Question for you all: if I plug a preamp pedal into my Magellan 350, both the head and pedal’s preamp will be “active” correct?
Interested in an Aguilar Tone Hammer pedal but wondering if having both preamps on changes the sound/tone too much.
Thanks guys!
I use the TH pedal in front of an MG350 head often without any issues. I usually use it with passive basses, like a traditional P or J bass, when I want to quickly thicken up or dirty up the sound, especially if I don’t want to change my standard preamp settings on the MG350 head.
I don’t see using the TH pedal as much different than plugging in an active bass with onboard preamp into the MG350, but the TH pedal has generally more tone sculpting ability than basic onboard preamps and also has the AGS drive circuit.
If you want to bypass the MG350’s preamp, you can run the TH into the AUX input on the MG350, but you the lose functionality of all the front panel knobs except the master volume, including the mute switch.
Because the Genzler sound is generally on the clean side and the Aguilar sound is generally on the colored side, having both gives you a lot of sonic options. One thing to note is that the TH controls are not necessarily intuitive. If you go that route, take some time to experiment with the circuit controls. There are good threads about the subject here on TB. It seems like a lot of people give up on it because they assume it’s like other circuits, but it is not. It’s got its own thing going on that might take a little time to learn.