I’m kinda bored of my fender rumble 40 and have been wanting to upgrade/try a different amp for a while. i thought instead of spending a lot of money on an ampeg rb or something, i could spend less and get a tech 21 vt preamp and try changing up my sound that way. the rumble 40 doesn’t have an effects loop so i cant bypass its preamp completely, but preamping its preamp would probably still give me some new sounds to play with. I’m not really sure if i should get a new amp or try a preamp.
what do you guys think?
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Try a Behringer BDI21 for about $30. It’s a clone of the Sansamp, and a good value, get your toes wet without a big investment
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that’s a good idea. also set your preamp on the rumble as close to flat as you can get it obviously.
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Get a Zoom pedal-they also have amp emulators
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get a Zoom AND a BDI-21 
I mean the BDI-21 is a no brainer at the price
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Here, pick your flavor, I’m sure this will make your decision much easier:
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yeah a lot of good choices there. problem is, running a preamp through another preamp will indeed change the sound but nobody is sure whether or not the OP will like what it does. so best probably to go cheap to start. when i first started out with pedals i did exactly this, ran preamps and amp sims through the front of my bass amp. and at first i was like, oh cool that’s a neat sound. but then over time i noticed that i didn’t really do it as much anymore, because the tone was no longer new and i didn’t like it enough to be bothered with it.
As an alternate perspective, I don’t like combos because I can’t experiment with changing things out. If you are the sort that is going to like to try new things and have enough budget, going component may be a good route.
This has an effects return to bypass their EQ completely and buried in there is a power amp stage exactly the same as the best amps use. You can’t get a clean power stage for less. It will take any preamp you want to rotate out as you like them or not.
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Great way to illustrate how difficult it may be to choose a preamp and this is not all of them. Count me as another who would recommend the original Zoom B3. 99 effects and 12 amp/cab emulations that are terrific. Great value.
The original B3 was great for sure. However the B3’s two or three generations old at this point and no longer the cheapest either. I’d personally go for one of the latest line as they have a nicer feature set now.
My reasoning is based on the original having more amp/cab emulations than the B3N version if that’s what someone wants it for as a preamp. It’s also the one I owned so I have personal experience with it I don’t have with the others.
And yeah, they aren’t cheap but anyone should be able to buy one in the $100-$125 range. I’d ignore the asking prices and look at what they’ve actually sold for lately. $130 is tops and IME they’re worth every penny of that.
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Yeah it’s also got USB audio out, which my B3n didn’t.
Still I would probably go for a new B2four over it. All the same, they are all great though, some of the best values in music really. An old school B3 or MS-60b would still be just fine.
You can learn a lot about effect pedals with these, on the cheap. And then if you decide you like multieffects a lot, you can alway upgrade to a Helix later. No need to go top dollar on your first choice when companies like Zoom make stuff that’s like 80% as good for much much less.
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Also, I’d never noticed before but Gregor’s merch is amazing, kind of want
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Looks like a B2 Four takes over from a B3 whereas I didn’t feel the B3N did. I don’t believe $250 is out of line for what it provides if someone wants newer technology. The default is a B3 for about half the price just to get one’s feet wet.
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Thanks for all the suggestions guys!
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