Double Bass Red Eye Preamp

[Hasty]

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.

You have no idea how hard I've fought the urge to just buy one. My problem is I have about 50,000 preamps and I'm trying to get better about that whole process. So I've been patiently waiting my turn for this demo. Unless it really blows me away, I'm going to try and not spend money on it and I probably don't need it. Especially since I've been working on building my own preamp this summer that I've been pretty pleased with.

Unfortunately good preamps seem to be like Jell-O... there's always room for more.

 

[Bruce Calin]

I very seldom use the boost on the Redeye so I wonder is the Brighteye would give me any advantage. It sounds like that's it's main function.

 

[bdowd]

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.

So, looks like boost pumps up everything below 4k or so. Cool. Do you find a noticeable sound difference at 18v vs 9? My current board is red eye into headway 2he, to slampegg (very low gain, to a di. Last night I found myself backing off the red eye high knob. I'm yet to try the red eye di, which I kind of want at the end of chain, but Darren recommends at the beginning. Maybe I need another red eye, or a dee eye!

 

[JBarz]

I’m pretty sure the only advantage with either the dee or bright eyes is the decreased functionality and smaller form factor (9v batteries are for the birds). I’m pretty sure they all have the same circuit and the transformers for the DI out of the Redeye are primo. From my extensive routing experimentation with the redeye, I found it best just like Daren says - direct in, everything else through the FX loop, powered by phantom. BUT, because my loop pedal (essential for what I do) is a true bypass kinda thing, I couldn’t get it to play right in the Redeye FX loop because it altered the gainstage somehow when engaged, made everything wonky. I don’t notice a difference between 9 or 18v, but I’m not using the gain boost at all. I’m not a big fan of the fireeye gainstage and/or boost, I use it exclusively in the capacity as an impedance buffer.

 

[Ric Vice]

I’ve never run mine a 18 volts, should be an interesting experiment. What I would love is a RedEye Preamp with Bass, Mid, and Treble Controls plus the features that are already on the RedEye i.e. Boost etc.

 

[Diplock]

The Red Eye is pretty darned functional as is. Only thing more appealing about the Bright Eye is the pedalboard friendly 1/4" I/O on either side like a regular pedal. Cabling the Red Eye with the loop I/O on one side is a bit messy by comparison.

 

[LEUllman]

Wanted to build a simple pedalboard consisting of a Red Eye, Genzler RE/Q, and tuner. Spent many hours trying every configuration I could think of. Here’s what sounds best to me:

BassMax or Vic’s pickup into RedEye. RE/Q and tuner pedal connected via RedEye effects loop. Ordered an appropriate cable to connect the Red Eye’s balanced XLR out to the unbalanced 1/4” effects loop input on my amp, either an Acoustic Image Clarus or Bugera Veyron, feeding a Revsound RS210 cab.

At the gig, I adjust just two knobs: Red Eye’s treble control to dial in how much attack I want/need (depends if I’m playing steel or gut) and the Genzler’s HPF to determine how much “boom.”

Almost never have FOH, so my rig has to stand alone. This setup lets me turn up loud enough to keep up with a six-piece country band, with pedal steel and drummer, and still have my bass sound like my bass. Lower volume Bluegrass gigs are a piece o’ cake.

 

[bherman]

Wanted to build a simple pedalboard consisting of a Red Eye, Genzler RE/Q, and tuner. Spent many hours trying every configuration I could think of. Here’s what sounds best to me:

BassMax or Vic’s pickup into RedEye. RE/Q and tuner pedal connected via RedEye effects loop. Ordered an appropriate cable to connect the Red Eye’s balanced XLR out to the unbalanced 1/4” effects loop input on my amp, either an Acoustic Image Clarus or Bugera Veyron, feeding a Revsound RS210 cab.

At the gig, I adjust just two knobs: Red Eye’s treble control to dial in how much attack I want/need (depends if I’m playing steel or gut) and the Genzler’s HPF to determine how much “boom.”

Almost never have FOH, so my rig has to stand alone. This setup lets me turn up loud enough to keep up with a six-piece country band, with pedal steel and drummer, and still have my bass sound like my bass. Lower volume Bluegrass gigs are a piece o’ cake.

This sounds like an interesting approach. Other than the HPF, do you use the controls on the RE/Q much, or just keep them flat?

 

[BassiklyAC]

Another Red Eye success story:

Played at the MIM (Musical Instrument Museum) in Phoenix and Yoshi’s in Oakland this past week and was working with backline for both amps & basses for both venues. I had tucked my Red Eye into my suitcase when I was packing so I was ready for whatever bass/amp/pickup situation was presented to me.

The MIM had a nice bass (as far as rentals go) with EP strings and a Full Circle pickup. The amp was an Aguilar with a 4/10 cabinet. Plugged my trusty Red Eye into the signal chain, dialed in my go-to EQ settings for upright, and glorious warm round natural-sounding bass tones emerged.

Yoshi’s also had an Aguilar but with the big block head and (I think) a 2/12 cabinet. Bass was also good quality (for a rental) strung with Spirocores and equipped with a Realist pickup. Action was a little high but I decided not to futz with it and enjoy the challenge of having to dig in a bit more than usual. Again, bass into the Red Eye then into the amp (usual EQ settings) and the results were fantastic.

All to say that, in my opinion, the ease of use - the simplicity - and inherent beauty of the sound of this box (or the sound it helps to produce) is what makes it shine.

