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The Great Bass Preamp/DI Comparison

#721
MascisMan said:
I think I might be doing something like this soon. I've been doing some home recording A/Bing stuff and Im finding a couple things. 1. My HxStomp on its own is just fine and 2. I can ditch the Stomp and run my Super Stack in to my Tone Hammer and be just fine. Running the Stomp into the Super Stack into the Tone Hammer is rather redundant.
Click to expand...
I plan on running a Night Owl Industries Edison into a Tone Hammer and then directly into my Straight Ahead power amp. Simple, effective and easy to travel with. I prefer simple.
 
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#726
scubaduba said:
Anybody do a 180 and just go more simple?
Click to expand...

Yep!

Basically that's what I've been seeking. I started with just a plain old Countryman DI and an active bass with a good EQ. From there I went crazy and found myself in tech hell with amp sims, cab sims, MIDI controllers, and a pedal board that would make a guitar player jealous. I decided to simplify. I wanted the following:

  1. Tuner
  2. Compressor
  3. Fuzz/OD (rarely used...but you need it when you need it)
  4. Octaver (same as the fuzz/OD...you need it when you need it)
  5. Preamp/DI (with EQ for my passive basses)
I started out with the Tone Hammer as my EQ/DI and only engaged it when playing my passive basses. I used the onboard preamp on my active basses. Then I discovered that I liked the Tone Hammer sound better than my onboard preamps. That lead me to play with a bunch of onboard preamps, finally settling on the one I like best...the John East Uni Pre (or J-Retro if you are a J bass person). Mostly I leave the preamps on my active basses flat unless I am trying to cop a particular tone. The sweepable mids on the East pre is magic and you have internal pots to set the EQ points of the bass and treble controls.

Then I discovered the microThumpinator HPF and that sucker really makes things good. Whether it's through headphones or a PA...the bottom end is tighter and cleaner. That pedal will ALWAYS have a spot on my board. Forever!

So I ended up with:

  1. Peterson Strobotuner HD - bumped the Turbo Tuner off my board, which is also an awesome tuner
  2. FEA Labs DE-CL compressor - I ran the MXR for a long time, then the Keeley Pro, then a G-Labs, and the FEA smokes them all.
  3. FEA Photon Fuzz - Bought it used for very little money. Took a chance knowing how good Frank's stuff is. I love it! Can get so many nice tones from light OD to face melting fuzz.
  4. 3 Leaf Audio Octabvre Mini - A very high quality simple octaver. Bumped off the TC Electronic Sub 'n Up mini as it just had too many options. Crazy what that little pedal would do...I just wanted simple.
  5. Shift Line Olympic MkIIIs Preamp - I've tried many, many preamps...but bang for the buck, none top the SLO. If I had to, I could plug direct into the SLO and have a great sounding setup.
So my board isn't all that complicated. Mostly it's just comp, SLO, and microThumpinator...and that's it. The FEA compressor adds such a nice round bottom even when I'm not playing hard enough to light up the LED.
 
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#728
ThisYouCanTrust said:
Soooo .. we finally found somebody who did compare both ! :)

How is one better than the other really ?
From videos they seemed so similar that I bought the first I found and never bothered to try the other.
Click to expand...


Oh man...I agonized over the decision. I know it's "only" a tuner, but I loved my Turbo Tuner. I tried the Peterson at Sweetwater Gearfest and the Peterson rep flat out told me that their benchmark was the Turbo Tuner. He said, "Both tuners are excellent and one is no more accurate than the other". The reason I went Peterson is the display. It's bigger, you can customize the colors, and the coup de gras was the fact that I could put it in buffered mode and have it display the note without being muted. My TT couldn't do that.
 
#730
Lol don't worry I understand, I love the TT too :)
Although mine has dip switches inside where you can configure that (mute or not) and .. other things I never needed :)

I also had the impression that the display was less "nervous" on the peterson, not sure whether that's true or not ?
It's certainly bigger and nicer looking, that's for sure.
I like the old-school, very analog feel of the TT's display though.
 
#732
ThisYouCanTrust said:
Lol don't worry I understand, I love the TT too :)
Although mine has dip switches inside where you can configure that (mute or not) and .. other things I never needed :)

I also had the impression that the display was less "nervous" on the peterson, not sure whether that's true or not ?
It's certainly bigger and nicer looking, that's for sure.
I like the old-school, very analog feel of the TT's display though.
Click to expand...

