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Best preamp for both live and practise

M

Maynard13x8

Guest
Aug 22, 2015
22
3
44
#1
I don't know if there is a similar thread, but my case, I think, is a bit different. I have a mesa walkabout which is always with me ( I bought it with this in mind) and an stingray so, the sound I get in every situation is warm enough for me. The problem is when I have to practise at home. I'd like to hear me through the earphones and, if was possible, to listent to ,at the same time, the song I'm playing. I know ampeg scr-di has this option, but my doubt is if, out of this, it would be great on stage, providing me some aspects I don't have now.
To add more information, I also use an ebs multicomp, octabass and a t-rex bass juice.
Pd. Apologies for my English.
 
#6
I'm from Spain,Europe,and it seems to be difficult to find 3 leaf enabler here cos is out of production.
Is the ampeg preamp useful on stage or recording?
Would it be better than my walkabout DI?
Could it improve my current gear in some way?
Is the microbass II from Ebs better for my gear?
Thanks
 
#7
It's difficult to find a 3leaf enabler anywhere. I've given up long ago and got a Phil-Jones BigHead. I'm very happy with it. It has both a stereo mix-in and USB so you can mix in audio directly from your computer (the computer sees it just like any audio interface).

I THINK that you should be able to plug it into the FX-send of your walkabout, and use that as a pre-amp.

EDIT: Please check that the Walkabout is safe to operate without a cab first. I don't want to be responsible for blowing up your amp :-)
 
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#9
ProfFrink said:
It's difficult to find a 3leaf enabler anywhere. I've given up long ago and got a Phil-Jones BigHead. I'm very happy with it. It has both a stereo mix-in and USB so you can mix in audio directly from your computer (the computer sees it just like any audio interface).

I THINK that you should be able to plug it into the FX-send of your walkabout, and use that as a pre-amp.

EDIT: Please check that the Walkabout is safe to operate without a cab first. I don't want to be responsible for blowing up your amp :)
Click to expand...
Maybe I am an unconciencious but I've already connected my walkabout long time ago to an external audio card of one of my friends without having checked is it was safe or not. Luckily nothing happened.
Regarding to the Phil Jones, I've just checked it and can't see more utility than practicing at home and record my own traks. In these two fields seems to be great. The problem is that I never record tracks at home, only in the studio with its own recording gear (when I referred to recording, I wanted to say in terms of new sound possibilities). On live stage, it does not seem to be useful because of the lack of the pedal function to provide me another equalization or any other think just in the right moment.
Even so, it's a piece of gear to take into account as far as practicing is concern. Connecting your bass to this small device everywhere (no external supply, no 9v batteries) and start to practise is simply incredible.
What I noticed is that ampeg scr doesn't have much support.
 
#10
Don't know any preamp that does this, but a lot of small budget bass amps have a headphone out and an audio in for playing along with external audio.

This is my way of doing it: I used to use a small mixer for this but since I use the SPL Crimson as an audio-interface I got rid of the mixer. If you need a high-quality interface for recording purposes anyway, I would highly recommend it. It is in the 500,- class.
It can be used standalone without a computer! For me this is a huge advantage and most of the times I just use it without a computer. Besides the four mono or two stereo audio-sources you can connect to record them (3 if you use the digital in), you can connect up to 3 stereo sources just for monitoring purposes.
Otherwise the Ampeg really looks promising. Why don't you read the thread about the Ampeg-SCR-DI and try to find out if the other options this pedal/DI offers are interesting for you?
Another cheaper solution than the SPL would be the new small Yamaha mixers AG03 and AG06 (100-150,-). But proposing this I had in mind that it will solve your problem and offer additional value for you.
 
#15
Maynard13x8 said:
I'm from Spain,Europe,and it seems to be difficult to find 3 leaf enabler here cos is out of production.
Is the ampeg preamp useful on stage or recording?
Would it be better than my walkabout DI?
Could it improve my current gear in some way?
Is the microbass II from Ebs better for my gear?
Thanks
Click to expand...

I'm also in Europe and got my Enabler from bassdirect.co.uk a few months ago this year.

Link:Invalid Link Removed
 
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#16
vincent69 said:
I'm also in Europe and got my Enabler from bassdirect.co.uk. I just checked and it's still available
Click to expand...

If you go into the item-page you'll see that it's "discontinued" and no "buy" button. You can get these used on ebay every once in a while, but yeah - they aren't very easy to come by.

I'm also mostly using headphones for practice because I mainly practice late at night. I've found that for this to work well and really be pleasant I need:
  • A good set of headphones. I'm using either Grado SR80 or Senn HD380pro depending on background noise (the Grado are open-back). Cheap headphones don't produce bass frequencies very well or even at all.
  • A good headphone amp. I'm using a Phil Jones Big-Head for this.
  • Good aux-in.
  • Something that will approximate an amp and cab (amp sim). I'm currently using my Zoom MS-60B for this. Been thinking about a Two-Notes Torpedo CAB, but the cost is much too high for just practice (maybe if I get to play DI this becomes justified).
These are generally not relevant for playing live (expect possibly the amp-sim, and maybe the headphone amp if you can also hook it up to your in-ears mix), and some of these are not done very well by DI-type boxes (e.g. some of them that do have an aux-in will mix it down to mono - I forget which), so my advice is to get a good DI, and worry about the practice part separately.
 

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