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The Great Bass Preamp/DI Comparison

#921
Can't keep them all so I put the Marleaux Tonwerk in the classifieds:
For Sale - Marleaux Tonwerk 4-Band Preamp, headphone out, DI out, frequency select

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#922
scubaduba said:
The F2p is a real good preamp. I tried both channels with the left channel being the Alembic F2B based channel. Honestly, the both sound real good. Combining the channels is fantastic for some extra "umph".

I would say it is on the darker side which you would expect from a tube based preamp. But interestingly the SLO is a pretty bright preamp by comparison.
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Would you say it imparts warmth, or just makes it darker? Does it thicken the tone?

Hmmm, Alembic F2B on the left, '59 Bassman on the right. Nice.
 
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#925
Bassworship1 said:
Has anyone tried or own the Trickfish Minnow? Haven't heard a lot of feedback on them but having a Pope preamp it would have to be good.
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I had one for a little bit. It was very clean, with a great eq. There is a gain knob, but any overdrive it produced didn't do anything for me. I would say there wasn't anything magical happening, at least for me.

I love a good warm yet clean tube tone, or maybe some saturation, or a very light overdrive, but this didn't really have any of that.

If you're looking for a great clean pre with a great eq section to drive whatever else you have going on, this pre would be great for that.
 
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#926
Bassworship1 said:
Has anyone tried or own the Trickfish Minnow? Haven't heard a lot of feedback on them but having a Pope preamp it would have to be good.
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Planning to try it at NAMM. In the meantime, maybe somebody here can win one! Found this on the Trickfish Facebook page.
 
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#929
Sounded great. Nice and punchy. Definitely gave me control over critical mids for the room.

It's a great box but the Marleaux Tonwerk is definitely more versatile. Definitely more tone shaping ability too. The Suncoast has far more color and warmth.

The VU meter is cool. The DI sounds great though I still give the edge to the RNDI.
 
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#934
scubaduba said:
I'll also say that the selectable bass frequencies on both the Marleaux and Meridian are killer. Definitely a big plus for those two. The DI out control on the Trinity is perfect for the right gain to output balance.
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I'd love if the Starlifter had selectable bass frequencies. The choice of a lower frequency would really do it for me.
 
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#935
scubaduba said:
Sounded great. Nice and punchy. Definitely gave me control over critical mids for the room.

It's a great box but the Marleaux Tonwerk is definitely more versatile. Definitely more tone shaping ability too. The Suncoast has far more color and warmth.

The VU meter is cool. The DI sounds great though I still give the edge to the RNDI.
Click to expand...
Sounds like you're keeping the Suncoast? Thanks for your review, made me check out their website! The HD3 looks very interesting, has anyone here tried it? They also have a guitar version, the HD2. Both have switchable tone stack (option of Baxandall or presumably FMV - they call it the 'rock' setting), master volume, and an overdrive / boost switch as well as other functions. I was ready to order the HD 3 but they are sold out...
 
#936
I really want to try the Starlifter as I love Carey's gear.

The only thing stopping me is how impressive the SLO is. It has all the features I want, sounds great, is not very big, and I have no complaints with it.

I have to admit, I think tubes make things sound better and I push my SLO a little so that I get a little grit in the tone. Nothing you'd likely notice until I turned the gain down and the tone changes.

I need to find someone local who has the be and put them side by side.
 
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#937
cavemanbass said:
Sounds like you're keeping the Suncoast? Thanks for your review, made me check out their website! The HD3 looks very interesting, has anyone here tried it? They also have a guitar version, the HD2. Both have switchable tone stack (option of Baxandall or presumably FMV - they call it the 'rock' setting), master volume, and an overdrive / boost switch as well as other functions. I was ready to order the HD 3 but they are sold out...
Click to expand...

I don't know. The SLO is killer and the best feature set to size to sound out there. The Suncoast overlaps the SLO in many ways.

I'm also second guessing selling the Marleaux Tonwerk. The flexibility in tone optimizing is incredible. It reminds me of the Pope in terms of feel but far more flexible.
 
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