New bass preamp DI pedal

[Aidenn7]

Acoustic Bass Preamp D.I. With Overdrive! Ticks all the boxes and is only $150 USD!
I got one, it’s awesome!
They have done zero advertising for it, so it took me by surprise when it was in the case at my local Guitarcenter, it does not disappoint!

From everything I've learned it's very mid forward.. But the notch helps with weird mid honk.. Am I wrong?? I can't try one so I'm stuck for now

 

[Wfrance3]

An MXR M81 + dirt of your choice

absolutely. I fancy just a light breakup. My entire signal chain is tuner-tc electronics spark booster-MXR M81.

the spark booster is the 4-knob one. Between that and the 3 band eq on the m81, you really kinda have it all.

if you need more of a drive/distortion, maybe checkout the dark glass stuff. I’ve never owned any of their products, but the demos and testimonials are very telling. They really seem to have nice stuff.

 

[Kipp Harrington]

Tech 21 VT Bass Deluxe. 6 presets and it can produce everything from a signal boost to full-on mayhem. It has made my rig sound great!
https://www.musiciansfriend.com/amp...eries-vt-bass-deluxe-distortion-effects-pedal

 

[MynameisMe]

Mesa Subway or Subway+ Bass DI-Preamp with a separate drive pedal. I get the allure of a one-stop-shop, but I've had better luck splitting them up.

This. My Mesa Subway DI and separate OD (EHX Bass Soul Food) are a great combination.
In my opinion most DI's have horrible overdrive or distortion sections. I've many and don't like any of the ones I've tried.

 

[CAILLOUX]

 

[Holdsg]

another vote for Ampeg SCR-DI

 

[JDLowEnd]

Another vote for the Two Notes Le Bass here. Maybe it's because of the tubes, but it has the most natural distortion I've heard. I play in cold fusion mode with a little dirt 90% of the time. It does clean very well, and it can get nasty if you want it to.

I see this response all the time, was I the only one that had problems with noise? Two Notes even sent me a new power supply (great customer service) and it was a :little: bit better but barely. I wanted to love that pedal but the hiss was too much. OP good luck on your quest. I am rocking the Pike Vulcan XL at the moment, after owning a myriad of different preamp pedals myself.

 

[selowitch]

It may not strictly qualify as a true pre-amp, but I really like my Fender Downtown Express pedal with overdrive, compression. DI, and equalizer all in one box. It’s very natural-sounding:

 

[CheckBass]

View attachment 3979951

Nice gear but it looks quite big, or is it just the pic? The OP does not have much space on his pedalboard.

I subscribe to one suggestion made by others: if you are happy with the clean tone of your MXR M80, the MXR M81 combined with an OD pedal is a serious option. Someone corrects me if I'm wrong but MXR M80 - OD= MXR M81

I use mine with a Darkglass B3K or a Darkglass Vintage Microtube, it is indeed a neutral preamp and the DI is a big plus.

 

[micguy]

Finding your ideal preamp is easy. I've found mine at least a dozen times. ;-)

Best of luck. Don't feel bad if it takes a while (or forever) to find what you really want.

 

[BobDeRosa]

Greetings from Italy.
I'm searching for a new preamp DI to keep in my pedalboard. I use it for a light eq and some distortion/overdrive (vaguely Tool sound) and in rare occasions of playing live directly in ths PA. So it must have clean and od/distorted channel
It's a plus if I could connect it to headphones and play ampless at home, but not strictly necessary.

Problem is, I pretty much ruled out almost everything I know.
- Mxr M80: great but the distorted sound has the colour function (big scoop, sopay sound) always engaged. Sold it
- Darkglass B7k ultra: distortion too harsh, too pointy. Have it now, planning to sell
- Sansamp BBDI: mid scoop too big, even lowering bass and treble, and too fat. Sold it. (I guess other Tech 21 have te same taste)
- EHX Battalion: seems good but the distortion sound too fuzzy, remembers my Big Muff which I only use for fuzz
- Aguilar Tone Hammer DI: overdrive sounds unusable
- Ebs Microbass: I had a couple of Ebs pedals and didn't like it
- GK Plex: that would be my choice, on the clean channel it seems to have everything I want and I LOVE GK head sims, BUT the overdrive/distortion sound crappy from the vids I've seen

What other could you suggest?
Please no unknown artisanal brand. I know many of them are pretty good, but I often want to change and I need good chances of reselling.
Thanks guys

I find it hard to believe that a company as good as Aguilar could make anything "unusable." Please explain. I have no use for the overdrive (AGS circuit) on mine, but the EQ is excellent once you've spent enough time familiarizing yourself with the settings.

 

[roller]

Ciao!

Agree with you on the Aguilar dirty.

