Preamp only and IEM's
 

Happy New Year to all!

I am new to IEM's and the do's and don'ts regarding amplification. My current rig consists of a Trace RAH600 SMX amp with 2 4x10 Trace cabs. I recently purchased a set of Sony 7550 IEM's and they sound great. The last 2 gigs I played with the Trace head only (no cabs) and also a Sansamp Tech 21 driver. The Sansamp was no match for the tone I have painstakingly dialed in with my Trace head. What I would now like to do is go with a preamp only, whether it be a Trace or Alembic F2B, etc. However my knowledge is about these things is limited and I don't know if you can tweak in your bass tone using a preamp only and DI out directly to the board. This would be optimal for my tone and lighten up the load on my back not having to drag around a 50lb Trace head. Besides, isn't the Sansamp practically a preamp with a built in DI box?

Any feedback about this would be appreciated!

There are lots of options, the Sansamps are among these. The BDDI is a preamp which can function as a DI.
You could buy the REDDI which is a "big" DI with real tube inside. It cost a bit thought. Then there are many stompbox preamps.
If you have an iPad you could even use bass sim. Software such a Jamup which include Ampeg B15, SWR Redhead among others.
You should mention what kind of tone you are after.
This thread is about using your iPad/ iPod/ iPhone as a preamp:
http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showpost.php?p=13589647

I've seen Tom Skinner, from The Mike McClure Band, walk on stage with his Bass, pedal tuner, a couple of effects pedals...nothing else! It was all DI'd to FOH. And it sounded great! The heaviest thing he carried on stage was his bass. Less than 3 mins he was ready to rock (Red Dirt style)...and afterward, in the same amount of time, he was loaded up ready to roll! Granted, the FOH was very good system.

I don't know if this was/is his normal rig. But, it was the night I seen em'. Heck, the whole band(all 3 of them) loaded up in a conversion van and headed down the road after the gig...with all their gear in the same van.

I do it all the time. EBS Micro Bass 2.

I have a Pedaltrain Pro full of toys, but they're for fun.

Don't forget about Rush and Geddy.

It's hard to verbally nail down what my tone is, however let's simply say that I would like to have full control over the tone using a good preamp (rack mountable or not). I send my post eq signal to the board as it maintains the tone I choose to use. So, is it safe to say that running my instrument into an Alembic F2B preamp or similar and DI out the back to the board would achieve the same results (minus the power amp).

And also for what it's worth, I play in a large horn band (Soulkrackers) in metro Detroit. For this I do a lot of *popping*. So you can get an idea of what tone I would be using for that. Hence the desire to purchase an Alembic F1B or F2B preamp.