Subway+ Bass DI-Preamp II

[JJR58]

This picture got me thinking...

Is there a presumption that a compressor belongs before the S+BDIPII or after it? in my own notes I call it the "Sub++")

Maybe the Deep tone works better as pictured; compressor before deepening?

Personally, i don't feel the need to add a compressor in a chain with the Mesa.
It will do very mild compression, depending on how you set your gain, HPF, and boost.
Of course all the other functions come into play as well.
I'm not a fan of compression per say.
But the Mesa is so responsive all on it's own, i don't want anything else stepping all over it.
(ymmv).

 

[Kevin Wolfe]

Personally, i don't feel the need to add a compressor in a chain with the Mesa.
It will do very mild compression, depending on how you set your gain, HPF, and boost.
Of course all the other functions come into play as well.
I'm not a fan of compression per say.
But the Mesa is so responsive all on it's own, i don't want anything else stepping all over it.
(ymmv).

I’d have to agree. More times than not as I’ve been practicing with the rig pictured, I’ve forgotten to turn on the Smoothie.

 

[kleinduimpje66]

Tadaa! I have the new Mesa Subway PreAmp (thanks to a fellow TBer in Europe), next to the ShiftLine Olympic MkIIIS and the Bergantino SuperPre.

So far, only played with it through my rig at home, rehearsal and gig coming up, this is just first impressions.

I looove the ‘heft’ that you can easily dial in with the Mesa, using the HPF and the voicing knob. Lotsa bass but controlled, not flubby. The EQ is super flexible. At extreme settings, it can make my bass sound bad, which is not possible with the EQ on the ShiftLine.

On the downsides, my bass sounds somewhat less ‘lively’ over the Mesa than via the Shiftline. Not sure if lively is the right word. The Shiftline adds saturation, but never sounds squashed, it stays sparkly without being harsh. I can’t describe it. Tube magic?
I cranked up the input gain in the Mesa to get saturation, but that might be a totally wrong approach.

The Mesa also has a bit more hiss up high than the other two (maybe because I cranked up the gain).
The Shiftline is dead quiet, even more so than the Berg. My Euphonic Audio amp is also dead quiet (no hiss, no fan). Total silence is pure bliss.

I think both these initial downsides of the Mesa are super minor, they’re only noticeable for me, only when playing at home.
Again, this first impression could completely change in a band context at real volume.

The Berg is extreeemely flexible but it’s far too big for my board and the presets are too hard to tweak in a hurry. More of a studio tool. It also doesn't sound as good (to me) as the Shiftline. I tried to love it but never got the hang of it.

If the Mesa doesn’t grow on me, on paper the Genzler Magellan Pre is maybe my best bet, it has a somewhat similar feature set as the Mesa (same designer ), but different. In what way?

What do you guys think?
Should I get to know the Mesa better, try the Genzler, or should I just stick with the Shiftline for its sparkly fairy dust, and get a separate HPF mini pedal?

 

[agedhorse]

How are you connecting the preamp to the amp?

This may be part of the source of the noise since the Mesa preamp is line level output.

Cranking the gain may also impact noise but it will also hit the tube emulation overdrive and compression algorithm pretty hard which will not be sparkly clean.

 

[JJR58]

A question for @agedhorse.

Are there any sonic/tonal differences between the original DI+and V2?

Just asking out of curiosity.

On a side note note, I dug out a pre-amp pedal I haven’t used since I have no need for it because of the new Mesa.

I was curious how it compared.
I did some A/B’ing for quite some time.
Not only did the Mesa do the tones as I approximated on the old pre, but the heft and punch really came through from the Mesa.
And it can just do so much more.

End of my happy rant.

 

[agedhorse]

A question for @agedhorse.

Are there any sonic/tonal differences between the original DI+and V2?

Just asking out of curiosity.

On a side note note, I dug out a pre-amp pedal I haven’t used since I have no need for it because of the new Mesa.

I was curious how it compared.
I did some A/B’ing for quite some time.
Not only did the Mesa do the tones as I approximated on the old pre, but the heft and punch really came through from the Mesa.
And it can just do so much more.

End of my happy rant.

Yes, minor tone differences (especially overdriving the input, which has some added character), and the noise floor is a little lower (it was already pretty low so you might not notice the difference). Then of course there's the added features as you already mentioned.

 

[LpPT20]

Heads up for my fellow EU denizens, the subway preamp is back in stock in the french online shop michenaud! (not affiliated).
Thought I'd share since it seems to be out of stock for many months in most european retailers.

