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The Great Bass Preamp/DI Comparison

#1,921
uwrossl said:
Fully agree. It's all about old school for me and all the guys you listed are my guys. I tried the Darkglass VMT based on reviews touting it as warm tube style break up in search of B15 esque holy grail of break up/warmth/slightly blown speaker sound and it found it to be quite terrible. It was brittle and artificial sounding. Well built but not at all what I was hoping for.

Tim Lefev recommended I picked up the Amptweaker Bass Tight Fuzz and man if that thing isn't bang on for what I was after. Tons of usable settings. Does the light and warm break up AMAZINGLY and the Dry Low knob and Tight controls are fantastic. Thick fat tone and puts a little hair on it or can go into heavy fuzz territory.

Based on the list of bassists you listed and similar tonal goals I'll be very curious to see how you get along with the Oracle. If you're liking it so far I'm guessing it's getting you into that Muscle Shoals territory!? I'm pretty sold on it being the right tube pre for me and hoping to add one this year at some point.
Click to expand...

The Oracle is pretty old school. The tonestack has been around for a long time.

I'm digging it so far.
 
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#1,922
scubaduba said:
I figured out the problem with the Effectrode. Bad tube. After replacing all is well.

Here's a file of the Noble into the Effectrode LA-1A and Cali76 CB. Played with a Sadowsky NYC JJ into Noble into respective compressor into Xenex Q802 into Garageband. Sadowsky is flat with VTC about 50%. Just a simple riff to give you an idea of the tone.



Segment one: Bass into Noble DI with Noble EQ all the way counterclockwise.
Segment two: Bass into Noble DI with Noble EQ Bass dial about 10:30.
Segment three: Bass into Noble DI with Noble EQ Bass dial about 10:30 and Treble about 9:00.
Segment four: Bass into Noble DI with Noble EQ Bass dial about 10:30 and Treble about 9:00 into Effectrode LA-1A with Peak Reduction at 10:00.
Segment five: Bass into Noble DI with Noble EQ Bass dial about 10:30 and Treble about 9:00 into Cali765 CB with Blend at noon and Ratio dial at 10:00.
Segment six: Bass into Noble DI with Noble EQ Bass dial about 10:30 and Treble about 9:00.
Click to expand...


Great demos! I'll take notes if I do another, hah!
Wow that Noble is clean... all good EQ sounds out of it. What interested me between the compressors though was that I felt that the Effectrode felt "deeper/bassier" and "bigger" than the Cali, which brought everything in comparatively, it felt more high-mid focused. Maybe that's the blend coming in? Anyways, a great sound but a different sound... really one of the few, if only, demos I've heard with the Effectrode on bass. Great job!

I still may need to get that LA-1A, oh boy.
 
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#1,923
Liko said:
Looks like the current buzz is about the Nux Melvin Davis, but I'm interested in another newcomer. Has anyone taken a gamble on the new MXR Thump rolled out back at Winter NAMM? A three-band EQ with sweepable mids based on the EP preamp circuit, all in a mini enclosure, caught my attention. No XLR out, a shame but not unexpected for the enclosure size (the larger M81 is an option for a standard shell with DI), and I have a ton of drive options on my board so I'm not really interested in another drive knob. Curious if anyone's tried one out; how does it compare both as an EP boost and as a 3-band tone shaper?
Click to expand...

I've got the Thump on my board and I love it. The eq is nice and the more I've used it the more I like it. I just tracked some demos with it in my chain a few days ago and was really happy with it. Seems to add an openness with added harmonics to everything to my ear which might be the echoplex thing they talk about. Kind of hard to fully describe. I read something about how exactly it(EP-3 version) works by subtle eq'ing and shifting certain harmonics out of phase which was all, frankly, way over my head.

