Which Pre amp?

Zitch · #1 06-26-2010, 01:25 PM

I find myself wanting/needing a pre amp and have narrowed it down to either the EBS microbass ll or the Aguilar ToneHammer and the Seymore Duncan Paranormal pedal. Anyone with experience with any of these please chime in on the positives and negatives of these choices. Im a finger style player that likes to incorporate slap in with rock riffs. Main bass is a Warwick corvette$$ MIG through a GK1001rbll and Neo412.
Any help appreciated, looking to buy this week.

Zitch · #2 06-26-2010, 01:27 PM

I should mention I have a tech 21 sans amp bass driver, its good but lacks the mid controls for really shaping that sound.

Kromwarp · #3 06-26-2010, 04:27 PM

EBS...more options, bulletproof construction

John S · #4 06-26-2010, 04:46 PM

The ToneHammer is impressive if you are looking for a deep, clean tone.
I have the SansAmp RBI also, it shines when you want some grit.

darkstorm · #5 06-26-2010, 05:49 PM

Semore Duncans Paranormal. I have their blackout 2band active eq loaded into both my basses, and couldnt be happier. Bests all the stock preamps ive owned in basses cept 1 and equals it. What made me a fan of seymour duncans eq over the more popular and expensive eq's was the tone centers are better choices to me. Whereas aquilar though very nice, missed the mark for treble center choices. And bass center wasnt quite as deep as Id prefer. Evenso, it would be my 2nd pick out of the ones you listed.

Nerotic · #6 06-27-2010, 02:10 AM

I'd have to second the EBS..

It's got tons of features, great sound quality for recording and is very well built.

The eq section is unmatched, especially the parametric mid control. Using both channels in conjunction basically gives you an EBS amp at your feet. I'm not a huge fan of the overdrive sound in this unit, but others have gotten great sounds from it.

Zitch · #7 06-27-2010, 05:29 AM

Thanks for the feedback, I was leaning towards the Tonehammer, heard alot of great things about it, one concern is that its 18 volts. Anyone know what the battery life is if its mostly on? The EBS does have a ton of features but a hefty price tag for a pedal, is the price difference worth it compared to the ToneHammer? I like the sound clips Ive heard from the paranormal but wondered if the lack of features particularly a mid freq control would leave me wanting more.

Kipaste · #8 06-27-2010, 05:56 AM

I'd give a third vote for the EBS. The price... If you just wan't a preamp and an eq, I'd say the aguilar is great. For me, the greatest things about the EBS are the blendable effects loop (a good blending pedal costs 100-200 alone) and the tube and speaker simulations when recording DI. I was a little hesitant about these simulations at first, but in fact I think they sound really good and mixing the tracks to me liking has become easier for me. I don't really use overdrive with the stuff I play, but sometimes I like to dial in just a little bit of it for the Les Claypool kind of high gain slap stuff and that works really well. I also really like the differences in tone that can be achieved with the two differend input impedances although I usually run this thing in the dual channel mode.

Zitch · #9 06-27-2010, 12:58 PM

Just found some clips of a Sadowsky pre-amp, lets add that to the discussion. This thing sounds sweet. The sound im after is Fat but not too boomy with good articulated highs without harshness, distortion option would be nice but not required. Someone may tell me I need a compressor which I never fully understood how they work, always seems like compression saps some of the tone. I really appreciate everyones input.

Zitch · #10 06-27-2010, 01:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kipaste

I'd give a third vote for the EBS. The price... If you just wan't a preamp and an eq, I'd say the aguilar is great.

This is what I was thinking, I do have to look into the Sadowsky a little more before I choose.

Zitch · #11 06-27-2010, 01:07 PM

Nevermind on the Sadowsky, just realized it lacks the Mid controls.

Kipaste · #12 06-27-2010, 04:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zitch

Just found some clips of a Sadowsky pre-amp, lets add that to the discussion. This thing sounds sweet. The sound im after is Fat but not too boomy with good articulated highs without harshness, distortion option would be nice but not required. Someone may tell me I need a compressor which I never fully understood how they work, always seems like compression saps some of the tone. I really appreciate everyones input.

