Why an expensive preamp?

[Chaddycakes]

So I've been thinking about upgrading my pedalboard (my girlfriend doesn't know yet), and I've noticed most people put a preamp/DI at the front of their signal path. I have a preamp in my active bass, so why this extra preamp? I keep a spare low end DI in my emergency bag in case my amp dies.

[NoxNoctus]

Depending on the preamp you can drastically alter your tone. If you have a solid state amp and put a tube pre in front, you can change your sound from cut and "dry" to warm and fuzzy tube-ness. All depends what you're looking for and the sound you want.

[VanillaThundah]

The parameters for your on-board EQ could be manipulating different frequency ranges than the preamp would. Many of them can add character to the tone as well, like the VT bass deluxe. You can bypass your amp's preamp with a pedal like that and essentially give yourself a 6-channel amp.

[pbass6811]

Originally Posted by VanillaThundah

The parameters for your on-board EQ could be manipulating different frequency ranges than the preamp would. Many of them can add character to the tone as well, like the VT bass deluxe. You can bypass your amp's preamp with a pedal like that and essentially give yourself a 6-channel amp.

This is well said. This is my setup:



It's not quite finished, but it sounds killa'! The Basswitch is just an awesome piece of gear. I run it straight into a power amp and it just sounds massive. I also ran it into the power amp input in the back of my GB SM 12.0 and it was way cleaner and louder than that amp ever got, and it's a great amp...

The Aguilar is just on there because I don't have any place else to put it yet...

[oerk]

Originally Posted by Chaddycakes

So I've been thinking about upgrading my pedalboard (my girlfriend doesn't know yet), and I've noticed most people put a preamp/DI at the front of their signal path. I have a preamp in my active bass, so why this extra preamp? I keep a spare low end DI in my emergency bag in case my amp dies.

With your setup, if you don't want it to alter/color your tone, you don't need one.

Even with a passive bass, I wouldn't see the need. I'm guessing you want your effects in the PA, so a passive DI after the effects would be sufficient. The passive bass is already buffered by the pedals in front of it (at least by the Boss tuner).

[metaball]

ultimately, on any instrument with any signal chain, it's about gain staging.
maximizing the source signal thruout the signal chain without distorting or clipping.
& if you're into distorting & clipping, doing it in a controlled way you find pleasing.

i use one at the start to keep my clean tone at the same level as my distorted signal. then another at the end to boost the line level on it's way to the mixing board.