Woah!
I told Josh the EXACT things I want in an upright bass preamp, sparing no detail, down to the lights, and everything I could imagine in practical application to me. Other preamps are available commercially, but there's always something missing. And many cost a ton of money. I got EXACTLY what I wanted in the exact time frame he said, and it's better than I imagined! And the price wasn't a stack of Benjamins. I even got to determine the layout, graphics, and the name, of course.
I'll do my best to explain the function. First, I'm primarily a jazz upright player. I love to funk out and rock out on the slabs, but those are easy to make sound good. With upright, every room and every weather pattern can have such a drastic effect on how the upright mixes and functions. Usually, my amplified volume is low to medium. I usually run through my rig with no PA support, but sometimes use no amp and just go through the PA. Rarely, I have a backline plus PA. I have used little buffers, EQ'S, HPF's, even boosters and compressors and dirt pedals and such to make the bass function best. Those Fishman preamps and others like them sound so BLAH to me, and don't have the EQ flexibility I need for every situation. I WILL NOT carry a pedal board to an upright bass gig. One pedal maximum. I like to load in and out in one trip.
The function:
I have tried many input impedances on my Gage Realist pickup and have found that my mood changes with the humidity and how "soft" my fingers feel that day, as well as the venue. Usually, I can choose between 10M using anow FDECK first or my amp, which is 1M. I had Josh give me a choice of 1, 4, and 10 without having to ever rearrange my signal path. 4 is a very nice sweet spot, and is rare to find.
That leads to the gain, which is obvious. The HPF is always on. I set those and forget for the gig.
Bass and Treble are set very low and high, and are always active. Lately, my pickup has been sounding dark, and the treble control set that high gives air without too much grit, so it sounds clean. The very low low gives it guts without too much boom or accentuating Wolf tones in a room. Modeled after the frequencies on my Tecamp Puma, which are very effective for upright (40 and 10k I believe).
The 3 fully parametric midrange bands give me full control over my tone in a given room. I wanted more than 2 frequency options, or 1 plus a notch, like a lot of high end preamps. Plus, a lot of preamp seem to not have mid bands that I want to target. Josh was able to cover all the ranges I want to have access to. Those mid bands are always active.
I've found that on a gig when it's time to solo, every boost pedal boosts too much low end it's too thick to make higher notes punch through and sing out without being too obnoxious. So for the "Solo" pedal, it engages the "Boost" section, which includes a tilt EQ control to control the new tone of the hotter level. The switch controls the tilt points, again to my specs. I can also see that as being a "Latin" or "bowing" channel in certain situations, where I want more thump and less definition on Sambas and tunes where there is more or louder drum content. It does not defeat the overall eq in the main EQ bands.
The line output is always effected by all the controls, and has its own independent phase switch for louder situations where there is feedback from the amp.
The balanced output has a ground lift and an independent phase control (not effected by the line out phase). Phase controls are effective by how the sound in a given space and location relative to the speakers affecting the instrument. I only know of a Radial preamp that has these independent controls (and that unit falls short in a lot of other areas).
Finally, the pre/post switch. Post is for when there is no sound guy and I'm in control. Everything on the pedal is what comes out of the XLR. The PRE side is still affected by the gain, input impedance, and HPF, and nothing else. A sound guy can tweak EQ and level mix for the FOH. The line out is strong enough to go into my effects return or power amp and not need the noise and hassle of another preamp stage.
The mute switch mutes everything for set breaks. The LED's are because I like lights. I'm tickled at how amazing this came out.
All in all, it is everything I need for playing any upright bass gig. I put everything I wanted in it, and nothing I don't.
Copied from my post in the Broughton Super thread. I never thought I'd sell it. But although it's awesome, I am ramping back my upright playing in favor of the slab, on purpose. What little I do, I just don't need all this gear. I'd rather someone else get it and use it, and then I can fill my electric rig needs. I'll do $299 shipped. I don't think Josh is doing customs right now, but I did hear a rumor that some features of this may have spawned ideas for a standard piece, though probably not nearly as full-featured.
