There is new competitor on the market for two-channel acoustic preamps:
Radial PZ Pro
PZ-Pro - Radial Engineering
Radial PZ Pro
PZ-Pro - Radial Engineering
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Double Bass EBS Stanley Clarke Acoustic Preamp
- Thread starter Zbysek
- Start date
that looks very interesting... especially the possibility to switch the loop on/off. also there are two XLR outs in the back, pre- and post-EQ, along with phase inversion and ground lifts.
however - a couple of peculiar decisions, IMHO:
however - a couple of peculiar decisions, IMHO:
- no master volume;
- no peak LEDs;
- 220kOhm input impedance unless PZ buffer is used - 10MOhm then;
- corner frequencies are 500Hz for LOW, 1kHz for HIGH (shelving; no data about filter steepness, but seems a bit high and low, respectively?);
- the semi-parametric MID does not go lower than 350Hz - one is expected to use NOTCH, which ranges between 55Hz and 350Hz - but (like EBS' pedal) this function is shared with HPF (why can't we have both...);
- the NOTCH does not go higher than 350Hz;
[/QUOTE]
Looks cool for acoustic guitars, but the EQ bands are not much use for bass. And no headphone out.
Looks cool for acoustic guitars, but the EQ bands are not much use for bass. And no headphone out.
Looks cool for acoustic guitars, but the EQ bands are not much use for bass. And no headphone out.[/QUOTE]
Yeah, I hadn't noticed these...
I agree that these design choices seem to be not well suited for bass...
Can anyone who's used the EBS Stanley Clarke preamp comment on its noise base? Some preamps can inject too much noise with the signal. Curious how this one performs. Thanks.
it's great. of course, everything introduces hiss if you max out all controls. but if you keep things within limits, it's very transparent. like it's not there.
I’m placing an order for the SC preamp tomorrow. Normally I’m happy with a single bridge element setup (for which I use a combo of a Grace Designs BiX & an F-Deck HPF), but I recently started a trio project with no drums and need to be more percussive.
I like the flexibility of being able to try out my old Schertler STAT-B, Sennheiser e604, Underwood, or any combination of the above to hear what might work best for this project.
The trio is electric guitar, acoustic guitar/vocals, and myself on upright.
My BG setup was a BBE B-Max into a Crest Prolite 2.0 feeding a Greenboy F212. I’ve been really happy with my bass guitar tone, and I’m not sure if I want to feed the SC preamp into the BMAX, or just straight into the power amp.
I know that when I tried my Rane AP-13 into the BMAX it didn’t sound very good, so I’m curious how this pre will react with it. If they don’t jive together, I may just buy a stand alone compressor and put it into the FX loop of the SC pre.
Overall, I’m exited to experiment with it. The FeliX just always seemed out of reach, and this seems to have most of the same bells & whistles at a much more affordable price point.
Who knows? Maybe I’ll take a cue from Miles Mosley and see just how much fun I can REALLY have with that FX loop
I like the flexibility of being able to try out my old Schertler STAT-B, Sennheiser e604, Underwood, or any combination of the above to hear what might work best for this project.
The trio is electric guitar, acoustic guitar/vocals, and myself on upright.
My BG setup was a BBE B-Max into a Crest Prolite 2.0 feeding a Greenboy F212. I’ve been really happy with my bass guitar tone, and I’m not sure if I want to feed the SC preamp into the BMAX, or just straight into the power amp.
I know that when I tried my Rane AP-13 into the BMAX it didn’t sound very good, so I’m curious how this pre will react with it. If they don’t jive together, I may just buy a stand alone compressor and put it into the FX loop of the SC pre.
Overall, I’m exited to experiment with it. The FeliX just always seemed out of reach, and this seems to have most of the same bells & whistles at a much more affordable price point.
Who knows? Maybe I’ll take a cue from Miles Mosley and see just how much fun I can REALLY have with that FX loop
I’m placing an order for the SC preamp tomorrow. Normally I’m happy with a single bridge element setup (for which I use a combo of a Grace Designs BiX & an F-Deck HPF), but I recently started a trio project with no drums and need to be more percussive.
