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Preamp alternative?

milothefultz

milothefultz

Nov 29, 2008
176
9
Portland, OR
www.milofultz.com
#1
I looked for any kind of information involving my question and could not find anything, so here goes:

I don't want to have to buy a whole new bass preamp for a rack setup because as of now, I have:

Dual Channel Compressor
Dual 31-Band EQ
Power Amp

And I was wondering if this would work instead of buying say a BBE BMAX Preamp or something of that nature, and if it would, where it would work best: before the comp and eq or after?

Thank you so much for your input on this situation.
 
#2
I'm not sure what you're asking.

technically, a pre amp is anything before the amplifier.
you can run your bass into the gear you mention, and use the volume or gain control from the EQ, but that is a bit sketchy.

a dedicated bass preamp will help interface the above rack gear as well as pre shape your tone and signal before sending it out to the other gear and amp/speakers. As well, most modern pre's have DI's FX loops and other features which will give you what you need in real gig situations.

why are you opposed to using a pre amp?
 
#3
Yeah, I've considered that, but that does seem pretty iffy.


I have a Radial DI, so that isn't a problem. The lack of FX loop is, however. I was looking at a Radial Double FX Loop to remedy that.

http://guitars.musiciansfriend.com/product/Radial-BigShot-EFX-Effects-Loop?sku=153937

But would that also run into the tone loss problem of running effects in line with my bass as opposed to a dedicated post-preamp FX loop? Sorry about the tangents. :p


Well, the main reason why I'm so opposed to a dedicated bass preamp is what I see different between say the Sansamp RBI and the ART Tube Preamp is just the control of equalization and gain, which I can control with my EQ and the ART, persay. I was just curious if I could use the ART in place of it. Another very deciding factor is price. The ART is 70 dollars and would fit in a rackspace with room to spare widthwise, whereas a bass preamp with a bunch of knobs I wouldn't use or need would take up more room as well as being pretty superfluous in my rack. Plus, a tube preamp warms my sound up nicely.
 
#4
milothefultz said:
Yeah, I've considered that, but that does seem pretty iffy.


I have a Radial DI, so that isn't a problem. The lack of FX loop is, however. I was looking at a Radial Double FX Loop to remedy that.

http://guitars.musiciansfriend.com/product/Radial-BigShot-EFX-Effects-Loop?sku=153937

But would that also run into the tone loss problem of running effects in line with my bass as opposed to a dedicated post-preamp FX loop? Sorry about the tangents. :p


Well, the main reason why I'm so opposed to a dedicated bass preamp is what I see different between say the Sansamp RBI and the ART Tube Preamp is just the control of equalization and gain, which I can control with my EQ and the ART, persay. I was just curious if I could use the ART in place of it. Another very deciding factor is price. The ART is 70 dollars and would fit in a rackspace with room to spare widthwise, whereas a bass preamp with a bunch of knobs I wouldn't use or need would take up more room as well as being pretty superfluous in my rack. Plus, a tube preamp warms my sound up nicely.
Click to expand...


that looper is nice and will take care of your tone sucking problem when your FX are not in use. That will essentially take them completely out of the chain. I'm a big fan of switchers/loopers if for no other reason then pedal independence...meaning if one of your pedals fails, your signal chain does not fail, you simply take that loop out of the chain.

your idea will work, you can get away with not using a preamp (there are many one space tube pre's available btw), but it's up to you to know if that works for you. A interface for gear like a good pre is an asset in any rack setup IMO, that said, it's up to you to decide if it works for you or not. I've seen people use small mixers as the interface or pre as it were..

let us know how that works out for you.
 

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