I told Josh the EXACT things I want in an upright bass preamp, sparing no detail, down to the lights, and everything I could imagine in practical application to me. Other preamps are available commercially, but there's always something missing. And many cost a ton of money. I got EXACTLY what I wanted in the exact time frame he said, and it's better than I imagined! And the price wasn't a stack of Benjamins. I even got to determine the layout, graphics, and the name, of course.
I'll do my best to explain the function. First, I'm primarily a jazz upright player. I love to funk out and rock out on the slabs, but those are easy to make sound good. With upright, every room and every weather pattern can have such a drastic effect on how the upright mixes and functions. Usually, my amplified volume is low to medium. I usually run through my rig with no PA support, but sometimes use no amp and just go through the PA. Rarely, I have a backline plus PA. I have used little buffers, EQ'S, HPF's, even boosters and compressors and dirt pedals and such to make the bass function best. Those Fishman preamps and others like them sound so BLAH to me, and don't have the EQ flexibility I need for every situation. I WILL NOT carry a pedal board to an upright bass gig. One pedal maximum. I like to load in and out in one trip.
The function:
I have tried many input impedances on my Gage Realist pickup and have found that my mood changes with the humidity and how "soft" my fingers feel that day, as well as the venue. Usually, I can choose between 10M using anow FDECK first or my amp, which is 1M. I had Josh give me a choice of 1, 4, and 10 without having to ever rearrange my signal path. 4 is a very nice sweet spot, and is rare to find.
That leads to the gain, which is obvious. The HPF is always on. I set those and forget for the gig.
Bass and Treble are set very low and high, and are always active. Lately, my pickup has been sounding dark, and the treble control set that high gives air without too much grit, so it sounds clean. The very low low gives it guts without too much boom or accentuating Wolf tones in a room. Modeled after the frequencies on my Tecamp Puma, which are very effective for upright (40 and 10k I believe).
The 3 fully parametric midrange bands give me full control over my tone in a given room. I wanted more than 2 frequency options, or 1 plus a notch, like a lot of high end preamps. Plus, a lot of preamp seem to not have mid bands that I want to target. Josh was able to cover all the ranges I want to have access to. Those mid bands are always active.
I've found that on a gig when it's time to solo, every boost pedal boosts too much low end it's too thick to make higher notes punch through and sing out without being too obnoxious. So for the "Solo" pedal, it engages the "Boost" section, which includes a tilt EQ control to control the new tone of the hotter level. The switch controls the tilt points, again to my specs. I can also see that as being a "Latin" or "bowing" channel in certain situations, where I want more thump and less definition on Sambas and tunes where there is more or louder drum content. It does not defeat the overall eq in the main EQ bands.
The line output is always effected by all the controls, and has its own independent phase switch for louder situations where there is feedback from the amp.
The balanced output has a ground lift and an independent phase control (not effected by the line out phase). Phase controls are effective by how the sound in a given space and location relative to the speakers affecting the instrument. I only know of a Radial preamp that has these independent controls (and that unit falls short in a lot of other areas).
Finally, the pre/post switch. Post is for when there is no sound guy and I'm in control. Everything on the pedal is what comes out of the XLR. The PRE side is still affected by the gain, input impedance, and HPF, and nothing else. A sound guy can tweak EQ and level mix for the FOH. The line out is strong enough to go into my effects return or power amp and not need the noise and hassle of another preamp stage.
The mute switch mutes everything for set breaks. The LED's are because I like lights. I'm tickled at how amazing this came out.
All in all, it is everything I need for playing any upright bass gig. I put everything I wanted in it, and nothing I don't.
Copied from my post in the Broughton Super thread. I never thought I'd sell it. But although it's awesome, I am ramping back my upright playing in favor of the slab, on purpose. What little I do, I just don't need all this gear. I'd rather someone else get it and use it, and then I can fill my electric rig needs. I'll do $299 shipped. I don't think Josh is doing customs right now, but I did hear a rumor that some features of this may have spawned ideas for a standard piece, though probably not nearly as full-featured.