I like the flexibility of being able to try out my old Schertler STAT-B, Sennheiser e604, Underwood, or any combination of the above to hear what might work best for this project.
The trio is electric guitar, acoustic guitar/vocals, and myself on upright.
My BG setup was a BBE B-Max into a Crest Prolite 2.0 feeding a Greenboy F212. I’ve been really happy with my bass guitar tone, and I’m not sure if I want to feed the SC preamp into the BMAX, or just straight into the power amp.
I know that when I tried my Rane AP-13 into the BMAX it didn’t sound very good, so I’m curious how this pre will react with it. If they don’t jive together, I may just buy a stand alone compressor and put it into the FX loop of the SC pre.
Overall, I’m exited to experiment with it. The FeliX just always seemed out of reach, and this seems to have most of the same bells & whistles at a much more affordable price point.
Who knows? Maybe I’ll take a cue from Miles Mosley and see just how much fun I can REALLY have with that FX loop
Good luck with the trio project! Let us know what you think of the preamp...
Will do! This trio is going to have me trying to figure out how to pull off everything from The Doobie Brothers to Al Green, to Skynyrd on upright. It should be a fun challenge.
From the block diagram, it looks like if I had my Eventide H9 in the FX loop and muted it (to use the onboard tuner) it would effectively mute my signal to the main outs. I’m not 100% sure though, so I’ll just have to find out if I need to buy another tuner once I hook it up.
yes, please report back!
btw, I cranked both the input gain and output volume and listened through my headphones (AKG K240):
- with NO instrument connected, the hiss was barely discernible;
- with an instrument connected (active preamp) it hissed a lot. cascading the stages...
I need to try this with passive instruments or other actives. but, to be clear - both INPUT and OUTPUT maxed are completely unrealistic...
btw, I cranked both the input gain and output volume and listened through my headphones (AKG K240):
- with NO instrument connected, the hiss was barely discernible;
- with an instrument connected (active preamp) it hissed a lot. cascading the stages...
I need to try this with passive instruments or other actives. but, to be clear - both INPUT and OUTPUT maxed are completely unrealistic...
Whelp, just got it yesterday and my first impressions are really great. I wouldn’t necessarily say MBOL, but it can get really REALLY close. The EQ sweeps take some getting used to, as does the HPF/Notch. BTW, you CAN have both HPF AND Notch filtering if you only use a mono signal to Channel A and engage the A+B switch. Then you have full use of both EQ’s and all of their options, but you do lose the ability for that second input. I had my Eventide H9 in the FX loop (more for a tuner than anything else) and made a few observations. The first is that if you mute something in the FX loop, it mutes your whole signal. That mean you could use the H9 tuner function or employ a volume pedal conveniently in my opinion. The second observation is that the series/parallel switch can have a somewhat distinct affect on your tone depending on what is in the signal chain. By engaging the switch there was a noticeable increase in volume and clarity through my H9, while without it it sounded more natural. YMMV depending on what’s in the loop. The only microphone I have at the moment is a Sennheiser e604, but I’m fairly certain there is a dip switch inside the unit to shut off the default of 48v for the XLR input. I’ll know more this evening. Strangely, there’s nothing in the manual about a 48v dipswitch, or the Tuner out dipswitch (which can be set for active during mute only or on all the time). I do love how the power adapter comes with Euro attachments in case I ever tour outside of the Midwest 
Really looking forward to dialing this in Saturday at band rehearsal.
Really looking forward to dialing this in Saturday at band rehearsal.
Also, I took this snapshot of Stanley Clarke’s settings from the video on the EBS site. His bass tech says he uses Channel A for pizz and Channel B for arco.
I try to keep in mind that he is also playing through Ampeg SVT 2 and 4 Pro heads; each having their own graphic EQ and different voice settings. I tried all my EQ adjustments last night with my amp EQ set flat, but I feel like you would still need addition EQ from your amp to get the tone you might want. The EQ on the SCBP is powerful, but maybe not enough to hit that sweet spot.
