Running a preamp with a Little Mark III

[Mr. Majestic]

I have owned a couple of preamps, but I have always run them into power amps. That required me to plug into the preamp and from the output to the input of the power amp. Whenever I would use a pedal board I would simply plug the bass into the board and from there into the input on the preamp or head, always seemed to work fine.
Now the main question, I have been using a Little Mark III here lately and have just recently purchased another tube preamp. What is the optimal way of hooking these together? The preamp has a balanced output and the markbass has a balanced input; seems fairly reasonable to me. Thing is, there is also a high/lo output on the preamp and an effects send/receive on the Markbass. There are a few more options to choose from, but what is the best way of setting this up? Any help would be appreciated.
Here are a few pictures of these units

[T. Alan Smith]

1st thing I would try is simply running your bass guitar thru the pre and into the "return effect" jack on the LM.

[Son of Bovril]

Originally Posted by T. Alan Smith

1st thing I would try is simply running your bass guitar thru the pre and into the "return effect" jack on the LM.

+1

[naturalkinds]

I would try the XLR input from the XLR out on the pre. Start the gain at zero, and move up until you see the clip light. Then back down. That way, you get the option to blend the vary the output on the Tube pre. (Though, to be honest, for a good signal-to-noise ratio, you should probably be using as little gain on the LMII as possible, just as you wouldn't use the preamp on a mic pre if you were already putting in a line-level signal.)

[naturalkinds]

As a point of reference, the impedance of the XLR input and the FX return are the same.

INPUT
impedance 500 Kohm, max. voltage 15 Vpp
BALANCED INPUT (XLR)
impedance 22 Khom, max. voltage 25 Vpp
EFFECT RETURN
impedance 22 Kohm, max. voltage 25 Vpp

[Son of Bovril]

yeah it all depends on whether you want to bypass the LM preamp or chain them together?

bypass = FX return
XLR input = chain them

[JimmyM]

there is no way to hook it up to the lmiii and defeat the preamp, even the effect return, but if you noon all the controls and turn the filters off, it'll be just as good as defeating the preamp since the lmiii's flat voicing is actually about as close to flat as it gets.

[naturalkinds]

Originally Posted by JimmyM

there is no way to hook it up to the lmiii and defeat the preamp, even the effect return, but if you noon all the controls and turn the filters off, it'll be just as good as defeating the preamp since the lmiii's flat voicing is actually about as close to flat as it gets.

+1. The only benefit, again, I see to running it through the XLR is that you can choose how high the gain you want on your line-level signal from the tube preamp. If the preamp isn't that high quality, it might actually generate substantial noise when you bring it up to a line-level signal. Given the relatively quiet pre in the LMII, you can choose to raise that a bit.

But +1 to Jimmy. There's no way to completely turn it off. Twisting it down to zero is about as good as you'll get.

[Son of Bovril]

Originally Posted by JimmyM

there is no way to hook it up to the lmiii and defeat the preamp, even the effect return, but if you noon all the controls and turn the filters off, it'll be just as good as defeating the preamp since the lmiii's flat voicing is actually about as close to flat as it gets.

Sorry, right you are Jimmy, I stand corrected!

[BluesWalker]

I am curious what this pre-amp offers that the LMIII pre-amp and/or an active bass pre-amp don't offer.

[CapnSev]

Originally Posted by BluesWalker

I am curious what this pre-amp offers that the LMIII pre-amp and/or an active bass pre-amp don't offer.

I would guess either different eq points, or coloration that the OP likes, or both.

[JimmyM]

Originally Posted by BluesWalker

I am curious what this pre-amp offers that the LMIII pre-amp and/or an active bass pre-amp don't offer.

a tube in the path for one. if you like edgier sounds, you can't get them with the lmiii by itself. lmiii is all clean all the time.

[naturalkinds]

Originally Posted by BluesWalker

I am curious what this pre-amp offers that the LMIII pre-amp and/or an active bass pre-amp don't offer.

Good inquiry. Pretty complicated answer. But the abridged conclusion is that an onboard preamp does not -- for reasons having to do with impedance, voltage and so on -- deliver a line-level signal, which is what is required to use it with a poweramp. Of course, if you plug directly from your bass into a power amp via DI, you MIGHT get a signal, but that's not to say it's optimal or going to work at a gigable volume.

[Mr. Majestic]

It is a Lee Jackson perfect connection bp-1000. It has three 12ax7, so it has quite a bit more of that tubey goodness.