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AMT Brick "Alembic Tube Preamp" pedal
- Thread starter CC7
- Start date
Possibly, yes. In the text it's not clear if it's also suitable for bass. There's a bass boost and a bright-mellow switch, and one can always roll some tubes, as is in fact recommended in the text. The proof is in the pudding, I suppose. But it's an expensive pudding at that. Looks sexy though.
Aye, there's the rub.So much cool gear available,at a price.Possibly, yes. In the text it's not clear if it's also suitable for bass. There's a bass boost and a bright-mellow switch, and one can always roll some tubes, as is in fact recommended in the text. The proof is in the pudding, I suppose. But it's an expensive pudding at that. Looks sexy though.
I usually however try to stay with "made for bass"stuff.
Using a crossover pedal really opens up lots of possibilities, and would allow you to use "guitar" pedals without losing your low-end ! Definitely something worth trying.
Cross-Over (Crossover or Splitter) pedals
Hey all
I've got one of these A-bass preamps on order in the hope to get somewhere in the ballpark of my dream Trace Elliot V-type tone for recording (which I understands uses an alembic like circuit). I do have the opportunity to buy a V4 head for £1k but that seems overkill as i don't play live and would still need a speaker load to use the direct out for recording (unless I am mistaken?). A few questions:
1) can anyone who has had experience with both a v-type and the a-bass comment on how close the a-bass can come to a v-type tone?
2) does the a-bass need to be set at 2-10-2 to be flat? For me the appeal is the mid cut as I play a 70s jazz with a pick and like a mid cut to clean out my recorded tone and allow room for other elements
3) what is the actual function of the deep switch on the v-type (mid scoop OR bass freq selector??) and will I miss this function with the a-bass?
thanks in advance
Cx
I've got one of these A-bass preamps on order in the hope to get somewhere in the ballpark of my dream Trace Elliot V-type tone for recording (which I understands uses an alembic like circuit). I do have the opportunity to buy a V4 head for £1k but that seems overkill as i don't play live and would still need a speaker load to use the direct out for recording (unless I am mistaken?). A few questions:
1) can anyone who has had experience with both a v-type and the a-bass comment on how close the a-bass can come to a v-type tone?
2) does the a-bass need to be set at 2-10-2 to be flat? For me the appeal is the mid cut as I play a 70s jazz with a pick and like a mid cut to clean out my recorded tone and allow room for other elements
3) what is the actual function of the deep switch on the v-type (mid scoop OR bass freq selector??) and will I miss this function with the a-bass?
thanks in advance
Cx
Hi guys... Anyone had a chance to compare the Brick O-bass with the real Orange ad200??
@kevmac
The stock tube in my A-Bass pedal was/is a Tung-Sol 12AX7. Tried some others but put the Tung-Sol back as I think the pedal works best with it. No significant differences though among tubes.
Sorry for the lost A-Bass audio clips in my earlier post. I took them down because I found I was clipping the Torpedo C.A.B. input a little (had it on instrument instead of line level input), and was going to redo them and repost them, but I found I couldn't edit that post anymore (really? and hour or so and post can't be edited?).
So I slacked off and didn't redo them yet (but I will here soon).
But we've been working on recording some songs lately and here's rough mix of a song using
the A-Bass and the O-Bass (with kinda dead strings).
The bass was recorded through this pedalboard-
View attachment 3846387
View attachment 3846389
Alembic Epic 4 > HXFX pedalboard.
The A-Bass and O-Bass are in the two separate loops (1 and 2) of the HX Effects board, recording three separate D.I. signals at once.
Track 1 = Dry D.I. Radial JDI Stereo, Left XLR out to interface.
Track 2 = Wet D.I. Radial JDI Stereo, Right XLR out to interface.
Track 3 = Wet (Right 1/4") Thru out of Radial JDI Stereo to Mesa M6 amp. head XLR D.I. out to interface.
There is a bass cab IR being used on the two Wet D.I.'s
I only used the GK cab for monitoring while tracking.
The bass sound was mixed for the song using whatever means I felt I needed to. So this is not meant to be a clip of just the tube preamps alone, but I used no other dirt or preamps in the song.
The A-Bass is always on (for the cleaner parts) and I'm kicking the the O-Bass in placed after the A-Bass in the signal chain for the dirtier parts.
Anyway I'll try to do some proper example sound clips of the AMT's pretty soon.
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
I uploaded a 24bit wav to Soundcloud but I'm pretty sure they convert it to MP3 for playback.
That's my excuse and I'm stickin' to it lol.
