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Reiner (JGR) Bass Preamp Test Drive

#21
Same as Brian I have no affiliation with Jonathan other than as a fellow tube tone lover and Maryland neighbor. I've owned a number of nice tube preamps... or emulators, in the case of the RBI and RPM which now sit in my #1 rack rig. None have made me completely happy, for a wide variety of reasons. However the Reiner pre has the killer tone and tweakability I'm looking for, and is just right feature-wise.

I don't need to wish Jonathan luck because he isn't quitting his day job. This is just a bump to say congrats for a wonderful design and amazing execution, and I look forward to owning one in the future. Near future, I hope... get soldering, buddy. :p
 
#24
Since we are on the subject, what do you guys think makes sense for cord length? Shorter is tidier, but we don't want to go too short to where you could run into a snag depending on your rack setup or if you pull it out for recording. I'm thinking somewhere in the 2.5 - 3' range would make sense.....
 
#26
Yup, makes sense, especially with a removable cord. I think we should keep them a bit longer since these are fixed. Still shouldn't have too much excess to coil up.
 
#28
JGR said:
He did indeed. I think we were all a bit suprised at how much more similar than different the Berg and the Bag End stack was from an overall tonal spectrum. There really wasn't any EQ'ing necessary when switching between the cabs.
Click to expand...

I love the sound of this preamp going by the clips. Really great job you've done, if I was a pre/power amp guy I'd be on the phone to you ordering one now!

My home practice/tiny stage/difficult load-in/etc. rig is a VT pedal into an Eden WT550 into two of those BE cubes, sans tweeters. For bigger stages or non PA situations I always take my Bergie NV610, usually with my SVT. I perked up when I saw your comment as I hadn't really thought about how much the different cabs had in common; on another older thread Tom Bowlus compared a Bag End stack with one of the S15-D cubes and the bigger deeper 15" cab they make to the Bergie NV215, and he remarked how similar the two were in output and tone.

I just think it's amazing how we gravitate to gear that delivers the sounds in our head if we really follow what we are hearing and ignore stuff like speaker size, etc.

These vids really confirmed my prejudices and were extra useful as I play Ps with Lo-Riders or Neons in my rock band, wide open with similar action to Fuzzbass. Just fabulous and versatile rock tone that can handle various amounts and types of distortion.

Good luck with your preamp, you deserve to sell a boatload!
 
#31
One Drop said:
I love the sound of this preamp going by the clips. Really great job you've done, if I was a pre/power amp guy I'd be on the phone to you ordering one now!

My home practice/tiny stage/difficult load-in/etc. rig is a VT pedal into an Eden WT550 into two of those BE cubes, sans tweeters. For bigger stages or non PA situations I always take my Bergie NV610, usually with my SVT. I perked up when I saw your comment as I hadn't really thought about how much the different cabs had in common; on another older thread Tom Bowlus compared a Bag End stack with one of the S15-D cubes and the bigger deeper 15" cab they make to the Bergie NV215, and he remarked how similar the two were in output and tone.

I just think it's amazing how we gravitate to gear that delivers the sounds in our head if we really follow what we are hearing and ignore stuff like speaker size, etc.

These vids really confirmed my prejudices and were extra useful as I play Ps with Lo-Riders or Neons in my rock band, wide open with similar action to Fuzzbass. Just fabulous and versatile rock tone that can handle various amounts and types of distortion.

Good luck with your preamp, you deserve to sell a boatload!
Click to expand...

Thanks! There is a lot of great gear out there, and I have a lot of different rigs that essentially get me pretty close to where I want to go even though they may seem a lot different on paper - tube, SS, 10's, 12's, 15's, sealed/ported, etc.
 
#33
NKBassman said:
Sounds pretty amazing John. Congrats on a great build!

And, thanks to the 3 of you for getting together and making these videos for us all to enjoy. It's really appreciated.
Click to expand...

It was nice of Jonathan to drive all the way out (75 miles?) to visit Brian. I live just a few miles down the road so it was easy for me.

For me it was love at first video. My biggest doubt was from Jonathan having that way cool aggressive pickstyle tone, and cool basses too -- I worried that I'd sound blah in comparison. But I was every bit as happy when I jammed thru it.

Not that it's a big deal, but it *looks* cool, too. I am so ready to rock my own Reiner rack rig. :p
 
#34
Ha! I was much happier listening to you and Brian jam through it! :) I think was only 73 miles (each way) ;)

I am heading down into the never ending basement construction project to clean and straighten up the workshop so that I can hopefully get working on machining all of the chassis this weekend and get things rolling again. I've been traveling a lot over the past three weeks to very unglamorous places for work which makes it hard to get anything done, but I have been immersing myself in literature during the downtime in the hotels and planes, dreaming up a massive tube power amp design....:hiding:
 
#35
You sir, are a freak. Man, I hate traveling for work. Usually it for a technical seminar, at some industrial rust belt town, outside of an actual cool city to visit. You go to the class all day, have some dinner and drinks on the company's dime and then go back to hotel. And repeat for 1-2 weeks. Im doing the same thing in a few weeks. Looking forward to the preamp though. I cranked my vintage svt for my buddy to hear over the weekend, to show him what a real svt actually sounds like and then showed him the clips of your preamp. Very similar, except the preamp is less likely to get arrested for a noise violation. Again.
 
#36
Hey TBers! - Wow, I love the internet! "Why?" You ask?

Well, earlier today I was browsing Basschat.co.uk and found a video shot using the Zoom Q3HD. Being a piece of gear that I'm interested in I went to search for more videos on YouChoob..

You can see where this is going right? Next thing I know I find Jonathan's channel and videos about this awesome preamp!

I dropped Jonathan a message and he kindly replied with the links to his threads.

Suffice to say, I've just read them end to end, it's early, 1 am and I'm loving what I am hearing. Just wanted to say firstly, thank you for your reply Jonathan and secondly, congrats, this pre' is fantastic! My favourite sound has definitely been the clean/dirty combined - which interestingly is exactly what I do with my current rig.

Good work, [subscribed]
 
#37
The overdriven tone is pure bliss!

I also like preamp paired with Bag End cabs very much. (I couldn't find information about these cabs - I guess they are ported without tweeter, but what kind of speakers are inside?)
 
#39
The Bag Ends are great cabs. They are pretty small cabs, and just have a round hole in the back for a port. I don't know why it works, bit it DOES! They are rated for 200W sine continuous - they take power like a champ, as good as anything else, and they are LOUD! I have run 1000+ watts through them with no issues. What's even stranger is that they sound killer with guitar - Sliderbass can attest to this. Even though they are 15, they have the midrange of a 12, and the top end crunch of a guitar speaker. I really think their speaker is magic. I've been meaning to shoot a video showing how well they handle double duty - think I will today.
 
#40
Good lord. That tone through the bridged CA9 and Berg 215 just made me poop myself a little. No joke. I've never really been a fan of pick tone, but that sounds amazing!
 

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