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The Great Bass Preamp/DI Comparison
- Thread starter chadhargis
- Start date
Do you miss the Noble at all? It’s just so thick and juicy on a P. Never heard anything quite like it.
Hmm. Did you mean the opposite of what you typed? Alembic says “relatively flat” is 2 10 2.
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Bass and treble are mostly boost with mid being cut only. This aligns with how my ear is perceiving the EQ to function on my Suncoast F2P.
Does anybody know of a power supply that can 1) power the SLO 2) power the Cali 76 Compact Bass @ 18V and c) preferably fit under the Pedaltrain Nano +? The CIOKS 7?
The CIOKS DC7 is rock solid. Fantastic. I power the Effectrode LA-1A woth 1000ma requirements and a SLO with 600ma requirements and a wireless pedal base and at least one other pedal with the DC7 with power to spare. I use it with a nano, nano+ and Pedaltrain JR.
No issues with the SLO? The SL website says it needs 12V @ 650mA while the CIOKS DC7 gives 9V @ 660mA or 12V @ 500mA... Thanks.
Correct. Flawlessly. You will need the CIOKS parallel cable to combine the milliamperes from two 12 volt ports.
No...I really don't miss it. I had the opportunity to compare it head to head with the Shaw and they both sounded fantastic. I went with the Shaw. Then I got to put the Shaw and the SLO head to head. Could I hear a difference? Yes. Was the Shaw better? Yes. But in a mix, I couldn't tell the difference.
If I were doing studio work, I'd have kept the Noble or Shaw as I feel they are "better" (purely my opinion) than the SLO. But not dramatically so...and certainly not twice as good (as the price would indicate). The SLO has more features (aux in, headphone out, cab sims, effect loop) and it runs on 12v versus 120v, and it is lighter, and it takes up FAR less space on my board.
So for the SLIGHT tradeoff in tone, I gained more than I lost.
Ok. I’m really liking the Suncoast F2P. Not ready to share definitive statements just yet but it is punchy and full and big sounding.
Since it's not a dedicated bass preamp...what are the EQ points like? Is the bass knob shelving at something like 180hz? Is the treble set at 6k or something? That's what has me curious.
I'd like to try that one. I emailed Effectrode asking how it performs with bass and was told, "You certainly can use the Blackbird tube preamp with bass. It has a very good low-end response so can handle the output from your bass guitar."
I asked about EQ frequency points, and the person on the other end said, "I don’t know off the top of my head but if you download the Tonestack calculator app that will tell you your turnover frequency, center point and the amount of boost or cut for each control."
Hmm....
It is warm and tubey. There is not nearly as much breakup potential as with the SLO. But I'm not a big fan of big breakup anyway. I like subtle just on the verge of breakup type tone and the F2p does that really well. Of course the SLO can too, but the SLO has far more gain on tap overall.
It is too early for me to make any definitive statements but my early blink is that the SLO is more syrupy, the Suncoast is more punchy.
I was. But I've blown my preamp budget on the Suncoast, Marleaux, and Meridian Trinity preamps I purchased. I'd love to try that Demeter though.
jacoby75
Supporting Member
- Mar 11, 2010
- 5,661
- 10,716
- Disclosures
- Endorsing Artist: Mike Lull Custom Guitars, DR Strings
I'm really, really tempted because the Demeter VTBP-201s was my main gigging preamp for years for church and country/rock bands I was in and was a fantastic beast (not that this is the same thing, of course). But alas, I'm broke as a joke.
