Looking for preamp for Bottlehead Crack

[Swollazn]

I've been using the bottlehead crack (+speedball) for almost a year and really love it. The sound is clean and crisp, perhaps too crisp at times. Anyone have a favorite preamp to match? Currently I have a scarlett 2i2 and wonder if I can improve from here. Bonus points if it can give more of that analog grittiness as an option.

[Thermioniclife]

It sounds like you have enough gain, If I understand your question correctly, than I think you may be needing a way to connect more sources to your Crack. If so than you can buy a 2 pole multi position switch to add more inputs to your Crack.

[Swollazn]

I'm looking for an upgrade. With the 2 pole multi position switch, what sort of inputs could be added? Is it something alongside the scarlett?

[Larpy]

I'm still not clear on what you're looking for.  A preamp to use along side the Crack, or a preamp to use in front of the Crack?

If you want an "upgrade," the Moreplay is the obvious choice, but it's not going to add any "grittiness."  The Crack is probably Botllehead's "tubiest" sounding offering (in the traditional sense of sounding warm and lush at the expense of some dynamics and resolution), so if you want a tubier sounding preamp, you'll need to look elsewhere.  That's not to say the Moreplay doesn't sound like a tube preamp, but it's a step up in terms of clarity and resolution.

[Swollazn]

Oh sorry, a preamp to use/complement alongside the Crack. So I will consider building a Moreplay to boost the Crack even more.

[Paul Birkeland]

Normally you would use a preamp when you need to connect more sources or you need more gain.  If you need neither, then I would not pair a preamp with the Crack.

[Natural Sound]

There isn't much room on the underside of a Crack amp to modify it for multiple inputs. With some ingenuity it could probably be done but it will be tight. An easy way to add more inputs is to use an external switch box. I used one similar to the link below on my S.E.X. amp and it worked great.

I'd leave the Scarlett 2i2 out of the audio chain. From what little I know about it the general use is for recording. It's not necessary and may even be coloring the sound. Its a good idea to keep the audio path as simple as possible. 

Something else to consider. I built a Crack amp for a friend who paired it with a pair of Sennheiser HD650 headphones. He loved it for about 6 months. Then he bought the Speedball kit and I installed it for him. After about a week he called me up and said he wanted me to take out the upgrade. Similar to what you said he complained that it was too clean and bright. I gave him a few different 12AU7's to try and see if he liked it any better. He did not. Ultimately I disconnected the small SpeedBall board, re-installed the 22.1K plate load resistors and he was happy again. Sometimes making a circuit better actually makes it worse because the amplifier reveals more flaws in the source material. A modification like this may get you some of the "analog grittiness" you are looking for. In reality its just tube distortion that some people prefer.

https://www.amazon.com/SOLUPEAK-U31-selector-Connector-Distributor/dp/B089FX2NRR/ref=sxin_16_pa_sp_search_thematic_sspa?content-id=amzn1.sym.c201187d-adb9-405c-9853-b12a04ed95e2%3Aamzn1.sym.c201187d-adb9-405c-9853-b12a04ed95e2&cv_ct_cx=RCA%2BSwitch%2Bbox&keywords=RCA%2BSwitch%2Bbox&pd_rd_i=B089FX2NRR&pd_rd_r=c42e3564-22a9-4312-85ce-bf8338f2ce1d&pd_rd_w=aLOBq&pd_rd_wg=CvAj7&pf_rd_p=c201187d-adb9-405c-9853-b12a04ed95e2&pf_rd_r=GRM58DMFC2GM93RFN7FM&qid=1692740665&sbo=RZvfv%2F%2FHxDF%2BO5021pAnSA%3D%3D&sr=1-3-9cb21890-b538-4fe1-898e-473f8bb6c1fa-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9zZWFyY2hfdGhlbWF0aWM&th=1

[Swollazn]

A change in tone would be nice, I'm actually thinking of disconnecting the small board myself. I forgot most of the initial setup at this point. Is there a guide for that?

[Thermioniclife]

Iliked the small boaed but dissliked the large board. Like many things in lufe, music, cars, art, etc are subjective there is no right or wrong.

[hmbscott]

I added a Moreplay to my system recently and ended up driving my Crack from one of the Moreplay outputs, the other drives the main amp. I am very happy with it as an addition to the system overall.

 It sounds nice with the Crack, but there is a ton of gain in that chain. The Moreplay added more gain than I wanted to my speaker amp, so I added an L-pad, which works very nicely, and helped tone down the the gain on the Crack/Moreplay as well.

I'm happy with my setup, but keep in mind the Crack/Moreplay combo probably has too much gain without some padding to tamp it down.