Once I pick up an Oracle it'll stay on the board because it was cheap, takes up no space and along with the tone shaping it offers I can also use it as a clean boost in front of my Amptweaker tight fuzz pedal that sounds great when you hit it with a hot signal. I bought it as a temporary preamp solution knowing it would have other uses for me once I picked up a tube pre. If you're looking for simplicity and added tone shaping that sounds great with a little something extra going on I'd say give the Thump a go. Just keep expectations in line with what you're buying and don't expect it to sound like a Noble, Oracle, Reddi, etc,
 
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#1,924
DirtyDuke said:
Link Removed

What do u think? Lundahl transformer Di? Sounds interesting

Or this one...I was looking at ordering a lightning boy and still will because I can put it anywhere, but these lundahl transformer DIs look exciting.

https://www.amazon.ca/Cable-Factory-Passvie-Direct-Channel/dp/B07N8KFTHG/
Click to expand...

I had one of those Cable Factory passive stereo DI with Lundahl. It sounded great but very, very clean. I couldn't hear that it added anything to my tone at all. Great box though.
 
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#1,925
scubaduba said:
I figured out the problem with the Effectrode. Bad tube. After replacing all is well.

Here's a file of the Noble into the Effectrode LA-1A and Cali76 CB. Played with a Sadowsky NYC JJ into Noble into respective compressor into Xenex Q802 into Garageband. Sadowsky is flat with VTC about 50%. Just a simple riff to give you an idea of the tone.



Segment one: Bass into Noble DI with Noble EQ all the way counterclockwise.
Segment two: Bass into Noble DI with Noble EQ Bass dial about 10:30.
Segment three: Bass into Noble DI with Noble EQ Bass dial about 10:30 and Treble about 9:00.
Segment four: Bass into Noble DI with Noble EQ Bass dial about 10:30 and Treble about 9:00 into Effectrode LA-1A with Peak Reduction at 10:00.
Segment five: Bass into Noble DI with Noble EQ Bass dial about 10:30 and Treble about 9:00 into Cali765 CB with Blend at noon and Ratio dial at 10:00.
Segment six: Bass into Noble DI with Noble EQ Bass dial about 10:30 and Treble about 9:00.
Click to expand...


Great comparison! I preferred the Cali, maybe because I'm used to it. I like the treble sheen it adds.
 
#1,928
Liko said:
Looks like the current buzz is about the Nux Melvin Davis, but I'm interested in another newcomer. Has anyone taken a gamble on the new MXR Thump rolled out back at Winter NAMM? A three-band EQ with sweepable mids based on the EP preamp circuit, all in a mini enclosure, caught my attention. No XLR out, a shame but not unexpected for the enclosure size (the larger M81 is an option for a standard shell with DI), and I have a ton of drive options on my board so I'm not really interested in another drive knob. Curious if anyone's tried one out; how does it compare both as an EP boost and as a 3-band tone shaper?
Click to expand...
There's a thread going about the Thump already.
MXR M281 Thump Bass Preamp

I had a decent (but very brief) experience with it, but it tends to distort rather easily, especially if you use an active bass.
 
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#1,929
scubaduba said:
I figured out the problem with the Effectrode. Bad tube. After replacing all is well.

Here's a file of the Noble into the Effectrode LA-1A and Cali76 CB. Played with a Sadowsky NYC JJ into Noble into respective compressor into Xenex Q802 into Garageband. Sadowsky is flat with VTC about 50%. Just a simple riff to give you an idea of the tone.



Segment one: Bass into Noble DI with Noble EQ all the way counterclockwise.
Segment two: Bass into Noble DI with Noble EQ Bass dial about 10:30.
Segment three: Bass into Noble DI with Noble EQ Bass dial about 10:30 and Treble about 9:00.
Segment four: Bass into Noble DI with Noble EQ Bass dial about 10:30 and Treble about 9:00 into Effectrode LA-1A with Peak Reduction at 10:00.
Segment five: Bass into Noble DI with Noble EQ Bass dial about 10:30 and Treble about 9:00 into Cali765 CB with Blend at noon and Ratio dial at 10:00.
Segment six: Bass into Noble DI with Noble EQ Bass dial about 10:30 and Treble about 9:00.
Click to expand...

And as great as the Noble sounds, I believe you felt the Oracle sounded even better. I'd love to hear your comparison of the Noble to the Oracle. (Via sound clips).
 
