Double Bass Fishman Platinum pro EQ vs Grace Bix

[sidonbass]

Looking for a clean, noiseless preamp with boost to bump up the volume on solos. Current set up is Genzler Magellan 800 - full circle pick up.
I hear great things about the Grace Bix but I like the built in tuner on the Fishman.
Thoughts?

 

[jblock]

I’ve used the Fishman Plantinum Pro, the latest version, albeit on an electric fretless. It was very clean, transparent and quiet. When I doubled on acoustic guitar it was the perfect unit since with a flip of a switch you can change the EQ profile. A nice subtle, onboard compressor as well. Can’t really say anything negative about it.

 

[mrgoodbass]

I have the older Fishman Pro, sounds great but was, like you, wondering how the bix sounds?

 

[Ric Vice]

The Grace Bix is a "Studio Quality" preamplifier. I own a Grace Felix and I can tell you that it's transparent, quiet, and very sensitive. You'd have

to compare the two side by side to tell what works for you. The Fishman Platinum Pro has additional tone shaping "brilliance" control that's really used

more for Guitar and a compressor which some folks love for bass. I think a more fair comparison would be the Grace Alex, but it's way more expensive. So,

it depends on whether or not you think a compressor or tuner is important to you. The features I would not trade for on the Grace Felix and Alex is

the HPF, Amp out, and Midrange shaping controls . etc but Bix doesn't offer those features. You should take a look at the Headway EDB-2 H.E. it's around

the same price with a substantially better feature set IME. I have a Headway EDB-2. Just my take however.

 

[Greg Clinkingbeard]

I owned two (or maybe three?) of the ProPlatinum EQ preamps. I think that’s the name, but they make a few with similar names.
As much as I wanted them to work for me, I came away thinking they squashed the tone. Even set completely flat, the tone sounded compressed and lifeless.

 

[Ric Vice]

I haven't really had any experience with the new Fishman Pro Platinum, what I will say about the Grace Bix, is that should you have any issues with the unit. Grace is in Colorado, and their units are built to be repaired.

They have a 5 year warranty that's transferable should you want to sell the unit. Having dealt with there Repair service the Warranty is very good. I would doubt that the Fishman has that kind of coverage, but

you should "look under the hood".

 

[Ric Vice]

I haven't really had any experience with the new Fishman Pro Platinum, what I will say about the Grace Bix, is that should you have any issues with the unit. Grace is in Colorado, and their units are built to be repaired.

I owned two (or maybe three?) of the ProPlatinum EQ preamps. I think that’s the name, but they make a few with similar names.
As much as I wanted them to work for me, I came away thinking they squashed the tone. Even set completely flat, the tone sounded compressed and lifeless.

If I remember correctly, the older Pro Platinum's compressor, was tied into the boxes circuitry in a way that it was always "on". So you really couldn't entirely by pass it's effect.

 

[bherman]

I’ve owned and used both. For the Fishman, I found the tuner to be inaccurate, and did not care for the compressor at all. Also found the notch filter to not be all that useful for DB. Could have been operator error, but found it not useful after several months of trying.

The Bix is excellent quality, but I really need a hpf and would have liked more tone-shaping. So sold it, and now am keeping my eyes open for a used Alix.

 

[Ric Vice]

I hope you're able to find one. What I've seen with the Grace Felix and Alex is that they don't come up for sale used very often. There have been a couple of Alex's within the last three years, so you

might get lucky. I've only seen two Felix's used. Which only reflects just how good they as Double Bass preamps. I had to save for over a year to get mine, but man was it worth it.

 

[brianrost]

Another thing about the Bix that's less than ideal is it uses a wall wart for power while the Felix and Alix have AC power cords...much more reliable for gigging. I've been on a couple of gigs where the keyboards went out because of failed wall warts. I'm a battery or real AC kind of guy.

 

[Mark Gollihur]

Another thing about the Bix that's less than ideal is it uses a wall wart for power while the Felix and Alix have AC power cords...much more reliable for gigging. I've been on a couple of gigs where the keyboards went out because of failed wall warts. I'm a battery or real AC kind of guy.

I get that - though, to be fair, the AC power-corded models just have the same essential voltage/AC-DC converter components installed inside the box instead of outside. My guess is that wall warts fail because they're subject to more incidental damage/accidental abuse. But at least they're easily replaceable. But yeah, they're not as convenient.

 

[Tom Angelus]

Does anyone know if it is possible to use the Effects Return as an input for a second pickup, i.e. microphone? I use the Realist as the main input, but would like to use a microphone as a secondary input. Any thoughts?

 

[Sam Reese]

@Tom Angelus you'll need to boost the mic signal and generally mics use xlr, not 1/4" jacks.