Double Bass Red Eye Preamp

[flatback]

Moutin digression #2:
One thing I love about his playing is the way he understands how to play one string bass for lyricism and melody (all the way up)like a trumpet, but then he does it on the top two strings (juggling juggling) and then has this whole other logic for playing two strings (a kind of intervalic approach heavy on the 4ths) that he mixes with the first, and then he has other 4 strings things (sometimes bombastic as hell...in terms of dropping bombs) and then his really cool broken feel. Love that cat...when he plays chiropractors everywhere squint and shrink, ouch.

 

[Dave Hill]

I got a Red Eye in...I did some a/b recording with it and a Zod IDDI (tube/big trans.). They sound virtually identical, which is great news. I wont hesitate to take a bass and just the Red Eye and run it XLR out to the board or amp.

 

[Ric Vice]

I’ve recently done that with a loaner
Fender Rumble 2x10 200 watt and
QSC mains. It worked remarkably well.

 

[JBarz]

I sold my Redeye and got a bright eye to simplify my pedal board. The week in between without it was excruciating and really indicated how much I rely on this thing. Big thumbs up for the Bight Eye. The Redeye had me crosseye’d with routing options to experiment with. Bright Eye takes out the FX loop and XLR DI out and makes it just an impedance buffer. Awesome. Very happy.

 

[BassDaddy11]

Zoot,
Thanks for sharing about the bright eye. I have a redeye and do agree that the routing options are indeed a bit cumbersome!
Silly question- but what is the knob/dial on the top area of the bright eye for?
Thanks again!

 

[Chris Fitzgerald]

I didn’t even know about the Bright Eye. It looks great! But since I have come to rely on the Red Eye and because it is positioned after the Noble on my little board, I have really come to rely on the DI on it. Still, that looks like a great little box.

 

[JBarz]

The knob is just clean volume boost for the red button. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work great with this configuration. The boost hits the delicately voiced tube preamps too hard and distorts. I suspect this is why Daren at Fireeye was so so insistent that all the other pedals in my board go through the redeye’s FX loop - so it could balance out the gain boost. But, this caused all sorts of havoc with my loop pedal and I couldn’t find a place for it to live in the chain while feeding XLR out to the amp, and didn’t want to run more cables to run the looper through the amp’s FX loop.

He was also very insistent that all fireye products should come directly first, right after the pickup, for the impedance matching magic. I know it’s my imagination, but this Bright Eye seems to be better (cleaner, more transparent, less grit) than the Redeye at accomplishing this goal and being line leader. Because it doesn’t color the sound as much (it seems not to, at any rate - I don’t have the redeye here to a/b), I am more than happy sacrificing the boost function for the overall clarity of tone - especially at crazy high volume.

 

[dylanjohnson]

I seem to have lost my Red Eye. Bummed! I must have left it at a gig. It's the first pedal I've lost in 30 years of working.

 

[Ric Vice]

Dylan,
Man I hope you find it! I’d be lost without mine. If you don’t Reverb had a used Dual Channel RedEye last time I checked.
Here’s hoping it re appears.

 

[Bruce Calin]

I don't care to depress myself by looking in the box that has all of the stuff I've gotten over the years that I no longer use. The number of stomp boxes alone would be bad enough. The one that really is useful to me now and has had the most positive impact is the Redeye. It performs as advertised.

 

[Diplock]

Does the Bright Eye do the same "impedance-matching field-effect transistor input circuit" thing as the Red Eye? From the description it looks like the input impedance may be fixed. I couldn't really tell though.

 

[JBarz]

It’s pretty much just a variable impedance buffer and gain boost. Dude says all their offerings feature the same input circuit and impedance matching dealio. I tried to say that I wanted a custom one with a higher impedance and he wrote a sweet, patient email gently reminding me that I am out of my league and have no idea what I’m talking about, lol.

“All of the Fire-Eye products have an impedance matching input circuit that dynamically matches the impedance of an instrument’s pickup. At low frequencies a typical piezo pickup’s impedance is several megohms, while at high frequencies its impedance is only a fraction of a megohm. The Fire-Eye preamps track and match the pickup’s impedance across the entire audio band.


Many piezo pickups can ring like a xylophone bar if the note you play or some harmonic of the note matches one of the resonant frequencies of the pickup. Pickup ringing can cause many strange effects such as wolf-notes or missing notes, or odd sustain effects.


However, when the pickup impedance is matched by the load (the Red-Eye instrument input) any ringing of the pickup will be quickly damped and you will hear the instrument more and the pickup less.


It is important to connect an instrument’s pickup directly to a Fire-Eye instrument input so that it can sense and match the pickup’s impedance and damp out any tendency to ring. Effects pedals or other electronics should be connected in the Red-Eye’s Effects Loop.


Best regards,

Daren / Fire-Eye Dev.”

 

[John Le Guyader]

I guess I’m stating the obvious, but the Bright Eye specs on the website say xlr 48v phantom power required. I don’t know how to think about that…interesting? Power supply or 9v also a power option.

And, now I’m wondering how the Red Eye one and two channel preamps compare to the Bright Eye. Does the BE have the same sonic impact as the Red Eye one and two channel pres?

 

[Ryan in PDX]

Is there still a trial list?

I am getting some more double bass gigging opportunities with drummers, and wouldn't mind seeing what all the fuss is about... Seasoned veteran performers ditching decades worth of high $ gear for this little box? Color me curious.

Does the Bright Eye do the same "impedance-matching field-effect transistor input circuit" thing as the Red Eye? From the description it looks like the input impedance may be fixed. I couldn't really tell though.

From Red-Eye Preamp Data Sheet — Fire-Eye Development

Input: high-impedance, 1 million ohms, maximum 1 volt peak-to-peak level.

The default link on the website is the newer version you found with buzzwords replacing some of the specs. To be fair, anyone who read that particular ad copy with a straight face will not benefit from knowing the specs.

 

[JBarz]

I guess I’m stating the obvious, but the Bright Eye specs on the website say xlr 48v phantom power required. I don’t know how to think about that…interesting? Power supply or 9v also a power option.

And, now I’m wondering how the Red Eye one and two channel preamps compare to the Bright Eye. Does the BE have the same sonic impact as the Red Eye one and two channel pres?

You’re confused. There’s the new DEE EYE that is phantom powered XLR out and has a 1/4” FX loop - just the DI box, no gain boost, The other new one, the BRIGHT EYE brings the same circuit and tech from their DI boxes to a pedal board format - no XLR out, no loop, 9v pedal power’d. I was really on the fence about which way to go, but you can’t go wrong with any of them.

 

[Hasty]

Is there still a trial list?

Yes. I’m not sure who has it now but I think there are only a few of us left on the trial list. Like you I’m eager to try it out.

 

[Keith Rawlings]

Can people still sign up for the trial list? I’m looking for preamp options for my carved bass and the RedEye sounds like it’s right up my alley.

 

[JBarz]

Sorry, my latent 'salesman' instincts are kicking in: but honestly, I wouldn't bother waiting around for that trial, ya'll. Just buy it, if you can afford it. It'll be the best ~$200 you've ever spent on gear (if you use a piezo to amplify). The Bright Eye, in particular, I suspect is going to become very popular around here.

 

[bdowd]

Zoots, curious about the Bright Eye (I already have the Red Eye and love it), what kind of shape do you get out of the mode switch? From the website:

• A Mode switch selects flat or shaped frequency response.

 

[JBarz]

Gotcha covered. I like the shaping, for sure. Feels cleaner sounding than the Redeye, but don’t quote me on that because it’s hard to say without both units on hand. I’m running 18v, btw.