• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

The Great Bass Preamp/DI Comparison

#261
MDBass said:
"B15 in a box" as in, when pushed, it overdrives (even to the point of what most would consider "fuzz") in a very musical way?
Click to expand...

I suppose you could put a boost pedal in front of it an push it to overdrive. It's a 12SL7 octal tube which is the higher voltage brother to the 6SL7 tube in the B15. Kevin said he tried the 12AX7 nine pin tube and there was no contest...the 12SL7 8 pin was the better sounding tube.

There is something to it. It does sound "fatter" than the Noble. I'd say the Noble is less colored and more "hifi". The Tube Injection reminds me of one of those old school tube amps with the "deep" switch on it. Flip that fat switch and BOOM...big fat booty! It's not simply an EQ bass boost. Kevin said it actually changes the signal path internally.
 
#263
Well folks...after months of trying new stuff and looking for the proverbial "sound in my head" I've actually found it.

I've ditched all the digital stuff and gone full analog again. My signal path is now:

Tuner --> FX Loop pedal (which allows me to bypass my board and go straight to the preamp) --> 3 Leaf Audio Octaver --> Creation Audio Labs Grizzly Bass --> Hooker's Green Bassmachine --> FEA Compressor --> Volume Pedal --> Shaw Tube Injection preamp.

The octaver and bassmachine are used when i require an octave sound or big overdrive and boost. They are only engaged as needed. The Grizzly bass is a killer pedal, which will do overdrive and distortion, but I use it for tone shaping. It includes a low pass filter, a mid scoop, a boost, overdrive, and distortion. The overdrive makes your tone nice and round. Not distorted unless you crank or or add in the distortion with the adjacent knob. With the FEA DE-CL compressor fattening things further before hitting the 12SL7 tube in the Tube Injection, what comes out is smooth, round, and warm. Of course I can brighten it if I so desire. But what comes through my in ears sounds like a mic'd cab.

Pedalboard.jpg
 
  • Like
Reactions: CAILLOUX, friend33, Jesuguru and 6 others
#264
chadhargis said:
Well folks...after months of trying new stuff and looking for the proverbial "sound in my head" I've actually found it.

I've ditched all the digital stuff and gone full analog again. My signal path is now:

Tuner --> FX Loop pedal (which allows me to bypass my board and go straight to the preamp) --> 3 Leaf Audio Octaver --> Creation Audio Labs Grizzly Bass --> Hooker's Green Bassmachine --> FEA Compressor --> Volume Pedal --> Shaw Tube Injection preamp.

The octaver and bassmachine are used when i require an octave sound or big overdrive and boost. They are only engaged as needed. The Grizzly bass is a killer pedal, which will do overdrive and distortion, but I use it for tone shaping. It includes a low pass filter, a mid scoop, a boost, overdrive, and distortion. The overdrive makes your tone nice and round. Not distorted unless you crank or or add in the distortion with the adjacent knob. With the FEA DE-CL compressor fattening things further before hitting the 12SL7 tube in the Tube Injection, what comes out is smooth, round, and warm. Of course I can brighten it if I so desire. But what comes through my in ears sounds like a mic'd cab.

View attachment 3290784
Click to expand...
Plus 1 on the tube injection!
Killer all the way around!
20190116_214232.jpg
 
  • Like
Reactions: TREYontheBASS, BrentSimons, bassgus and 1 other person
#266
chadhargis said:
Well folks...after months of trying new stuff and looking for the proverbial "sound in my head" I've actually found it.

I've ditched all the digital stuff and gone full analog again. My signal path is now:

Tuner --> FX Loop pedal (which allows me to bypass my board and go straight to the preamp) --> 3 Leaf Audio Octaver --> Creation Audio Labs Grizzly Bass --> Hooker's Green Bassmachine --> FEA Compressor --> Volume Pedal --> Shaw Tube Injection preamp.

The octaver and bassmachine are used when i require an octave sound or big overdrive and boost. They are only engaged as needed. The Grizzly bass is a killer pedal, which will do overdrive and distortion, but I use it for tone shaping. It includes a low pass filter, a mid scoop, a boost, overdrive, and distortion. The overdrive makes your tone nice and round. Not distorted unless you crank or or add in the distortion with the adjacent knob. With the FEA DE-CL compressor fattening things further before hitting the 12SL7 tube in the Tube Injection, what comes out is smooth, round, and warm. Of course I can brighten it if I so desire. But what comes through my in ears sounds like a mic'd cab.

View attachment 3290784
Click to expand...
I remember you purchased a Noble..did you move on from that?
 
  • Like
Reactions: SteveBass5
#267
57pbass said:
I remember you purchased a Noble..did you move on from that?
Click to expand...

