Radial PZ Pre as preamp for URB

Ampig,

Contact shwashwa (Steve Swanson) here on Talkbass
he uses/used the Radial PZ Pre.

Ric

 

It works quite well. We sell it at our store specifically for the purpose, and Christopher (my employee, who gigs about 15-25 a month) uses one of the PZ Deluxe (very similar design, one channel) as his primary pre. What do you need to know?

 

Do you need two channels? Because the new(er) PZ-Deluxe is less expensive, puts the "good" channel from the PZ Pre into a smaller box, and all you lose out on is the second channel, mostly.

 

I'm a big fan of the PZed-Pre. Even though I don't double, it has been indispensable having the second channel for forgetful fiddlers who don't remember their Countryman or for the guitar player who loses his LR Baggs. I researched extensively what was available when I first needed a preamp and the Radial came out on top for what I needed. I thought I might experiment with a clicky for slap bass or with a mic and piezo, but so far the Underwood picks up enough slap that I haven't bothered with a clicky.

I use the boost to set up a separate volume for switching between arco and pizz; Tuner-out lets me keep the tuner always on so I can check intonation on the fly and the Radial's mute switch lets me tune quietly between songs. HPF & Notch filter with semi-para mid EQ have almost always been able to tame feedback gremlins. DI has two outs, one pre EQ the other post-EQ – sending FOH engineers "your sound", I've found, doesn't work 'cause they are going to do whatever they want and have different needs anyway so they get Pre-EQ; I've used the post-EQ for recording.

There's one TBer I know of that liked the PZed-Pre, but not enough to keep it. I can't remember who exactly. I've noted that most anybody else that uses a Radial PZed-Pre has been happy with it.

Take that all for what it's worth though, I'm just a biased novice!

 

indeed i do, and i love it, i bring it to every gig and use it with all my rigs. i have 4 very different sounding basses with different pickups and it makes them all sound good as well as friends' basses as well. i do however use some extreme eqing to get it to sound the way i want it. my philosophy is not to use minimal eq because we want the bass' sound to come through. my philosophy is most basses sound like crap through a piezo and we need to eq the hell out of it to get it back to a natural sound, what it sounds like before the pickup ruins it. for me the pz pre gets me back to that sound the best (and i have many preamps, maybe 8 at last count?). i have a pretty standard setup i use on it, for all my basses, and i fine tune the tone for the room on my amp. i think its just great, but having said that, i've lately been giving some time to the aguilar tone hammer pedal paired with the fdeck seires 3 with great results also.

 

It's a terrific sounding box on my carved bass with Underwood on the E side. Acoustic image set flat with some treble and brite. Hp filter cuts feedback. Switching between abg and double bass is seamless and quiet. A great sounding pedal.

 

I have the PZ Deluxe as well. I really like it, and have gotten compliments from respected sound engineers on the tone. It's quiet and takes life on the road easily.

I go back and forth with the HPF, it seems a bit high and sucks some of the grunt out of my bass. Recently, I've been rolling back the bass filter to about 9-10 instead and having better results (for now). Other than that I don't actually need much EQ at all. I set it up with good headphones to get the most natural sound I could, and just send that to the PA.

I do miss the idea of the insert points on the PZ Pre, but I don't need the two channels---so I made the choice for the simple unit. (I was planning on a reverb pedal to help my bad arco skills--I decided to practice more.) Otherwise the only issue I have is the crappy AC adapter. I can hear what good components sound like with real power over phantom or batteries, but that thing was short lived on the road for me and it's a convoluted exercise getting pedalboard power to run it. I had an electronics guy make me a dedicated psu that ties under my board.

I've tried a few pre's (fish man, baggs, k&k), and nothing sounded this good (for me). Never tried Headway or Grace...yet.

 

It's a good unit. I used one as my main means to DI for quite a few gigs. It's now my backup. Radial makes great stuff in general. I only wish it could be phantom or 9v powered.