I have an active bass. 99%of the time, it’s being fed into the FOH, therefore I keep it at flat. I very rarely use the ability to boost low end or treble. The bass sounds great as it is, and I don’t want to cause problems with the sound engineer.
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what is your reason for using an onboard preamp
- Thread starter leavetheconnoli
- Start date
I have an active bass. 99%of the time, it’s being fed into the FOH, therefore I keep it at flat. I very rarely use the ability to boost low end or treble. The bass sounds great as it is, and I don’t want to cause problems with the sound engineer.
I like to be able to tweak from my bass, so having active EQ on my bass is a nice option to have.
As for preamp into preamp... why not? Every preamp may give you different tonal characteristics and you may prefer X from one and Y from another.
In most places I play I have my bass DI'd and my amp onstage is really just my monitor. I use the onboard preamp to adjust for the sound I want (and I do change it slightly during a set... some songs I want a more prominent mids-rich sound, others I stand back a bit) and adjust the amp controls simply for the sound onstage, which is not necessarily the prettiest, but the one that allows myself to... erm... monitor best what I'm doing.
It actually has *that* tone without a preamp anyway.
The onboard EQ just gives you access to a bunch of other sounds of *that* kind
Yup. I almost always run mine passive. I really only go active if it cancels a rare noise situation or for a boost without touching my Amp.
Along with my HPF, the 3-band eq on my bass allows me to beat any rig into submission.
Turnaround
Commercial User
This is an important consideration. If I care about my sound (I do) then I want to make sure it is delivered to FOH. My amp has nothing to do with that (in fact I don't even bother with an amp unless I have no alternative). What I am delivering to FOH is what comes out of my bass. So the more control I have at the bass the better.
I do need one more knob though - one that controls the guy running FOH, some kind of bypass that takes his fiddling out of the loop.
I would love to see a picture of this ethereal instrument! You must of messed with those knobs for a long time before figuring it all out. Thanks for your comment.
Actually it’s very intuitive and easy to use, even looks pretty much stock ... the idea came from the long discontinued Warwick Pro M
songwriter21
I have an obsession for wood. The musical kind.
The preamp on my US Peavey Cirrus sounds so good, that I use no external eq/amplification. The sweepable mids do it for me, both live and in the studio, with the same signal path...Zoom MS60B, Markbass Mini Boost (slap contour), and then into a Radial DI out to the board. A T-Rex battery supply powers everything. Technology can be wonderful.
I found this thread during a search for something else and reading it, I came across this, and had to add my 2c worth.
As for output levels, my EMGs are some of the highest output pickups I've ever used. We'll see how the SD ASB2-5s are when they arrive, but I suspect they'll be little different.
Just to clarify, I am only discussing active pickups here, ie those like an EMG with a preamp/buffer inside the pickup housing.
Simply not true at all. If anything the lower output impedance of an active pickup means it is less likely to need a preamp as the internal amplifier buffers the pickup coil from the loading that it would get from passive controls, so it is more consistent tonally. It should in fact be entirely independent of any subsequent passive VVT etc controls in circuit. The lower output impedance of an active pickup means it will drive the capacitance of cable better and the often too low input impedance of some pedals.
As for output levels, my EMGs are some of the highest output pickups I've ever used. We'll see how the SD ASB2-5s are when they arrive, but I suspect they'll be little different.
Just to clarify, I am only discussing active pickups here, ie those like an EMG with a preamp/buffer inside the pickup housing.
I guess this might be interpreted as being pedantic, but objects don't have soul. The players can do, depending on how good they are, but sadly not basses.
