Double Bass Red Eye Preamp

[james condino]

Where are we on the trial list for the Redeye? Last night the sound guy left me with nothing but quiet mud and I spent the whole second set imagining everything would be all unicorns and fairy dust if I just had a redeye on my 'board.... All of that in a room where I previously had what seemed like the best sound of my life (with a different sound guy).

It seems like the secondhand market on the Noble preamps has gone nuts with people asking upwards of $2000 for them lately.

 

[Levin Hannaford]

I can wholeheartedly vouch for the Redeye >Fdeck>Noble signal path.

Sounds great with Lifelines, Copperheads and especially the Krivo for when the rowdy bar gigs need the big volume

 

[DoubleMIDI]

A bad sound guy can always destroy your sound. No box can avoid that.

If this happens again, explain to the audience that there is a technical problem so you are unable to play and that it cannot wait until the next set break to correct it.
Stop playing, go to the soundguy, correct the EQ yourself or tell him what to do and tell him that he is not allowed to touch your EQ or next time you stop playing for the rest of the day/night and explain to the audience what kind of technical problem there is (the soundguy being unable to do his job).

A preamp with a good EQ, HPF and DI out can give you a bit more control over your sound after you told the sound guy not to touch your EQ, but if he still turns your knobs no box will help.
The redeye might help to reduce mud in the output signal, but the soundguy can always turn up the bass frequencies to get the mud again. With EQ before the DI out you can correct it for a short time that might bring you over the rest of the set.
Talk to the person that pays you and him to give some money from his to you as you need to get more equipment to be able to correct a misbehaving sound guy. That might help the next time.

I once had this with a large untypical tango orchestra. The leader wanted me to be amplified (not really needed), the sound guy turned the bass frequencies up so there was a lot of mud.

I first tried to compensate by turning the output volume down but the guy turned me up at the board again, then I corrected the EQ at the board in the set break when the sound guy was away, but after being once more "corrected" by the sound guy I finally turned down the output signal to silence.
I think the sound guy freaked out a bit after that, but he was very far away in the dark.

 

[JBarz]

I've spent a lot of time tweaking my amplified tone and have come to much prefer, despite my logical brain's protests, the redeye after the tube pre. The HPF pre does something magical to the full-circle pickup on the front end that gets lost otherwise. The red eye's boost sounds much more natural (to me) after the slampegg, too.

HPF pre —> slampegg—> redeye —> ditto

 

[Jason Hollar]

Is anyone using the Red Eye as a solo gizmo solution?

There's no way I can justify the expense and hassle of assembling and schlepping a pedal board with thousand dollar tube preamps etc!

 

[basss]

I use it alone to improve the sound into electric bass voiced amps and DI'ing into a PA. It sounds great to me by itself in this application. I can marginally improve the sound when using it in conjunction with other preamps, but I feel like a lot of this nuance gets lost in a band mix and is more hassle than it's worth. If the sound going in is good. I think you can get a pretty natural sound with just the red eye.

That being said, I do feel the need for some EQ in the signal chain. The great thing about the red eye is that it seems to make EQ changes on an amp more effective and intuitive.

 

[BobDeRosa]

I have to agree with @Jason Hollar and @basss about the cost and complexities of preamp feeding preamp feeding preamp. Tweaking all those controls to get a great sound has to be the the bassist's Rubik's Cube -- and you have to re-do it for every new room you play in!

 

[Earl]

Is anyone using the Red Eye as a solo gizmo solution?

There's no way I can justify the expense and hassle of assembling and schlepping a pedal board with thousand dollar tube preamps etc!

I use it alone and it sounds great with the Yamahiko. I really do not like complicated setups and twiddling dials.

 

[Levin Hannaford]

Is anyone using the Red Eye as a solo gizmo solution?

There's no way I can justify the expense and hassle of assembling and schlepping a pedal board with thousand dollar tube preamps etc!

I've absolutely used it on its own - it still sounds incredible.

FWIW, if I didn't already have the FDeck and the Noble I doubt I would feel the need to add them to the chain. I bought the Noble before they became as popular as they are now (mine is #143) and while the sound really is nice, I couldn't see myself parting with $2k for it lol

 

[Bruce Calin]

+1 for RedEye alone. The thing about I like the most is that it has enabled me to simplify my amp setup and actually give new life to some old gear that still sounds good. Pickup into RE into amp in most cases with minimal EQ. Whatever the technical reason or explanation(I really don't care) I know it works.

 

[vanselus]

+1 for RedEye alone. The thing about I like the most is that it has enabled me to simplify my amp setup and actually give new life to some old gear that still sounds good. Pickup into RE into amp in most cases with minimal EQ. Whatever the technical reason or explanation(I really don't care) I know it works.

That's a good idea, I'll try to record the RE into the Doubler and then the Tonehammer when I get back home next week.

 

[vanselus]

Also, is this still the list?

