It would be the Noble preamp with an onboard variable HPF. Game over.
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Double Bass What features would your perfect preamp have? (DB Forum thread)
- Thread starter Jared Houseman
- Start date
Well it looks like everyone has a gripe with something, thus giving you two possibilities. Create the ultimate pre-amp and win Talkbass Double Bassist Society coveted BOL prize or create something that some of us agree on and some of us never will. It’ll be a win either way and glad innovation and the illusion holy grail of sound still lives on in the dreams of youth
Good Luck! Sounds like a great project and learning experience in so many ways!
Well it looks like everyone has a gripe with something, thus giving you two possibilities. Create the ultimate pre-amp and win Talkbass Double Bassist Society coveted BOL prize or create something that some of us agree on and some of us never will. It’ll be a win either way and glad innovation and the illusive holy grail of sound still lives on in the dreams of youth! Personally, they’ll be prying my AI Coda combo from dead little hands when they try to stuff me in that little box and bury me. My bass that is…
Good Luck! Sounds like a great project and learning experience in so many ways!
I have a preamp that was custom made for my specs by a extremely skillful friend of mine. It`s all tube 2 channel pre, a mic channel with phantom power possibility, and another channel with instrument input. Each has treble / mid / bass eq and a volume knob. It has low cut / hpf, ground lift, phase and -20Db switches. All is packed in a box that fits in a backpack, with a external transducer. It is meant to go into a powered speaker, or straight to the PA / house with neutral eq.
My needs have changed though, and if I were to get one now I`d rather have 1 mic channel with a variable hpf.
I like it as simple as possible. The rare times I`m amplified at all nowadays it`s allways a mic on a H-clamp - preamp - powered speaker or PA / house.
I find each and every kind of piezo + amp combination sounding like piezo + amp combination, which isn`t necessarily a bad thing especially in jazz context, but nothing I need or am after.
I see and hear tube preamps doing some magic to piezo sound, so, I`d be after the Noble or similar if I was using a pickup and didn`t have my custom pre.
My needs have changed though, and if I were to get one now I`d rather have 1 mic channel with a variable hpf.
I like it as simple as possible. The rare times I`m amplified at all nowadays it`s allways a mic on a H-clamp - preamp - powered speaker or PA / house.
I find each and every kind of piezo + amp combination sounding like piezo + amp combination, which isn`t necessarily a bad thing especially in jazz context, but nothing I need or am after.
I see and hear tube preamps doing some magic to piezo sound, so, I`d be after the Noble or similar if I was using a pickup and didn`t have my custom pre.
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My friend has an A3. It's been among my favorite preamps to use for other instruments because of the ability to blend in a mic and the feedback control. We actually used it to run a whole band for a while. We would run a center condenser and the bass plugged in.
Unfortunately it came to me about every other week for repairs. The footswitches liked to completely dislodge and the knobs stopped working one by one. We eventually gave up on using it.
It'll never be right for everyone, but I'm going to make something that is right for me. If it works for others, that's a bonus.
I am very happy with a Walter Woods. But... I'd love a foot pedal of some sort to make the output softer when switching from piz. to arco. What works for pizz, at present, makes arco way too loud. I wish I were more skilled at pianisimo bowing, but... alas. This occurs with both a "full circle" or Erlund.
Even with really good arco technique, their are EQ settings which enhance arco that are different for pizzicato. The older Walter Woods Dual channel MI-100’s & 400’s
had a Channel selection switch that solved this easily as long as you didn’t need to go back and forth on the same song. Their is excellent A/B switching on the Grace Felix. A inexpensive A/B switch will solve this easily as long as your amp is a dual channel.
had a Channel selection switch that solved this easily as long as you didn’t need to go back and forth on the same song. Their is excellent A/B switching on the Grace Felix. A inexpensive A/B switch will solve this easily as long as your amp is a dual channel.
And if your amp is NOT a dual channel, a dual channel preamp (or one with selectable Pre-sets can do the trick.) Ric is partial to the Grace Felix which I'm sure is wonderful but also expensive. I less expensive option you would have to buy used is the Zoom A3.
Jazzdogg
Less barking, more wagging!
I, too, use an Acoustic Image head that provides everything I need for double bass and most of what I need for electric bass.
I LOVE an EQ bypass switch, and illuminated push buttons that indicate which features are engaged.
I have become so spoiled by a built-in variable hpf that any amp without one is not considered.
