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Noble Amps Preamp

#142
odin70 said:
What about the Noble vs the Tonehammer..anyone?

I have a Reddi, so it is the preamp that interests me. Should i keep the Reddi and buy a Tonehammer or should i go for the Noble.
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One big difference is that the Noble can send your tube (and EQ) affected signal to both the house and your amp. Unlike most DI's including the REDDI, the 1/4 output is the same signal that goes to the XLR. On the other hand, the Tonehammer has a mid control if that matters to you.

Is your goal to permit EQ of the FOH feed? If so, another option would be to put an EQ pedal in front of the REDDI - something like a Whirlwind Bass 10 or an Empress Para EQ. Either would give you a lot more tone shaping capability than the Tonehammer for about the same price.

Of course if you sold the REDDI and then add your Tonehammer budget to the REDDI cash you could just about cover the cost of a Noble.
 
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#143
odin70 said:
What about the Noble vs the Tonehammer..anyone?

I have a Reddi, so it is the preamp that interests me. Should i keep the Reddi and buy a Tonehammer or should i go for the Noble.
Click to expand...
Sell the REDDI, don't buy a TH and get the noble! I've owned all three, the noble is the one! I also have a sadowsky pre, but never use. Only keeping for sentimental reason, lol.
 
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#146
It's in a totally different league than the Tonehammer, which I think is a great pedal. It sounds great as a pre amp at the end of a pedal chain. But once you record with the Noble you'll see why people say its so special. Since Ive had it, almost every amp track that I recorded (with the intention of blending) has gotten scrapped in favor of the noble.
As far as REDDI comparisons, Ive used the reddi a few times. Its pretty transparent. Keep in mind that even with both eq knobs set flat (off) on the Noble there is gonna be some color. Between the tubes and the transformer, its really a nice color. But its not transparent. There are some short reviews on the Noble page. Most are just straight up praise. But Tim Lefebvre's comment that it literally sounds like Donny Hathaway live is funny, but very much on point. Its just an excellent thick bass tone that acts as the perfect blank canvas for my rig. The reddi and/or tonehammer do not sound like that. *Imo, of course
 
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#147
Doner Designs said:
Whenever I see a two band preamp, especially if it's boost-only, I wonder about the comparison to Sadowsky (which I don't own). I have sort of settled in to using 4 band preamps and tend to scoop the mids a little at more like 400-500 hz rather than the 700 hz that sits between the Noble bass and treble shelving controls.

I think the Sad boosts bass at 40 (or 50) hz and below vs the Noble is 80 hz. They are pretty close on the treble frequency I think at 3-4khz. All else being equal (which, of course, is never the case), I might rather see the bass boost lower than 80 and the mid scoop (when boosting both hi and lo) lower than 700, but the proof will be in the listening and testing...plus you can always put an equalizer in the chain. I love the Empress ParaEQ which is dead silent and runs on 9volts.

Then again, if you think about the REDDI and all of the $200 DI boxes, like the JDI and Countryman, most guys would be sending a flat-ish signal to the house anyhow. When starting from that perspective, any tone controls on the DI are a bonus and a tack-on to whatever else is in your chain or amp.
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That was an extremely thorough answer. Thank you!
 
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#148
Doner Designs said:
Whenever I see a two band preamp, especially if it's boost-only, I wonder about the comparison to Sadowsky (which I don't own). I have sort of settled in to using 4 band preamps and tend to scoop the mids a little at more like 400-500 hz rather than the 700 hz that sits between the Noble bass and treble shelving controls.

I think the Sad boosts bass at 40 (or 50) hz and below vs the Noble is 80 hz. They are pretty close on the treble frequency I think at 3-4khz. All else being equal (which, of course, is never the case), I might rather see the bass boost lower than 80 and the mid scoop (when boosting both hi and lo) lower than 700, but the proof will be in the listening and testing...plus you can always put an equalizer in the chain. I love the Empress ParaEQ which is dead silent and runs on 9volts.

Then again, if you think about the REDDI and all of the $200 DI boxes, like the JDI and Countryman, most guys would be sending a flat-ish signal to the house anyhow. When starting from that perspective, any tone controls on the DI are a bonus and a tack-on to whatever else is in your chain or amp.
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I think the Noble and Sadowsky are both based on the Fender tonestack. So, cranking the bass and treble would get you close to flat.(?)
 