* bdowd
* Chris Fitzgerald
* crd
basically_eli
statsc
* vanselus
Ben Rolston
kkenda11

I don't know if anyone that isn't starred got it yet for sure so LMK. If it's ok with everyone I have 3 gigs of varying types next week and then I'll send it out immediately thereafter. I'll try to post thoughts on the recording process shortly (at a volleyball tournament in ATL this weekend) and also record amp DI's when I'm home as previously mentioned.

 

[JBarz]

It's the kind of thing where once you're running another power supply for anything else (tuner, loop pedal, etc), it's no big deal to add the preamps you really like and you can experiment with the order and gain stages ad nauseum. I had my "aha! moment" when I decided to remove my volume pedal from my rig. Suddenly everything's gain-stages just got along- no more tweaking! None of them are "essential", imho, even the redeye, but they all can definitely do something or other to the attack and/or timbre. I'm finding myself playing lighter and lighter and leaning on the amp more and more, so those little differences start to add up for my overall sound presence. But running direct into the amp is cool too, for sure. Has anyone else been experimenting with running the redeye at 18v? Mine seems happier with more juice - less of the grit side effect that I'm not crazy about.

 

[Hasty]

Also, is this still the list?

* bdowd
* Chris Fitzgerald
* crd
basically_eli
statsc
* vanselus
Ben Rolston
kkenda11

I don't know if anyone that isn't starred got it yet for sure so LMK. If it's ok with everyone I have 3 gigs of varying types next week and then I'll send it out immediately thereafter. I'll try to post thoughts on the recording process shortly (at a volleyball tournament in ATL this weekend) and also record amp DI's when I'm home as previously mentioned.

I added my name to the list around page 24 or so, but I don't know if that's the official process for it.

 

[statsc]

Also, is this still the list?

* bdowd
* Chris Fitzgerald
* crd
basically_eli
statsc
* vanselus
Ben Rolston
kkenda11

I don't know if anyone that isn't starred got it yet for sure so LMK. If it's ok with everyone I have 3 gigs of varying types next week and then I'll send it out immediately thereafter. I'll try to post thoughts on the recording process shortly (at a volleyball tournament in ATL this weekend) and also record amp DI's when I'm home as previously mentioned.

Take me off (statsc); I already bought one!

 

[Ric Vice]

Is anyone using the Red Eye as a solo gizmo solution?

There's no way I can justify the expense and hassle of assembling and schlepping a pedal board with thousand dollar tube preamps etc!

I use directly into my little Traynor SB 106 with great results. Better timbre, even throughout the entire register. It makes either of my Double Basses sound fuller and easier to play. Regardless of what pickup they have.

 

[flatback]

This with the EAP in one ch and the Yamahiko in the other sounds really really good. The way the EAP and Redeye work is something special in terms of how it sounds with a band. The Redeye seems to be able to deal with the body-ness of the EAP and render it Mic-ish while seriously stomping down the feedback and woofy, then blending in a little directness (or not) from the Yamahiko just works as good as anything I have tried and cuts thru in a way that allows for an effortless rhythmic forwardness but without any piezo quack at all.With the HPF on the amp and a flat eq, man that is simple but dialed.

 

[BobKay]

I have one coming tomorrow from Gollihur. Planning to use it with my Yamaha SLB300, mostly as a DI to go to the board. Occasionally I mix 50/50 piezo/mic feature on the Yamaha, so I'll see what it does in that use. I also have my hybrid with a Rev Solo, into a PJB Double Four; use it less that the SLB300 now that I'm older, so it may well be useful there, as well. I'll report back on the Yamaha application.

 

[BobKay]

Got my Red Eye yesterday; here's an update on my particular use:
It works well through both my AI Coda with a Clarus Series 4 head, and the PJB Double Four. I can distinguish changes in the tone by adjusting the treble control, and the boost feature works as described. For the Yamaha, the tone was really nice with the treble control set flat. I'll also try it on my Upton hybrid at some point.

It also works in a "worst case" scenario with the Yamaha SLB300 - that being when you lose battery power completely. When that happens, the instrument will still generate a piezo-only signal, although it is not strong. I've only had it happen once; I connected the instrument cable to a preamp (EDB2 or LRBaggs Paracoustic) and sent the signal on to the amp. Adjusted to try and get rid of the all-piezo sound. So, with the Red Eye I can accomplish the same thing. With the AI Coda, no issues at all; with the Double Four I had to turn the boost up all the way, and turn the volume up on the amp. But, it still worked to keep playing.

Haven't tried it direct to a PA board, that will happen this coming Saturday at my regular gig. I'm not expecting any issues, with the possible exception of the signal not being as hot as the Baggs or EDB2.

Here's another benefit for me: nothing under my feet.

 

[BassDaddy11]

For the record, I found a 18V negative center power supply for $10.99 on Amazon. It works great with the Red Eye. PM me and I'll send the link to anyone interested.