Double Bass Art tube mp anyone?

[Kristian]

I've got excited to try a tube preamp for my piezo (and maybe my mic as well) and I saw this cheap preamp on Thomann
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Did anyone try it?

 

[N. Kentucky Bass]

I owned one. It does not "infuse" the tone with a tube feel the way you'd expect. Felt more like a gimmick. You get what you pay for.

 

[DoubleMIDI]

I owned one. It does not "infuse" the tone with a tube feel the way you'd expect. Felt more like a gimmick. You get what you pay for.

Same impression. Got one used and wanted to use it for a condenser mic. Might be OK for a cheapish condenser, but not for something you really want to use.

 

[Kristian]

I owned one. It does not "infuse" the tone with a tube feel the way you'd expect. Felt more like a gimmick. You get what you pay for.

I see...
Is there another "cheap" option on the market? I would of course like to try the sarno black box but I live in Europe...

 

[Eric Hochberg]

Art Tube Pre is not a quality product. I had one that worked ok for a while. Bought another after it died, but the new one was too noisy to use. Tried another and it was also noisy.

 

[flatback]

Here is the thing K...For the tube to do it's thing properly, it has to have a boat load of hi voltage going to it. If you see a "tube" preamp that uses a 9v wall wart it is starving the tube and not really doing anything except calling itself tube.

 

[AGCurry]

I echo all the comments above.

 

[Francois Blais]

The PreSonus TubePre is in the same category but quite better actually.
I own two of them.

 

[Ric Vice]

Here is the thing K...For the tube to do it's thing properly, it has to have a boat load of hi voltage going to it. If you see a "tube" preamp that uses a 9v wall wart it is starving the tube and not really doing anything except calling itself tube.

Yep, that's why you don't want to work inside an Ampeg B-15N even if it's unpugged. Those large electrolytic capacitors can hold a charge around 500 volts. They have to be discharged safely

 

[Jay Corwin]

I too went down this road. It's a glorified phantom supply with volume. Noise directly proportional to gain.

 

[Michael Glynn]

It's a glorified phantom supply with volume.

That pretty much covers it. I have one (actually the even more bare bones $40 version) for those occasions where I need phantom power, a little gain, and/or a balanced DI out. In noisy clubs it works fine and sounds good enough, and I won't care much if someone spills a beer on it. But yeah, I wouldn't count on it to make any great improvements to your tone.

 

[Kristian]

Thanks everyone, I've never seen talkbass that unison before.
I'll see if I can borrow a tube preamp from someone before ordering a black box.

 

[Matthias Hacker]

I guess even a very fine tube pre won´t sound great with a piezo, if it doesn´t have a very high input impedance. 3 MegOhm at least, better 5. The vari Z input impedance is a key feature, and I´m afraid there this feature is very very rare.

 

[Kristian]

I guess even a very fine tube pre won´t sound great with a piezo, if it doesn´t have a very high input impedance. 3 MegOhm at least, better 5. The vari Z input impedance is a key feature, and I´m afraid there this feature is very very rare.

All roads go to the Sarno black box...

 

[Ric Vice]

I guess even a very fine tube pre won´t sound great with a piezo, if it doesn´t have a very high input impedance. 3 MegOhm at least, better 5. The vari Z input impedance is a key feature, and I´m afraid there this feature is very very rare.

There are a few devices that have variable impedance loading. The Headway EDB-2 has 1/5/20 Meg Ohms. The Grace Felix also has 3 different ones. Broughton Audio has one as well. Even an Ampeg B-15N has three different impedance settings depending on which input you use. The Channel 1 primary input is has a 4.6 Meg ohm load. I find all those devices to work very well. The Sarno is the next step in the evolution of these devices.

 

[unbrokenchain]

I use the Art tube mp between my Realist and GK MB112ii when I use that amp, only for a gain stage, it does just fine. I agree the fact that it has a tube in there seems like some kind of gimmick. But if you just need a gain boost or phantom power on stage, I think I got mine for 20 bucks, just sayin..

 

[Roland GR 88]

I've used an old ART Tube Levelar for acoustics and piezo equipped guitars for a long time. It works well enough that I've never replaced it with anything better - and almost everything would be considered 'better'.
You might look into tube compressors as an acoustic front end instead for warmth, a little compression obviously and a gain stage if needed. Beware however, it's a deep dark hole to fall in.