From erhansen26@hotmail.com Wed Jul 21 13:42:22 2004
Subject:XK-3+effect loop+Speakeasy tubepreamp?

Hi.

This is my first post here, and ..yep.. it's about the xk3. :-)
I'm probably going to buy an Xk-3 in a month's time, but I have a
few questions which I hoped maybe you people here could answer. I've
been following the xk-3 debates here for some time, and have found
them very interesting. My biggest gripe with the xk-3 is the rather
disappointing internal tube overdrive. Well, how would it work if I
got the vintage tube preamp pedal from Speakeasy, and run it through
the external effect loop on the XK-3 (turning down the xk3 overdrive
to minimum)? Could this create internal clipping or even damage the
XK-3 in some ways? If no, would I get a noticeably better overdrive
sound (think Keith Emerson, Jon Lord)? Which tube configuration
should I go for Classic/barker or Classic/Howler? Does the preamp
pedal generate a lot of noise? (Having a real leslie or motion sound
isn't an option for me at the preset time.) Or would a platinum
stereo tube preamp inserted after the output of the xk3 take away
some of the buzz-iness of the internal tubes in the xk3?

FYI, my primarily goal is to get a "warm-yet-clear" well-defined
overdriven/distorted hammond sound, with occasional dips into some
really heavily distorted sounds. My musical preference is ELP, and I
need an organ sound that is not just a lot of distortion, because my
playing (although mainly rock) involves a lot more than "power-
chords", more in the style of Keith Emerson, although I'm not
claiming to be as good as he is! :-)

I know this is a lot of questions and that the Xk-3 has been
discussed quite a bit here lately, but I would really appreciate all
the help you could give me on these spesific issues.

Thanks for reading.