#149
lemongrenades said:
It's in a totally different league than the Tonehammer, which I think is a great pedal. It sounds great as a pre amp at the end of a pedal chain. But once you record with the Noble you'll see why people say its so special. Since Ive had it, almost every amp track that I recorded (with the intention of blending) has gotten scrapped in favor of the noble.
As far as REDDI comparisons, Ive used the reddi a few times. Its pretty transparent. Keep in mind that even with both eq knobs set flat (off) on the Noble there is gonna be some color. Between the tubes and the transformer, its really a nice color. But its not transparent. There are some short reviews on the Noble page. Most are just straight up praise. But Tim Lefebvre's comment that it literally sounds like Donny Hathaway live is funny, but very much on point. Its just an excellent thick bass tone that acts as the perfect blank canvas for my rig. The reddi and/or tonehammer do not sound like that. *Imo, of course
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Its posts like this that have me salivating over the Noble. I especially like the feature of being able to send the warm gooey tone to your amp as well, this is what made me stop thinking about a REDDI all together. I also like the EQ, and the ability to have some control over what the FOG guys are getting in case they need to be brought back out of the ditch. More than I would like lately had a fair amount of tone deaf FOH guys, as in tin ear syndrome.
 
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#150
Dave Hill said:
I think the Noble and Sadowsky are both based on the Fender tonestack. So, cranking the bass and treble would get you close to flat.(?)
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Flat on a Fender tone stack is something like 2/10/2 for B/M/T. I think earlier in the thread it was pointed out that flat on the Noble is both bass and treble knobs fully counter clockwise. I believe it's the same on a Sadowsky onboard pre.
 
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#152
This is the rig that I take to my church gig. The EQ looks extreme because it's sitting in a parallel FX loop and not going to the house. Too hissy and not really needed for the DI since even with the two bands it has more control than most boxes.

IMG_0725.JPG
 
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#155
El_Ohso said:
is there a chance of getting a noble di without the dc outputs? they are not isolated right? so they would basically work like a "1 spot" kind of thing
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Why would you object to having them even if you rarely use them? Just curious. Would probably be more expensive to customize them out than to include them, so I doubt it would result in a discount.
 
#156
Doner Designs said:
Why would you object to having them even if you rarely use them? Just curious. Would probably be more expensive to customize them out than to include them, so I doubt it would result in a discount.
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Actually, I was about to ask the same question before C posted. I have a DI that I already love, and would rather use an isolated supply. I just want the Noble as a preamp (as I'm sure many others do as well).

Maybe it would be more expensive to customize it...but if Noble were to make a second production model without DI and pedal power, it would likely be cheaper and smaller. I think it's pretty sensible not to want a bunch of extra stuff you don't need if the option is there.
 
#158
Eadger said:
Actually, I was about to ask the same question before C posted. I have a DI that I already love, and would rather use an isolated supply. I just want the Noble as a preamp (as I'm sure many others do as well).

Maybe it would be more expensive to customize it...but if Noble were to make a second production model without DI and pedal power, it would likely be cheaper and smaller. I think it's pretty sensible not to want a bunch of extra stuff you don't need if the option is there.
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Maybe. Cheaper and smaller would surprise me considering this is a one man shop doing hand made stuff. I was sort of at the other end of the spectrum thinking that it was probably a low cost thing to add and is a handy feature if you ever want to go minimalist (skip the big board and bring the DI plus one or two pedals to a gig). I also made a suggestion that a USB output be included, either standard or as an option, so that the Noble could be directly hooked up to a PC for recording.
 
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#160
Doner Designs said:
Maybe. Cheaper and smaller would surprise me considering this is a one man shop doing hand made stuff. I was sort of at the other end of the spectrum thinking that it was probably a low cost thing to add and is a handy feature if you ever want to go minimalist (skip the big board and bring the DI plus one or two pedals to a gig). I also made a suggestion that a USB output be included, either standard or as an option, so that the Noble could be directly hooked up to a PC for recording.
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It was just a question of whether something stripped down was on the drawing board or not. There are many one man shops doing hand made stuff that have multiple models/options at different price points...it's not that surprising of an idea.

If Noble decides that this is the one model, then great - I still think it's a fantastic product and am definitely considering purchasing one...it would just be no-brainer for me if they were to get rid of all the stuff I don't need (and its associated space, weight, and cost).
 
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