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#1,930
jacoby75 said:
And as great as the Noble sounds, I believe you felt the Oracle sounded even better. I'd love to hear your comparison of the Noble to the Oracle. (Via sound clips).
Click to expand...
To my ears I've heard the Oracle with the Effectrode in a sound clip and it sounds really nice but I felt the Noble sounded much better. Could have been the settings but to my ears the Noble won hands down.
 
#1,931
jacoby75 said:
And as great as the Noble sounds, I believe you felt the Oracle sounded even better. I'd love to hear your comparison of the Noble to the Oracle. (Via sound clips).
Click to expand...

Unfortunately I don't have an Oracle at the moment. I sold mine and miss it.

Here's some thoughts:

The Oracle can be dialed in to sound pretty much just like the Noble but offers far more in the way of tone tweaking including being more aggressive, offering more complexity in mids (and mid control), and having more of the "tube tone" we assume a tube device would have. Which is better between the Noble and Oracle? Depends on what you are looking for. This is especially true if you just want to plug in and go. The Noble offers the 9 volt outputs to power other pedals which may be enticing to you. The fact that these outputs are not isolated means that this is not an attractive feature for me. The Oracle does lack a XLR out though which might be a deal breaker for some.
 
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#1,932
scubaduba said:
Unfortunately I don't have an Oracle at the moment. I sold mine and miss it.

Here's some thoughts:

The Oracle can be dialed in to sound pretty much just like the Noble but offers far more in the way of tone tweaking including being more aggressive, offering more complexity in mids (and mid control), and having more of the "tube tone" we assume a tube device would have. Which is better between the Noble and Oracle? Depends on what you are looking for. This is especially true if you just want to plug in and go. The Noble offers the 9 volt outputs to power other pedals which may be enticing to you. The fact that these outputs are not isolated means that this is not an attractive feature for me. The Oracle does lack a XLR out though which might be a deal breaker for some.
Click to expand...

Do you still have that sound clip of the Oracle and Effectrode you sent me in a message?
 
#1,936
So the NUX comes with 2 amp simulations (one is MLD and the other looks to be based off the Aguilar TH). There are also 8 slots for speaker cab IRs with 4 factory already defined as: AG DB810 / Ampeg SVT 810 / MarkBass 410 / Trace Elliot 410. There will be more amp sims available for loading later. My personal opinion is that for the cost this is one of the most versatile and good sounding pedals of this type released to date. Curious to see how it stacks up against the Atomic Bass Box...
 
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#1,937
Hey @scubaduba, as my go-to resident expert in all things preamp and compression, do you typically run your pre's before or after your compressors? (I know you recently ran the Noble and Oracle into the Effectrode). I was thinking I needed to run my pre(s) after my compressor, because in theory (though I have yet to actually try this) for the times I needed a stage amp, I intended to run the pres pretty hot to feed the power amp. If the compressor were after it, it would make it trigger too much/too hard. But I just tried my Broughton SVPre before my compressor for the first time, and I might like it better that way. In theory, would the compressor still have enough gain on tap to adequately feed a power amp if the preamp is run before it and dialed back to more unity gain? Anybody tried this?
 
#1,939
scubaduba said:
The Oracle does lack a XLR out though which might be a deal breaker for some.
Click to expand...

I can't lie, I'm one of "those" people. Hearing everyone here talk about the Oracle really makes me want to try one, but $550 for a preamp and I'd still have to figure out a DI solution makes it a pretty tough pill to swallow. I still want to try it of course, but probably wouldn't bite unless/until I got a really sweet paying gig.

Does any direct A/B audio of the Oracle vs. SLO exist anywhere, or is anyone able to do some quick comparisons? (Apologies if I've missed that post along the way!)

As my board isn't seeing much action at the moment during COVID (okay, okay... "any" action :rolleyes: lol), I've already revamped and gotten the Hub underneath to make room for a Night Owl or Beelzebub. I'm thinking that's probably still the best option for me at the moment, per suggestions from this thread. :thumbsup:

Ugh... this thread has added quite a bit to my G.A.S. list. ha ha

5sg.
 
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