18v high gain basses clipping my preamps and compressor

[garmenteros]

I have several high output basses that are not playing well with my aguilar tlc compressor and mesa boogie subway plus preamp. They are clipping heavily and I cant use the gain or master on the preamp to any degree without being exceedingly loud. I know basses have a volume knob but Id like to run it on full, and even lowering it doesnt help much. My first pedal in my chain is the compressor. What are good compressors that handle
High output basses?

 

[KevInDaBassment]

What basses are you running that are giving you issues? What kind of pickups and electronics do you have in them?

 

[ardgedee]

I know basses have a volume knob but Id like to run it on full

If they're active then turning the volume knob down will not affect the tone or pickup behavior. So just turn the volume down.

 

[garmenteros]

A custom bass with 18v mike pope pre and dual nordstrand bigblade man pickups distorts the most and is my highes output bass. My ernieball special 5 and spector alex webster euro are also 18v and clip as well. The pickups are passive only the pres are axtice I believe, but the worst offender is the mikepope nordstrand followed by the EB special.

 

[garmenteros]

Even having volume almost off, I get distortion and theres less room to play with EQ this way. My passive and 9volt basses work fine with this setup.

 

[garmenteros]

My ampeg b15 handles the highest outpt basses without issue.

 

[ardgedee]

If the distortion continues when the volume is low, I'm skeptical it's being caused by your basses' preamps. One preamp might be faulty but it would be strange for all three to be faulty in exactly the same way.

Do you have a passive bass to test with?

 

[mikezimmerman]

I may be mistaken, but it looks like the Pope preamp has a "master gain" trimpot on the EQ board that would let you lower the overall output....

 

[silky smoove]

18V at the preamp doesn't mean the output level is necessarily higher, just that the circuit has more headroom. I agree with others that if you're getting distortion with the volume down it's likely not an output issue. Your volume knob will go all the way to off, so there has to be some part along the pot's sweep where output is no longer a factor. @mikezimmerman makes an excellent point about checking for an internal trimmer.

 

[StyleOverShow]

I've noticed the same effect when using an 18V on board. Seems like the signal is hotter. I run it direct relying on the on board for tone development.

 

[MattLplaysBass]

Do you have all the eq knobs on your active basses cranked all the way up?

 

[Element Zero]

My EBMM StingRay Special plays just fine with my Mesa D800+ amp head. No distortion unless I crank the gain past 12:00 and have it on "Passive" input rather than "Active" even with the Mids or Lows boosted significantly.

Sounds like there's some other issue.

 

[MCS4]

I've never had a problem with any of my active basses on my Mesa Subway DI (non-plus). Lots of other types of pedals are finicky with some actives in my experience, although for me it doesn't seem to be especially correlated with output. Most of my actives have an internal gain trim pot that I tend to keep at a moderate level, which I guess might help with some of them, but if rolling back the volume doesn't help you then raw output probably isn't the issue anyway as others have noted.

 

[JazznFunk]

If there's an internal trim pot, then set that first. My Lakland 44-02 Deluxe (LH3 system) will distort inputs if it's set at a high output and it's a 9V system. 18V isn't the issue.... it's distortion entering the picture somewhere along the way. Have you tried sending your regular signal into a recording console or interface to see if you get distortion there too? What are your EQ settings? If things are really turned up, you definitely could be getting distortion if there are big boosts in the EQ onboard by default. Or.... are the batteries fresh? Dying batteries can introduce distortion even with the volume knob backed off.

 

[GMSweet]

There is an internal trimmer on the Flexcore. My basses have Flexcore preamps at 18V with Kent Armstrong pickups and I wouldn't consider either "high gain." I don't make major boosts on the EQ, but I need a lot of gain on my Mesa D800+ to push the O/D light on (2:00 and higher).

Review the jumper settings while you are in the cavity. Make sure there isn't a jumper on both the 2-band AND 3/4-band EQ selector. If you have the active passive option, try passive as a testing point.

 

[ctmullins]

18V does NOT mean more output.

As @silky smoove said,18V just means more headroom.

Output is the result of several factors, like overall preamp gain design, amount of boost/cut, pickup output, pickup distance to strings, technique, etc.

Try cutting the tone controls on your preamp, not boosting them.

Try lowering the pickups to reduce output (those Nordstrand blades are LOUD).

Replace one of your 9V batteries with an almost-dead one, to reduce overall available voltage much closer to 9V (I don't think this will cause any problems, especially if done as a temporary test measure).

 

[MYLOWFREQ]

I like to run all of my passive basses with the volume full on, but you can turn down the volume on your active bass with no side effects.

 

[JazznFunk]

I like to run all of my passive basses with the volume full on, but you can turn down the volume on your active bass with no side effects.

There are still signal-to-noise ratios with gain staging to consider, but all things being equal, I agree. It still should be possible to run the bass with full volume and not clip, as long as there is no noise coming from the circuitry internally (loose wire/dying battery, etc).

 

[logdrum]

Somebody who knows about pre-amps educated us here that 18V pre-amps do not have more volume or even last longer. IME, my 18v basses are no louder than the 9V ones. For my EMG, BTS it was almost unnoticeable when I went to 18V unless I cranked the bass and it was the last 20% of the dial where there was a difference - Anecdotally - I feel that the I got more mileage off the 18v battery but this person came back with some math and the projected battery life calculation. I stopped arguing.

I have a Mike Pope equipped bass and an SR5 special as the 0P. They are not my loudest hottest output basses. The bass with Lusithand filter preamp is definite high output. Once I pull on that knob, it usually will make my Genz Benz Streamliner grind. Next in line are the John East when you move the preamp output on the board past 33% so I keep it lower than that. And I think the Lusithand is already at minimum on the board

 

[wolffire99]

What are you running these preamps into? I have a suspicion it's your interface that's clipping and not the bass or preamp since you said changing the output of the bass has no effect.