New to acoustic amplification - looking for an affordable preamp

[Irish Luck]

Hey everyone,
I'm new to the forum. I've browsed through the threads and soaked up as much information as I could. Lots of knowledgeable people here, maybe you could help me out.
I've played guitar casually for years, I'm a drummer really(I know, I've heard all the jokes) But my back goes out a lot from an injury and when it's out, no drumming for me, so I took up guitar. I'm not great, I'm alright at it, but have fun. I found a great deal on an Acoustic brand amp, but found out that when I got it home it didn't have the volume and clarity it did at my friend's with his guitsr. He has on-board active pickups, I have Dean Markley Pro Mag passive soundhole pickups. When I plugged it in I was so dissapointed at how I had to crank the volume on it just to get it louder than my guitar. Night and day compared to using it with active pickups.
So I went on the hunt for how I can boost the volume. I found out I need a preamp. OK, I get that, but I'm on a budget and this s just for fun jamming with friends.....keep that in mind for your suggestions. I don't make money playing, and don't want to spend more than the actual amp costs for a preamp.
So that led me here to look for good preamps, but you guys are much more serious than I am. While I would love to have the quality gear you guys recommend, I'm stuck with under $100 for the preamp.
If you guys could make suggestions or recommendations of a quality (less than $100) preamp that would be great! I know you get what you pay for, but again, that's what I have to spend.

My top 2 choices so far are the LR Baggs Gigpro for $99 or the ART Tube MP Project Series preamp for $69. Regarding the ART Tube MP....I've never seen reviews of a product so mixed. People either love it and bought several of them, or they hate them. But I see lots of people saying they are great. I'm not looking to change the sound, and don't really need the "tube" sound the ART claims to give. But it looks like it might be more versitile than the LR Baggs Gigpro. Looks like I could use it for home recordings, and use it for vocals and a few other things.

So any thoughts on those?

And if you want to suggest something else, please do! And if you have a minute, let me know why you like the preamp you are suggesting. Maybe there's certain features that would appeal to me. Although at that price I doubt I'll get many features.
I mainly want to boost the signal so it's not so weak, and let this amp sing like it did with the active pickups.

Thanks everyone, and have a great rest of your weekend!

[Ed-in-Ohio]

Originally Posted by Irish Luck

Hey everyone,
I'm new to the forum. ...snip... the LR Baggs Gigpro for $99
...snip...
Thanks everyone, and have a great rest of your weekend!

Hi, and welcome!

LR Baggs GigPro for sure. Also, it's priced at $89 at AGF sponsor Shoreline Music. In addition to that, you'll get a discount from Shoreline by being an AGF member. See this post for more details.

No financial interest on my part, just a happy Shoreline customer.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend as well!

[Gypsyblue]

It looks like your Dean Markley is a $39 pickup and online reviews seem to run about 60% positive and 40% negative. I've never used that pickup but that's too many negative reviews, IMO.

I'd consider getting a different pickup - maybe instead of a preamp.

If you're wanting a soundhole pickup the Seymour Duncan Woody gets very good reviews and is also a $40 pickup. Seymour also makes a hum-cancelling Woody for $61.

Or you could forget about soundhole pickups and have a more natural sounding pickup like the K&K or JJB installed inside your guitar under the bridge.

Although I use K&K's in all of my acoustic guitars, the JJB also sounds good and it's only $40.

If you can do the install yourself you'll save some money on the install and maybe have some money left over for a good preamp.

I'm sure the Baggs that was mentioned sounds great. I use a Baggs M1 soundhole pickup and love it.

But I like the way my guitars with K&K's sound with FireEye preamps. The Dee Eye is $135. and the RedEye is $195.

[Nick84]

Behringer ADI21 is a very cheap preamp that would do the job with your dean Marlkley pickup. I think they are great value for money

[Irish Luck]

I've heard the Behringer is great for the price, but reading all the reviews I found conficting info about it. Some say there is no signal boost from it, and others say there is. Some say it distorts your signal, but that sounds like a case of them using it with active pickups. I have a small Behringer mixer I've really gotten a lot of use from with no issues and it was very cheap when I got it about 8 years ago. Still going strong. Very quiet running it straight to my MacPro, no hiss or any noise at all. Very clean.

The LR Baggs looks good to me. Probably the front runner so far.
The Red Eye just doiesn't have anything to it, like a volume/gain control.

How about the Presonus TubePre V2?
I forgot about that one, it was highly recommended, and I found a used one locally for $75.
http://sacramento.craigslist.org/msg/5181401037.html

Eventually I will upgrade my soundhole pickup.

Thanks guys!!!

[Br1ck]

You might score a used LR Baggs PADI for your budget. Built like a tank.