 

[agedhorse]

Heads up for my fellow EU denizens, the subway preamp is back in stock in the french online shop michenaud! (not affiliated).
Thought I'd share since it seems to be out of stock for many months in most european retailers.

Thanks for the update

 

[Jim Kernan]

Sometimes I had noise with the preamp, nothing I couldn't live with. I built a pedal board from scrap wood to mount the preamp, PRA wireless and a Peterson Mini Stomp Tuner. The noise was terrible, I pushed on the preamp and it went away. Added a MXR DC Brick power supply and all is quiet.

 

[agedhorse]

Sometimes I had noise with the preamp, nothing I couldn't live with. I built a pedal board from scrap wood to mount the preamp, PRA wireless and a Peterson Mini Stomp Tuner. The noise was terrible, I pushed on the preamp and it went away. Added a MXR DC Brick power supply and all is quiet.

Haven’t seen this before, what power supply were you using before? Maybe the power plug wasn’t fully seated?

 

[Jim Kernan]

Haven’t seen this before, what power supply were you using before? Maybe the power plug wasn’t fully seated?

Boss PSA adaptor.

 

[agedhorse]

Boss PSA adaptor.

And thevoroblem
Went away with the MXR brick?

Was the Boss an AC output by chance (there were a few odd configurations), and some early ones were unregulated and noisy. The new ones are pretty quiet (unless defective).

 

[Jim Kernan]

And thevoroblem
Went away with the MXR brick?

Was the Boss an AC output by chance (there were a few odd configurations), and some early ones were unregulated and noisy. The new ones are pretty quiet (unless defective).

And thevoroblem
Went away with the MXR brick?

Was the Boss an AC output by chance (there were a few odd configurations), and some early ones were unregulated and noisy. The new ones are pretty quiet (unless defective).

Yes the problem went away. This is the label from the Boss. I purchased it with the preamp.

 

[agedhorse]

That’s the correct output, it’s also possible that the Boss supply is either defective or very noisy.

The MXR Bricks have tested pretty quiet, which reinforces the suspicion of the other supply.

This is a good data point for me.

 

[Jim Kernan]

This is a good data point for me.

Glad I could help.

 

[Jim Kernan]

Adding to the above posts. I tried @DJ Bebop's set up with the WD800 and it didn't sound good. With the MXR all is well. I will be exploring this set up more.

 

[kleinduimpje66]

Update from my earlier post: While comparing them at home, I still preferred my trusted Shiftline Olympic MKIIIs over the new Mesa.
But first band rehearsal yesterday gave a totally different impression of the Mesa.
Not only the HPF but also the voicing and the parametric EQ allowed me to quickly dial in a super phat but still clear sound that was plenty loud but somehow not boomy or overwhelming the rest of the band.

As @agedhorse suggested, I shouldn’t dime the input gain, and be more careful with the EQ.
There’s some magic in the Mesa that I’m still uncovering.

 

[ImTheOnlyOne]

Adding to the above posts. I tried @DJ Bebop's set up with the WD800 and it didn't sound good. With the MXR all is well. I will be exploring this set up more.

Having tried it too - DI Pre into front of WD's pre - there's real chance for mud, especially if DI pre is heavily voiced or Deep is on.

The DI pre into the WD's return however is consistently great and trouble free.
Allows for a raw DI signal from the DI pre's xlr out and a dirty signal from the WD's xlr out.

 

[agedhorse]

Update from my earlier post: While comparing them at home, I still preferred my trusted Shiftline Olympic MKIIIs over the new Mesa.
But first band rehearsal yesterday gave a totally different impression of the Mesa.
Not only the HPF but also the voicing and the parametric EQ allowed me to quickly dial in a super phat but still clear sound that was plenty loud but somehow not boomy or overwhelming the rest of the band.

As @agedhorse suggested, I shouldn’t dime the input gain, and be more careful with the EQ.
There’s some magic in the Mesa that I’m still uncovering.

There is a lot of helpful information in the owner’s manual too. It’s a very powerful tool.

 

[agedhorse]

Having tried it too - DI Pre into front of WD's pre - there's real chance for mud, especially if DI pre is heavily voiced or Deep is on.

The DI pre into the WD's return however is consistently great and trouble free.
Allows for a raw DI signal from the DI pre's xlr out and a dirty signal from the WD's xlr out.

Using the effects return as the input is generally recommended for the reasons you gave.