AMT Brick "Alembic Tube Preamp" pedal

[kevmac]

I have the GlowPlug and Slampegg, yet to have them on the same board but I feel they have different purposes, GlowPlug for natural grit and Slampegg for tone - it gets grit just fine but that's not my primary use. I just have to figure out where I would use the Slampegg vs. the SV-Pre.

I'm intrigued with the Glow Plug.Never heard of it till now.I've asked Moon for his thoughts because he's the preamp bmoc.I did notice he got rid of one a while back,so I guess that kinda answers that.Anyway you seem to like it and I have my eyes on one that says new and it ships free from Japan.I would appreciate some thoughts from users before pulling any trigger.

 

[moon-bass]

What's your thoughts on the Eden Glow Plug? I've been seeing it come up on this thread.I found one new from Japan for under $150 and free shipping.Does this sound right?

I liked it, but not enough to keep it as a tone enhancer. It's very similar to the Sushibox Finally/Space Heater. If it would have had a DI I probably would have kept it and not gotten a Finally. The mix and crossover knobs were useless to me, but it adds a nice warmth and thickness. If you can get it cheap and don't need the DI I would say it's worth it.

 

[Klangfarbe]

150$ is to much. When it got discontinued around 2 years ago, they where blown out for around 70$ to 90$.

The Glowplug isn't a super versatile Pedal. It's more of very specialized kind of tool that does exactly one thing, but that better then everybody else. So the thing it does, is that thick and thumpy lowend with a nice touch of (clean to medium drive) tubyness.

Here someone has uploaded some nice samples of how it sounds.

 

[kevmac]

150$ is to much. When it got discontinued around 2 years ago, they where blown out for around 70$ to 90$.

The Glowplug isn't a super versatile Pedal. It's more of very specialized kind of tool that does exactly one thing, but that better then everybody else. So the thing it does, is that thick and thumpy lowend with a nice touch of (clean to medium drive) tubyness.

Here someone has uploaded some nice samples of how it sounds.

So that sounds a bit overpriced.Everything discontinued is a classic to some I guess.I heard some pretty good samples but many consider the pedal kinda "meh"from things I've read.Then again others really like it.I have a lot of very good preamp pedals and a few good O.D.- distortion peds. And Tim's currently building my ME Super 800.So since it isn't a consensus home run and as you claim overpriced, we'll give it a pass.You know while I was looking at video I did happen across the Sushi Box Dr.Watson that caught my ear...Thanks much.

 

[Btbp]

IMNSHO I don't think the GlowPlug is overpriced at all. Depends how you want to use it, it suits my use case and I would not want it with a DI.

For me it's yet another separate pedal for certain tone and/or grit. Kind of like a Night Owl Edison but with (much more) control. It's a way of adding warmth when I'm using one of my Eden Class D heads when I don't need to carry my WT-400. I don't use it as an always-on but I could see it easily being used that way.

The GlowPlug compliments rather than supersedes Pres and does a lot for its size. I don't really think of it as a Pre and it would not replace my LS, then again I am not much of a Dirt/OD/Fuzz user, and I would use it more than I would a dirt pedal.

Oh and I bought mine used from someone on this board, they turn up in the Classifieds or Reverb or Ebay from time to time at reasonable prices. Didn't know they were discontinued (though probably everything is now that Marshall has their grip on what was Eden). That might make them pricier than they were a while ago.

 

[kevmac]

IMNSHO I don't think the GlowPlug is overpriced at all. Depends how you want to use it, it suits my use case and I would not want it with a DI.

For me it's yet another separate pedal for certain tone and/or grit. Kind of like a Night Owl Edison but with (much more) control. It's a way of adding warmth when I'm using one of my Eden Class D heads when I don't need to carry my WT-400. I don't use it as an always-on but I could see it easily being used that way.

The GlowPlug compliments rather than supersedes Pres and does a lot for its size. I don't really think of it as a Pre and it would not replace my LS, then again I am not much of a Dirt/OD/Fuzz user, and I would use it more than I would a dirt pedal.

Oh and I bought mine used from someone on this board, they turn up in the Classifieds or Reverb or Ebay from time to time at reasonable prices. Didn't know they were discontinued (though probably everything is now that Marshall has their grip on what was Eden). That might make them pricier than they were a while ago.

I will admit I do like the tone as I think it is presented as you and others state,a tone warmer.150 bucks,others would know better than me if that's overpriced.That said I did a lot of " soul searching" and talked myself out of this current "gas attack".For now.

