In help of some Terminology.

Rainmaker

Bee Bee King
Power Amp - ?

Pre Amp - ?

Rack - ?

What are they and where are they used?

(There's gotta be a rack joke somewhere :p)


Please help this curious soul. :p

Bee


Edit: oops pardon my grammar :p
 
Re: In help of some Terminology.

In a slightly different order:

Preamp: This is where signal conditioning and shaping take place. Volume, balance, (if its stereo), tone controls, effects, effect loops, line outs, etc.
Also, its the first stage of amplification, ie., pre-amplification. Brings the guitar signal up to a level sufficient to drive an amplifier.

Amplifier: This is where the conditioned signal is driven to a level sufficient to operate a speaker.

Rack: Industry-standard 19-inch spaced equipment housing.

A "combo" amp, simply combines the pre-amp, amp, and speaker into one cabinet.

In home audio, a "reciever" would be a tuner, preamp, and amp in one houseing. An "integrated amp", would be preamp, and amp.

Hope this helps. ;)
 
Re: In help of some Terminology.

This is a real basic expalnation...

Pre amp - the part of the amp that has gain, treble, mid, bass, presence controls usually, this is the part that lets you set up/EQ your basic sound.

Power amp - usually just a volume control, basically, this is what makes the noise come out of the speakers.

Rack - for holding rack equipment, pre & power amps, high end fx processors and various other bits, mostly real high spec stuff is rack mount.

Just to clarify, your standard combo/head has both a pre and power amp, although theey are available seperatley from some manufacturers (again, high end stuff) such as mesa/boogie and marshall to name but 2.

Like i said it's basic, but you get the idea?

***Edit***

ArtieToo beat me to it, and explained better!
 
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Re: In help of some Terminology.

Rackmounted FX are normally inserted between the preamp and power amp, just like they are on a head's FX loop. The exception would be if the preamp has it's own loop, to insert FX before or after the EQ section. This would also be good for rackmounted tuners, so you can assign a channel dedicated to silent tuning.

Another term you hear is "rack ears" Those are the metal brackets that can be attached to non-rack items, in order to make them rackmountable.
 
Re: In help of some Terminology.

(ah, the temptation is too great...:smack: )

Rack -What you desire
Pre Amp - preliminary actions to acquire
Power Amp - best efforts at acquisition

(or stated another way)

Rack - her assets
Pre Amp - dinner and a movie
Power Amp - smooth talkin' (otherwise known as a power play)
 
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