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Preamp opinions

Had my PB-1 repaired, nice, clean tone. Parametric is odd, but in a good way. Odd, in that, it doesn't exude 250-400 in excess, without tweeking the mid control. It defineatly needs a footswitch, since the clean channel is so differnent. The clean channel with my American Deluxe is very nice.

Peavey Max. I searched for this for + year. I have babbled a few times, how much I like the pre section of my Mark 4. Well, this ain't the same. I really like the tube channel, as the tonalitly is very balanced, and the eq is responsive. It's very lively. The solid state channel, at least on this unit, well, it's pretty lame. Dark, low gain, mid scooped, on and on.

Sansamp RPM. Edgy, punishing lows, cutting mids, screaming highs, tons of gain. It's hard to get a "bad" sound.

So, if you need a pre, I would put less emphsis on the "vintage" search, and go straight to a Sansamp RPM.

For now, I will be gigging with the Yamaha. When I have more $, it will be RPM all the way.
 
To each his own. I have tried most of the available " bass " preamps, and have discovered the the " vintage " ones seem more solidly built, better eq's, or more easily to dial in eq's, than some of the newer models. I love the old BBE 383 bass preamp, along with the Ashly SC-40. I have tried the SansAmp stuff, found them harsh and noisey. The Eden Navigator I found very hard hard to dial in my sound. Even the newer BBE bass preamps don't seem to get it like that old 383. I am going to try a Tone Hammer pedal in to my power amp as I have read good things about it.