I try to keep in mind that he is also playing through Ampeg SVT 2 and 4 Pro heads; each having their own graphic EQ and different voice settings. I tried all my EQ adjustments last night with my amp EQ set flat, but I feel like you would still need addition EQ from your amp to get the tone you might want. The EQ on the SCBP is powerful, but maybe not enough to hit that sweet spot.
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Correction: you can only mute your signal via the FX loop in series mode (which makes sense). In parallel mode, if you mute the FX, your unaffected signal still goes out to the DI and main 1/4” output.
So I just got back from band rehearsal. I plugged the SCBP straight into my Crest Prolite 2.0 and was thrilled with how my bass sounded. It’s a drummerless trio and we played a mix of reggae, country, classic rock, etc. On my KDB Roadking I ran a Shadow single bridge element in channel A and a Vic’s Pickups “clicky” element under the fingerboard into channel B.
When I’m playing slap bass I don’t want to sound like a typewriter, so it was nice to be able to dial in a more natural “woody” click sound and add it tastefully to the mix.
I also plugged the pre into the PA and was pleasantly surprised to hear that I had the same nice tone.
After finding my base EQ that I was happy with at home, I only had to make some minor adjustments for the room we were in.
I think the biggest part of this pre is getting your gain settings correct. After that, everything else is fairly intuitive.
Also, I had the main volume at about 9 o’clock and was plenty loud enough, so this thing has zero problems feeding my power amp. It was mostly noiseless as well.
If you can’t afford the FeliX, I would feel totally comfortable saying that this preamp is the next best thing out there.
It’s not often I buy a piece of gear that I’m completely happy with, but so far this ranks right up there with my Greenboy F212 in valued purchases.
When I’m playing slap bass I don’t want to sound like a typewriter, so it was nice to be able to dial in a more natural “woody” click sound and add it tastefully to the mix.
I also plugged the pre into the PA and was pleasantly surprised to hear that I had the same nice tone.
After finding my base EQ that I was happy with at home, I only had to make some minor adjustments for the room we were in.
I think the biggest part of this pre is getting your gain settings correct. After that, everything else is fairly intuitive.
Also, I had the main volume at about 9 o’clock and was plenty loud enough, so this thing has zero problems feeding my power amp. It was mostly noiseless as well.
If you can’t afford the FeliX, I would feel totally comfortable saying that this preamp is the next best thing out there.
It’s not often I buy a piece of gear that I’m completely happy with, but so far this ranks right up there with my Greenboy F212 in valued purchases.
BTW, here are some decent starting points for Channel A Piezo.
Stanley’s pizz tone obviously has more finger noise and whatnot for his style of playing. The second pic is a screenshot from and audio demo I found on YouTube and mixes well with a microphone in Channel B.
The bottom one is the base of where I settled on for roots/slap bass. Channel B was just the slap pickup, but blended together I had a really nice tone that would work for Western swing, Roots, Trad Rockabilly, bluegrass, etc.
Stanley’s pizz tone obviously has more finger noise and whatnot for his style of playing. The second pic is a screenshot from and audio demo I found on YouTube and mixes well with a microphone in Channel B.
The bottom one is the base of where I settled on for roots/slap bass. Channel B was just the slap pickup, but blended together I had a really nice tone that would work for Western swing, Roots, Trad Rockabilly, bluegrass, etc.
The more I use this preamp, the more I can comfortably say that it is fantastic and well worth the investment. I’m honestly surprised more people aren’t raving about it, and I wonder if it’s because Stanley’s name is on it. I can assure you that I sound NOTHING like the talented Mr. Clarke (who has a very distinct tone that might not be everyone’s cup o’ tea), and it was easy to dial in “my” ideal tone (which is more of a Wayne Hancock/early Hank III vibe).
im interested in it as a channel switcher for 2 different tones. sometimes i like to get slightly more middy for soloing (depends on the room). for me its between this and the radial 2 channel pz pre pro
