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blending preamp pedals.

#21
I do!
Been recently running my sushi box particle accelerator into my Subway DI. Adding the tube gain stage was a real game changer and pushes the Subway DI into some great new territories!

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#25
Sure.... it just depends on what you're wanting to achieve, and being careful with gain staging. For a while, I used to run my Lakland 44-02 into an Aguilar Tone Hammer (for additional midrange control and other aspects I liked about the TH), and then into an EBS ValveDrive for tube warmth before hitting my solid-state Eden or SWR amps. Mind you, I always set the gain to be the same with each preamp 'off' as it was when 'on', and started with 'flat' EQs so I wasn't overloading anything, and would set the Valve Drive up to get whatever amount of tube warmth or grunt I wanted. At some point I was using a Tech21 VT Bass as well in my 'super tone tweaker' stage. It always worked great for FOH and for my stage sound. Just be careful with the volume stacking and you can experiment with how everything overlaps.
 
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#27
For a minute I ran a Stingray Special preamp into a MXR M80, into a Tone Hammer, into a Sansamp, into a Whirldwind 10 band eq, into both Chanel’s of a Mesa 400+ at the same time. It sounded great and thick thick thick but ultimately I decided it was silly and now just run my ray pre into a Sansamp into my TT800.
 
#28
I have four different preamp pedals and yeah, they regularly get mixed:

Henretta Emerald Prince
Sadowsky SBP-1
Night Owl Industries Edison
JHS Pandamonium

They each bring a little something different to the table. The Emerald Prince is kinda like the BBE Sonic Maximizer -- by just turning it on, it adds a fantastic mojo to your sound... takes a great tone and makes it better. The Sadowsky = that great Sadowsky sound. The Edison brings a tubey, warm cushion to everything. And the Pandamonium nails the Ampeg sound quite well.

They all sound killer, but the Emerald Prince is the one I'm tempted to add no matter what the scenario. All the others are a case-by-case decision.

The Edison run into Sadowsky is especially sweet.

Jesse Mayberry said:
Has anyone else had any luck blending preamp pedals?
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#29
This doesn't sound unusual to me at all. I use my SansAmp BDDI with drive in a similar way.

I love my drive, EWS Stormy, but it cuts low-end just a bit. So I turn on the BDDI to add a little fatness and warmth back. In concept it's pretty similar to what you described. If the BDDI had a drive tone I liked, my pedal board would be simpler, but the chase for tone is an endless one.
 
#33
mobeme23 said:
I do!
Been recently running my sushi box particle accelerator into my Subway DI. Adding the tube gain stage was a real game changer and pushes the Subway DI into some great new territories!

View attachment 4828451
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Okay I want this exact step up I think but I have to get a UA. This or the Magellan DI cause I own the Magellan 800 head. But man I think for sure I’m getting this combo with my Spector Euro 5 LT. Hope it rocks!
 
#34
bassnyc1 said:
I blend 2 preamps. With my Rickenbacker, I use the Ric O sound jack and run the front pickup into an Ampeg classic pedal and I run the bridge pickup into a VTDI. Then I run both into a Boss LS-2 so I don't need 2 amps. The LS-2 allows me to blend them as I choose and also balance out the output of each pickup.
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So I want to really blend or get more of mt preamp tone to get to the FOH. Would you say having the DI ran to two channels a blend is best or running a pedal a like you’ve done an do blending yourself.
 
#35
PhishPhan22 said:
How do you like the sushi? I wanted the fx an I think I’m gettitn the UA for an preamp
Alembic tone i hope I wanted the fx but no longer make em
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The UA is actually a better choice for bass than the PA ~ better headroom and depth. I use the PA most often now for guitar and piccolo bass parts, only occasionally on bass for tracks or projects that were done before getting the UA.
 
#36
I'm a tech21 junkie and have been known to combine 2 of their pres together and then run them into my bass amp for even further tone shaping.

I've used 2 out of these 3 boxes together:

Sansamp BDDI
VT Bass
YYZ Geddy

I've found that I can get some truly amazing sounds this way, but it's absolutely necissary to go easy on the settings. It's easy to push a few knobs just a little bit too far in one direction and the sound becomes unusable.

But, I gave up on this scheme altogether when I started using the Subway D-350. To my ears, it has a nearby ideal tone all by itself and I find adding any tone shaping to the front end to be pointless.
 
#38
Particle Accelerator into Trickfish Trilobite into InterBass. The Trilobite does the bulk of my EQ, with more subtle tone shaping by the others.

In a DI-friendly situation, I could run DIs from both the Trilobite and InterBass, and get a cool mixture of tones that way. Lots of options, and I don't run into any EQ weirdness as long as I designate one circuit as the main, while the others mostly impart their inherent characters.
 
#39
I run my active bass into a Tech21 Geddy into an Ampeg SCR-DI. Sounds HUGE - no eq disasters to speak of. I run my bass pretty flat, and the SCR pretty flat as well. The SCR gives a tonal quality I have not been able to match with anything else. My only issue is that the SCR is easy to overdrive the input - have to be a bit careful there.... I'll be trying the new Ampeg pre/DI box as soon as it comes back in stock
 

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