One of the great things about Neve-style preamps is that they have two gain stages. You can turn the first one up and drive the second one into saturation (a little or a lot, up to you) and then turn the output trim down to a good level for your converter or interface. This saturation, in gentle moderation, can enhance the "intelligibility" of soft, delicate sounds like fingerpicking and help them cut through in a mix.
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