 

[kevmac]

IMNSHO I don't think the GlowPlug is overpriced at all. Depends how you want to use it, it suits my use case and I would not want it with a DI.

For me it's yet another separate pedal for certain tone and/or grit. Kind of like a Night Owl Edison but with (much more) control. It's a way of adding warmth when I'm using one of my Eden Class D heads when I don't need to carry my WT-400. I don't use it as an always-on but I could see it easily being used that way.

The GlowPlug compliments rather than supersedes Pres and does a lot for its size. I don't really think of it as a Pre and it would not replace my LS, then again I am not much of a Dirt/OD/Fuzz user, and I would use it more than I would a dirt pedal.

Oh and I bought mine used from someone on this board, they turn up in the Classifieds or Reverb or Ebay from time to time at reasonable prices. Didn't know they were discontinued (though probably everything is now that Marshall has their grip on what was Eden). That might make them pricier than they were a while ago.

Oops' I did it again. I could not help myself and ordered one. I must have read 50 reviews and watched a ton of videos and I had to scratch my itchy trigger finger. Seriously, the tone samples and vids sound so good.Moonbass (the guy with the largest collection of preamps in existence) told me it isn't so much a preamp as a warmer (you hinted at this also)and that suits me fine,.So I'll try it in front of one of mine as an always on pedal.Time will tell.

 

[Phaidrus]

@el murdoque
@Funky40
@moon-bass
@ccouch7
@kevmac

If you could buy only one pedal to cleanly fatten up and also boost the tone of a passive Pbass for reggae-dub application, would you chose the AMT A-Bass (and perhaps swap the stock tube with a 12AT7 or 12AU7) or a Markbass Compressore tube compressor?

PS. To this effect, and in case you would suggest the A-Bass, would you choose "DRIVE" or "PREAMP" output when connected into the front of an amp head that already has a preamp?

 

[moon-bass]

@el murdoque
@Funky40
@moon-bass
@ccouch7
@kevmac

If you could buy only one pedal to cleanly fatten up and also boost the tone of a passive Pbass for reggae-dub application, would you chose the AMT A-Bass (and perhaps swap the stock tube with a 12AT7 or 12AU7) or a Markbass Compressore tube compressor?

PS. To this effect, and in case you would suggest the A-Bass, would you choose "DRIVE" or "PREAMP" output when connected into the front of an amp head that already has a preamp?

Both will fatten up your sound, but for reggae/dub I would by far go for the A Bass as it has more tone control. Preamp mode.

 

[Phaidrus]

Both will fatten up your sound, but for reggae/dub I would by far go for the A Bass as it has more tone control. Preamp mode.

Thanks. Would it make any difference tone- and boost-wise if I'd connect the bass to the pedal with a relatively short cable and then a longer cable to the amp or, conversely, a long cable run from bass to pedal and then a short patch cable from pedal to amp?

 

[moon-bass]

Thanks. Would it make any difference tone- and boost-wise if I'd connect the bass to the pedal with a relatively short cable and then a longer cable to the amp or, conversely, a long cable run from bass to pedal and then a short patch cable from pedal to amp?

The max you should use for a guitar cable is 20 feet. After that you experience signal loss. As long as either cable is 20 feet or less, it won't make a difference.

Edit for clarity: both cables need to be under 20 feet each. Also, I think guitar cables longer than 20 feet should be pretty rare.

 

[el murdoque]

Both will fatten up your sound, but for reggae/dub I would by far go for the A Bass as it has more tone control. Preamp mode.

I agree on this.

 

[Funky40]

AMT A-Bass (and perhaps swap the stock tube with a 12AT7 or 12AU7) or a Markbass Compressore tube compressor?

no, use again a 12AX7 for the A-Bass.

this is the gain chart that has been posted in my "tube rolling" thread:

Gain factor (military equivalents in parenthesis):
100 = 12ax7/ECC83 (CV4004/7025)
70 = 5751
60 = 12at7/ECC81 (CV4024/6201/12at7WA)
44 = 12ay7 (6072A)
41 = 12AV7
20 = 12au7/ECC82 (596

The A-Bass is NOT necessarily setup as your overdrive pedal, ....like the O-Bass.
this means, -dependend on the gain of your bass-, that you might have to crank the gain allready quite a bit bevore you are close to the break-up point.
The tubes you mentioned would shift that point towards, that you had to crank even further.
I suggest you read at least the full page two and parts of page 3 of this thread:
rolling tubes on pre-amps: needs a burn in time ?

