[AMRadio] Sound advice

[CL in NC]

I have been wanting to experiment with some of my old mics that basically sound pretty bad, either too tinny or too bass, (not the fish) and run them through a graphic equalizer.  The motivation for this is that I found a really nice single channel, 32 filter unit for a song, but it does not have enough sensitivity to handle crystal, dynamic, or controlled magnetic mics, giving only minimal indication on the output bar graph at high voice input, so I need some ooomph on the head end.  A homebrew 12AX7 amp to fit between my various basket case mics and the equalizer is required.  Does anybody have experience in this area with some pointers?  Ideas on a solid state preamp instead of a tube?  I checked several designs online and the ones in the 'Encyclopedia of Electronic Circuits', but maybe somebody here has a bullet proof schematic. The DBK2031 equalizer performs as it spec sheet advertises, handling inputs and outputs to 40K loads.

Charlie, W4MEC in NC