Pre amp? power amp?

[ryrysweetiepie]

this is probly a stupid question, but i what exactly is a pre amp and a power amp? i've been playing forever, but never really learned about this sort of thing.

[Kevin Taylor]

A pre amp comes before the power amp. It usually has the controls on it like volume, tone, bass etc...
The power amp is what supplies the power.

[HDJ]

To add to what Schmange said, the pre-amp is where most of the tone of the amp comes from....

[Jeff Vivrette]

.....and they can come together in a head or combo amp or seperated.