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I Need Some Help! Clean Preamp/DI Pedal Choices
- Thread starter TheAndinator
- Start date
IvanBassist
Commercial User
- Jun 8, 2008
- 3,756
- 11,161
- Disclosures
- Content Manager at Darkglass Electronics, Dingwall Guitars Artist
You could also consider using an Aguilar Tonehammer DI
I use an Eden WTDI which is a DI pedal with a built-in Eden WT preamp. Sound is clear, clean, and warm. It has the same warmth to the sound that my WT500/800 amp does and it uses a tube in the preamp for the warmth. It has Bass, mid, and treble and the mid can be toggled to either 500Hz or 2KHz. With my passive Jazz, I always run mine at 500Hz and dial in a little boost to about 1:30. Run the rest of the EQ flat and turn the Enhance (shape control) off. It also has a single dial adjustable compressor, which I have used as an effect for songs like "Time after Time" by Cyndi Lauper. Otherwise I leave it off because my Jazz has great sustain.
I originally got it a number of years ago when they were $149 (typically $169 to $179 now). Got it because a small brewpub required me to use their Peavey 112 combo and I just couldn't get a sound I liked out of it. So I bought the WTDI; plugged it into effects-in of the combo and immediately got that nice clear, clean and warm "Eden Sound" out of it. I've used it on acoustic, Ampeg, GK, MarkBass, and a slew of other backlines since.
Then one day I arrived at that small brewpub and the amp was gone. Was an employee's amp and he took it home. No problem, just ran a signal out of my DI connection to our soundboard and played through the PA all night - sounded great! Did a recording session at a pro studio in 2019 and had to take my they asked me to go direct because they thought there would be too much bleed over keeping me in the same room as the drums. So I brought in my WTDI and they did NOT want me to use it. They wanted me to use one of their generic ones. I insisted on using my WTDI and just set the EQ with a little boost at 500Hz and everything else set flat.
At the end of the session they had me listen to some of the raw tapes and asked what I thought of my bass. I listened and it sounded really good - not a little good, but really good. Then he said, "that's exactly the signal you sent us. We didn't adjust EQ or add any compression to it. The only thing we did was adjust the level and that was it." Then the engineer and the owner of the studio came in to see what it was that sounded so good in the raw tapes. I'm sure they did of course use compression on it in the mix down as they balance instruments, but that WTDI is what I use for recordings now. No need to bring an amp or cab.
If you're looking at them used, be sure to get the ones with the red power light next to the Bass EQ. The ones that have a blue LED there are crazy bright. Red one is easy to see that it's on without blinding you with a blue light. Took Eden about 2 or 3 years to change it a less-bright red.
Take a look at the Sadowsky pre amp. It works really well for me.
Tone hammer DI - has great AGS for vintage sound and otherwise is nice, warm yet modern sounding unit - also built like a tank
I use and love the Mesa + preamp/DI - tones of features, very good quality as you would expect
I had the Mesa Subway DI. So clean and wonderful! Sold it here on TB. It was the best one I've played! Wish I had kept it.
Currently use the Sansamp VT DI for P&W.
Works pretty good also.
Currently use the Sansamp VT DI for P&W.
Works pretty good also.
How far down the rabbit hole do you want to go, and how much do you want your wallet to cry? 
Currently coming up on 300 pages... The Great Preamp/DI Comparison Thread.
That said, I agree with the suggestions of the Q Strip and the ToneHammer. Of the preamps I've tried, they're the only two I still own. So good. (Personal preference, of course)
The QStrip is based on the EQ strip (hence the name) of a Neve recording consoles I believe, and will warm your tone a bit without imposing too much color... aka: the overpowering "Sansamp sound." It's a great parametric EQ with the addition of high-pass and low-pass filters. There's a nice TB thread for this one here: Tech 21 Q/Strip
The ToneHammer coincidentally started the Great Preamp thread above. The Aguilar Sound is a little warmer and thicker than the Q Strip, but still isn't too much color. Don't sleep on the ToneHammer just because it has the AGS circuit either... It's meant to be always on or always off and is a VERY nice addition. It lets you dial in a little (or a lot) of always on grit when/where you need it for your overall sound.
Someday I'll get some fancy boutique tube DI, but if I were going to get another preamp/DI pedal today for my current needs... I'd like to try out the Trickfish Minnow. Check Jayme Lewis' Minnow demo for a ton of great info from a bassist AND producer perspective. It's a long watch, but worth it. Lots of great info applicable to other preamps as well.
5sg.
Currently coming up on 300 pages... The Great Preamp/DI Comparison Thread.