Compression is IMO really useful. The results depend greatly on the compressor itself, some will suck tone if used wrong, some will suck tone even when used right and some can help you sound significantly better (and sometimes even fatter.) But in general, they're units you need to know how to work to get good results. As usual, bongo's website will give you plenty of answers http://www.ovnilab.com/faq.shtml

iamdenialNJ · #13 06-27-2010, 04:15 PM

In the past I've used the mxr m80 DI and I thought it was pretty sweet. I've got a tone hammer, which will hopefully be with me for years to come. If I had the $ I would go with the ebs microbass!! Probably the end all, be all floor bass preamp.

iamdenialNJ · #14 06-27-2010, 04:24 PM

I don't mean to hijack this thread but I've got a question about preamp placement in the signal chain. First off, I use all my effects in front of my amp. I know that placing the preamp/di last is the obvious choice so that effects will come up in the audio mix when the DI is plugged in. My question is...wouldn't the best choice of the preamp placement be at the beginning of the chain?? I think this because I would like to have my effects affect my 'tone' instead of my 'tone' being affected by my effect pedals.

Can someone enlighten me?

iamdenialNJ · #15 06-28-2010, 12:35 PM

anyone?

Deepak · #16 06-28-2010, 01:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by iamdenialNJ

I don't mean to hijack this thread but I've got a question about preamp placement in the signal chain. First off, I use all my effects in front of my amp. I know that placing the preamp/di last is the obvious choice so that effects will come up in the audio mix when the DI is plugged in. My question is...wouldn't the best choice of the preamp placement be at the beginning of the chain?? I think this because I would like to have my effects affect my 'tone' instead of my 'tone' being affected by my effect pedals.

Can someone enlighten me?

What do you mean here - sticking the effects in the loop or putting your pedals after the preamp output? In either case you're probably going to overdrive the input of stompbox effects, as these are usually designed for instrument level signals. Some pedals have trouble with the preamp in active basses, so I'm assuming that an outboard preamp would have similar results. If you have rack effects they will live very happily in the loop.

Of course the easy answer is 'try and see', but I don't see you getting great results this way.

I'm a little confused by how you're talking about your tone. When I talk about tone what I mean is the end product being pushed into people's ears, effects and all. Adding effects shapes your tone, and each step in your signal chain has its individual characteristics, but there's no place where your tone ends and the effect's tone begins (short of turning your signal into white noise). Effects operate on signals - tone is that je ne sais quoi human ears perceive.

Zitch · #17 06-29-2010, 02:09 AM

Well after recieving a %20 off coupon from MF I went with my gut and ordered the Tone Hammer. The EbS sounds awesome but I think the Tone Hammer is more what im looking for, that with my Sans BDDI I should be covered. Thanks for all the help, after I get it and try it out for a bit i'll update this with my initial opinions.

iamdenialNJ · #18 06-29-2010, 02:17 AM

I haven't been digging my tone hammer as much as I'd hoped...I've only been using the tone hammer as an overdrive pedal and not so much as a preamp.

TaySte_2000 · #19 06-29-2010, 02:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by iamdenialNJ

I haven't been digging my tone hammer as much as I'd hoped...I've only been using the tone hammer as an overdrive pedal and not so much as a preamp.

Yeah I was all excited to get mine and then fell prey to the usual design flaw with the whole overdrive and preamp issue it has. The overdrive was lovely and the eq worked, didn't really feel it imparted any magic on my sound.

I use to really like the MXR but found these days I'd much rather use a Radial Di box with a Catalinbread SFT

Growly Lytes · #20 06-29-2010, 03:07 AM

How can you go past a Sansamp RBI or RPM ` both chained together to produce 1 signal is what im doing aswell as Bi-Amping them with highs & lows. The RBI will give everything you need in high-end growling grit where the RPM will give you the control over the mids nicely to really fatten your sound. Having a mixture of these 2 preamps (if you dont mind using 100% analog) will give you hybrid results, best of both worlds.The RBI is known to give you what you need for Top-End Tube growl where the RPM with that mid sweep can shake walls down. They really have big balls together `imo`