 

[moon-bass]

no, use again a 12AX7 for the A-Bass.

this is the gain chart that has been posted in my "tube rolling" thread:

Gain factor (military equivalents in parenthesis):
100 = 12ax7/ECC83 (CV4004/7025)
70 = 5751
60 = 12at7/ECC81 (CV4024/6201/12at7WA)
44 = 12ay7 (6072A)
41 = 12AV7
20 = 12au7/ECC82 (596

The A-Bass is NOT necessarily setup as your overdrive pedal, ....like the O-Bass.
this means, -dependend on the gain of your bass-, that you might have to crank the gain allready quite a bit bevore you are close to the break-up point.
The tubes you mentioned would shift that point towards, that you had to crank even further.
I suggest you read at least the full page two and parts of page 3 of this thread:
rolling tubes on pre-amps: needs a burn in time ?

He did say that he was looking for clean, so he'd be looking for a more clean gain before breakup. In that case a 12ax7 wouldn't be the best choice.

 

[el murdoque]

He did say that he was looking for clean, so he'd be looking for a more clean gain before breakup. In that case a 12ax7 wouldn't be the best choice.

In theory yes,
but would you not agree that the A-Bass with the original tube (which is a 12AX7) easily has enough clean range on the gain knob for basically anything?
This was not a pedal I tried and thought "I wish it would break up later on the gain knob".

 

[moon-bass]

In theory yes,
but would you not agree that the A-Bass with the original tube (which is a 12AX7) easily has enough clean range on the gain knob for basically anything?
This was not a pedal I tried and thought "I wish it would break up later on the gain knob".

I'm sure that the original tube would be fine - I wasn't suggesting that he replace the tube.

 

[kevmac]

@el murdoque
@Funky40
@moon-bass
@ccouch7
@kevmac

If you could buy only one pedal to cleanly fatten up and also boost the tone of a passive Pbass for reggae-dub application, would you chose the AMT A-Bass (and perhaps swap the stock tube with a 12AT7 or 12AU7) or a Markbass Compressore tube compressor?

PS. To this effect, and in case you would suggest the A-Bass, would you choose "DRIVE" or "PREAMP" output when connected into the front of an amp head that already has a preamp?

I would probably go with the A Bass for what you are looking to accomplish.I don't know much on the Mark Bass Compressore and I've no experience with tube comps.I'm currently using the Darkglass Hyper Luminal that is probably more versatile since it has 3 different compressor models In one.I'ts FET mode set to "All In" definitely helps fatten your bass sound.More so than any comp I've used.Plus it may be cheaper than the Mark.Have you looked at the Sans Amp Tech 21 YYZ or 2112? No tube but both are tone monsters.You can even cop Geddys' tone,and that's not a bad thing.The YYZ is a cheaper alternative and you might find one used.

 

[Phaidrus]

I would probably go with the A Bass for what you are looking to accomplish.I don't know much on the Mark Bass Compressore and I've no experience with tube comps.I'm currently using the Darkglass Hyper Luminal that is probably more versatile since it has 3 different compressor models In one.I'ts FET mode set to "All In" definitely helps fatten your bass sound.More so than any comp I've used.Plus it may be cheaper than the Mark.Have you looked at the Sans Amp Tech 21 YYZ or 2112? No tube but both are tone monsters.You can even cop Geddys' tone,and that's not a bad thing.The YYZ is a cheaper alternative and you might find one used.

I suppose at the moment I'm under the spell of the tube voodoo, so it's got to have one in it. And so far all agree that the A-Bass is the better option for my dub tone goal, so most probably it'll be this one along with some tube rolling for endless hours of fun at the heart of winter.

 

[Funky40]

He did say that he was looking for clean,

since that was pointed towards me:
No, not exactly. he did not say he wants clean,....he wants a "clean warm" sound.
(i´ve read it up on the previous page / on top / ......check yourself !)
also: @Phaidrus has posted demos of the Reggae sound he is after.
That is definitly NOT aynthing clean
Just, the question is here: how do we want to define "clean" ? and how "overdriven" ?
there is a forums wiki btw. , and i had a look at this a few weeks back.
Myself very confused with this terms, and recognising that folks use this terms quite differently.


anyway.
I have a A-Bass, and i just remembered that my Bass has a active-passive switch
i had a quick check, with EEC83 and EEC81 ( 12AX7 and 12at7).
See the gain numbers in my above post !

