Trio or cab?

[Stiles12]

I am in the process of buying a Hard Trucker Fatty cab and then i started to second guess myself.

What is more important to my sound a pre-amp or a cab. I am playing thorugh a deluxe reverb, and through a lot of effects. my signal chain for my rig that i play out with goes like this
1. Vp
2. GCb 95
3. ts9 (Mod)
4. ts9 (Mod)
into my rack (all controlled by ground control pro and audio switcher).
1. Dm-2000
2. M-one Xl
3. Tune
4. (loop) Boomerang, rc20
5. Q-tron
Then to amp

should i put a groove tube trio in front of my amp in the rack, this is the pre-amp i would buy if i had to becuase it is used by so many pro's including jerry garcia and trey.

or should i get the Hard trucker fatty and wait on the pre amp. I cant get them both yet cuase i dont have many bills. Should I look at a bruno cab or are hardtruckers that much better?

If anyone can help me i would greatly appreciate it.

[cactuskeeb]

There's a great deal on ebay right now for a reconstructed p2p deluxe reverb.  I just happened to see this, and no I did not build it.  If it weren't for the metal film resistors... but still the transformers alone cost 340 dollars.  The capacitor choices are good ones -- not exactly what I'm doing with mine but theoretically the sonics of a blue molded and mallory 150 series combination would produce a pretty throaty amp -- which is exactly how I would describe Trey's a la 1997.  The link:

http://cgi.ebay.com/65-DELUXE-REVERB-POINT-TO-POINT-SWEET-AMP_W0QQitemZ140238339622QQihZ004QQcategoryZ10171QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

The fact that hundreds of people are clamouring every day to pay almost as much for a used DR reissue is a testament to the pure ignorance of people in general.

[cactuskeeb]

At any rate, Trey used a groove tubes *power amp* not a preamp but that's an honest mistake on your part; I've made my fair share of deadly wrong assumptions regarding the kind of gear I should (and, often, did) get. 

If you're using a stock reissue deluxe reverb, at the very least you'd be floored by a merc magnetics p2p blue molded, etc. deluxe reverb; and please please get all nos RCA tubes b/c they're just sick compared to *everything else* except perhaps a thoughtfully placed mullard 12at7 in among the lot of rca's.

[Poster]

I would argue that the tone tubby cab should be the very LAST thing you spend money on. Remember that speakers only project the signal. So whatever you start with is about 65 percent of it. I would start PMing cactus to get your reverb modded to some custom specs. Stock they are just ok. Modified, they can sound like angels blowing a blue whale.

[Stiles12]

Trey used some type of pre amp take a look at this tweeprise from the island tour, in the third rack space you can see a preamp type rackmount with two or three rows of levels, he used this while he is using his DR's. Check it out, for some reason i always thought that this was a trio http://youtube.com/watch?v=azy4KUTeOFI&feature=related

[cactuskeeb]

Good eye -- yes, that's the CAE (Custom Audio Electronics) 3-SE preamp that Trey used, exclusively, in combination with the Groove Tubes power amp -- located at the bottom of the rack, practically on the floor -- from '94 through the early part of the '97 European tour.  A Brown Deluxe (not a deluxe reverb; it's actually in-between the tweed and blackface eras of Fender amp design, circa 1962-64) was used exclusively on Billy Breathes, which was recorded between the end of the '96 tour and the beginning of the following year's tour schedule; it was then that Trey was pretty much sold on the Fender amps -- heavily tweaked, mind you, by "Fender Mender" Bill Carruth of Carruth Electronics (Burlington).  So, we have the deluxe reverb as Trey's only studio, as well as stage, amp from early '97 to present.  The reason you see the 3-SE preamp, turned on, in the rack, as well as the presence of the (also virtually unused) 2 x 2x12, vertical stacked EV speaker cabs, is due to the fact that Trey was not entirely comfortable without the pre and the power amp serving as backups, given the ability of ancient fenders to suddenly manifest some horrible mechanical failure and/or just cut out completely (we're talking about what are very often extremely old and therefore quite delicate electronics inside those fenders).