inputs were common 50 years ago, and disappeared with the introduction of stereo and transistors.

These inputs have no RIAA EQ (ceramic pickups are amplitude-sensitive, and the RIAA curve produces (very) roughly a constant-amplitude cut). A level of about 0.1 volt should be fine for those.

Since this is an old tube pre, could this apply? I don't know how old it is...
Maybe a bass would sound good through the RIAA EQ, since it's essentially a low pass filter.

What kind of impedance is a phono input looking for?