That said, I agree with the suggestions of the Q Strip and the ToneHammer. Of the preamps I've tried, they're the only two I still own. So good. (Personal preference, of course)
The QStrip is based on the EQ strip (hence the name) of a Neve recording consoles I believe, and will warm your tone a bit without imposing too much color... aka: the overpowering "Sansamp sound." It's a great parametric EQ with the addition of high-pass and low-pass filters. There's a nice TB thread for this one here: Tech 21 Q/Strip
The ToneHammer coincidentally started the Great Preamp thread above. The Aguilar Sound is a little warmer and thicker than the Q Strip, but still isn't too much color. Don't sleep on the ToneHammer just because it has the AGS circuit either... It's meant to be always on or always off and is a VERY nice addition. It lets you dial in a little (or a lot) of always on grit when/where you need it for your overall sound.
Someday I'll get some fancy boutique tube DI, but if I were going to get another preamp/DI pedal today for my current needs... I'd like to try out the Trickfish Minnow. Check Jayme Lewis' Minnow demo for a ton of great info from a bassist AND producer perspective. It's a long watch, but worth it. Lots of great info applicable to other preamps as well.
5sg.
I have the MLD bass DI, and also have an SCR-DI. I leave the SCR-DI at church for whoever wants to use it, and I use it myself as well. This one is not transparent, but is also a little mis understood in my opinion. I think there are people who become disenchanted with it because of the baked in ampeg tone. What is probably happening in some cases is that it is not understood that unity is not straight up 12 for the different eq’s. On mine, I run the bass knob pretty low and it’s plenty. Not sure why ampeg didn’t make noon=unity gain, but, now that i know the trick, it doesn’t bother me that they didn’t. - Also, you can get a little clean(ish) boost if you minimize distortion on the scrambler circuit and add gain.
The MLD is very transparent. It reminds me of the ton you get out of a zoom pedal. They did Swiss army up this pedal with a lot of nice features tho. The MLD is almost a little too transparent for me. I dunno, I may not have spent enough time with it, but it feels like the McNuggets vs getting the whole chicken. It has the MLD, The The Tone Hammer, and the Starlifter models. They’re nice, but not equal to their analog counterparts. The MLD is quality, solid and quiet, so don’t want t steer anyone away. But even with cabinet IRs it’s not going to be an equal to the actual preamp DI it models.
The MLD is very transparent. It reminds me of the ton you get out of a zoom pedal. They did Swiss army up this pedal with a lot of nice features tho. The MLD is almost a little too transparent for me. I dunno, I may not have spent enough time with it, but it feels like the McNuggets vs getting the whole chicken. It has the MLD, The The Tone Hammer, and the Starlifter models. They’re nice, but not equal to their analog counterparts. The MLD is quality, solid and quiet, so don’t want t steer anyone away. But even with cabinet IRs it’s not going to be an equal to the actual preamp DI it models.
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As of now, I've got a Trickfish Trilobite on the way. Clean and subtle, with useful/musical EQ in a dual-channel setup kitted with a pile of output & FX loop options. Out of reach new but more accessible second-hand, and I suspect some really high-grade gear. Will report back.
Humboldt Bass Station / Simplifier is fantastic, has all that and much more.
No tube, but plenty warm if you wish. Nice & small too.
F these people... seriously worst customer service I may have ever encountered
If you want dead-clean, the MXR M81 is pretty hard to beat. Cheap, small and zero coloring.
I run the Mesa Subway DI Plus. Couple real interesting features of the Mesa. It has dual XLR outs - one of the few preamps to have dual XLR outs. One is mic level (FOH) and one is line level and will drive a power amp well. It also has an unbalanced line-level out as well as the through output. Great feature of the Master volume control is it does not impact the mic-level out to FOH. Allows volume adjustments on the pedal without impacting signal to FOH. The voice control allows one to use as much or as little "color" as they want. The EQ options and HPF are great additions on the "+" version of the Mesa preamp. It is a little bigger though. I use a crown XLS-1502 power amp bridged into one or two Barefaced BB3's.
IMO, especially for live sound, don't stress over it. FOH is going to alter sound and really will determine what the audience hears. Most likely, the difference in live sound between most of the options that you listed will be lost on the audience. I would get the unit that has the functionality and features needed. The outputs of the mesa are really quiet noise wise. The EQ is responsive and it is immune to FOH send phantom power to it. Really good unit. I'm biased as I haven't used the other options listed - but this should more than meet your needs.
IMO, especially for live sound, don't stress over it. FOH is going to alter sound and really will determine what the audience hears. Most likely, the difference in live sound between most of the options that you listed will be lost on the audience. I would get the unit that has the functionality and features needed. The outputs of the mesa are really quiet noise wise. The EQ is responsive and it is immune to FOH send phantom power to it. Really good unit. I'm biased as I haven't used the other options listed - but this should more than meet your needs.
Thank you Al for the detailed information! I really do feel like I have a better shortlist, but the Trickfish Minnow seems to be the top for now!
