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How about the Laney Digbeth preamp pedal?

Gothic

Gothic

Apr 13, 2008
1,520
2,924
Greece
#1
So I've been looking into affordable preamps/DI (mainly focusing on the more affordable ones) but going up the price hill, I saw this one. The Laney Digbeth DB-Pre.

digbeth.jpg



The thing seems to be packed with useful features and is less than 200 euros but I can't seem to find anything about it online. I've always had a fondness for Laney products, they seemed very underrated/underappreciated to me.

Has anyone tried one? Impressions?
 
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#2
I too have been interested in this as it does have a ton of useful options and is competitively priced here in the US. I'm curious as to how the Tube "emulation" sounds as well as the types of drive it can deliver. If the DI is solid then it may be a low budget winner. But alas I have zero familiarity with Laney at all...
 
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#3
EncoremMP said:
I too have been interested in this as it does have a ton of useful options and is competitively priced here in the US. I'm curious as to how the Tube "emulation" sounds as well as the types of drive it can deliver. If the DI is solid then it may be a low budget winner. But alas I have zero familiarity with Laney at all...
Click to expand...

Funny thing is, the thing sold out right after I started this thread!
 
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#5
I'm gonna jump on the bandwagon too. The clips on the website sound great and it's got a feature set that I can't find in any other preamp (and have been looking for). The tube drive sound good to me.....tube preamp drive to me always sounds a little farty/flabby isolated but makes sense in a mix.

I'm keen to hear from people who have tried this pedal.
 
#6
EncoremMP said:
I too have been interested in this as it does have a ton of useful options and is competitively priced here in the US. I'm curious as to how the Tube "emulation" sounds as well as the types of drive it can deliver. If the DI is solid then it may be a low budget winner. But alas I have zero familiarity with Laney at all...
Click to expand...
Don't know about this pedal but I own Laney's Black Country Customs 85 octaver and I can honestly say the sound and build quality is top notch.
 
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#9
timendous said:
I'd like to revive this thread. Anyone played with one of these yet???
Click to expand...
I'm sure it won't be long before the responses arrive.Sounds good in demos for what that's worth,but the price is reasonable.Given Laney's reputation and their build quality in the Laney items I've owned or used I'd definitely spring for one if I didn't own more preamps than I'll ever need already.
 
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#10
Well, it turned up this afternoon, and I've only plugged it into my Scarlett interface and on to my hifi so it's not a real test yet...

It's built like a tank (it's the size of two regular pedals side-by-side) and case and knobs look great in the flesh, along with having a nice arrow marker and numbers to set your levels accurately. Apart from the two volumes and drive pots, the rest have a centre detent that makes it super easy to find the middle setting. The ability to select what the bypass/mute button does is great, as is the selection of the tube or FET or both. Sounds-wise as I said I haven't done a full test, but the range of adjustment is good, though I had to play with the treble knob a lot to realise it's actually quite suble in its effect (I only really noticed it with my passive fretless bass tone control at max treble and doing full sweeps of the treble knob on the preamp. The rest though have noticable effects to the sound and it feels quite close to the John East preamp (got one in a Hohner Jack bass) in range. I want to plug it into my main bass amp to see what it does. The surprise was the Tilt knob, which the Andertons video review questioned a little, but if you want a quick change to the sound it can have a massive effect with little movement and I think it's a handy thing to have, I liked the sounds it was making.

Seems from the manual that this will happily split to a second unit to connect to another amp or preamp via the Link connection, which feeds the dry signal back out again. I haven't tried an active amp yet or FX. One thing I'd forgotten from the review, it doesn't come with a power transformer, so I had to scrabble to find my Boss one which seems to work fine.

For now I'm happy with what I've heard, but I'll have a better experiement with it later today.
 
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#16
I, was planning on buying a Sushi Box pedal and then I saw the demo on the Laney. There isn't much info out there on it and for some reason I'm uneasy about the Laney. I want some tube warmth for my board. Thanks for getting back to me.
 
#17
I have one of these and on initial use received a few compliments from audience members who have seen my band a few times. I was happy with the X factor it gave my tone, especially for the price compared to a tech 21 etc. it added a nice bit of grit and overall presence.

it is a very a handy little headphone amp too, therefore is a good friend regarding me not getting a divorce or annoying my neighbours! I just stick my pedalboard on a desk and jam away. I even use my normal guitar (jaguar) with it when I write new songs.

However

I’ve had a new Ampeg (pf800 with 210HE) and the tube gain mode sounds like a fart through it, even at low gain and low blend.
The FET side still helps give the amp a bit more presence and poke. So I’ve recently just been using this with a touch of mid shaping to compliment the amp, which sounds unbelievably great before any drive is engaged.

I am going to have a play with my signal chain soon, as it may be down to my floor compressor (orange Kongpressor) and the compression of the amp unit. Might even try it through the fx loop which the amp runs in parallel and has a blend feature.

I also use a bass big muff which has encountered the same issues. So that would reinforce that the actual digbeth is not the issue.

if i can’t get it right, I may try other dirt pedals and sell the laney on. I need the option of dirt for about 70% of songs. The muff I use for a woolly (brmc) kind of sound on about 3 tracks.

My bass is a jaguar (jazz pickups)
 
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#18
Just to assure those who are not familiar with Laney products I can only say my own experience with them is a positive one. They were in 'fashion' during my early years on bass during the 70s-80s when Marshall, Orange et al were highly popular; I used a Laney 100w amp for a short time along with a Laney 4x12 cab which I kept hold of and used quite a lot over an 8 year period, a great cab, so I would have no real hesitation to use again. In fact over the last month or so I've been checking out most of the new pre amps and the Digbeth is also in my mind. I have no interest in highly distorted tones, I don't play any of that genre but as some in this thread have mentioned 'warmth' as a factor I can confirm that Laney did have that in spades. Not a brand that stands out but I would certainly trust it with regards to quality and longevity. For the features and price alone it's a no brainer...it may not have that 'secret' ingredient we search for but for all-round regular duties I think you'll be quietly surprised. I'll be swapping a Battalion for one, definitely.
 
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#19
eadg52 said:
Just to assure those who are not familiar with Laney products I can only say my own experience with them is a positive one. They were in 'fashion' during my early years on bass during the 70s-80s when Marshall, Orange et al were highly popular; I used a Laney 100w amp for a short time along with a Laney 4x12 cab which I kept hold of and used quite a lot over an 8 year period, a great cab, so I would have no real hesitation to use again. In fact over the last month or so I've been checking out most of the new pre amps and the Digbeth is also in my mind. I have no interest in highly distorted tones, I don't play any of that genre but as some in this thread have mentioned 'warmth' as a factor I can confirm that Laney did have that in spades. Not a brand that stands out but I would certainly trust it with regards to quality and longevity. For the features and price alone it's a no brainer...it may not have that 'secret' ingredient we search for but for all-round regular duties I think you'll be quietly surprised. I'll be swapping a Battalion for one, definitely.
Click to expand...
Looks like a good one.
 
#20
I've now played mine with headphones using a fretless short scale...I like it for the range of eq adjustment, to me it sounds quite smooth. I still like the Tilt function for quick adjustments. Like most preamps on the market, it could do with a volume control for the aux in (my phone had to go really high to get reasonable output, but maybe I had the bass up too high). I've still yet to try with my big amp, but just for the eq range it's a pretty good, with the amp I'll play with the grit more 'cos with headphones it didn't sound that good (not the best headphone though)
 

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