Pedal pre's

[Zbysek]

Carl Martin 3-band pre
, which is still today an essential part of my setup.

I am glad you found what works for you. I have not known this one. Three parametric EQs...wow!

 

[bucephylus]

A real deal bass preamp pedal should have an fx loop.

Curious what the advantage of that would be?

I’m NOT a big effects player; but do have a few of them, and tend to just put them in front of the preamp on the pedalboard. Perhaps there are certain effects that are better after the preamp, and you want to get them into the DI feed?

 

[Zbysek]

Curious what the advantage of that would be?

I’m NOT a big effects player; but do have a few of them, and tend to just put them in front of the preamp on the pedalboard. Perhaps there are certain effects that are better after the preamp, and you want to get them into the DI feed?

I usually tend to do the same. I see an advantage if the FX loop has a blend knob for effects like fuzz, distortion or reverb...if I wanted to mix the clean and effected signal to keep the low end...

I am glad my preamp has this feature (EBS MicroBass II). I use it rarely though....because I use the mentioned effects rarely, I guess.

 

[bucephylus]

I usually tend to do the same. I see an advantage if the FX loop has a blend knob for effects like fuzz, distortion or reverb...if I wanted to mix the clean and effected signal to keep the low end...

My preamp has this feature (EBS MicroBass II). I use it rarely.

Ahhh, yes, a parellel effects loop would be cool!

 

[Zbysek]

I wouldn't put compressor, HPF and octaver in the FX loop though. Those are the effects I use often...

 

[bucephylus]

I wouldn't put compressor, HPF and octaver in the FX loop though. Those are the effects I use often...

Right. Probably distortion and chorus in the parallel loop and other pedals before it. That kind of thing. IIRC, there are stomp boxes that do this same thing. But, I suppose that takes up valuable space on the board.

BTW, I’ve actually taken my “preamp” off of my board. And, it does have an effects loop, but not the parallel/blend variety. I haven’t messed with that.

 

[agedhorse]

Most effects loops are line level, as internal processing is done that way for noise purposes. Most effects pedals are instrument level.

 

[Jim Carr]

A real deal bass preamp pedal should have an fx loop.

Would you need a "loop" if you can simply put effects in-line before the power amp?

 

[Jim Carr]

Most effects loops are line level, as internal processing is done that way for noise purposes. Most effects pedals are instrument level.

Not that it should solve any problems, but the ParaDriver DI has switchable output levels between instr and line.

 

[agedhorse]

Not that it should solve any problems, but the ParaDriver DI has switchable output levels between instr and line.

That's one approach, but there is a noise penalty bringing the signal up to line level, processing it, then down to instrument level for the loop, then back up to line level for the rest of the processing and presumably the output (which should be capable of line level).

 

[Downunderwonder]

Curious what the advantage of that would be?

I’m NOT a big effects player; but do have a few of them, and tend to just put them in front of the preamp on the pedalboard. Perhaps there are certain effects that are better after the preamp, and you want to get them into the DI feed?

Yup.

 

[OldogNewTrick]

A real deal bass preamp pedal should have an fx loop.

Mind you, mine is not a gigging setup, but I have all the routing options I need.
I route my signal via Radial BigShot EFX looper to either the Carl Martin 3-Band and/or the PF20T and sum both DI Out signals in a small analog mixer with a parallel effects loop.
My dirt pedals are in the mixer loop, the rest in front of the pre's.
The mixer out line level is connected to power amp in.