DSM OmniCabSim Deluxe has received a lotta love on this site over the past few years... but it might not have all the dirt you're looking for. Contact Daniel at DSM as they make lots of good stuff... and he's a super-nice guy to work with!

I like the Tech 21 stuff, too.

What other could you suggest?
Please no unknown artisanal brand. I know many of them are pretty good, but I often want to change and I need good chances of reselling.
Thanks guys

 

[tlite]

Definitely was going to suggest GK, but then saw you've already gone there. You might like the Wampler Low Blow. Marketed as a Distortion but I've used it like a pre and it's quite versatile. No XLR though. The active EQ is really good IMO, great tone shaping particularly at low blend/gain settings.

https://www.wamplerpedals.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/low_blow.pdf

Haven't tried one but the NUX also sounds pretty great and like a good fit for you from the videos I've watched (with studio monitors on).

 

[bassingeorge]

This is what I ended up doing, while looking for the "perfect" do it all preamp.

And to be honest I wasn't happy. The darkglass "clean preamp", enhances your sound, but I needed more as a standalone preamp, so I just traded it for a sansamp VTBASSDI. We'll see how it goes.

What I'm trying to say is that I also wanted the perfect preamp/distortion pedal combo, and quickly found out I needed seperate od/dist pedals.

Good luck on your search!

 

[monsterthompson]

What is cab sim really,isn't it just a form of baked EQ?

Kind of, yes, but not just that, there's some other tricks involving phasing/delay if I understood it correctly.
You can use EQ to tame to fizzy top end if that's all you've got, but a proper cab sim will sound a lot more 'realistic'.

It is a combo of EQ & Pass Filters.

With the DSM OCSD, the control knobs are:

• Mic and Line output. Compensate levels with the gain control.
  
  
• Tunable high frequency response emulates the steep low pass filter that different speakers produce. (LPF)
  
  
• Tunable Low frequency response that controls the low end roll off typical of speaker of various sizes. (HPF)
  
  
• Tunable low frequency resonance lets you dial the resonance of the low end roll off point, reproducing the effect of closed or open back cabinets, and anything in between.
  
  
• Mid control lets you dial “modern” or “vintage” responses (I believe this is a cut only at ~500 Hz)
  
  
• Punch control boosts the 800 Hz band, that lets you cut through the mix with warmth.

 

[Leonid Nidis]

I find it hard to believe that a company as good as Aguilar could make anything "unusable." Please explain. I have no use for the overdrive (AGS circuit) on mine, but the EQ is excellent once you've spent enough time familiarizing yourself with the settings.

The ags brings a volume boost so you can't turn it on live on the fly.

 

[monsterthompson]

The ags brings a volume boost so you can't turn it on live on the fly.

Really surprised they haven’t addressed this by now. They’re must be a way to add a small trim pot to manage the volume difference without a massive redesign.

 

[2saddleslab]

One more vote for the Ampeg SCR-DI.

 

[MDBass]

Greetings from Italy.
I'm searching for a new preamp DI to keep in my pedalboard. I use it for a light eq and some distortion/overdrive (vaguely Tool sound) and in rare occasions of playing live directly in ths PA. So it must have clean and od/distorted channel
It's a plus if I could connect it to headphones and play ampless at home, but not strictly necessary.

Problem is, I pretty much ruled out almost everything I know.
- Mxr M80: great but the distorted sound has the colour function (big scoop, sopay sound) always engaged. Sold it
- Darkglass B7k ultra: distortion too harsh, too pointy. Have it now, planning to sell
- Sansamp BBDI: mid scoop too big, even lowering bass and treble, and too fat. Sold it. (I guess other Tech 21 have te same taste)
- EHX Battalion: seems good but the distortion sound too fuzzy, remembers my Big Muff which I only use for fuzz
- Aguilar Tone Hammer DI: overdrive sounds unusable
- Ebs Microbass: I had a couple of Ebs pedals and didn't like it
- GK Plex: that would be my choice, on the clean channel it seems to have everything I want and I LOVE GK head sims, BUT the overdrive/distortion sound crappy from the vids I've seen

What other could you suggest?
Please no unknown artisanal brand. I know many of them are pretty good, but I often want to change and I need good chances of reselling.
Thanks guys

Other Tech 21 pedals sound nothing like the BDDI.

I’d recommend their new PSA pedal.

 

[_One//Man//Mutiny_]

From everything I've learned it's very mid forward.. But the notch helps with weird mid honk.. Am I wrong?? I can't try one so I'm stuck for now

You can definitely control the mids, however you want it. I have it dialed in to sound pretty much dead on to my 371, I have the 3 band on bass mids and treble slightly boosted and the graphic eq in a smiley face with the mids being the low point in the curve and slightly boosted and the pedal can capture that sound