Alright guys,
I have been a firm believer that active preamps decrease your headroom and raise the noisefloor, and that passive basses are far superior. I still feel that way, however, i am starting to think that i could easily have both worlds on my bass using a proper active/passive switch and passive controls.
Here is the schematic that i came up with for myself:
The controls will be: volume-volume-passive tone-active bass/treble stacked pot.
There will be 3 push/pulls.
The first will be a power switch.
Usually the power to the preamp is switched on and off by inserting a mono cable into the jack, which shorts the ring terminal to the sleeve. I leave my bass plugged in 24/7, so I can't stand the idea of having to unplug my bass when i am not using it, so i will be putting in a power switch in addition to the output jack.
When the knob is down, the bass will function exactly the same as a regular active bass, turning on and off with the insertion of a cable. But when i pull the knob up, i can turn off the power, regardless of whether a cable is plugged in or not.
In addition, the switch will double as a killswitch so that i can mute the output of the bass when the power is off.
The second push/pull will be an active/passive switch. That's pretty much self explanatory.
The third push/pull will be the bypass switch for the passive tone control.
I have been using push/pull bypass switches on the tone controls of my basses for a while now, and i really like the functionality.
Anyways, i was initially interested in the Nordstrand preamp, but i found out that it is op-amp based, so it's definitely not the right preamp for me.
My second choice is Aguilar's preamps. I am happy with the fact that they are discrete field effect transistor based, and my luthier is a big fan of them, so it's down to a choice of either the OBP-1 or OBP-2.
I heard that the 4KHz treble center on the OBP-1 is much more musical and useful than the 6.5KHz treble center on the OBP-2. With that being said, i am not so sure that i like the boost-only thing...
I doubt that i would ever really need to cut bass, (My instrument isn't really all that bassy to begin with.) and it would make more sense to cut treble with a passive tone control than an active cut, but something about boost-only controls seems limiting to me.
I think i will probably end up going for the OBP-1, but i think it's best to consult the wisedom of TB before i do anything.
Those of you who have tried both preamps, which would you recommend?
Do you find the boost-only functionality of the OBP-1 to be limiting?
How do you like the treble frequency center on the OBP-2?
Is there anything i am missing/overlooking in my comparison of the two preamps?
Thoughts?