Yep. I dearly loved my Noble and I really thought I'd found the holy grail. That was until I talked to Kevin Shaw and he invited me out to his house to meet with him and his son Ben, who just happens to be a very talented bass player.

I took the Noble with me. I set the Noble flat and we set the Tube Injection as flat as it will go and compared them side by side. Not much of an audible difference. Both sounded excellent. Then we started comparing the EQ. The Noble has bass and treble. The TI has bass, treble, a fat switch, and three different midrange contours. It also has a volume control for both XLR and 1/4" outs. And it has TWO quarter inch outs...one high and one low, so you can drive a preamp such as plugging into a bass amp like you would your bass, or you can use the high output which is line level and will directly drive a power amp. It uses two transformerless DIs made by Creation Audio Labs here in town. One for the 1/4" outs and one for the XLR.

The Noble and TI sound great. Both high quality, but the Shaw wins for versatility. It also wins on price. Noble is selling for $1000 now, Kevin asks $850 for the TI. I sold my Noble for $975 ($25 more than I paid for it) and ended up putting a few bucks in my pocket after paying selling fees and shipping.

The fact that it uses an octal tube is pretty unique. I believe the Noble used two 12AX7s. Kevin said he originally tried the 12ax7 as it is still in production, but settled on the 8 pin 12sl7gt, which he says are available by "the millions". I picked up two spares from Tube Depot for under $5 each. Here's what they look like:

IMG_0202.jpeg
 
  • Like
Reactions: R&B, TREYontheBASS, Zbysek and 4 others
#268
chadhargis said:
Yep. I dearly loved my Noble and I really thought I'd found the holy grail. That was until I talked to Kevin Shaw and he invited me out to his house to meet with him and his son Ben, who just happens to be a very talented bass player.

I took the Noble with me. I set the Noble flat and we set the Tube Injection as flat as it will go and compared them side by side. Not much of an audible difference. Both sounded excellent. Then we started comparing the EQ. The Noble has bass and treble. The TI has bass, treble, a fat switch, and three different midrange contours. It also has a volume control for both XLR and 1/4" outs. And it has TWO quarter inch outs...one high and one low, so you can drive a preamp such as plugging into a bass amp like you would your bass, or you can use the high output which is line level and will directly drive a power amp. It uses two transformerless DIs made by Creation Audio Labs here in town. One for the 1/4" outs and one for the XLR.

The Noble and TI sound great. Both high quality, but the Shaw wins for versatility. It also wins on price. Noble is selling for $1000 now, Kevin asks $850 for the TI. I sold my Noble for $975 ($25 more than I paid for it) and ended up putting a few bucks in my pocket after paying selling fees and shipping.

The fact that it uses an octal tube is pretty unique. I believe the Noble used two 12AX7s. Kevin said he originally tried the 12ax7 as it is still in production, but settled on the 8 pin 12sl7gt, which he says are available by "the millions". I picked up two spares from Tube Depot for under $5 each. Here's what they look like:

View attachment 3290973
Click to expand...
I'm happy to hear you finally found you're tone.
But you need to try a Shift Line Olympic MKIIIS. Really.
 
#269
Hypercaffium said:
I'm happy to hear you finally found you're tone.
But you need to try a Shift Line Olympic MKIIIS. Really.
Click to expand...

I'd love to give it a go, but I never ran across one used and buying new from Russia requires a long wait. I was hoping someone local to me might let me do a comparison, but I don't know anyone in Nashville who has one. I can put my hands on Rupert Neve DIs, Fat Boys, REDDI, and a number of others around here, but I have never seen anyone running the SLO.

I even looked for them at Summer NAMM and they weren't there either. Very tough to get my hands on one. I'd love to though, as I'm planning on building a "small board" that just has a Pre/DI, tuner, comp, and power supply. Something the size of a pedaltrain nano. For most gigs, that's all I need.
 
  • Like
Reactions: CunniMingus and Zbysek
#270
chadhargis said:
I'd love to give it a go, but I never ran across one used and buying new from Russia requires a long wait. I was hoping someone local to me might let me do a comparison, but I don't know anyone in Nashville who has one. I can put my hands on Rupert Neve DIs, Fat Boys, REDDI, and a number of others around here, but I have never seen anyone running the SLO.

I even looked for them at Summer NAMM and they weren't there either. Very tough to get my hands on one. I'd love to though, as I'm planning on building a "small board" that just has a Pre/DI, tuner, comp, and power supply. Something the size of a pedaltrain nano. For most gigs, that's all I need.
Click to expand...
I live in Italy, it took 8 days to get the pedal. It's pricey, I know, but I sold some stuff before getting that pedal.
 
