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Dirty/grindy tube sim preamp SHOOTOUT - Preview

johnbegone

johnbegone

Sep 16, 2004
984
269
Los Angeles, CA
www.hiddenhospitals.com
#1
EDIT - This is now live on this thread: http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f36/official-dirty-grindy-preamp-pedal-shootout-over-150-clips-986488/

Hello all, I have been researching / reading / reviewing / listening / testing different types of preamp pedals for the last several years and more intensely within the last month or so.

Background: I used to have a Sunn 300T and have always loved a nice grindy tube saturated overdriven tone. When I joined my current band, I found my Sunn was simply not fast enough to keep up and I didn't feel locked in with the band at all. I gave up the amp in favor of a Mesa M6 Carbine and a VT Bass pedal and found a nice home with that combination for the last two years (went to a deluxe model for a bit, then back to the single). However, for the last couple of years I've been reading about other similar preamp pedals and have been GASing to try something different.

The project: with all my research, I've found a surprising lack of actual comparison threads between the different options - so I am going to fix that. I've bought up all of the different options that I personally wanted to try (will need to flip most of them very soon at the risk of personal financial ruin!) but am open to acquiring (borrowing hopefully) a few more if someone wants me to put some different ones through the battery of tests!

Here is what I now own:
Aguilar Tone Hammer
Catalinbread SFT*
Darkglass B7K
Darkglass Vintage Microtubes*
Tech 21 Sansamp BDDI
Tech 21 VT Bass v2
Tronographic Rusty Box

Here are ones I don't own:
Catalinbread WIIO*
DHA VT-1/2
EBS MicroBass II
EBS Valve Drive*
Fuzzrocious BDPG*
Pigtronix Fat Drive*
Sansamp Para DI
Swell B-Peg (others?)
Tech 21 Character Series (all the rest of them)
Verellen Meatsmoke
Xotic BB Bass Preamp*
Zeibek/Music Electronix Submarine

* = overdrives that are not technically preamps. I may rule these out to simplify the test.

Would be great to find someone in Chicago with one or more of these who would be willing to loan them to me for a couple days to get clips made. This list is being populated by YOU, so please reply and make suggestions!

Note that these are specifically preamps that are supposed to do tube amp modeling for grindy overdriven tones so I am not counting crystal clean DI's like the Sadowsky, etc.

I'll have everything in my possession by the end of this week and am considering getting started as early as this weekend, but am looking for feedback from all of you so that I can make this the best resource as possible.

The audio source: I want to take recorded direct samples that A) either I will make - or B) I am willing to take prerecorded samples that you guys send over if you want to hear a specific type of bass / pickup config. I have a Fender Precision 50's Classic w/ Lindy Fralin pups and a G&L L2000 with the single coil mods. I would not consider myself a fantastic bass player and I'm definitely not very versatile - I play progressive rock with a pick, so if we want to get some slap/funk/finger styles in on this - I would want someone to send me samples to reamp.

The nitty gritty: I will be reamping the exact same direct samples through each one of the pedals and will try them at a variety of settings (making note of all of the settings in order to provide the best resource possible). My idea for settings would be: clean; preamp engaged but low drive; medium grit; heavy grit and then maybe a "favorite" setting for each pedal as I see fit to give each pedal its best chance to stand out.

So please let me know your ideas in terms of: what other pedals do I need to include in this shootout (better if you're willing to lend me one to include - Chicago??), what clean bass samples should I use to reamp (send me some?), and what types of settings/sounds should I target with each.

Again, I want this to be as useful as it can possibily be to everyone as it is going to take a good amount of my free time, but I want to give back to this community. So please - throw me your ideas and we will get started! Thanks TB!
 
#2
I've had all of those and have most still. I think if this thread was available 4 months ago with sound clips I could have saved some money. But it was a fun process and I will enjoy reading your thoughts.

I hope you are using sound cloud or similar for the clips. It's nice to hear them on my IPhone without signing up to some weird site just to be told I need my computer to download:scowl:
 
#5
Considering I run two of the pedals on your list (Tone Hammer, SFT) on my five-pedal board, I'm quite interested in the results. :D

A few other pedals you may want to add:

- SansAmp Para DI (not as obvious a tube sim as the BDDI, but still there. Should be easy/relatively cheap to get)
- EBS ValveDrive (actual tubes! Will be pricey to get, though)
- EBS MicroBass II (has a "tube sim" mode that's a love-it-or-hate-it thing. Moderate to obtain used, and relatively rare)
- Pigtronix Bass Fat Drive (new for 2013), supposedly similar to the SFT
 
#10
Cool idea for a thread. I'll be keeping an eye on this one.

One thought is that the majority of overdrive pedals are referenced in their marketing copy as being amp-like or amp-simulators.

The Catalinbread WIIO is one I'd certainly add to the list if the SFT and VTBass are on there.

Now, personally I think it'd be cool to see a bazillion different pedals all tested/recorded under the same circumstances, but of course if you want to limit how much you take on you could just do preamps to start with.
 
#11
Every overdrive claims to sound tubey. I would suggest that you either expand your list to 1000's of potential pedals or cut it down to a more specific criteria.

Some of the pedals you listed market themselves as overdrives. Some as preamps. Many can function as both. Anything can technically be a preamp.

If you narrow your focus then the test results will be more telling.
 
#12
This looks awesome! Looking to branch out from my MultiDrive.

Sounds like you have it covered, but there's one use case that's by far the most important for me:

I need low-gain, tubey dirt sounds that match well with my dry tone. If you could talk about for each pedal, how easy it is dial in a "unity" tone - one that sounds the same as clean signal, but with just a little bit of dirt - that would be awesome.

For example - EBS MultiDrive at low-gain sounds identical to clean tone. VT Bass is so colored, on the other hand, I had a lot of trouble dialing in a tone that matched all with my clean tone.
 
#14
You guys all bring up a good point, I don't want to add every overdrive known to man.

Me calling this a preamp shootout is a bit of a misnomer as well - because I'm not planning on running any of these directly to a poweramp but am planning on these being an end of my chain / always on overdrive. I know that opens it up to a bunch more pedals and having the SFT and Vintage Microtubes on my list are the two non-preamps as I think the other four could absolutely drive a power amp or go direct as a recording device.

I only put those two in because I have them, but I understand they aren't really preamps.
 

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