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The Great Bass Preamp/DI Comparison

#161
I get you in tinkering times constantly, I ended up giving myself a good talking to about it!

LeBass clean - core tone
Hartke VXL - just EQ or Shape and EQ gives 2 variations on a theme of clean with more punch and attack.
Dirty Tone another way with a simple kick in on my KMA Audio Machines The Tyler.
Tech21 DP3x- pick and run tones

Everything is kick on and off depending what I have, no on fly tinkering or I send myself potty.
 
#162
Cuzzie said:
I get you in tinkering times constantly, I ended up giving myself a good talking to about it!
Click to expand...

It's an addiction for me. Being a technical guy in the IT industry for over 30 years, an audiophile, and having run sound long before I was a musician....I am absolutely anal about tone. And I'm not a big fan of trying to sound like someone else, I want my bass to sound good to me. Again, if I was a professional player who recorded frequently and needed to cop whatever tone a producer told me to, that's a different animal and where the Torpedo CAB really shines.

But myself, in my practice space, want to hear a tone that makes me want to play more. I am a huge fan of Rush...but I HATE Geddy Lee's tone. I so wish I could dial out some of that clank and smooth the top end, then add some big fat bottom. I remember the album "Hold Your Fire" coming out in the late 80's. I had a killer system in my car. Big subs in the back. The CD was the first all digital disc I'd ever bought. I was so excited to feel the pounding bass. Except...there was no pounding bass.

On the flip side, I bought James Taylor's "Live at the Beacon Theater" DVD and popped it in my home theater system. Four 12" subs, each being pushed by dedicated 125 watt amps. It was an epiphany. Jimmy Johnson's bass literally knocked pictures crooked on my wall. I could hear the drywall slapping against the studs as he layed down the low notes with that 5 string Alembic. THAT is the tone I've been seeking ever since. Smooth, deep, clean, and articulate without being too bright or clanky. I've searched for rig rundowns for Jimmy...but found nothing.

Here's a great video. Audio is terrible...but listen to all these great players. They are FANTASTIC players...but listen to the "clank, clank, clank" noise and the searing top end some of them have...then fast forward to 9:30 and watch Jimmy. Even high up the neck his tone is smooth and round...like a bass should be. The audio is bad, but you can hear how powerful those low notes are without being muddy. It's EXACTLY what I am shooting for. I want to rupture spleens in the audience and have them like it. :)

 
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#164
Nice vids, and I am with you about low end but with something drizzled on top.

For me it’s quite simple.

I would want to bebthe love child of Doug Pinnick, Glen Hughes and Muzz Skillings
 
#167
Cuzzie said:
Beautiful, there are no wrong answers here on this one.
Sounds like between us we can build a Tone bridge for any genre
Click to expand...


True!

I appreciate a good aggressive tone for some types of music. I mean...no one wants some Lawrence Welk sounding bass tone on a metal record. :)

VT Bass Deluxe should be waiting in my driveway for me. Q/Strip arriving tomorrow. Now....if my power supply would show up I could finish building my board.
 
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#169
I very nearly got a Q strip, great second hand deal near me, but rationalised not to get it and diverted funds into building a parts bass which should hopefully be me!
Just got a pickguard today
 
#175
chadhargis said:
It's an addiction for me. Being a technical guy in the IT industry for over 30 years, an audiophile, and having run sound long before I was a musician....I am absolutely anal about tone. And I'm not a big fan of trying to sound like someone else, I want my bass to sound good to me. Again, if I was a professional player who recorded frequently and needed to cop whatever tone a producer told me to, that's a different animal and where the Torpedo CAB really shines.

But myself, in my practice space, want to hear a tone that makes me want to play more. I am a huge fan of Rush...but I HATE Geddy Lee's tone. I so wish I could dial out some of that clank and smooth the top end, then add some big fat bottom. I remember the album "Hold Your Fire" coming out in the late 80's. I had a killer system in my car. Big subs in the back. The CD was the first all digital disc I'd ever bought. I was so excited to feel the pounding bass. Except...there was no pounding bass.

On the flip side, I bought James Taylor's "Live at the Beacon Theater" DVD and popped it in my home theater system. Four 12" subs, each being pushed by dedicated 125 watt amps. It was an epiphany. Jimmy Johnson's bass literally knocked pictures crooked on my wall. I could hear the drywall slapping against the studs as he layed down the low notes with that 5 string Alembic. THAT is the tone I've been seeking ever since. Smooth, deep, clean, and articulate without being too bright or clanky. I've searched for rig rundowns for Jimmy...but found nothing.

Here's a great video. Audio is terrible...but listen to all these great players. They are FANTASTIC players...but listen to the "clank, clank, clank" noise and the searing top end some of them have...then fast forward to 9:30 and watch Jimmy. Even high up the neck his tone is smooth and round...like a bass should be. The audio is bad, but you can hear how powerful those low notes are without being muddy. It's EXACTLY what I am shooting for. I want to rupture spleens in the audience and have them like it. :)

Click to expand...

Hold Your Fire was the first CD I ever bought as well. :) I still have that copy. There have been remasters, etc but I still have that copy. :)
It was also the first tour that I saw a Rush live! I still remember it! The arena seemed so huge! My first solo trip across the Canadian border sans parents. ;) I did behave myself though. For the most part. But my pal and I did have to see if we would be carded for a couple of beers...nope. :)
We felt so grown up!

But I love the clank! :bassist::hyper: Sorry!:smug:
Best wishes,
Brent
 
#176
I feel I'm on a very similar journey to you.