#272
TonyRo said:
The SLO3 is very good for that purpose. Has a flavor to it, so if you don't like that you won't like the SLO3, but it does a lot in a little package. I use it on a Pedaltrain Nano+ with the DG Hyper Luminal, a tuner, a parametric EQ, and an Aftershock.
Click to expand...

The Tube Injection has some personality to it as well. It's an "old school" tone for sure, which I love. I basically have no need for much above 3khz. I high pass and low pass my signal to allow it to sit solidly in the mix. I'm not a slapper.

My regular board isn't really very large or heavy. It's more about the value of everything on the board that worries me. Some schlub at a bar gig spills a beer on $2000 worth of pedalboard and I'm gonna be sick.
 
  • Like
Reactions: TonyRo
#275
I have the Empress ParaEQ now and really like it. It's very quiet, very powerful, and you get a boost for free on top, which I use on quite a few tunes where I get to sit a little more forward in the mix. I have the Free the Tone as well but haven't had as much time to test it yet. I had a Q/Strip and liked it a lot. I sold it, but now I wish I had it back. I think if the filters were variable (I also just wanted money for other gear, you know how it goes) I'd have never gotten rid of it. I'd like to find something with variable filters and that powerful of an EQ in one box so I could stop messing around with anything else. There are tons of really good options for EQ floating around in my opinion, it's just a matter of which one works the best for you.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Turn Em Loose
#277
TonyRo said:
I have the Empress ParaEQ now and really like it. It's very quiet, very powerful, and you get a boost for free on top, which I use on quite a few tunes where I get to sit a little more forward in the mix. I have the Free the Tone as well but haven't had as much time to test it yet. I had a Q/Strip and liked it a lot. I sold it, but now I wish I had it back. I think if the filters were variable (I also just wanted money for other gear, you know how it goes) I'd have never gotten rid of it. I'd like to find something with variable filters and that powerful of an EQ in one box so I could stop messing around with anything else. There are tons of really good options for EQ floating around in my opinion, it's just a matter of which one works the best for you.
Click to expand...

Thanks! I may have to bite the bullet on the ParaEQ.
 
#278
chadhargis said:
I'd love to give it a go, but I never ran across one used and buying new from Russia requires a long wait. I was hoping someone local to me might let me do a comparison, but I don't know anyone in Nashville who has one. I can put my hands on Rupert Neve DIs, Fat Boys, REDDI, and a number of others around here, but I have never seen anyone running the SLO.

I even looked for them at Summer NAMM and they weren't there either. Very tough to get my hands on one. I'd love to though, as I'm planning on building a "small board" that just has a Pre/DI, tuner, comp, and power supply. Something the size of a pedaltrain nano. For most gigs, that's all I need.
Click to expand...

I have both the Noble and the Shiftline... both excellent and very different. If you’re after tube grind and a built in cab simulator the Shiftline will have you covered.. you’ already familiar with the Noble. My Shiftline arrived in a very reasonable time... and right around $300.

I have 4 pre amps that I use with my powered BagEnd cabs
Noble
Mesa
Sadowsky
Shiftline

All great and very different.. aside from the Noble there are so many great affordable pre amps available that allows you to change up your sound.. which is one of the reasons I purchased powered cabs..
 
  • Like
Reactions: R&B, Dbass35, TREYontheBASS and 3 others
#279
57pbass said:
All great and very different.. aside from the Noble there are so many great affordable pre amps available that allows you to change up your sound.. which is one of the reasons I purchased powered cabs..
Click to expand...

True. Even some of the lower cost solid state preamps are fantastic. I still rank my old Tone Hammer among the best.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 57pbass and TREYontheBASS
#280
TonyRo said:
If some schlub spilled beer on my Noble he'd be swallowing it whole by force. I might actually have to get rid of my Noble unfortunately. It doesn't match up well with my powered Bergantino cab, and I'm not sure there's an easy solution to that. BUT I DON'T WANNA!
Click to expand...

Luckily, prices for the Noble are through the roof. That's why I was able to get the Tube Injection. New Nobles are $1000 plus weeks of waiting. It's a premium piece of kit, and well worth it. But if you paid the old price, you can easily get your money back out of it. I put money in my pocket when I moved to the Tube Injection.

I will say, the Noble is built like a Swiss watch. It's jewel like. Kevin Shaw's work is fantastic too, but looking at the guts you will see a much more industrial layout. Still neat and tidy, but not as dressed up as the Noble. Even the dang power switch on the Noble was a pleasure to use.

I am a very detail oriented person. I have to be in my career. So I notice the most tiny insignificant things. I'm the kind of guy who polishes my cell phone before putting it in a case. No one can see it...but I know it's clean underneath.

As for someone spilling beer....well....It would be my fault for bringing such nice gear to that sort of environment. I've spilt my share of suds in my wilder days. :)
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Zbysek, Karl Kaminski and TonyRo

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back