However in most situations where you'd need serious amplification the venue would already be set up with a good pre-amp, so it shouldn't really be an issue unless you plan on doing home-recording

But I found that when used in conjunction with a mute I got a nice electric violin sound, and that I got a very smooth and pleasing sound running it into a Fender tube amp, whereas cheap SS guitar amps brought out the worst

I love the pre amp, which I still use