Like the title says, "What are some good clean sounding preamps?" I play a mim jazz with emg's and love tube grit & grind but what I've really always have been gravitating towards & wanting is just a good clean, clean almost completely sterile (without the bad tone connotations commonly associated with that word) sounding preamp. So far probably the closest I've come would be with SWR & what would generally be considered their classic sound. I woulldn't necessarily mind going back to SWR but I was just looking for a few other ideas or thoughts. (I also prefer using an outboard rack compressor as well.)
epifani quest ii preamp. like i've said with hyperbole extended, "like a semi-parametric eq loaded avalon u5". there are a few floating about here and ebay, so they're not hard to find. also pretty affordable as well. if you need a touch of the tube stuff, yet like the hifi, demeter's HBP-1 is a great match. as is aguilar's db680.
The first that come to mind are Alembic F1X , Alembic F2B, Demeter, Avalon, Yamaha PB1, Presonus Eureka. I love my Alembic F2B.. Clean yet round and very easy to use.. There are no bad sounds in that piece.
Totally agree with the Alembic's and the Avalon (because I've tried them), but my money went to a BBE BMax and I haven't looked back. Definitely not as modern as the SWR tone, but tight and clean.
Looking at BassCentral.com & BassTasters, I think I like the Alembic, SWR & Demeter the best which seemed to be in the same general price range too. To my ears I always thought active Emg's always worked particularly well with SWR preamps, but I really liked the simplicity of the Demeter, then again I've always heard so much great stuff about the Alembics.... Ah, decisions, decisions... I'm sure all those choices would be great though. Thanks for all your opinions & experience. I really appreciate all your time!
Take a listen to the Low End True Voice on Basstasters. I just picked one up in a trade, and like what it does as a clean preamp. Forward sounding mids, tight and controlled low end. It mates really well with an active bass.
+1 BBE Max is very very quick and punchy. I have used an SWR 350 for several years and love it, but the BBE is a better pre. It is more flexible and has scads of features. The only thing I don't like is the compressor. It is "slow" or lumpy sounding. It has a kind of "swell" to it on the attack onset that bugs me. Believe it or not, my old tech21 compactor (with the right settings to avoid noise) kicks the BBE Max compressor's Kiester but good!!!
That's quite the pre. I'll be curious to see if the Bass Buddy I'm getting is even in the same ballpark as the Alembic.
Here are some related products that TB members are talking about. Clicking on a product will take you to TB’s partner, Primary, where you can find links to TB discussions about these products. Browser not compatible
