The Preamp/OD/DI rabbit hole

[Ed455]

Perhaps this will help. Here's my setup at the moment. The Bass Fuzz Deluxe will be departing.

 

[Mechanical]

I will say I can pull a warm tone out of the Darkglass X7. I think that pedal is infinitely flexible in terms of levels of distortion but gets sold short as the "metal only" pedal. Sure, if you dime everything it's going to be crushing, but you don't have to dime everything.

So I would go with that.

 

[Nephilymbass]

So . . . I've looked at Darkglass B7K, B7K Ultra, Alpha Omega, MXR M80+, etc. but not PLAYED through any of them. The more I look, listen, read reviews, the more unsure I am.

There is not a music store in my area where I can try them out, so . . . I want to have DI and eliminate the stage amp, and I want WARM subtle OD that keeps my low end presence, especially with my B string. I have mostly MXR pedals and I generally like them, but the Fuzz Deluxe is just too much. I can use use it with the "fuzz" knob turned almost all the way down, but it still picks up too much string noise, etc (ok, that could be bad hand technique).

I'm not opposed to trial and error. I buy used on reverb, and can flip any pedal to try something different. But I'd like to at least go the right direction and the Fuzz Deluxe is NOT the right direction for me. The M89 Bass Overdrive I suspect may be an improvement, but since I want a DI as well, I'd like to kill two birds with one stone.

I play mostly Praise and Worship music and piddle around with some pop, rock and blues at home, so I don't need or want "rip your face off" distortion. The Darkglass stuff sounds like it may be more extreme than I would ever use/need, but the reviews are so good that I'm tempted to pick up a B7K. The MXR M80+ has mixed reviews, some saying they're awesome and some saying that the distortion is "not subtle." I know that the Tone hammer was once the pedal de jour, but seems to be yesterday's pedal now.

I know this is a HIGHLY subjective question, but based upon what I've described, can you steer me in the right direction, worship musicians especially. Thanks in advance.

I like to keep an eye out on what the worship players are doing because it’s kind of surprising sometimes. For example I am always surprised to see so many bass microsynth being used for worship music. But anywho for the preamp/drive/Di this is what I tend to see the most

Sans amp programmable

Aguilar tonehammer Di

Mxr m80 Di

Noble Di with a separate overdrive often the darkglass vintage microtubes.

 

[Rolling Thunder]

I'm curious how one demos a DI. I seriously doubt anyone just goes on stage to see what it's all about. Is a studio environment (DAW) the best way? Asking for a friend....

 

[Riff Ranger]

I'm curious how one demos a DI. I seriously doubt anyone just goes on stage to see what it's all about. Is a studio environment (DAW) the best way? Asking for a friend....

That’s where I’m coming from (direct recording at home).

 

[Rolling Thunder]

That’s where I’m coming from (direct recording at home).

I bought a couple DI's while still going back to school with the intent of giving live playing a try and then....well...you know what happened so I got a full time job. I might pick up a Focusrite just to give them a go.

 

[jschulman]

I'm a big fan of the Two Notes Le Bass. It's got a 12ax7 to warm things up and two channels (low gain and high gain) that you can run individually, in parallel, or in series. I use it for clean tones with a little bit of hair, but you can push it pretty far if you want to.

 

[Mushroo]

I'm curious how one demos a DI. I seriously doubt anyone just goes on stage to see what it's all about. Is a studio environment (DAW) the best way? Asking for a friend....

In terms of actual DI's (not talking about tone-shaping preamp/DI's) it's pretty hard to find a bad one. Even the lowly Whirlwind Imp sounds good in my opinion.

This is why I recommended above, just finding a great preamp and not worrying whether or not it has a built in DI (since it's so easy to find a good DI).

 

[Rolling Thunder]

In terms of actual DI's (not talking about tone-shaping preamp/DI's) it's pretty hard to find a bad one. Even the lowly Whirlwind Imp sounds good in my opinion.

This is why I recommended above, just finding a great preamp and not worrying whether or not it has a built in DI (since it's so easy to find a good DI).

I bought an Orange Bass Butler and really want to try it. I did go instrument-level into my amp's effect loop but it's the cab sim on the 2 line-level bi-amp outputs that really has me curious.

 

[BlackVincent52]

The Shift Line Olympic would be a good choice for what you need.

I use two separate pedals— a Tech 21 Q Strip and a Free the Tone Black Vehicle. If I need a tube I use an Ampeg PF-20T.

