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passive warwick tone boost - pedal or preamp?

project_c

project_c

May 8, 2008
1,592
1,870
London, UK
#1
i'm trying to find the best way to bring a bit more woody growl and sustain out of my passive corvette std, and just energise the sound a little more (without distorting it). some people recommend fitting a warwick preamp to the bass, others recommend the sadowsky preamp pedal, and some swear by aguilar. are there advantages to using outboard, or is it better to go active, and what will achieve the best results?
 
#2
I recently bought a used Std fretless passive. I use my trusty Boss Bass EQ pedal. It has a 1MegOhm input and 7 band EQ - plus a healthy amount of gain boost - w/o clipping. It's a relatively cheap option ($79?).

Either preamp/pedal you listed would be great as well.

Good luck!
 
#4
From past experience, I recommend one of these two options...

Sadowsky Outboard Preamp (gives you at least bass/treble boost options)
or
the very cheap option... ART Tube MP Studio mic preamp.

The ART has NO EQ functions at all, but it offers a ton of clean gain, tube warmth, and is CHEAP. $29 at Musician's Friend right now. All of my basses are active, but I still use this in front of my solid state heads to warm them up, and I also use it as a main preamp for my double bass (w/Realist pickup). If you want 3-band EQ control, the Aguilar seems logical, but you can always control EQ at the amp, which I'm guessing you already do since it's a passive bass.

I owned one of those Corvette Standards once.... a passive fretless model. Sounded great and was beautiful & built like a tank, but weighed a ton and never fit my body comfortably. The tone was wonderful though!
 
#5
Re: onboard versus pedal, they have the same essential function in most cases. There are a couple of onboard pre's which need to be onboard the bass to work properly, but the majority are just the same type of circuit that is found in the stompbox pre's. IOW "active" is the same as "pedal" in most cases. Either the Sadowsky or the Aggie will work great, whether you install them in the bass or use the stompbox version.
 
#6
I solved the same problem I had with my corvette installing an active mid booster. I also tried putting the pickups in series.

the crappy mec pickups are the real problem on that bass. they sound thin and sterile...

with the mid boost cranked, the bass sounded bigger without distorting. that bass needs MIDS....
 
#8
thanks for all the replies - while i absolutely love the tone of the corvette, it definately does lack a bit of something, and despite of all its' growliness it could well be missing something in the mids. i'll sounds like i can't go wrong with a decent preamp pedal so i'll try out a couple tomorrow and see how they sound.
 

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