Runoffgroove circuits as preamps

[tjdracz]

Hi there. Got recently VHT Special 6 Ultra amp, my first all-tube combo. Sounds pretty great an capable of wie range of tones, also works beautifully with my pedals.
Some time ago, I've started work on some Runoffgroove circuits, Umble and English Channel to be precise. From what I understand, they are meant to be recreations of original amplifiers preamp sections.
Is there any reason not to connect them straight to the power amp of my combo (through the return jack of the effects loop)? Just thinking whether there's any no-no's here as I don't want to kill the copy of the originals by subjecting them to additional preamping from frankly, mediocre tubes.

[Jopn]

Since you've started to work on them, might as well finish them and try them both ways!  There's no no-no's here.

I've found that a lot of those preamp pedals are really mimicking the overdrive channels, and don't have as much clean on tap as you'd expect from the amps they are based upon.  So it all depends on how you plan to use them, either as an overdrive or a preamp replacement.  And, in fact, I wouldn't even necessarily say "plan" here.  Once you've got them built, play around and see what you like best.

As a slight aside, I've used the Black '65 as a preamp replacement in the past where I had it dialed in to react similar to my Traynor YCV20's pre-amp.  I've had decent success using it in situations where I've run through clean solid state amps (PAs, direct recording) and wanted to "intercept" my overdrives so they weren't trying to push something like a PA's preamp into clipping.