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Fatboy

Mike Arnopol

Mike Arnopol

Inactive
Commercial User
Jan 4, 2005
3,423
2,813
71
Chicago
Disclosures
Owner of MAS Soundworks
#1
Ok--I'm a bit like a fickle 14 year old girl. I admit it.

When I was in Nashville last week at a very nice GTG a guy brought in a new DI/Preamp called "Fatboy" We plugged it into my 1200 watt Ice mini amp. Played it against my Demeter VTB 201-800. The sound of the Fatboy is actually similar. Take the fatness and punch of the Demeter. Now add a stronger more controlled low end. Add studio quality highs. And just the right amount of "hair" on the notes so it sounds like the best tube boards.
The Nashville studio guys that were bringing Neve or vintage API channels are leaving them at home and just bringing the Fatboy.

I bought one. The Fatboy into the Ice is the best sound I've gotten. My basses have plenty of onboard eq--life is good.[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
 
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#8
Darnit, I'm after the elusive Nashville sound. Now I feel the gas coming on. ...researching..... Great. It's not very expensive. I can just buy this now or wait and buy it later because I know it's going to bug me..... Stupid TalkBass..

Thanks for the post!! (Seriously)
 
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#10
Mike Arnopol said:
Ok--I'm a bit like a fickle 14 year old girl. I admit it.

When I was in Nashville last week at a very nice GTG a guy brought in a new DI/Preamp called "Fatboy" We plugged it into my 1200 watt Ice mini amp. Played it against my Demeter VTB 201-800. The sound of the Fatboy is actually similar. Take the fatness and punch of the Demeter. Now add a stronger more controlled low end. Add studio quality highs. And just the right amount of "hair" on the notes so it sounds like the best tube boards.
The Nashville studio guys that were bringing Neve or vintage API channels are leaving them at home and just bringing the Fatboy.

I bought one. The Fatboy into the Ice is the best sound I've gotten. My basses have plenty of onboard eq--life is good.[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
Click to expand...
What's the ice like?
I find it a tempting small option, from the tiny bit I have heard about it...
 
#13
I've only tried it through my speakers which tend to have a very different low end. I could imagine them being "wooly" through a reflex cab. I compared it directly to the Demeter VTBP 800 amp. They were almost exactly the same in therms of "wooliness". While I love the Monique, I feel that it's a bit too dark and wooly for my taste. But it works great for many, many players.Guy---I bet you'd love the Sonic Farm. That's the other one I like.

I think that the Fatboy is a little "fatter" than Jonathan's.And Jonathan's is a bit fatter than the Sonic Farm. I had JGR's BOT on a lot of gigs. I could happily live with the Sonic Farm, Jonathan's or the Fatboy. They are just different voicings. The Fatbay is fat but controlled and fast.

I only tried Jonathan's full on amp at a show where it was hard to hear. It did sound fantastic.I really would like to try it in context to see how the voicing and tone controls work . I think it could be the best thing out there---it's pricey but likely worth it.

The Ice module that's in all of the Micro's (GK, Demeter,Puma,, Aguilar) is ok. Light, loud, and decent sounding. Great sound for the size and weight. The module that Jonathan and I are using is the ASP1000 which is a 1200 watt amp and a very different story. No compromise I feel against the best class a/b designs.Jonathan would be one of the most difficult guys to convert to digital power amps but I think that he's sold.

Brett Teegarden, the designer of the Fatboy is also looking into tone control circuits.

I (just this minute) talked to Boris, one of the Sonic Farm guys, and they are going to be doing a full on amp.

So there are many fantastic choices out there. I think that within a year you're going to see the quality of bass amplification taking a quantum leap---from utilitarian to amps that compete with the best studio gear. With Jonathan leading the charge.
 
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#14
Hello friends,

First, Thank you Michael Arnopol for your kind words about the Fatboy Tube DI. Second, please forgive the out of date information on our website. We have been a little busy and updates are in the works. A lot has changed about the Fatboy over the last year or so as we have been developing and testing and I would be hard pressed to call it wooly sounding but yes, there are different strokes for different folks. We set out to build the best sounding Tube Direct Box we could possibly build. It is not everything to everyone, but we are excited about where it is finding a home in its truly young life. The Fatboy can be heard on the latest releases from Blake Shelton, Rascal Flatts, Alan Jackson and Carrie Underwood - to name a few. The proof of tone is in the ears and the hands of those creating hit records. We would welcome any of you to be a Fatboy Tube DI user, but we wholly understand if it is not the device for your particular style and taste.

Bret Teegarden
Teegarden Audio, LLC
 
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#16
Welcome to Brett!

I've played the Fatboy a lot at home and on 3 gigs so far. It's a stellar piece of gear. But it's not for everyone---and was designed that way. What it does is a very difficult tightrope walk. It yields a bigger, fatter sound but still with amazing nuance and control. If you're looking for a Geedy Lee, Chris Squire sound--it'll probably do it but you wouldn't be playing to its strong points. You can get a bigger, fatter sound with eq but you'll lose control. EQ can get you where you want in terms of curve but the envelope can get screwed up.The Fatboy feels to me like I'm going into some signal processor that's doubling my fundamental and giving me more of the second harmonic. For many bassists this is the holy grail. How can I get a bigger sound with more physical presence but still maintain the perfect envelope of sound and have a function that tracks all the nuances of right hand subtleties? Fabulous right hand tracking and dynamics. I think that the Sonic Farm has a better top to bottom balance in absolute terms but it doesn't give you that fatness. Which is what it was designed to do. One thing I really dug. My Roscoe has been hot rodded with a different pre and pickups. And I moved the bridge pickup to a MM position. With the Fatboy I could run the MM by itself and have all of the cut of a MM but it seemed like I was mixing a bit of P Bass into the sound. It had the speed and cut of a Music Man but with a stronger, fatter low end. All pluses and no minuses to me. But it is a coloration---just one that I happen to like.
 
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#19
cybersnyder, I hope that wasn't mis-leading, given the talk about bass preamps in this thread. The Fatboy was not designed as a preamp for an amplifier, although it can serve that purpose. The preamp referred to on our website is a tube microphone preamp that utilizes much of the same topology as the Fatboy Tube DI. Hope that clears it up for you. Also, Fatboy was not design exclusively for bass guitar. It is more general purpose in function. It just happens to sound great on most every instrument with a pickup. We have steel guitar, acoustic guitar and even fiddle players using the Fatboy Tube DI. There are a few keyboard players, here in Nashville, using the Stereo version on their studio rigs.
 
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