Sort of on a whim I bought one of these the other day, and I'm liking it a lot. I'm a big fan of the avalon U5 for most things, but it's big and bulky and I wanted a small versatile preamp with a built-in compressor--I've been into compression lately for some reason--and some more eq possibilities.
I own and have used a raven labs PMB 1 and a sans amp paradriver. Both of those bothered me--i had to work way too hard to get a good sound and I was always tweaking. Mostly it seemed to me I always heard a brittle, grainy high end. Anyway, they currently reside in a drawer with a K+K bass max/mic combo, a rev. solo, a bunch of strings....
Back to the Fishman--nice piece of gear. It really does seem to be tailored for bass. The eq sliders are very well voiced--the high mid slider notches all the piezo quack out, the compressor is really transparent if you keep it below 10-11 o'clock, the "depth" cotrol" seems to work as advertised, and the phase reversal is very useful. It's not too noisy, and it sounds really good--not great, but then, the realist doesn't sound like my bass only louder. I'm already making some degree of sonic compromise amping the bass, and the Fishman has a lot of virtues--it seems to play really well with the realist. I'll try it on a gig tomorrow night and see how it goes.
I own and have used a raven labs PMB 1 and a sans amp paradriver. Both of those bothered me--i had to work way too hard to get a good sound and I was always tweaking. Mostly it seemed to me I always heard a brittle, grainy high end. Anyway, they currently reside in a drawer with a K+K bass max/mic combo, a rev. solo, a bunch of strings....
Back to the Fishman--nice piece of gear. It really does seem to be tailored for bass. The eq sliders are very well voiced--the high mid slider notches all the piezo quack out, the compressor is really transparent if you keep it below 10-11 o'clock, the "depth" cotrol" seems to work as advertised, and the phase reversal is very useful. It's not too noisy, and it sounds really good--not great, but then, the realist doesn't sound like my bass only louder. I'm already making some degree of sonic compromise amping the bass, and the Fishman has a lot of virtues--it seems to play really well with the realist. I'll try it on a gig tomorrow night and see how it goes.