 

[mike buzzetti]

Ive used the SanAmp bass driver for direct recording on 2 albums , got great bass tones over driven and clean + warm

 

[ItsmeSantiago]

I used an AO in church and could dial in what was needed. The X7 would be the ideal route to go for church music as it’s really flexible. I really like the MXR fuzz but it’s definitely on the extreme side.

 

[Leonid Nidis]

The darkglass vintage series seems like a safer choice if darkglass is what you want.

 

[SlimBaixo]

I'm curious how one demos a DI. I seriously doubt anyone just goes on stage to see what it's all about. Is a studio environment (DAW) the best way? Asking for a friend....

When I purchased my DI, the Neve RNDI, I ran it through Protools and compared it to the raw interface sound. Solo'd it sounded better through the interface but it sat better in the mix through the DI.

 

[gadgetgirl]

KHAN DI

 

[BasementWarrior]

Sans Amp BDDI all the way. The programmable version if you want to get fancy.

 

[SlimBaixo]

Regardless of seeming like yesterday's pedal, I really enjoy the Tone Hammer. We have the Sansamp programmable Bass DI but dislike the lack of mid control. I just give the TH a mild mid boost and I'm good.

In regards to Darkglass, I have the Vintage Microtubes but feel that it cuts the lows quite a bit. Normally need to turn on the preamp of my bad and add more lows for comfort. Haven't tried the other ones.

 

[krfoss]

The ebs microbass iii may do what you want it to do.

 

[NoSlapForYou]

The only Darkglass pedal I would recommend for what you need is the Vintage Ultra (or maybe the Vintage Deluxe, though I haven't used that one). It's a lot more "traditional sounding" than many of their other pedals. You can still get that "modern metal" distorted tone, but as the name implies you can dial in something warm and vintage too.

You can't go wrong with a Sansamp. Any of them are good, though I like the VT Bass DI.

One under-the-radar preamp I would recommend checking out is the Rusty Box. Check out some videos: it's impressive. The only thing is it doesn't have an XLR out. But it does have a balanced 1/4". So you could simply get a TRS to XLR if you need to run it into something with XLR inputs.

 

[jdjk7]

So . . . I've looked at Darkglass B7K, B7K Ultra, Alpha Omega, MXR M80+, etc. but not PLAYED through any of them. The more I look, listen, read reviews, the more unsure I am.

There is not a music store in my area where I can try them out, so . . . I want to have DI and eliminate the stage amp, and I want WARM subtle OD that keeps my low end presence, especially with my B string. I have mostly MXR pedals and I generally like them, but the Fuzz Deluxe is just too much. I can use use it with the "fuzz" knob turned almost all the way down, but it still picks up too much string noise, etc (ok, that could be bad hand technique).

I'm not opposed to trial and error. I buy used on reverb, and can flip any pedal to try something different. But I'd like to at least go the right direction and the Fuzz Deluxe is NOT the right direction for me. The M89 Bass Overdrive I suspect may be an improvement, but since I want a DI as well, I'd like to kill two birds with one stone.

I play mostly Praise and Worship music and piddle around with some pop, rock and blues at home, so I don't need or want "rip your face off" distortion. The Darkglass stuff sounds like it may be more extreme than I would ever use/need, but the reviews are so good that I'm tempted to pick up a B7K. The MXR M80+ has mixed reviews, some saying they're awesome and some saying that the distortion is "not subtle." I know that the Tone hammer was once the pedal de jour, but seems to be yesterday's pedal now.

I know this is a HIGHLY subjective question, but based upon what I've described, can you steer me in the right direction, worship musicians especially. Thanks in advance.

I agree that Darkglass will probably not be your thing. The Vintage line definitely comes close, for me, but it still just sounds too much like modern metal for me to think it'll be useful in other contexts. It's sad, because I think the Vintage Ultra V2 looks like a super useful pedal otherwise.

I also agree that a Sansamp might do it for you. I use the Sansamp VT Bass DI for years, and it's a great pedal for the price. I made my money's worth back on that many times over.

You could look for a box that does all these things, or you could modularize. Buy an OD, buy a preamp, buy a DI. That begins what most call a "pedalboard"... an entirely different rabbit hole. It's not the most compact or the easiest solution, but sometimes it will yield you the best results if you can't find a single box that will do every single thing you wish of it.