(my A-Bass was used standalone. Bass directly into it / listened with (Good) headphones, tough / no AMP afterwards)
My opinion: you *definitly* want to have a 12AX7 tube in the A-Bass !
at least when feeding it with a passive Bass.
My pickups in this Bass have btw. a quite hot output.
Could easily be that another passive Bass has less gain coming in.

With 12AX7 was the most useful range between 12 and 3 o´clock.
Bevore 12 makes no sense at all......since nobody needs tubes to drive them that low,
and to make this point also, nobody wants to have tubes to run them "really" clean, no ?

From 1 o´clock could you consider the sound to be "overdriven", dependend on playing style.
I´d claim the overdriven range starts at 2 o´clock.
Again: my Bass just set to passive !

BUT: even at full CW did i not had too much overdrive, that it would no longer suit some Reggae
also, -me, beeing a sounddesign guy in fact-, can i tell you, that you allways want to have a tad bit too much of what you´re surching for, ......so you can dial it a bit back, and you´d exactly know its right, .....and you also know, you´re not missing out on anything

For Reggae do you want to drive your tube hot to some degree. At least my standpoint on this.
I tryed to create a Reggae sound the other day ( and also opened a own therad on this, since i have no flat wounds). You want to have some or even much* compression coming from the tube. * much / would be my claim.
And: on my attempts to create a fat Reggae sound did my compressor NOT feel right ! Not for the "compression-feel" as such.
It was the tube compression which made it way more sound like a real Reggae Bass from the good Bands.

ok, my A-Bass with my 12AX7 ( not the original one, i run a TAD RT0010 right now / and i have no spare Gold Lion right now, i could check) is delivering from 1 or 2 o´clock on, more and more and more compression, turning the gain pot finally to complete CW.
at some point the overdrive becomes noticeable and more, but its in the Bass and it is warm !
even at full CW.
I found the whole sound range perfectly well suited.

AND: i like the 3 band EQ ! i took the highs out, mids at 9 or 10 o´clock, cranking the Bass !
(and: its seems the EQ is bevore the tube ! so, taking out highs and mids made the tube act differently when driving her !......from there my feel of a warm and nice overdriven sound.
its a very nice sound range this way.


Now, for completness:
i swaped the tube to a ECC81, the one from my O-Bass.
This works also, yes !
With my Bass ( in passive mode) do i still get into "overdriven" terrain.
it could be sufficient.......but if you only had that tube, would you never know what you miss,
and: you win nothing vs. just using a good 12AX7, other than that you just could crank up the gain to full CW, and it would never be too much OD ( such setup could be nice for a live Bassist, if such full CW setting IS a perfect match)


for a fat Reggae sound, as per the demos posted by @Phaidrus in his thread, do you definitly want to check out that whole saturation/compression/warm overdrive terrain.

my A-Bass with my 12AX7, the TAD RT010, has the perfect settings for such a sound at around 1 - 3 o´clock.
12 o´clock is very clean, further CCW do you lose all the gain. It starts then quickly to dim down the gain.

Volume knob is past the tube. perfect to dial in the final gainstaging, for example whne feeding your amp.

if you want to look for tubes to roll: i´d say, look for 12AX7 and NOT 12AX7. 12AU7 is a nogo here.
the TAD RT010 works good, sounds warm. Can´t compare to the goldlion right now.
I´d take a Genalex gold Lion. ( the TAD RT010 is the same soundfamily i´d say).


A-Bass is a great device for shure.


edit: strings used were: pureNickels

 

[kevmac]

I suppose at the moment I'm under the spell of the tube voodoo, so it's got to have one in it. And so far all agree that the A-Bass is the better option for my dub tone goal, so most probably it'll be this one along with some tube rolling for endless hours of fun at the heart of winter.

You won't be sorry with the A Bass,oh yeah I got an email today from AMT and they'll be holding a 20% off holiday sale on their website.I bought mine off there and shipping was pretty fast.Good CS also.Let me know if you find the sale, there may be a code. I'm sure it'll be clear on their site but I saved the email in case.They make some cool stuff. I just went back to look at the Email and I don't see a code.It says it starts on 12-20 until 12-31 only on their site AMT.com. Happy shopping!