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Noble Amps Preamp

#2,741
N. Kentucky Bass said:
So I just did a tube saturation experiment to hear the effect of this chain:
  • Fender American Jazz V, onboard Sadowsky preamp off, no EQ, volume on full -->
  • Headway EDB-2 H.E preamp (the dependent variable) with no EQ and with master out @ 3:00 -->
  • Noble with no EQ and HPF off --> DI out -->
  • Zoom F8 field recorder, normalizing the tracking level in.
I played the same two-octave scale slow and fast four times while varying the Headway preamp boost level. The available range of boost is from 0 at the lowest setting (7:00) to +32dB at the highest setting (5:00). According to the manual, "Each dot marker equals 2.5dB (approx.) or +/- 40%." The four tests were at:
  1. Dot marker 3 @ 10:00
  2. Dot marker 5 @ 12:00
  3. Dot marker 7 @ 2:00
  4. Dot marker 10 @ 5:00 (max level @ +32dB)
Bottom line: I definitely heard a gradual increase of tube saturation at levels 5, 7 and 10. At the highest setting, there was audible hair on the note envelopes. Based on this simple test, if you need audible tube saturation, putting a signal boost in front of the Noble definitely works!

Here's an old shot of my pedal board with the gear described above:

View attachment 4121132
Click to expand...
good demonstration.
to be clear, I did not mean to suggest that the Noble would not saturate with a hot signal hitting it, but that when I have tried it, I did not care for the results very much. I'm fairly sure that Jacks design goals for the Noble were/are for a pretty clean machine and I have not been able to get mine to saturate in any meaningful/useful way by itself.

I don't want dirt very often, but when I do, I usually get it by pushing a preamp stage AFTER the Noble, like with the Mesa WD800 or Walkabout ... both of which will get pleasantly dirty. For tracking with dirt, I usually use a VST in the box.

Of course, everyone's tone goals are different so it may work out fine for others.

enjoy!
 
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#2,744
FINALLY! After receiving my Noble a year ago, interrupted by Covid, I finally got to take her into the studio. Contemporary Christian project. Played a Sadowski NYC Will Lee with onboard preamp disengaged. Also, played a Pedulla Thunderbolt fretless not as a bass line but some added color.
I let the engineer set the Noble to his liking: bass and treble at noon, filter off.
The engineer and producer LOVED the sound. They said they later tried several UA models and plug-ins on it but decided to use just a little comp and eq and keep the sound pretty much as captured.
Money and wait well spent!
 
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#2,745
spydr said:
FINALLY! After receiving my Noble a year ago, interrupted by Covid, I finally got to take her into the studio. Contemporary Christian project. Played a Sadowski NYC Will Lee with onboard preamp disengaged. Also, played a Pedulla Thunderbolt fretless not as a bass line but some added color.
I let the engineer set the Noble to his liking: bass and treble at noon, filter off.
The engineer and producer LOVED the sound. They said they later tried several UA models and plug-ins on it but decided to use just a little comp and eq and keep the sound pretty much as captured.
Money and wait well spent!
Click to expand...
When I use my Sadowsky with the Noble I disengage the onboard preamp as well! For me, the Noble works it’s magic best with a passive signal. I do love Roger’s preamp by itself as well.
 
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#2,747
spydr said:
FINALLY! After receiving my Noble a year ago, interrupted by Covid, I finally got to take her into the studio. Contemporary Christian project. Played a Sadowski NYC Will Lee with onboard preamp disengaged. Also, played a Pedulla Thunderbolt fretless not as a bass line but some added color.
I let the engineer set the Noble to his liking: bass and treble at noon, filter off.
The engineer and producer LOVED the sound. They said they later tried several UA models and plug-ins on it but decided to use just a little comp and eq and keep the sound pretty much as captured.
Money and wait well spent!
Click to expand...
100%. The Noble simply sits well on mixes.
The first time I used mine live the sound engineer shouted from the desk during soundcheck: YEAH!! That’s a bass sound!! :bassist:
 
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#2,749
spydr said:
FINALLY! After receiving my Noble a year ago, interrupted by Covid, I finally got to take her into the studio. Contemporary Christian project. Played a Sadowski NYC Will Lee with onboard preamp disengaged. Also, played a Pedulla Thunderbolt fretless not as a bass line but some added color.
I let the engineer set the Noble to his liking: bass and treble at noon, filter off.
The engineer and producer LOVED the sound. They said they later tried several UA models and plug-ins on it but decided to use just a little comp and eq and keep the sound pretty much as captured.
Money and wait well spent!
Click to expand...
nice to hear all this. I'm particularly interested to read that the engineer pushed the Bass and Treble controls to noon (so you did get some scoop around ~700hz).

