The Great Bass Preamp/DI Comparison

[Cuzzie]

Should also mention the boards are separated so that I can use either on their own or as you see together

 

[chadhargis]

Heck, I can't use all that I have one one board. LOL!

Honestly, the H9 is my tuner, looper, and multi-effects. I use the effects very sparingly. But since adding the Torpedo C.A.B. you can hear a very distinct difference between overdrive and fuzz. The overdrive on the Le Bass is actual tube overdrive and the "power amp" section of the Torpedo C.A.B. is freaky realistic. If you really crank it up you even get the weird harmonics from the "tubes".

So far I've dialed in my clean tone and my dirty tone. Next up is a vintage "Motown" tone with my P bass.

 

[Cuzzie]

@chadhargis ha!

It sounds complex, but it’s really simple.

Core clean tone is two notes and Hartke and Cali compressor, always on.
A bit more bite, I kick on the Tyler and the chorus an fuzz are blended in for filling things out (I tend to play in a 3 piece)

If it’s just clean needed, then it’s the small board with the a channel of two notes, that’s it, once everything is clicked on it stays pretty much

 

[JustSomeDude]

Just got a LeBass in the mail
First impressions are really good.
I think they missed the mark on the midrange EQ though.
No mod on channel 1 and channel 2 is mid heavy.

Running an EWS BMC to control mids rocks though. For some things I do, I wouldn’t need it

 

[chadhargis]

Just got a LeBass in the mail
First impressions are really good.
I think they missed the mark on the midrange EQ though.
No mod on channel 1 and channel 2 is mid heavy.

Keep messing with it. Channel A is "boost only" so all the way counterclockwise is flat. The more you boost those the more "scoop" you get. I think I settled on mine running about 9 o'clock. Keep in mind, the Le Bass is designed to run either with it's speaker sim or a Torpedo C.A.B. and when you use them the magic happens.

Channel B is designed for overdrive. I'm not a big lover of dirt, but some songs call for it. I set it for pretty mild drive. Sounds great when I run it through the "Fridge" in the Torpedo C.A.B. I can also layer some fuzz from the H9 and thicken it up a bit if I wish.

There are many personalities in the Le Bass. I go for a more traditional clean tone, which it does fine. But you can get it sounding really angry too. Just keep twistin' knobs and havin' fun.

 

[Cuzzie]

Exactly as above.

You can run both Bass and Treble counterclockwise and max the gain and that in itself gives a great sound.

It is worth a tinker in all positions

 

[JustSomeDude]

Yep...I’m finding the interaction between the EQ and gain as well. Makes a nice compression tone with the gain up on channel 1

 

[JustSomeDude]

I finally figured out a strategy for the EQ.
I set it to unity gain with the EQ's flat.
I increase the treble until I get the amount of bite I am after.
Then dial up the low end and adjust the gain until I get the mids I want.
Works well.

Bad thing....the speaker sim is just too dark. I'm sure it sounds great with a CAB but I'm not interested in adding another box to the rig.

After working with the LeBass a while, I got out a Joyo American and immediately dialed up a sound I liked way better. So the Joyo is my new benchmark

 

[keatz]

I finally figured out a strategy for the EQ.
I set it to unity gain with the EQ's flat.
I increase the treble until I get the amount of bite I am after.
Then dial up the low end and adjust the gain until I get the mids I want.
Works well.

Bad thing....the speaker sim is just too dark. I'm sure it sounds great with a CAB but I'm not interested in adding another box to the rig.

After working with the LeBass a while, I got out a Joyo American and immediately dialed up a sound I liked way better. So the Joyo is my new benchmark

Lots of ppl compliment the joyo AS. Do you like it better as a tube OD or cleaner preamp with hair? Ive currently got an aguilar tonehammer and im thinking if i add a joyo AS(or something similar) 1 can be end of chain toneshaper and one can be tube saturation od. Aguilar could be both if it wasn't for the AGS volume jump

 

[symbolic_acts]

so you like the 40 dollar joyo pedal over the 300 dollar preamp? somethings wrong. Did you experiment with the fusion modes?

 

[chadhargis]

I would be surprised if everyone liked the Le Bass. They obviously don't or else I wouldn't have scored mine in like new condition for $200. Lots of folks love Darkglass, I knew within 15 minutes of tinkering with one that it wasn't my sound.

I compared several of the highly popular preamp choices, and for the money, the Le Bass covered all my bases. I would have kept the Tone Hammer if it had MIDI and an effects loop. I gotta say, it's really nice to have MIDI and I may be picking up a Source Audio Soleman to control the entire rig with MIDI macros. I wish the EQ section of the Le Bass was MIDI capable. That would be awesome, but the Torpedo C.A.B. has an EQ built in that saves with the presets, so I'm covered there.

One thing is for sure. Any gear you buy that makes you excited to pick up your bass and play is a good investment. I love playing, but the sound I'm getting from the Le Bass and the Torpedo C.A.B. is amazing. It's so fun to be able to switch "cabs" and get a completely different tone. I was playing some Motown stuff yesterday and listened to some Jamerson isolated bass tracks. I was able to dial in that tone fairly quickly and easily. It really is amazing.