 

[flatback]

I have a number of two pick up combos that sound awesome but my fav right now (and a totally sick sound) is the EAP and Yama thru the dual ch Redeye. The EAP I place directly over the soundpost so that it is picking up a nodal point and hence the sound is mostly air and wood.The Yama fills in the rest and they sound utterly stellar together. I had always used the EAP trying to get a full balanced sound out of it, but now it works much better splitting the frequencies with the Y. Been using this either straight into an amp or straight into a powered speaker.

 

[crd]

hmmm.. I guess I am the only one that found the Redeye totally useless with the Yamahiko? It seemed like it's baseline impedance was way to low for the Yamahiko.

 

[flatback]

The Felix's 20Mohm setting gets you some pretty massive bass with the Yamahiko. But you also get a kind of close mic'd emphasis on low finger noise and ringing. The Redeye cuts all that. I have had the Redeye tweaked wrong and had a bad bassless sound, so I know it is possible with the RE and Y but it is also possible to get a really well balanced bassy yet not too,clear, DRY, (no ringing) tight sound. It can have a little twang in it I've noticed if the eq knob is up too high, but mixed with the EAP sounds great.

 

[kkenda11]

I recently trialed the Redeye on my bass with a realist lifeline. In all I compared it the Redeye to going straight into a babyface pro (1MOhm impedance), into an Orchid MicroDI (also 1MOhm), Fdeck series 3, EDB2-HE, and Shiftline Olympic.

The EDB-HE2 and Shiftline Olympic both had a noticeably higher noise floor. The other 4 were all equally clean to my ear. I did not hear any extra mojo when using the Redeye, and was equally happy with the signal I was getting either direct into the interface, through the redeye, fdeck or orchid.

I do however love having a HPF, and found that I still wanted it even when using the redeye. My trial of the redeye honestly renewed my appreciation for the fdeck -- it is the first piece of DB amplification gear I ever bought and in my mind is still really hard to beat if you are working with a single channel piezo pickup.

 

[Ric Vice]

Not to put to find a point on it but, if the RedEye had a volume control I’d use it exclusively as my preamp (a low cut filter would be nice, but I’m not sure I’d need it)
it works with the Ehrlund EAP and the Realist Life Line, so I’m set. Since I won’t part with my ebony adjusters, the Yamahiko is a non starter for me. I haven’t used metal adjusters for at least three decades and I never plan on going back to them. Just my take however.

 

[bherman]

Not to put to find a point on it but, if the RedEye had a volume control I’d use it exclusively as my preamp (a low cut filter would be nice, but I’m not sure I’d need it)
it works with the Ehrlund EAP and the Realist Life Line, so I’m set. Since I won’t part with my ebony adjusters, the Yamahiko is a non starter for me. I haven’t used metal adjusters for at least three decades and I never plan on going back to them. Just my take however.

Rick - I'm fortunate in that I double on electric bass in my band, so I use a Redeye Twin, which has volume controls as well as treble for each channel. Its actually quite handy for me as I can set the input level for both basses and switch quickly without having to touch anything. Probably overkill for your needs, but worth considering using it for one channel only.

 

[Keith Rawlings]

I just received one today also. So far I’ve only tried it at home. Single sensor Yamahiko pickup > RedEye > Acoustic Image Focus 2R > MAS 18.
It definitely warms up the tone, and as others have mentioned, it’s interesting how it seems to have an affect on the tone controls.

Do you run the balanced out into the AI amp or the Effects Loop out? I’m a little confused on how I would send this to my amp with the mic cable/1/4 input of my Clarus. What output would be best for strength of signal into an Acoustic Image amp?

 

[BassiklyAC]

Do you run the balanced out into the AI amp or the Effects Loop out? I’m a little confused on how I would send this to my amp with the mic cable/1/4 input of my Clarus. What output would be best for strength of signal into an Acoustic Image amp?

Not sure if I’m reading you correctly but it sounds like you want to know how to introduce the Red Eye into your signal chain and then into your amp. I have an Acoustic Image head as well, but this is how I use the Red Eye with whatever amp I’m using:

Bass (or 1/4” line from your pickup) into the input of the Red Eye labeled “instrument”, then another 1/4” cable out of the 1/4” output on the Red Eye labeled “effects loop out” (or it might be just a little arrow pointing out) and into the normal 1/4” instrument input of your amp.

I put the unit on top of the amp somewhere, either on the cabinet or the amp itself, so I have a short 20” or so 1/4” patch cable for hooking up the Red Eye to the amp that I keep with it.

If I misunderstood your inquiry then my apologies. Either way, enjoy your new Red Eye!

 

[Ric Vice]

Same here, I’ve run it from the DI out on the RedEye into the combo Jack on my MAS 1/8 and 4x5.5. It might be just a touch cleaner that way but not noticeable enough to have me do it that way, the “effects loop” out is very quiet. I’ve noticed that the Treble control on the RedEye works in a similar manner to a HPF. Granted a HPF is a wonderful tool. Fortunately the Grace Felix and Headway EDB 2 H.E. have HPF’s built into the design.

 

[Chris Fitzgerald]

I’ve noticed that the Treble control on the RedEye works in a similar manner to a HPF. Granted a HPF is a wonderful tool. Fortunately the Grace Felix and Headway EDB 2 H.E. have HPF’s built into the design.

This is counterintuitive to me. Wouldn’t it work more like a LPF? Granted, I haven’t given it much attention or thought.

 

[Ric Vice]

Tomatoes Tomato’s? either way when I dial up the treble control on the RedEye it seems to increase the clarity while lowering the low end response, but I could be totally wrong.