[pieterh]

I know you were asking about preamps but I also think a rethink on the pickups is a good ideas The ProMag and Woody pickups are fine for what they are but a more permanent discrete install like the K&K Pure, the Baggs Lyric or similar would be the way to go. Plugging into an Acoustic amp would then provide enough gain and eq options for you to tweak a recent sound and volume. If you find that you need more eq options and so on then you can add an outboard preamp.

[midwinter]

I have that ART pre, and it's terrible.

As someone else said, you might be able to find a used LR Baggs PADI for close to your budget. I have three of them—one since the late 90s—and they are indeed built like tanks.

[GHS]

Originally Posted by midwinter

I have that ART pre, and it's terrible.

As someone else said, you might be able to find a used LR Baggs PADI for close to your budget. I have three of them—one since the late 90s—and they are indeed built like tanks.

+1 on this. The ART preamp was nothing but a noise box and quit after a very short time. I bought a new tube because it was not lit and I thought that was the problem. NO, something deeper went wrong. Into the trash.

[Gypsyblue]

Originally Posted by Irish Luck

The LR Baggs looks good to me. Probably the front runner so far.
The Red Eye just doesn't have anything to it, like a volume/gain control.

The Red Eye has a treble control and a boost control with a footswitch to engage the boost for solos. Also an effects loop and both a 1/4" out and a low impedance XLR out.

If you have a great pickup ( like the K&K's - not your Dean Markley ) your guitar will almost automatically sound terrific just by plugging into the RedEye and plugging the RedEye into your acoustic guitar amp.

Your acoustic guitar amp should have plenty of tone controls.

More tone controls on the preamp seems redundant to me if the amp or mixer you're plugged into also has tone controls.

However, it's the player, and the quality of her technique or lack of technique, that will ultimately be the determining factor in how good a guitar is going to sound.

[steelvibe]

Originally Posted by Gypsyblue

The Red Eye has a treble control and a volume control and a boost control with a footswitch to engage the boost. Also an effects loop and both a 1/4" out and a low impedance XLR out.

If you have a great pickup ( like the K&K's - not your Dean Markley ) your guitar will almost automatically sound terrific just by plugging into the RedEye and plugging the RedEye into your acoustic guitar amp.

Your acoustic guitar amp should have plenty of tone controls.

More tone controls on the preamp would be redundant.

However, it's the player, and her abundance of technique or lack of technique, that will ultimately be the determining factor in how good a guitar is going to sound.

I too am very intrigued by the redeye. I readily admit that I'm a control freak and that is the very thing that holds me back from getting one of these. I find it hard to believe that these are really that great but the reviews are very good all over the internet. What I can't find though is much on youtube or soundcloud or anything. Still, I love that they are plug and play and offer all the headroom needed and operate via phantom power or 9V. The fact that it does not have a wall wart is super attractive. You say that you are using this in front of your amp, but do you use your amp as a stage monitor? If I buy one I would want to use the 1/4 send as an effects loop instead of a direct to amp. That is the one feature keeping this device from being perfect

[kaos]

Originally Posted by Gypsyblue

The Red Eye has a treble control and a volume control and a boost control with a footswitch to engage the boost. Also an effects loop and both a 1/4" out and a low impedance XLR out.

If you have a great pickup ( like the K&K's - not your Dean Markley ) your guitar will almost automatically sound terrific just by plugging into the RedEye and plugging the RedEye into your acoustic guitar amp.

Your acoustic guitar amp should have plenty of tone controls.

More tone controls on the preamp seems redundant to me if the amp or mixer you're plugged into also has tone controls.

However, it's the player, and the quality of her technique or lack of technique, that will ultimately be the determining factor in how good a guitar is going to sound.

The only volume is the boost volume.

[Vancebo]

I once sold an LR Baggs Para Acoustic DI (PADI) for around $100. Almost a give away really. If you could find one of those I would do it. So much control in a little box. Plus it been said before. Built like a tank.

[Gypsyblue]

Originally Posted by kaos

The only volume is the boost volume.

You're right.

Treble on the left side and Boost on the right.

No volume control but I've never needed one.

When I do the special music at church, I just use the XLR output to a snake going to the mixer in the back of the room and leave my amp at home.

The soundperson is usually on the ball and gets me a nice sound.

But when I do bring my amp, it's because I'm providing the PA and the California Blonde is half of a PA. An Extension speaker cabinet is the other half.

I prefer to use the XLR input on the amp for my guitar, but if I need it for a microphone I'll use the 1/4" input.

I also have a little Behringer 6 channel mixer that I sometimes use if I need multiple microphones and more inputs and channels with tone controls.

[Vancebo]

Right now in this forums classifieds is a PADI for $110.