Always on outboard pre thinking Barber Linden, Tonehammer, xotic trilogic

[BiigM]

Hi all.

My main bass is a fender costumshop relic jazzbass. I plug it into my pedalboard that has envelope filter, compressor, dist, octaver. From there it's on to an db750 and a Berg nv412.

I always boost the lows a bit on the amp when playing a passive jazz, so I was thinking that I would benefit from an outboard pre. This way it would maybe drive the signal a bit better through the pedalboard, give me my low boost and match the level with my active fender costumshop 5string. This way I wouldnt have to change settings on all my pedals when changing basses plus eq on the amp.

So which pre would do you like for giving a passive jazz that little low end boost they always need? Right now I'm leaning towards the Barber Linden cause it sounds like it delivers some nice fattness.

The sadowsky is out 'cause it only boost frequencies not the overall volume. Plus I thinks it's maybe a bit too modern sounding.

What do you guys think?

[RCCollins]

all those are on my list to check out too, so please do me a favor and let me know how they work for you

[basslinejam]

The Barber Linden is a really nice warm eq pedal. It has a good amount of boost and is musical enough that even at extreme settings you get a usable sound. I have mine as an "always on" going in to my GK 400RB for a deep blues tone. It fattens up the aggressive mid growl of the gk nicely. IMHO YMMV …

[RickenBoogie]

+1, my Linden is also always on, and I use a fairly extreme amount of low boost on mine. Fat, warm, and very musical, indeed. Great pedal.

[icarussmicarus]

If you want some more lows out of your jazz I'd just pop some DiMarzio Model J's in it.

[BiigM]

Pickups a fine IMO. I've never hear a jazz that didn't need a little boost in the lows. That goes for my relic, my 72 jazz and my costum shop 5 that has Nordstrand singlecoils in it.

So the Linden EQ seems to have a nice rep here. How about all the others. Demeter looks good too. Tonehammer maybe? And the xotic stuff.

Anyone tried more than one of these options?

[icarussmicarus]

Originally Posted by BiigM

Pickups a fine IMO. I've never hear a jazz that didn't need a little boost in the lows. That goes for my relic, my 72 jazz and my costum shop 5 that has Nordstrand singlecoils in it.

So the Linden EQ seems to have a nice rep here. How about all the others. Demeter looks good too. Tonehammer maybe? And the xotic stuff.

Anyone tried more than one of these options?

I don't want to push you away from a pedal, it would probablly give you more options anyway since you can't really undo pickups. But - I had nords in my jazz and liked the tone improvement but still missed low mids/lows. Popped in some DiMarzio Model J's and was feeling skeptic at their low cost/non-boutiqueness but wham. Tons more lows/low mids. Now I run my lows and low mids at 12'oclock and even have to shade down in smaller venues.

Having said all that, I personally have always been interested in trying the Barber Linden, I have the LTD SR and it's amazing. Great brand.

[LongHairFreak]

Hey BiigM
Don't know if you made a decision yet, but I've recently owned the Tone Hammer and the RC Bass Booster; I currently use the Barber Linden EQ.

Running my CIJ '51 P(+J) into the Linden EQ gives my head some wonderful old (60s? 70s?) blues tone. (FTR, I also run into a DHA MK3/VT1 and my LowEnd True Voice gives a pretty raw edge I need to tame sometimes, but...) The RC Bass Booster is a great pedal for boosting low and the Tone Hammer was quite versatile, but I just wasn't impressed with what either of them did to my sound.

I don't dig the Linden EQ as much on my Dolan PH5 though. It's not tight enough down low (and perhaps not modern enough??) for what I want a 5 for. These are just my opinions of course.

[RickenBoogie]

Yeah, I said my Linden is "always on", and it is, unless I'm playing my BEAD bass. I think for those really low strings, it's too much of a good thing. So +1 to ^ that.