Had an Ampeg SCR-DI which was...ok.
Bought a Tone Hammer and thanks to Eublet's posts really got a good feel for its capabilities.
Then I bought a Le Bass and Torpedo CAB combination and like you, got sucked into a world of tweaking great tones – I felt I was spending too much time tweaking and never really settled. Plus, it's a lot of gold to invest in that rig so I said goodbye to it. I also had a head of trouble settling on a driven tone that I liked.

So I ran the Tone Hammer for a good long while, and made the switch to a Mesa Subway DI, which was great but after the sweepable mids and LPF/HPF in AGS of the Tone Hammer I felt it really lacking for what I wanted to hear – the tones were great but not what I needed.
So I've bought a VT Bass DI and I'm comparing it to another Tone Hammer – the Tone Hammer has less capability to as broadly scoop or boost the midrange compared to the VT and I greatly prefer the VT's drive. That said, that main sound guy I work with loves the Tone Hammer and is pretty meh about the VT Bass and derivatives. He's a bassplayer too, and runs a BDDI so that may influence things a bit. At the moment I'm very convinced that the VT DI does what I'd like more than the Tone Hammer now that I have a better idea of the tone I'm chasing.

However, I have a Shift Line Olympic III on its way to me now and I'm thinking this might be the match I've been waiting for: Tube based, 3 band EQ with high boost/cut, Aux In, Headphone out, DI, Effects Loop, 2 cab sim IR's in built (2x15, 8x10, and also can be shut off). We'll see how that goes – may be worth checking that out in your quest too.
 
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#177
tonymcbony said:
However, I have a Shift Line Olympic III on its way to me now and I'm thinking this might be the match I've been waiting for: Tube based, 3 band EQ with high boost/cut, Aux In, Headphone out, DI, Effects Loop, 2 cab sim IR's in built (2x15, 8x10, and also can be shut off). We'll see how that goes – may be worth checking that out in your quest too.
Click to expand...

PUH-LEASE give me a review of that pedal when you get it. I almost pulled the trigger on one, but shipping from Russia is a long wait.

So the VT Bass Deluxe showed up....and well...it's just like I remembered it. Clanky and mid scooped. UGH! I really getting tired of this. It's not fun anymore. The speaker sim button on the VT Bass appears to do nothing. I can't tell any difference in tone. Maybe it's like Lee Sklar's "Producer switch". Maybe I have gone "ear blind" in all this tweaking. The Q/Strip will be here in a couple of days. Hopefully it will end my quest. Maybe with the Le Bass gets back from the repair shop, it will end my quest. Who knows at this point?
 
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#178
I've tweaked and dialed in some more on the VT Bass. Found that the drive knob is what's causing me grief. I run it as long as I can get it and it gives me a much smoother tone that let's the EQ work its magic. It also reduces the noise floor, which is good too.

There may be hope for the VT Bass. I'm getting along with it for now. I'll starting dialing in overdrive soon...maybe tomorrow when my ears aren't so tired.

I will say, the Thumpinator being in front of the VT Bass really makes the low end sound better. It's a magnificent little simple high pass filter that cuts all the mud out of the bottom.
 
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#179
tonymcbony said:
I feel I'm on a very similar journey to you.

Had an Ampeg SCR-DI which was...ok.
Bought a Tone Hammer and thanks to Eublet's posts really got a good feel for its capabilities.
Then I bought a Le Bass and Torpedo CAB combination and like you, got sucked into a world of tweaking great tones – I felt I was spending too much time tweaking and never really settled. Plus, it's a lot of gold to invest in that rig so I said goodbye to it. I also had a head of trouble settling on a driven tone that I liked.

So I ran the Tone Hammer for a good long while, and made the switch to a Mesa Subway DI, which was great but after the sweepable mids and LPF/HPF in AGS of the Tone Hammer I felt it really lacking for what I wanted to hear – the tones were great but not what I needed.
So I've bought a VT Bass DI and I'm comparing it to another Tone Hammer – the Tone Hammer has less capability to as broadly scoop or boost the midrange compared to the VT and I greatly prefer the VT's drive. That said, that main sound guy I work with loves the Tone Hammer and is pretty meh about the VT Bass and derivatives. He's a bassplayer too, and runs a BDDI so that may influence things a bit. At the moment I'm very convinced that the VT DI does what I'd like more than the Tone Hammer now that I have a better idea of the tone I'm chasing.

However, I have a Shift Line Olympic III on its way to me now and I'm thinking this might be the match I've been waiting for: Tube based, 3 band EQ with high boost/cut, Aux In, Headphone out, DI, Effects Loop, 2 cab sim IR's in built (2x15, 8x10, and also can be shut off). We'll see how that goes – may be worth checking that out in your quest too.
Click to expand...
Been down the same path along with some of the other T bass favs. Most recently it was the shiftline mkiii and I will say in terms of versatility, excellent tones, lots of options but no endless knob twisting cycle it was near the top of the heap. I’m letting mine go now but mostly because I’ve moved back to the world of preamp and power amp together in one enclosure, I know it’s a wild concept. ;)
The only preamp pedal I’m keeping right now is the qstrip and that’s because it’s battery powered which I never thought would matter to me but it lets me keep it on my desk for recording and then grabbing it for my gig bag. It works great for every instrument I send through it, it’s fairly subtle but really cleans up a signal nicely
 
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#180
Hubriser said:
I’ve moved back to the world of preamp and power amp together in one enclosure, I know it’s a wild concept. ;)
Click to expand...

It is a wild concept for me as I don't use an amp most of the time. Mostly use IEMs.

The Olympic always looked interesting to me. It doesn't have a separate overdrive, which is what lead me to ditch the Tone Hammer. But I could probably get the H9 to do a decent rendition if I hunted down a patch.
 

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