Benavente preamp

Well, I finally decided to take the plunge today after talking with Brian at the LowEnd about this preamp. The thing that really caught my eye was the fact that when the EQ is set flat (no boost or cut) it has a flat frequency response. Basically, this means that when it's set flat it sounds exactly like your passive bass with all the controls run wide open. As I mentioned, this was a big deal to me. In the past, I've tried the Seymour Duncan Basslines preamp and the EMG BTC preamp. Both sounded good, but they both altered the tone of my bass, which really griped me.

The preamp is really compact and it fit perfectly in my Mexican J-bass. The only modification needed was room for the battery (which I had already routed out under the pickguard) and to relocate the jack.

You have the choice of either having the bass control as boost only or boost/cut. It also has a preamp bypass which was also a plus for me since From my understanding most of the Benavente basses have boost only, but I went with boost/cut. I'm always paranoid about my battery dieing in the middle of a gig.

My inital impressions

Wow! I only had room for one 9 volt right now, so the preamps only running at half mass and I must say I'm floored. Totally clear in every total region. A lot of basses I've played with active electronics sound kinda poopy when frequencies are boosted past a certian point, but this thing is great. It almost sounds like your adjusting the controls on the amp instead of the bass. I can't wait untill I get the rest of my bass routed so I can try it at 18 volts.

I've got band practice this Friday so I'll have a chance to give it a run with the whole band to see how it turns out.

Thus far, I have to say I'm totally impressed. Not one gripe at this point. I highly, highly suggest trying this thing out if you get a chance. The price tag is $150 which is a bit pricey for people like me but it meets all my expectations. All the preamps are made by hand and inspected personally by Brian so I'm guessing there are no bad apples.

I just think Brian should make theese things easier to find on the LowEnd site. It's really a shame more people don't know aobut theese. It's like he doens't want people ot buy them or something. too lazy to solder I guess.

I'll try to get some sound clips up in the next week or so.

 

I hate when you post that bass in a thread because I have to look at it for 5 minutes before I can do anything else. Simplicity rules!