demeter pre-amp?

[soundoholic]

Hello everyone. I'm looking for a little help with selecting a preamp.

I'm looking to fatten up my sound and get a better DI. Right now I'm using a gallien-krueger1001rb and a NEO 212. I like the clarity of Gallien Krueger but I was looking to fatten up my sound a little while getting a kick ass DI. So my first thought was to get a Demeter Preamp. I have played on one a few years ago and loved it.

My only question would be which demeter should I ger (or another preamp entirely)?

I play a passive Lakland Darryl Jones 5 strings. And I do use some effects on occasion(overdrive and wah mostly). On my Gallien Krueger I run the eq very flat with just some mids scooped. So my over all sound that I'm looking for is very clear from top to bottom with some warm low end.

Thank you for any help!

 

[soundoholic]

bump

 

[CBBass123]

I have a 201s that comes with a jensen DI. Its a great DI, very clear sounding. The preamp sounds great. I loved the mids that are produced in this pre. If your into extra EQing then the HBP-1 might be your choice but they do not come with the jensen DI and have been known to go crazy with Phanton power active. If your not into extra EQing, the 201s is your choice. Either way, damn good tube sounding preamps!!

 

[anonymous02282011]

eclair engineering evil twin. used by flea. jensen transformer, variable gain, etc etc. sounds ridiculous.

 

[soundoholic]

I have a 201s that comes with a jensen DI. Its a great DI, very clear sounding. The preamp sounds great. I loved the mids that are produced in this pre. If your into extra EQing then the HBP-1 might be your choice but they do not come with the jensen DI and have been known to go crazy with Phanton power active. If your not into extra EQing, the 201s is your choice. Either way, damn good tube sounding preamps!!

Thank you for the advise. I'm a little scared at the lack of eq in the 201 but I've never really used any eq on any amp i've owned. I think the jensen DI is the big bonus for the 201.

 

[CBBass123]

Thank you for the advise. I'm a little scared at the lack of eq in the 201 but I've never really used any eq on any amp i've owned. I think the jensen DI is the big bonus for the 201.

I went through the same thoughts as you did when i was preamp searching. I could not try out any preamps due to where i live. I went on pure reviews given here on TB. I also saw that Tom Bowlus owned one, and I thought...if he owns one, it must be decently good. I went from a Sansamp RBI to my now 201s and was impressed with the clarity. I could hear harmonics crystal clear through this pre. I was deciding on the EQ trade off of the HBP, but I myself used little EQing. Well let me say, the 201s EQ is all i needed. A week ago we had a huge private event and i finally had the opportunity to use the DI and oh yeah...nice.

 

[4Mal]

Hello everyone. I'm looking for a little help with selecting a preamp.

I'm looking to fatten up my sound and get a better DI. Right now I'm using a gallien-krueger1001rb and a NEO 212. I like the clarity of Gallien Krueger but I was looking to fatten up my sound a little while getting a kick ass DI. So my first thought was to get a Demeter Preamp. I have played on one a few years ago and loved it.

My only question would be which demeter should I ger (or another preamp entirely)?

I play a passive Lakland Darryl Jones 5 strings. And I do use some effects on occasion(overdrive and wah mostly). On my Gallien Krueger I run the eq very flat with just some mids scooped. So my over all sound that I'm looking for is very clear from top to bottom with some warm low end.

Thank you for any help!

If you can't get phat with a GK 1001 - a Demeter isn't going to help you at all. How's about you dial in a bit more low end ? Learn to use the boost ?
The Demeter does have a sweet DI - it's marginally better than that in the GK - it isn't better enough that you would notice it in a live environment though. A Pro Studio yes - but a Pro Studio will have it's own very gucci channel for you to use.

It sounds to me more like maybe a different cabinet would get you closer to where you want to go. I was real happy running the GK head through a pair of Bag End 2x10's. Nice, round, fat and clear ...

 

[cosmicevan]

the vtbp-201s doesn't have much EQ power (it is a very subtle unit), but then again it isn't possible to get bad tone from it. you pretty much are stuck with what you've got, but it is a nice warm creamy tone. the DI is super clean too. definitely try one out before you get one, but it is a solid unit that you won't hear anything bad about...just make sure it is the sound you are after since you won't have much boost/cut to really change the sound if it isn't what you are looking for.

 

[soundoholic]

If you can't get phat with a GK 1001 - a Demeter isn't going to help you at all. How's about you dial in a bit more low end ? Learn to use the boost ?
The Demeter does have a sweet DI - it's marginally better than that in the GK - it isn't better enough that you would notice it in a live environment though. A Pro Studio yes - but a Pro Studio will have it's own very gucci channel for you to use.

It sounds to me more like maybe a different cabinet would get you closer to where you want to go. I was real happy running the GK head through a pair of Bag End 2x10's. Nice, round, fat and clear ...

I should have mentioned before...

I don't use the GK DI. It's really too noisy. I don't run a loud stage volume and I play with in ears. I've just been using a very basic DI. I'm planning on trying this pre out but through the Gallien Krueger loop input. I wouldn't mind using for recording also.

 

[bongomania]

Have you been to basstasters.com? They have a massive page comparing sound clips of tube pre's and DI's with a variety of basses.

 

[arbitrary]

The HBP-1H model recently got upgraded with a great Jensen DI and the bug with the phantom power got fixed.

Personally, I like the HBP-1H more. I like the eq flexibility a lot. I was able to dial in some great low end. To me, the 201 sounded too sterile. I tend to think of the 201 itself as a great DI box; theres not too much there for tone shaping.

 

[BassmanPaul]

I am currently using two different pre-amps one in each of my rigs. The first is a BBE B-Max-T tube unit. It's mostly solid stae but it does have a couple of tubes in it to warm up the sound. It IS a great pre witk a DI using a Jensen transformer. I'd recommend it to any one. It does have a sister the B-Max which is almost identical but no tubes. The other pre is a Mic pre-amp made by ART called the tube channel. Nice EQ section, built in compressor, has a pair of 12AX7s but the DI is op amp driven and therefore doesn't like phantom power from the PA mixer. Sounds very nice for bass though.

 

[4Mal]

I should have mentioned before...

I don't use the GK DI. It's really too noisy. I don't run a loud stage volume and I play with in ears. I've just been using a very basic DI. I'm planning on trying this pre out but through the Gallien Krueger loop input. I wouldn't mind using for recording also.

There may be an issue with your GK then. Mine was dead quiet. I got compliments on it from a couple of sound guys. I also used it to drop a few tracks onto my recorder. No noise ...

I used to front - end my GK with an Alembic F2B. Mostly that enabled me to gain balance and re-eq two very different bases on stage. (A Reverend Rumblefish PJ and a Dark Star P) I found that going straight into the input and using the 20 db pad was much quieter than using the eff loop in. Not too mention that made the DI available for me. I used the EQ on the Alembic to 'get my sound' and then the EQ on the GK to adjust for the room. That setup actually worked pretty well.

These days I'm using an Eden Navigator Pre and 1 side of a QSC PL2402 - my band's studio (The Crackertones) has a Great River preamp. I can get almost there with the Navigator - not bad for a live oriented rig...

You'll have to experiment to see which works for you. In any event - the 201 is a waste o time if you're looking to fatten up. It's great at what it does - but it is no tone sculptor.