Help me chose among budget friendly di/preamps

[duruk]

I've been trying to work with my Sansamp Programmable BDDI for nearly 5 years now and I think it's time for me to try something new.
I am gigging with different bands through various genres (progressive rock, rock'n roll, blues, pop and lately jazz standards) and in different venues. Most of the time I find it easier to use the BDDI with the blend at 0%, which allows bass, treble and level controls to work, and I can introduce some mids by cutting bass and treble. I cannot get a tone I like with the sansamp character and especially when the drive is in action.
Therefore I need something that has mid eq option, that is versatile, and relatively easy to dial a tone (with some amount of drive for warmth) and forget (at most once for each genre I'm playing). I also put down M81 into the options, I know it does not have a drive but maybe I can use it together with the BDDI for the drive?

From the options in the poll you'll see I'm on a limited budget. But don't let that deter you from offering something outside of the options (regardless of the budget). Also wanted to note that I am mostly using a p/j bass with flatwounds or a passive jazz bass with dead rounds on her. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[kalmar]

NuX and you are done.

 

[Parzival]

Battalion is the best affordable preamp on the market IMO.
The EQ sounds good. The drive is surprisingly good and the key is it is a separate channel with footswitch. The compressor is very useable. Didn’t like the gate, but didn’t have a need for it. DI out is acceptable and didn’t notice any noise.
Not only great bang for your buck, but great features too.

The important thing, I really feel it sounds better than any of the others on the list.

Remembered my one con was I didn’t like where the Bass eq sat. Could boom and fart a bit if boosted, but it is noted that my P bass has a really strong bottom and I never played it with anything else. The rest of the eq points are really good.

 

[crapusername]

Laney digbeth
I am a long time fan of the m80 and have owned one for over 20 years. I recently picked up a digbeth to try and the m80 now hardly gets used.
I’m still blown away by the tone of the Laney. It’s hard to describe, but it’s just sounds ‘more’.

 

[nanbanpapa]

I've been trying to work with my Sansamp Programmable BDDI for nearly 5 years now and I think it's time for me to try something new.
I am gigging with different bands through various genres (progressive rock, rock'n roll, blues, pop and lately jazz standards) and in different venues. Most of the time I find it easier to use the BDDI with the blend at 0%, which allows bass, treble and level controls to work, and I can introduce some mids by cutting bass and treble. I cannot get a tone I like with the sansamp character and especially when the drive is in action.
Therefore I need something that has mid eq option, that is versatile, and relatively easy to dial a tone (with some amount of drive for warmth) and forget (at most once for each genre I'm playing). I also put down M81 into the options, I know it does not have a drive but maybe I can use it together with the BDDI for the drive?

From the options in the poll you'll see I'm on a limited budget. But don't let that deter you from offering something outside of the options (regardless of the budget). Also wanted to note that I am mostly using a p/j bass with flatwounds or a passive jazz bass with dead rounds on her. Any help would be appreciated.

The Nux MLD NBP-5 checks all the boxes. It's a no brainer

 

[duruk]

thanks all for your input on this.. I was ready to pull the trigger on Nux preamp when a new contender, the Laney Digbeth came along. Now I'm between these two. While the Nux seems to be ahead with its simplicity the Laney attracks with its value. If anyone has feedback among these two would be appreciated.

 

[Phe]

Have you seen Palmer Bass Pocket Amp? It is cheap, has mid control, blend and drive options, some voicings and stuff. I like it, although I haven't tried it live yet, so there is that.

 

[duruk]

Have you seen Palmer Bass Pocket Amp? It is cheap, has mid control, blend and drive options, some voicings and stuff. I like it, although I haven't tried it live yet, so there is that.

Thank you for the suggestion. My opinion is probably not based at all, but Palmer has always struck me as a practice amp primarily. I'll try to do some reading on people's experience with it live.

 

[Phe]

Thank you for the suggestion. My opinion is probably not based at all, but Palmer has always struck me as a practice amp primarily. I'll try to do some reading on people's experience with it live.

I get it, but they have great stuff. I have both the bass and guitar Pocket Amps and I do use them as practice amps, true.

 

[Carlitos]

Moen Buffalo bass DI with parametric eq.
I got mine for less than 30€. Usable, no noise and with a drive control to get sone fuzz out of it.

 

[kalmar]

And it has a Switch!

 

[JvJazz83]

I do not know this device first hand, but it gets a lot of good reports here in Norway and Europe. a different take on the drive pedal, I think.


SkarBassOne | Trondheim Audio Devices

 

[squeally dan]

I've been trying to work with my Sansamp Programmable BDDI for nearly 5 years now and I think it's time for me to try something new.
I am gigging with different bands through various genres (progressive rock, rock'n roll, blues, pop and lately jazz standards) and in different venues. Most of the time I find it easier to use the BDDI with the blend at 0%, which allows bass, treble and level controls to work, and I can introduce some mids by cutting bass and treble. I cannot get a tone I like with the sansamp character and especially when the drive is in action.
Therefore I need something that has mid eq option, that is versatile, and relatively easy to dial a tone (with some amount of drive for warmth) and forget (at most once for each genre I'm playing). I also put down M81 into the options, I know it does not have a drive but maybe I can use it together with the BDDI for the drive?

From the options in the poll you'll see I'm on a limited budget. But don't let that deter you from offering something outside of the options (regardless of the budget). Also wanted to note that I am mostly using a p/j bass with flatwounds or a passive jazz bass with dead rounds on her. Any help would be appreciated.

Which did you choose?

 

[mellobud]

Mxr80 has been solid for a couple years now. It doesn’t truly color your sound unless you use the “color” button. Then it does a hi roll off and low roll off thing with a mid scoop that you can compensate for by maxing the mids dial. I pulled this graph from an old thread

If I had to do it over at this point in time, I’d go with a samsamp bass fly rig v2. It hits everything on my pedal board and would probably save me cash from piecing together a board.

I might still buy one for backup.

 

[squeally dan]

Nux vs. Zio? Anyone compared?

 

[zombywoof5050]

Nux vs. Zio? Anyone compared?

One drawback of the Zio here is its lack of an auxiliary input, making it less functional for stand-alone playing with recorded tracks.

 

[kalmar]

So the NuX it is

 

[BassmanNate]

One drawback of the Zio here is its lack of an auxiliary input, making it less functional for stand-alone playing with recorded tracks.

You know what I discovered recently? If you plug a headphone splitter into a headphone jack and then use one side of the splitter like an aux, it works surprisingly well.

 

[TheArchitect]

The Battalion is a real sleeper. By flipping the order of the drive and EQ you can really get a lot of really good sounds.. I discovered it after I had already built my board otherwise its likely I would have went with the Battalion

 

[duruk]

Which did you choose?

Sorry that I couldn't update earlier. I shied away from Nux because I did not want to deal with computer, drivers etc. I went with Laney Digbeth. Had the chance to use it once live. I put a compressor and an octave pedal in front of it and had a pretty solid sound.