Aside from that, I love amps that are easy to read during a gig. I wish all front panels were illuminated and dimmable. The one thing I don't like about my Acoustic Image Focus is the legibility if the front panel during a gig. The newer amps seem to have improved remarkably in this area.
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This is so simple... an led showing the preamp is powered up. I have a Fishman Platinum and it is great in many way, but there is no power led. There is a low battery warning led on the side, but I'd far rather have a nice little green led showing me there is a battery fitted and its voltage is good. 
Yes and I would add a mute button and half the price!
There is a good reason that battery powered preamps have no constantly illuminated LED: The LED takes a lot of energy from the battery compared to the energy used by the preamp without the LED.This is so simple... an led showing the preamp is powered up. I have a Fishman Platinum and it is great in many way, but there is no power led. There is a low battery warning led on the side, but I'd far rather have a nice little green led showing me there is a battery fitted and its voltage is good.
This is the reason why Francis Deck‘s HPFpre preamps only show the battery state by a short blink when powered on.
It might be more valid for simpler preamps or buffers than those with a full eq or multiple channels. But you pay for a constantly illuminated power LED with a (much) shorter battery life.
I get that. I'd be happy with the Francis Deck one - or maybe have a pulse every few seconds like a smoke alarm. Or, maybe a "battery test" button. When my platinum arrived it wasn't that obvious which way the battery went in, and I had a 9v battery of unknown history and there was nothing to show it was working - I had to plug in my bass and amp to check the battery was in correctly.
But actually, as we're looking at the perfect pre-amp, scratch disposable 9v batteries. One with built in lithium battery that charges from USB, no need to buy batteries, and you could add an audio "interface" to the USB socket.
I hate rechargeable batteries only. If for any reason you don‘t use and therefor charge it for a longer time period the battery is dead and hard to impossible to get replaced.
Companies prefer them because device get unusable more quickly, so they get more units sold. Not what we really want.
Even though there might be a wall wart input too and it might be possible to use the device during recharge (which is seldom the case), the use of the device is reduced if an internal battery gone dead.
And as we all know, when a device is discontinued it is often almost impossible to get a replacement that is able to reproduce the needed options in the same way.
I prefer rechargeable standard format batteries for that so a 9 volts design that also works with 8 volts would be fine. There are low self-discharge 9 volt batteries now that can be used for this snd in case of an emergency a 9 volts battery could be get almost everywhere.
Not a problem for a busy player, but the good thing with replaceable batteries (rechargeable or not) is that you can have a spare one fully loaded as a quick backup. Just change them and you can go.
A discharged internal battery needs some time to get recharged that you do not have if you recognized the empty battery during the short sound check time.
Companies prefer them because device get unusable more quickly, so they get more units sold. Not what we really want.
Even though there might be a wall wart input too and it might be possible to use the device during recharge (which is seldom the case), the use of the device is reduced if an internal battery gone dead.
And as we all know, when a device is discontinued it is often almost impossible to get a replacement that is able to reproduce the needed options in the same way.
I prefer rechargeable standard format batteries for that so a 9 volts design that also works with 8 volts would be fine. There are low self-discharge 9 volt batteries now that can be used for this snd in case of an emergency a 9 volts battery could be get almost everywhere.
Not a problem for a busy player, but the good thing with replaceable batteries (rechargeable or not) is that you can have a spare one fully loaded as a quick backup. Just change them and you can go.
A discharged internal battery needs some time to get recharged that you do not have if you recognized the empty battery during the short sound check time.
This is why I say the thing ought to have an IEC appliance input and a 115V power cord. Yeah, the AC/DC power supply will add a little size, but it's the same as the wall wart. I mean, we're talking about preamplifiers here. Preamplifier presupposes there's an amplifier for it to be "pre" too; therefore there will be AC power right there. The "oops my battery went dead" unscheduled intermission never looks good.
IME there are valid reasons for AC or Battery Power. AC is reliable and that's why I own a Grace Designs Felix, Battery Power is portable and perhaps more convenient, so I have a Headway EDB-2 with the
option of battery or "wall wart." Just my take.
option of battery or "wall wart." Just my take.
Certainly both should be available. Personally I'd rather have a regular power input than a wall wart. If my 30 year old $40 Radio Shack boom box can have an IEC inlet, so should my expensive preamp.
At one point I was very seriously contemplating cutting a hole in my amp and mounting an unswitched receptacle just to power the preamp; but I ended up getting a different amp that doesn't require a preamp for DB piezo.
As I said, the various EQ that you can do with a preamp, I'd rather have it on the amp itself and ditch the preamp.
