Bass Preamp - Fender Bassman

[hmowat]

Got a fender Bassman cab and head (Bassman 500) into my p-bass. Wondering what preamp I should get to basically replicate this sound when I do shows where I can't bring my amp along? The downtown pedal just tries to do too much in my opinion as I'm happy with my compressor etc. Any suggestions welcome

 

[cosmicevan]

Got a fender Bassman cab and head (Bassman 500) into my p-bass. Wondering what preamp I should get to basically replicate this sound when I do shows where I can't bring my amp along? The downtown pedal just tries to do too much in my opinion as I'm happy with my compressor etc. Any suggestions welcome

Broughton makes 3 - Silver Deluxe, Super Stack, and Super Stack DI (SSDI). Sushi makes one. I am sure there are others.

 

[chiphaleonbass]

Shift Line Olympic, I've got a Bassman 500, running the Shift Line into it just sounds like the Bassman with more tube grit. Pairs really nicely, and I get my sound everywhere, with Cab IR's for the FOH engineer.

 

[4Mal]

There are some great preamps based on the RcA tone stack. Alembic F1X, F2B at the high end, BBE B/T max are a little down scale from the Alembic's but very, very good. Or just take your amp, and use the DI?

I have a custom 'Normal' channel from a Showman/Twin in a project box. When I want the RCA interactive tone stack, I'm covered.

 

[hmowat]

Shift Line Olympic, I've got a Bassman 500, running the Shift Line into it just sounds like the Bassman with more tube grit. Pairs really nicely, and I get my sound everywhere, with Cab IR's for the FOH engineer.

Almost impossible to get the Olympic in the UK now. Do you think I could get a similar things from the EBS valvedrive?

 

[bassbrad]

Joyo American Sound

 

[chiphaleonbass]

Almost impossible to get the Olympic in the UK now. Do you think I could get a similar things from the EBS valvedrive?

I've never used the Valve Drive; although I'm sure you can find plenty of folks on here who do. From what I've gathered it's great, just won't have the Cab IR's without a separate pedal.

Someone above mentioned SushiBoxFX, their Particle Accelerator IMO can't be beat. The sound that that tiny tube pedal pumps out is nothing short of incredible. Just don't get the XLR line out from that; but you can definitely put something like that last in your chain to give the preamp color before hitting other amps.

I've even used the Tech 21 VT-DI to get a similar sound when playing out of more modern sounding rigs and it helped bring the vibe of the Bassman.

Catalinbread makes the Formula 5F6 that could be worth looking into, as it's modeled after the Bassman circuit.

Hope this helps!