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Thoughts on on board preamps, Audere vs J-Retro

R

rschuh

Inactive
Jan 25, 2008
101
0
64
Phoenix, AZ
www.hardbopdrums.com
#1
I'm looking at adding a preamp to one of my basses and wanted to know what the general consensus was between the J-Retro "Jazz Bass" Onboard Preamp and the Audere passive. So far about 50% of the guys I've asked seem to love one over the other. Has anyone used both who can give a good overview as to which does what best?

Thanks

Rob
 
#2
These are very different. The Audere will give you the sound of your bass as is while offering you eq at your fingertips. The J-Retro will start by coloring the tone of your bass. It has a built in eq curve that can't be bypassed. For thoughts on exactly what it does ask others who have more experience with it. Also, the Audere's eq is more subtle and the J-Retro offers you more extreme settings.
 
#3
emjazz is spot on here. The audere preamps make a jazz sound like a jazz. Leave them flat and they sound like your instrument, and you have the benefit of a simple eq. The John East preamps have the eq curve built in which, to my ears, make things sound pretty smooth. This can be good or bad depending on what you want to achieve. Personally I find the east J-retro preamp to be quite complicated with sweepable mids and various switches and the like. I don't know about you but I prefer to keep things a bit simpler. I want to do the odd tweak and then just concentrate on my playing.
This isn't to say East preamps are bad in any way, I've heard some lovely Overwater basses utilising them, I just prefer the simplicity of the audere circuits with the added benefit of the flat settings actually being flat.
Best of luck
 
#4
I agree with both the last coments i have a j-retro installed
on my geddy i can dial it into some amazing tones however
that being said i find myself constantly tinkering with it.
I would agree that it does color the tone but in a good way.
It does have a passive mode however you only have volume.
I think its there as a saftey feature incase the battery goes
dead. All in all im more than pleased with the j-retro.
 
#5
+1

The retro preamp excels in extreme EQ in a musical way.
Having the sweepable mid gives you control over any room situation to clearly define your notes.

I've recently been turning down the treble knob to mimic a passive tone rolloff and it works well on either of my fretless or fretted bass. I then use the sweep to get more mids and just little bass boost for body.
 
#6
emjazz said:
These are very different. The Audere will give you the sound of your bass as is while offering you eq at your fingertips. The J-Retro will start by coloring the tone of your bass. It has a built in eq curve that can't be bypassed. For thoughts on exactly what it does ask others who have more experience with it. Also, the Audere's eq is more subtle and the J-Retro offers you more extreme settings.
Click to expand...

Well said. And while I have used both, if I were adding a preamp to a Jazz style bass it would probably be a Bartolini NTMB or Aguilar OBP-3. In fact, if I were adding a preamp to any bass I'd probably do the same.
 
#7
I tend to vary my tonality in a fairly narrow range on stage. My thinking is that if you are playing at volume - you can't go adding or subtracting a bunch of low end or mid range without messing with the overall mix of your band ... so I'm not one for dramatic changes in tone. Sublte changes - for certain... I work the blend control and my hand position - a lot ...

I really like the Audere as it sounds more like a passive bass but with the added advantages of an active buffered blend and the z-mode switch. For the most part my EQ stays flat and the essential character of my bass rings through.

I installed and removed a U-Retro a couple of years ago. As with the Bart and Aggie pre's I've tried - my feeling was that the bass lost something in the process. I might have gained something as well - but the fundamental coloration was something I was not comfortable with. YMMV, no question there!
 
#10
j-retro u-retro...i have the u retro 5 knobs deluxe and belive me it´s incredible first i get confused but when i understand it it´s a monster it´s great and make my nordstrands pickups sounds just like i want.....i highly recommend it
 

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