The little LEDs are very "dancy" and the display was harder to read in bright light. The Peterson was designed to be read in bright sunlight and works well.
 
#738
chadhargis said:
Yep!

Basically that's what I've been seeking. I started with just a plain old Countryman DI and an active bass with a good EQ. From there I went crazy and found myself in tech hell with amp sims, cab sims, MIDI controllers, and a pedal board that would make a guitar player jealous. I decided to simplify. I wanted the following:

  1. Tuner
  2. Compressor
  3. Fuzz/OD (rarely used...but you need it when you need it)
  4. Octaver (same as the fuzz/OD...you need it when you need it)
  5. Preamp/DI (with EQ for my passive basses)
I started out with the Tone Hammer as my EQ/DI and only engaged it when playing my passive basses. I used the onboard preamp on my active basses. Then I discovered that I liked the Tone Hammer sound better than my onboard preamps. That lead me to play with a bunch of onboard preamps, finally settling on the one I like best...the John East Uni Pre (or J-Retro if you are a J bass person). Mostly I leave the preamps on my active basses flat unless I am trying to cop a particular tone. The sweepable mids on the East pre is magic and you have internal pots to set the EQ points of the bass and treble controls.

Then I discovered the microThumpinator HPF and that sucker really makes things good. Whether it's through headphones or a PA...the bottom end is tighter and cleaner. That pedal will ALWAYS have a spot on my board. Forever!

So I ended up with:

  1. Peterson Strobotuner HD - bumped the Turbo Tuner off my board, which is also an awesome tuner
  2. FEA Labs DE-CL compressor - I ran the MXR for a long time, then the Keeley Pro, then a G-Labs, and the FEA smokes them all.
  3. FEA Photon Fuzz - Bought it used for very little money. Took a chance knowing how good Frank's stuff is. I love it! Can get so many nice tones from light OD to face melting fuzz.
  4. 3 Leaf Audio Octabvre Mini - A very high quality simple octaver. Bumped off the TC Electronic Sub 'n Up mini as it just had too many options. Crazy what that little pedal would do...I just wanted simple.
  5. Shift Line Olympic MkIIIs Preamp - I've tried many, many preamps...but bang for the buck, none top the SLO. If I had to, I could plug direct into the SLO and have a great sounding setup.
So my board isn't all that complicated. Mostly it's just comp, SLO, and microThumpinator...and that's it. The FEA compressor adds such a nice round bottom even when I'm not playing hard enough to light up the LED.
Click to expand...

I'm curious on your thoughts between the Tone Hammer and SLO?
 
#739
I never tried running the SLO into a RNDI instead of using the onboard DI. But I did today. There is a difference though it is somewhat subtle. The SLO into the RNDI sounds better.

Hard to describe but more "studio like". Less raw.

Interestingly there is more overall output available available when using the onboard DI. Not that it really matters but it's a fact.

The RNDI seems to attenuate highs a little making them more sweet. I quite like it. Probably not a world of difference for live sound but noticeable in a studio.

Takes up more pedalboard space this way thoigh. Oh, adding the Effectrode LA-1A in front of all of this is whole new dimension.

1E86EAD3-EF95-454C-906A-65E5583D86B7.jpeg
 
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#740
scubaduba said:
I never tried running the SLO into a RNDI instead of using the onboard DI. But I did today. There is a difference though it is somewhat subtle. The SLO into the RNDI sounds better.

Hard to describe but more "studio like". Less raw.

Interestingly there is more overall output available available when using the onboard DI. Not that it really matters but it's a fact.

The RNDI seems to attenuate highs a little making them more sweet. I quite like it. Probably not a world of difference for live sound but noticeable in a studio.

Takes up more pedalboard space this way thoigh. Oh, adding the Effectrode LA-1A in front of all of this is whole new dimension.

View attachment 3646336
Click to expand...

Dear Lord! What compressor is that???

MascisMan said:
I'm curious on your thoughts between the Tone Hammer and SLO?
Click to expand...

The Tone Hammer is an excellent preamp. I mean...REALLY good as far as just an EQ and DI are concerned. The "AGS" distortion thing leaves a lot to be desired and I never found it useful especially given the massive volume difference when it's engaged.

The SLO sounds better than the Tone Hammer, it has LOADS more features such as a headphone out, aux in, FX loop, cab sims, and of course...the real tube tone. It's just a better preamp especially given its price.
 

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