Aight... replying to old posts but there have been a few things I wanted to reply to/ask about.
@tlw... As always very helpful. You 've been in every one of my threads about this subject and it is appreciated. You brought up the BOSS 1megaohm thing again and I actually am curious about ways I can use my TU-2 (I have other BOSS pedals as well but the TU-2 would be better for simple input for many reasons and I also get my favorite tuner and a possible splitter if needed out of it).
So I'm pretty sure that just hooking into the TU-2 then into my board ain't gonna cut it for guitar. The CR1604 has a lot of gain but I doubt it can provide enough gain to deal with passive pickups. If I am wrong on this then that would be cool to know because I am sketchy on the whole relationship between that input impedence vs. necessary input gain.
HOWEVER... even though the ART unit I was looking at (the Tube MP/C that has the compressor and high z option) claims to do do high Z my interface does as well as do most interfaces. Still those high z inputs may or may not reach that 1 megaohm impedance mark desired for guitar. So... and this may not be answerable by yourself or anyone... I am wondering whether perhaps a signal going from the TU-2 to get that 1 megaohm into the ART high z (or on my interface's high z) could push things into the correct range for guitar or if that would cause some kind of extra stupidity and actually make things worse.
I'm also trying to keep the outboard gear chain down too because obviously each unit introduces a new opportunity for noise, occupies extra cables and space and just makes things that little bit more of a PITA (which is why I'm trying to cut out some of my outboard gear by buying something like the ART unit... if I can get a good workable signal striaght into the box as opposed to running crap through all sorts of gear then that would be freaking awesome).
Probably crazy questions but if you or anyone has some thoughts on that... cool.
@lawajawa... I actually wanted to comment on the Line6 multi unit you linked to earlier on. That actually would not serve my purposes for THIS stuff. I've already got an interface and controllers and what not. However that is a very interesting product and looks ideal for live stuff. I am totally sequestered musically at the moment as far live stuff but live gigging was my thing for... well all my adult life. Since I've been studying all this digital music crap I've been coming up with little schemes as to how I could play live using DAW/synth/computer stuff. It all involved multiple devices and PITA setups. That little dealymabob would be PERFECT for some of the stuff I've been thinking about. It would remove a whole pile of extra gear out of the equation so thank you for making me aware of it. Very cool.
@Cactus Music... I hear ya on the tube stuff and yes... I have heard the newer Champs may not be all that great (I may not even be referring to the right thing... I may mean those little beige things... Blues Champs? But still probably not all that great). I have been seeing/hearing good things about those Blackstars though and they seem to be quite affordable so screw it. If I ever go down that path I'll probably scope those instead. Fenders are great but even the old ones kind of... well they tend to be a little restrictive for what I like to do. Just seemed like a good way to get tiny tubey bark but it's 2015 so probably better options for less.
For the Joe Meek stuff... definitely looks cool. Here I am limited to L&M's (whom I haven't bought from in years but I may have to forgive them their wrongs) and a couple tiny shops that may or may not stock stuff I need. Otherwise it's longhaul order which costs more and getting deliveries in this building is sketchtastic.
L&Ms apparently stocks the ART MP/C so even if the location here doesn't have one I can just get them to order it and save on the shipping.
I agree that tubes, especially cheap/simple ones, won't necessarily beat out nice solid state gear but I already have lots of ss stuff and I'd like at least ONE tube input around to play around with. Also just having an outboard compressor/limiter might be worth it even if the tube doesn't do anything special.
Just for reference though... the last stuff I did I resorted to using my old MXR Gain pedal to get my input cranked so it would slam into the Line6 better and thus make the sim work better. It worked well but it was noisy and was a lot of hassle. That's the type of crap I'd like to avoid really.
I guess this in a lot of ways is actually a convenience/simplicity issue as opposed to tone chasing... but since the itb effects respong better to better singals it helps with the tone chasing.
Anyhoo... thanks all for the suggestions and cool thread.
Cheers.