Question about the hx fx. I'm thinking of getting digital fx unit for modulation, delay, filters, all that. I don't think I'll rely on them for like pre amp, distortion an I have a really
Nice rig so I guess I'm wondering is this worth it for just thr fx. Your board is a lot like
How I'd like mine to
Look
Is there a pedal pre that's close to the Abass sound? All the Pres I try are pretty hot I'm tryin to get that edge of breakup an im jam band stuff so it's gets heavy rock sometimes
Goose is the band of reference for tone. But I love the alembic clean yet grindy tone. Was wondering what other pedal are similar that maybe are easier to get on pedal
Board or get period. The agulir tone hammer seems to be in that range. Darkglass is seemingly to metal. I don't want it
To be a constant distortion just when digging in at the right times. I also wondered about the sansamp or the soul food. The soul food is so loved in guitar world for being a clean boost with just hardy and grit to push that slight breakup tone I wonder would
The soul food for bass be a good
Option for now
Goose is the band of reference for tone. But I love the alembic clean yet grindy tone. Was wondering what other pedal are similar that maybe are easier to get on pedal
Board or get period. The agulir tone hammer seems to be in that range. Darkglass is seemingly to metal. I don't want it
To be a constant distortion just when digging in at the right times. I also wondered about the sansamp or the soul food. The soul food is so loved in guitar world for being a clean boost with just hardy and grit to push that slight breakup tone I wonder would
The soul food for bass be a good
Option for now
@Sushi Box FX Underground Accelerator is brilliant on bass, lots of tube mojo and the Fender TMB tone stack and runs on 9v.
There is the Bass Soul Food and the Hot Tubes works well for me for that bit of grit with my UA.
I definitely think it's worth for what you want, some of the dirt is really good too for bass, IMO.
Put your preamp of choice in one of the loops and you can move it to anywhere in the chain you want.
Really like the scribble strips on the HXFX too.
Since we're in the A-Bass thread.. I just wanted to mention that the A-Bass is IMO one of the most under-rated tube preamps out there.
Yyyuuuppp!! That's why I've been chasing the tone. I have a guy on reverb willing to trade for my micro synth the synth is worh more but I mean finding this pre amp is tough an to do a straight up trade might be worth it!
There are quite a few copies of the Alembic F-2B similar to the AMT A-Bass.
I've owned an AMT for a while, but I sold it when I tried it against a Sushi Box FX Particle Accelerator.
Basically any tube preamp with the Fender Tonestack gets you in the ballpark.
Broughton Audio SuperStack: This is a super nice pedal, but it is total unobtainium. I've been searching for about a year until I could get my hands on one.
EBS Valve Drive.
V1 has weird power requirements and no DI. V2 has 9V and a DI out. Sounds a bit softer than the AMT, with a little bit more warmth to it and while it feels like it's based on the same thing, it does not really feel like a straight up copy.
Sushi Box FX Particle Accelerator and Underground Accelerator
The PA is a straight up copy of the Alembic. The Underground Accelerator is based on the PA and the London Underground (which is based on an Orange Amp). The tone stack is the same, but in my experiments, the PA feels like it wants to be played clean, goes without distorting for longer and then quickly jumps over into grindy territory.
The Underground Accelerator is a bit more juicy and less dry. It has a wide range between completely clean and solid drive where you can select how much you want - clean sound with singing overtones and just a hint of hair? That's what it excels at.
Dexter Labs - The Preamp.
Could be that the tube in mine was not the original one, but this had, for my ear, a bit too much treble presence. Apart from that it was a tube preamp with Fender tonestack that stayed quite clean for a long reach on the gain knob.
Noble Preamp DI: It's not a copy of the Alembic and it does not have a mids knob, but both bass and treble are boost only knobs like on the Alembic and it is a super clean tube preamp. I admit it's on the pricey side of things and somewhat of an endgame unit, but if you want a clear and clean tube driven preamp sound, it does not get much better than that.
Tweeks' sound just sits so well in their mix and he's such a tireless servant to their groove. My guess is that his sweet tone is largely achieved by way of his bass and a great amp involving a tube or two. That said, I will echo previous remarks wherein the sushi box underground accelerator (UA) was recommended: I'm not saying that the UA will grant you the Tweeks tone, but it's a great start and I just adore mine. Incidentally, insofar as pedals, I'm pretty sure Tweeks make use of the panda audio future impact on occasion.
I used to own an A-Bass. The Underground Accelerator is much better......it has wider range of sounds from clean through raw OD, works well with lower gain tubes (like 12au7) which give it a bigger clean range, and has more responsive eq. The AMT controls sounded so subtle to my ear that they were only marginally useful, but the Fender tone stack on the UA works as expected. IME this isn't a close race. Other than my Empress comp, my UA (or Dream Catcher, which is a 2 channel pre in which one channel is essentially a UA and the other a more aggressive circuit) would be that last pedal I'd part with.
I bought the A Bass and the O directly through the AMT website.They were easy to deal with and the shipping was fairly quick and reasonable.
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