 

[JustSomeDude]

so you like the 40 dollar joyo pedal over the 300 dollar preamp? somethings wrong. Did you experiment with the fusion modes?

To be fair, the 40 dollar Joyo is a ripoff of a more expensive pedal.
But the Joyo gives you VERY powerful controls over the mid range.
That is essential for me.

I'm starting another thread as I think I might need a VT Deluxe....

 

[JustSomeDude]

Lots of ppl compliment the joyo AS. Do you like it better as a tube OD or cleaner preamp with hair? Ive currently got an aguilar tonehammer and im thinking if i add a joyo AS(or something similar) 1 can be end of chain toneshaper and one can be tube saturation od. Aguilar could be both if it wasn't for the AGS volume jump

Both actually. Starting a fresh thread.

 

[Mosfed]

The Broughton P-15 is the best DI i have used by a country mile.

 

[karla684]

@chadhargis or anyone else with experience. I'm digging deep into the preamp/cab sim realms right now, to find the right solution for me. From what I've read and heard, the Torpedo C.A.B. seems really impressive. Especially this demo is increasing GAS. However, the sound is really noisy. What do you say, is the Torpedo CAB noisy at all, or is the sound in the video from the mic?


Cheers,
Kalle

 

[chadhargis]

My Torpedo C.A.B. is not noisy unless you run a lot of "gain" on the power amp section and then use the EQ to dial up a bunch of high end hiss. I'm out of town at the moment, but I'd be happy to record some samples.

I'll put it this way, my much beloved, highly rated MXR Bass Compressor is noisier than either the Le Bass or Torpedo. But you can only really tell through headphones.

 

[karla684]

My Torpedo C.A.B. is not noisy unless you run a lot of "gain" on the power amp section and then use the EQ to dial up a bunch of high end hiss. I'm out of town at the moment, but I'd be happy to record some samples.

I'll put it this way, my much beloved, highly rated MXR Bass Compressor is noisier than either the Le Bass or Torpedo. But you can only really tell through headphones.

Thanks for the info! No need for sound samples. Your testimony is plenty enough

Cheers,
Kalle

 

[chadhargis]

It's me again folks!

Time for some bonus review....YEAH!

I've been living with the Le Bass combined with the Torpedo C.A.B. for a few weeks now and have gigged it out a couple of times. Tone is great! I was tweaking my board (as it's getting bigger and more complicated) and I was trying to set everything at unity gain. Basically trying to get the level to be the same with all pedals off or on. This allows me to use effects without driving the sound guy crazy.

One of the things I noticed while doing this is that I had to have the Le Bass cranked WAY up and the gain on my mixer way down or else it was noisy. It wasn't an issue if I was feeding a really hot signal to the mixer, but the problem with that is that bypassing the Le Bass would make my bass signal VERY quiet (or vice versa...engaging it made it extremely loud). I did some experimenting. Tried a different power supply. Different cable. Different bass. Plugged directly into the Le Bass bypassing my board. Nothing made any difference. Then I plugged in headphones. DEAD QUIET. So I ran a 1/4" to my mixer and switched to line input. DEAD QUIET! Ah ha! I have a noisy DI out.

I put a ticket in with Two Notes and someone got back to me very quickly. They admitted there was a problem with some early units and they asked me to send it to their service center, British Audio....right here in Nashville. So I drove over and dropped it off today. That's the good news. The bad news is they are 9 WEEKS in queue right now.

So...what's a gigging bass player to do? Buy another Le Bass and sell it when mine is fixed? Maybe...but there are none in Nashville that I can find (online anyway). Or...take this opportunity to review another preamp. Of course! That's the logical choice.

So over to Guitar Center I went since I have to play on Sunday (Today is Thursday) and don't have time to order online. I plunked down my cash on a Tech21 Bass Fly Rig. Now...I've not ever fallen in love with a Tech21 product. They are typically not my bag, but I only need it for nine weeks, don't want to reconfigure my board (all cables are custom made to length), so I wanted an all in one unit I can toss in my gig bag and head out. So that left me with the choice of a GK Plex or the Tech21 BFR. I couldn't find a GK Plex locally....so the BFR is the default choice.

I've read the manual, and spoken with my friend and co-worker Ty Campbell (see his review here: Invalid Link Removed). He says I'll love it. We'll see!

More to come.

 

[Cuzzie]

Can’t wait to hear - Tech21 does good stuff, the fly rig is pretty mint, but my fave without doubt is the DP3x, it’s bloody genius

 

[chadhargis]

Can’t wait to hear - Tech21 does good stuff, the fly rig is pretty mint, but my fave without doubt is the DP3x, it’s bloody genius

Yeah...my friend Ty just reviewed the Dug pedal and says it's pretty awesome. I've never gotten along well with Tech21 stuff, I've tried a couple of times. Everyone else seems to love them, so I must be doing something wrong. The SansAmp is the defacto go to DI for bass around these parts. Hard to find a stage without one.