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The Great Bass Preamp/DI Comparison

#3,721
jacoby75 said:
No personal experience with any of these myself. But I feel like the Two Notes was discussed waaaayyy back in the thread, and it was later out shined and out discussed by the SLO MkIII. Which was subsequently out shined by the Arkham Oracle or Noble. Not to mention the Broughton P15.
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I remember an early shining to SLO, will have to look back again for mentions of the LeBaas.
 
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#3,722
Probably the best live Demo I've ever heard for a Tube Preamp was one a TB'er here posted a few months back for the Broughton P-15 used with his worship band. To me that was perfect bass tone. The only problem with that though is they are like a Unicorn as the probability of you getting the chance to own one is like winning the lottery lol. It did sound amazing with his setup though.
 
#3,723
jacoby75 said:
No personal experience with any of these myself. But I feel like the Two Notes was discussed waaaayyy back in the thread, and it was later out shined and out discussed by the SLO MkIII. Which was subsequently out shined by the Arkham Oracle or Noble. Not to mention the Broughton P15. I feel like someone else also recently mentioned the Two Notes, so now I'm curious about that one again as well.
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I still have my SLO MkIII (not S). Superb value and features for money IMO.
 
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#3,724
Bassworship1 said:
Probably the best live Demo I've ever heard for a Tube Preamp was one a TB'er here posted a few months back for the Broughton P-15 used with his worship band. To me that was perfect bass tone. The only problem with that though is they are like a Unicorn as the probability of you getting the chance to own one is like winning the lottery lol. It did sound amazing with his setup though.
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Some of the best tone I have EVER heard has come through the P15 (via demos posted around here). But it is a unicorn. And expensive. And not pedalboard friendly. But if there was any one piece of gear that I wanted to carry around to a gig and just show up with that, it would be the P15.
 
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#3,725
Another tube preamp that doesn't have an actual tube, but does an excellent job of approximating a tube, is the Tech21 YYZ. I have never been a fan of the Tech21 VT or Sansamp's overdriven tones. But the YYZ is glorious. Of course it excels at the Geddy grind. But you can dial in a really convincing B15 studio amp vibe as well. It's one of my favorite gear purchases ever. Second only to my Broughton preamps. I got it dialed in really closely to my EBS ValveDrive, to where you couldn't tell the difference between the two. It has me tempted to try the new DI-2112 as a foundation for my tone to run everything else into. I just wish that one had programmable footswitches so I could still dial in the Geddy grind when I wanted it. But it's designed as more of a tabletop/amptop preamp.
 
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#3,727
jacoby75 said:
Some of the best tone I have EVER heard has come through the P15 (via demos posted around here). But it is a unicorn. And expensive. And not pedalboard friendly. But if there was any one piece of gear that I wanted to carry around to a gig and just show up with that, it would be the P15.
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I agree. The P15 (and similar REDDI) are not pedal board friendly, but in my case it’s ok as my Nano is full of what I need for IEM/DI gigs or to use in front of my amp for the few amp gigs I do. I would be ok with carrying the extra case to get amazing sound. They both need their own power anyway so...
I’ve been tempted to try a REDDI again because the P15 is impossible to get. Having the tone control of the P15 would be great, but clips of the REDDI Sound so good, and in garage band I’ve been using the B-15 model for my headphone practice and I love it. Never been an Ampeg guy but...
 
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#3,728
Dark Horse said:
So .... let’s say you had up to $500 to buy a preamp/di for “general usage” in a variety of live gigs ... sending signal to FOH and to your IEM rig. What one would YOU go with ?
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Does it have to be a single device? I love my RNDI so much I pretty much only look at preamps that don't have a DI in them (which is unfortunately making me too interested in the Oracle). For $500, I'd probably stick with the Grizzly Bass/RNDI combo that I'm using now.
 
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#3,729
Eadger said:
Does it have to be a single device? I love my RNDI so much I pretty much only look at preamps that don't have a DI in them (which is unfortunately making me too interested in the Oracle). For $500, I'd probably stick with the Grizzly Bass/RNDI combo that I'm using now.
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Yeah, single device .... preamp/di

I need simplicity, compact, and great sound
 
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#3,733
keatz said:
Incoming Two Notes Le Bass.
For a preamp pedal from a well respected company that runs a tube internally at 200v, not much talk on here. Why?
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I used one for a year or so. It's nice... but I prefer others now. It can get real dirty and totally overdriven if you want. I typically ran it in cold fusion mode (a blending of both channels). I found channel A (the clean channel) EQ to be too limiting.
 
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#3,734
sears said:
Dr J Sparrow is pretty tubey and not in a canned way, has fixed cab sim on xlr. Like the original Sansamp, volume=mids.
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Oh I forgot about that one. I had one for a little while. It was just... well... OK. In the lower end of the price range I would much rather have the NUX.
 
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#3,736
Dark Horse said:
So .... let’s say you had up to $500 to buy a preamp/di for “general usage” in a variety of live gigs ... sending signal to FOH and to your IEM rig. What one would YOU go with ?
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Digital - Used Stomp (or even Pod Go if needs are not too complex). Does everything. Very reliable.

Analog - SLO or NuX. Both have good EQ's, both have cab sims, both have built in headphone practice amps
 
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#3,739
scubaduba said:
Hmm. More expensive doesn't always equal better.

But 3X the price? Nah. New Sparrow = $99; New NUX = $179
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I guess I'm being argumentative. Sorry. For a while the only source was on Reverb, "b-stocks" for less than $60 that are brand new. I was trying to give a Sansamp alternative that's just as good, and a lot smaller for a tight pedalboard. Many times I've asked a bass player how they got that great sound and the answer was -- Sansamp. I love this thread, but I don't play big enough gigs where even my Ictineo makes any difference. Also, the Nux is digital and for certain setups, like a battery, that might not work.

The LBA2020 made the Sparrow's EQ and drive wake up. (though I was satisfied before adding the 2020.) So there, I've spent as much as a NUX.
 
#3,740
jacoby75 said:
Of course it excels at the Geddy grind. But you can dial in a really convincing B15 studio amp vibe as well.
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I'd have to second this. The first thing I did was plug in my Jazz bass of course, but I was pretty surprised at how killer it sounded when I plugged in my Pbass and started exploring sounds other than "Geddy."

@jacoby75's comment above about the DI2112 as a base platform brings up a curiosity question:
I've always run my preamps last for final EQ/DI purposes, but for those preamps without a DI... like the current Oracle, Linden or even Beezlebub for example... How many people here have (or do) run preamps at the beginning of their chain for a base tone, and then go to the rest of their signal chain? Obviously it can get into the age old "whatever works best for you" discussion, but I'm curious about people's thoughts and personal experiences/reasoning.

5sg.
 
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