Thanks!
Let's see. I think the QSC has been reviewed to death, but here is a little synopsis of the rig as a whole. I bought the Accugroove over the Bergie 322, as a result of some input from a few bass players that had tried both. Based on most of my playing being metal, and heavy groove oriented rock, we came to the conclusion the Accugroove would be better suited, because of the additional low end provided by the 15. Let's face it though. This is a completely different cabinet from the 322, so comparing them is not really fair. Also, a few well timed (and unsolicited by me) emails from Mark Wright seemed to help. As a side note, Mark has been awesome in the way he has dealt with my questions. And let's not forget Adrian for selling me the bad boy. Anyway, when the cab arrived, I was IMPRESSED. This was 1000 times better than my Ampeg PR410HLF. It sounded great being driven by my M-Pulse 600 (in my house) Live there was a big problem. When run up to stage volume, the cab sounded like poop. I thought the speakers were coming apart. Actually, it was the other problem. Not enough juice. So, a little gear swapping, and I ended up with the QSC 1602. (an no preamp) Already tons better in a live situation. The bass sounded awesome. The cab was true, and do more breaking up. Then, I got a call from my local shop. "guess what we got in today? An Eden preamp" I was down there is 15 minutes. He let me try it for a couple of days. First, the Navigator added volume. I probably didn't have enough level without the preamp, and with it, the rig sounded even better. Second, I was already missing a little bit of the tubey goodness. I thought the preamp on my Boogie was good. But this thing was the stuff!! I ended up setting it almost flat. Adding a slight amount of tube gain, and cutting a little of the mid on the semi-parametric eq. The thing is, each little tiniest of turn on the eden, seems to make a TON of difference. Before the gig I was goofing off, and boosted the highs, and treble, and got the MOST EXCELLENT slap tone I have ever heard (this was with the bridge pickup 100%, neck pickup 0 on my Roscoe) But back to reality. I set it all back flat, put the pickup back to all neck) boosted the bass and low mids on the bass, turned up just a tad tube gain, and we played for two hours.
I have never had the punch, depth, warmth, and fullness as I do now. For some reason with the Navigator, the bart preamp on my bass seems to have 1000 times more possibilities, and then the Eden on top of that. The Accugroove, sounds amazing. It just needed more power. Now it will punch harder than Mike Tyson did in 1987. And sing as pretty as nightengale (although that's not my forte')
I probably talked too long, and didn't get into as much detail, but there is my story. And I'm stickin to it!!!
If your onboard preamp provides the equalization controls you need, there's nothing more you need (assuming your amp has a sensitivity in range with your preamp) to get maximum power from your amp.