I love the tone the the Noble delivers but I have read repeatedly that many users just set theirs flat which surprises me. I usually start with at Bass about 10:00 and Treble about 1:00 with the filter off .... although secretly I have also really enjoyed the "Tim Lefebvre" settings with the Bass control dimed, Treble at 2-3 o'clock and the filter on to keep that high level of Bass eq a bit under control.

enjoy!
 
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#2,750
pfschim said:
I love the tone the the Noble delivers but I have read repeatedly that many users just set theirs flat which surprises me. I usually start with at Bass about 10:00 and Treble about 1:00 with the filter off .... although secretly I have also really enjoyed the "Tim Lefebvre" settings with the Bass control dimed, Treble at 2-3 o'clock and the filter on to keep that high level of Bass eq a bit under control.
Click to expand...

I like Tim Lefbvre.
I saw a rig run-down where he said that the FOH engineers for the TTB used the Noble but had it set flat.
He was using an SVT and 410 for his stage sound - which was micd - I think the FOH was mixing the two signals.
He was pretty grumbly about the settings, but didn't sound like he had a lot of say in the matter.

His Noble is one of the early ones with the tubes on the outside.
 
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#2,751
hennessybass said:
I like Tim Lefbvre.
I saw a rig run-down where he said that the FOH engineers for the TTB used the Noble but had it set flat.
He was using an SVT and 410 for his stage sound - which was micd - I think the FOH was mixing the two signals.
He was pretty grumbly about the settings, but didn't sound like he had a lot of say in the matter.

His Noble is one of the early ones with the tubes on the outside.
Click to expand...
when I was considering grabbing a Noble, I read a few reviews and watched several YT vids. One was of Tim L and he spoke about those settings ... diming the bass and using the HPF to keep it a bit under control.
 
#2,754
pfschim said:
nice to hear all this. I'm particularly interested to read that the engineer pushed the Bass and Treble controls to noon (so you did get some scoop around ~700hz).

I love the tone the the Noble delivers but I have read repeatedly that many users just set theirs flat which surprises me. I usually start with at Bass about 10:00 and Treble about 1:00 with the filter off .... although secretly I have also really enjoyed the "Tim Lefebvre" settings with the Bass control dimed, Treble at 2-3 o'clock and the filter on to keep that high level of Bass eq a bit under control.

enjoy!
Click to expand...
The engineer actually had bass at noon when I mixed mostly bridge pickup and about 10:00 when mostly the neck. Pretty new round wounds. Mostly kind of aggressive songs and wanted some "digging in" attitude from the bass. He didn't spend much time dialing in the Noble. Quickly said, "I can definitely work with that." And moved on to his console.
 
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#2,758
I ve just got a sadowsky 5 jazz , all my other basses are passive vintage style jazz Pb and hofner .
With all my passive basses bass 11 o’clock , treble 9 o’clock HPF Off
How do you use your noble with active bass ? Set the noble flat and sadow onboard preamp On , or sadow flat and noble Eq on ? Maybe the two eq in the same time ?
Thanks .
 
#2,759
corsicangroove said:
I ve just got a sadowsky 5 jazz , all my other basses are passive vintage style jazz Pb and hofner .
With all my passive basses bass 11 o’clock , treble 9 o’clock HPF Off
How do you use your noble with active bass ? Set the noble flat and sadow onboard preamp On , or sadow flat and noble Eq on ? Maybe the two eq in the same time ?
Thanks .
Click to expand...
On my Sadowsky I bypass the preamp whenever I use the Noble. If I don’t bypass it I put bass at around 8 o clock, treble at 9 o clock and let the preamp do the rest.
 
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#2,760
Since adding the Noble to my signal chain I have stopped using the Active mode on the only bass I have with that option ... Lull M4V. The other 2 are natively passive (Fender Roscoe Beck IV and '51 P reissue) .. it just works better for me. I have found my own personal sonic perfection happens with the Noble at unity gain (around 10-11:00), Bass at ~10:00 and Treble at 1:00 with the HPF off (I use an fdeck v3 or the HPF on my Mesa WD800). I'm also running a Cali76CB in front of the Noble using its so-called NYC/sidechain settings. So nice!
 

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