Is an external pre-amp worth $$?

[Chrisk-K]

I have 3 passive basses (Geddy, Lakland DJ & MIA P). I'm generally happy with their tones but always wonder what it would be like to have a preamp on them. Since I don't want to buy 3 seperate on-board preamps for the basses, I'm very interested in buying an external pre-amp.

My questions are:

1. How does an external preamp different from the EQ of the amp, tone-wise? Does a preamp allow more fine-tuning of the tone than the EQ section of the amp?

2. What is a decent external pre-amp under $200?

[bongomania]

There's no generic correct answer to the first question. The controls, functions, and tones of a "pedal preamp" or the preamp built into an amp head can be nearly anything--from a simple 2-band EQ and vol/gain knobs, to a gnarly driven-tube tone smasher, to an elaborate variety of EQ and tone controls, to "wire with gain" hi-fi purity. So really, seriously, you have to compare your specific amp with a specific external preamp in order for the question to mean anything.

Your best bet is to search on the word "preamp" over in the Effects forum, since that's where most of the discussion of pedal-format preamps takes place.