BurningSkies
CRAZY BALDHEAD
- Feb 20, 2005
- 27,956
- 20,348
- Disclosures
- Endorsing artist: Dingwall Guitars
I really like the original passive Afterburner 1 setup with the bluEQube... I found it did just the right amount of scooping to get your tone to sit back in the mix a little for when you had a song that asked for it. I used it for more soul-ballad type stuff and it was a really nice and quick option, just one switch and you could drop 'in' a bit more.
I have two basses currently with the Darkglass in them...my NG3, which has been my main player and my fretless uses it for the 'magnetic pickups' circuit. I do find that it has an inherent tone to it...it ads some 'hair' to the tone along the way and due to it having particularly chosen frequency centers (those low-mid and high-mid) controls, it changes really how you use it compared to a standard low/mid/high preamp...or at least it changes how I use it. I did end up putting a low pass filter on my pedal board since that high mid doesn't touch the real treble end of the spectrum.
I also have the Darkglass in my not so standard 'Combustion' that's the fretless, but for different reasons. I play that bass a whole lot at home and unamplified (probably 90% of my home playing time) and I was finding a lot of love for what I was hearing acoustically from the instrument, but every time I plugged it in I couldn't get there. I felt like the EMG 3 band which was a really nice clean and transparent preamp when using with fretless, wasn't giving me the ability to 'find' the character of the bass or emphasize the best parts of it when amplified. While thinking about the places I wanted the most control, the DGTC just made the best sense, though I wasn't looking necessarily for the 'hair' the preamp had. But if I was hearing something I really liked in the way the string/finger/fingerboard was producing tone, and another component in the low mids where the body was resonant (swamp ash)...it made sense to try it. And it DID get me closer and gave me controls where they really 'made sense' to be able to emphasize the fingerboard tone/vibration and the 'body' of the tone.
...That of course leads me to the 'other' preamp and electronics package on that bass. I also have a Graphtech Ghost Bass Acoustiphonic Preamp in the fretless, also running at 18v. The bridge pieces have been heavily modified & retrofitted with piezo saddles that sum to the the Graphtech unit. The controls are simple (though I could have gone with something more complex, it already has the 4-way & DG 3-band to contend with), so that has it's own volume and a push/pull that gives two tone 'profiles' one is brighter and has more roll-off in the deep stuff and the other has a deeper fuller range but not as much on the super highs. From there, I can choose to run the full magnetic DGTC preamp solo, run the Graphtech Ghost solo, or combine them...which is what I do. Find a really nice place with the standard Dingwall controls and pickups then bring the Ghost up underneath and blend. This is where I can most easily 'find' the real voice of the bass.
The Rastaburst...has an Aguilar OBP-1 in it. While the OBP-3 was an option at the time, Sheldon suggested the OBP-1 as a better fit in the lows for being warmer and more natural than the 3. It definitely has been a great fit. That bass has the standard 2-pickup 4-way Z-1 configuration along with the coil wiring P/S switches for each pickup. My biggest concern with the OBP-1 is that it is a 'boost only' preamp. And for me, I tend to roll back the treble and goose the lows a little (not a ton, but some). I don't think that was only me though, because Sheldon & crew designed the hybrid treble control for the situation. A center detented potentiometer for the treble control, the backside is a passive treble roll off and the front side is the OBP treble boost. For me this is the best of both worlds. I can't quite remember, but I'd assume that the passive roll off works when in passive mode too, though I've not used the bass without the preamp in many years.
The Voodoo Prima has an Aguilar OBP-2 in it. This bass came to me with a the original Bartolini's, but a passive Jazz bass setup. At some point in time the original preamp had blown out or stopped working and it was just removed (I still have it). Since I DID want a preamp but wanted to keep the original instrument's physical integrity, I looked about at current offerings that would fit the 3-knob layout. Also, this bass originally was Volume/Blend/Bass-Treble-stack. I didn't love the Bartolini pickups and worked with Sheldon to get modern FD-3 pickpups in the smaller formatted shells to fit the bass without any alterations. I added a standard 4-way switch and after a look about decided to try the OBP-2. Two band with boost and attenuation and I could stack 'em and run at 18v. I still think it sounds pretty good.
