Not a distortion pedal, but a pre-amp. Any thoughts?

 

Depends on the amp. A guitar preamp is going to do little more than making your amp distort more, it may sound a little different due to some tone shaping thing or EQ present in the preamp pedal, but distortionwise they're very related to your amp. So first you need an amp that has a retro sound, then the preamp just adds a little something to it (that something being mostly level and therefore distortion).

If you combine a "retro" preamp pedal and a modern sounding amp, you won't get a retro sound, you'll just get modern with a little twist.

If you already have a retro sort of amp and do want to push it a bit more, then something based on the Echoplex circuit would be a good bet. Catalinbread i think are most known for their takes on that, take a look at the Epoch Boost, or the Epoch Pre Bias.

 

Last edited: Mar 2, 2024

I'll be using software amp and cab designed for either VOX AC30 or Fender Twin Reverb

 

I can't think of a particular preamp guitarists in the 60's used to get that sound, but amps like an AC30 or Fender Twin, a Marshall JTM45 and a Fender Bassman were the thing.

 

so you want a pedal to push those amp ? like real physical pedal or plugin ? or DI box ?

For guitars, Preamp is part of the Amp which to put it simply a Preamp + Poweramp. Combo like AC30, Deluxe, Twin etc are basically a combination of Preamp + Poweramp + Speakers as for why they are called combo. You don't need a separate preamp for combo 95% of the time as it already has one.

A more sensible use of a preamp with a combo style amp is to plug it in into the FX returns of the combo to bypass the preamp section of the amp. Stacking 2 preamps on top of each other was never a good idea unless you are doing some experimental sound which unlikely will give you any 60s related guitar sound.

If you want something to push the preamp of the amp of your choice, then there's a whole different world for it and it's an endless journey. It's either Treble Booster, Overdrive or Distortion. Everyone starts with a TS808 or TS9 Tubescreamer.

60s sound, those sort of thing hasn't been invented just yet. Pushing amp with pedals only invented on the 80s. Amps are mostly low gain as listed above by @Lois Lane

It's guitar, (optional) bucket brigade style analog delay after then straight to the amp. Maybe spring reverb on the amp if it's available.

 

Last edited: Mar 2, 2024

It should work fine, but a couple of things to consider:
-Does the ampsim come with a preamp pedal emulation? If yes, have you tried it?
-Have you tried rising the input of the input stage of the ampsim? That should give you an idea of what you'll get from an actual peamp peadal
-The point of a preamp pedal is making the signal louder, this could be an issue if your pickups are too hot and are almost clipping your interface's input, because you'll make it even hotter.
-What type of sound are you looking for? Are you sure you're not looking for the sound of a different amp?

 

Preamp in the wider sense of the word, i guess. Pretty sure people in the 60s were putting stuff in front of the amps to make the incoming signal louder, which contained some kind of preamp. That's the kind of preamp OP is talking about i think, a booster of sorts.

 

Could be the Treble Booster then. It's the only thing dated back to the 60s. I put that in OD/DIST family, not preamp, but maybe people think of it as preamp, still okay I guess.