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What preamp pedal do you use, and why?
- Thread starter BlueTalon
- Start date
I have an old BDDI... a version 1 probably dating back to the 90's. I've recorded with it and it sounds great, but I've been reading this thread with great interest because I am thinking it's time to update my very old pedal. There are a lot of great choices here. My gut has me leaning towards the BDDIv2, but I'd like to try the Eden, the Aguilar, the Radial Bassbone, and a few others!
I've been playing through a Hartke LX5500 lately, so I take the head to the rehearsal studio with me. On my next trip, I'm going to try to use my BDDI to hit the FX return of whatever the house amp is and see what kind of results we get.
Might be a lot of Amazon orders and returns.
I'll be interested to see what the OP chooses!
I've been playing through a Hartke LX5500 lately, so I take the head to the rehearsal studio with me. On my next trip, I'm going to try to use my BDDI to hit the FX return of whatever the house amp is and see what kind of results we get.
Might be a lot of Amazon orders and returns.
I'll be interested to see what the OP chooses!
No preamp pedal. I keep telling myself I should have one like everyone else, but then I plug into my Empress Bass Compressor/REDDI tube DI rig and wonder why I think that. My basses have preamp/tone control and I usually run them pretty flat. I mostly use the passive tone control on both my Roscoe Classic P and Sadowsky Metro J5 and find that's usually all I need.
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I second Steve's opinion. I went through a years-long quest with preamps and I realized that all I wanted was my bass to sound exactly like it already did but a little better. Every time I'd get a new preamp I'd just get frustrated that I couldn't have it sound exactly like my passive Thunderbird as a starting point. I now run on both my big and small board just an EHX Steel Leather attack expander as the first in chain. It emphasizes the finger or pick attack and otherwise leaves everything else alone. I have a limiter end of chain and my amp has a great DI-out already.
The Quilter Interbass does it all for me. The line out is via 1/4" instead of xlr, but that doesn't bother me. It sounds fantastic .... like, crazy good.....(highly versatile with clean/vintage cab sim options), does a great, touch sensitive OD if desired, has flexible, powerful eq AND can be its' own 45 watt amp, has phones out, and the return to the parallel FX loop can double as an aux in. It's my most used piece of gear....so much so that I have 2.....1 lives on a pedal board (powered with a CIOKS-7) that I can use as DI into another amp or alone without an outboard amp. The other I use for home practice directly into a small cab, and drop in my gig bag as a backup if I play out.
I prefer the sound of my Eden WT-400 as is, but when when I can't be arsed to lug it and I'm using one of my Eden Class D heads, or when using a backline not my own, I want something a little more additional for warmth. I have tube and SS Pre/DIs but have wanted a SLO for a long time.
I'm kind of in the same boat here. I have a nice Orange Crush 100 combo amp that just collects dust because all I really do now is play through headphones. I always enjoyed Tech 21 stuff and so on but it's colored in such a way that might not articulate through each of my basses. I've gone through so many different pedalboard setups with different preamps and just got to the point where all I want to do is plug and play. Recently just switched to taking the DI out of my Orange and couldn't be happier. Clean and set relatively fat with just a slight treble boost for clarity.
That sounds like it would be a good rig, but it's way out of my price range.
That describes me through most of my playing years. Never needed anything except the controls on my bass and my amp, and the DI output on the back of my amp was good enough.
Then I went wireless, so the receiver became part of the signal chain, plus I started using a HPF. That was a minor PITA to set up during gigs, so I finally got myself a tiny pedal board. It was worth the price just to save the 5-10 minutes of set-up hassle. Anyway, under normal circumstances, that's still all I would need. But since I will be traveling by air in a couple of months to an event that prohibits the use of guitar/bass amps, I'm going to need something more.
If this is the case you should look towards a Qstrip and a nice compressor that you get a good price on 2nd hand. Checks all the boxes but also adds an over all fatness. If you like the organic sound of your bass tone it’s a good simple option.
I use the HX Stomp or the Ashdown OriginAL preamp. I have only received good comments from sound guys when I use the Ashdown.
My very first pedal bought about 2 years ago, yes I know I'm a late bloomer, was a TC Spectradrive which I still use today. It has everything I need really, though now I have so many other pedals I am thinking of going back to the beginning and looking at other preamps. so watching all the suggestions here. Once you start.....
OK folks, I want to thank you all for your input and recommendations. As I mentioned a couple posts above, the Broughton Messenger ended up at the top of my list. Unfortunately for me, there are none available, and likely will remain unavailable until well after I need it.
I actively considered a wide variety of DI/preamps, many of which I heard of for the first time in this thread. In no particular order:
Mesa Subway
Mesa Subway Plus
GK Plex
EBS Valve Drive
Two notes Le Bass
Fishman Platinum
Phil Jones PE-5
Various Darkglass pre/DIs
Various TECH 21 pre/DIs
Ashdown
I had to consider features, physical size, jack orientation, price, availability, etc. In the end, I went with a Providence Brick Drive. I just placed an order for one of the two that were listed on Reverb. It's coming to me from France, so it might take a week or two to get to me, but it should be here in plenty of time for me to use it in Memphis in May (or get a different one in case it doesn't show up).
Cheers!
I actively considered a wide variety of DI/preamps, many of which I heard of for the first time in this thread. In no particular order:
Mesa Subway
Mesa Subway Plus
GK Plex
EBS Valve Drive
Two notes Le Bass
Fishman Platinum
Phil Jones PE-5
Various Darkglass pre/DIs
Various TECH 21 pre/DIs
Ashdown
I had to consider features, physical size, jack orientation, price, availability, etc. In the end, I went with a Providence Brick Drive. I just placed an order for one of the two that were listed on Reverb. It's coming to me from France, so it might take a week or two to get to me, but it should be here in plenty of time for me to use it in Memphis in May (or get a different one in case it doesn't show up).
Cheers!
I really like the headroom the Aguilar Tone Hammer preamp can give me, and like so much the AGS circuit with very low gain (it has a wide range of sound). In hi gain don't like the AGS
Been into SansAmp since 2004 for everything recording. Used an RBI live for a long time, but it's been living in my studio for the past 5-6 years as I've moved to Zoom pedals (+ a DI box) for live use. I'm a "tone in a box" kinda' guy, I prefer bring my baked tone with me no matter what amp I'm using. Mostly use MS-60B or MS-50G live (also own a B1Xfour, it just doesn't sound as nice as the previous gen to me). These are abismally more functional than any dedicated preamp. They just can do any tone (I'm also into darkglass'ish stuff), you just need a clear idea of what you want and to like tweaking and navigating menus (not for everybody, I know).
I use several preamps:
Broughton Messenger
EBS MicroBass II
Sushi Box Space Heater (into Radial JDI)
Broughton HPF DI
Broughton Messenger
EBS MicroBass II
Sushi Box Space Heater (into Radial JDI)
Broughton HPF DI
Hello, it's been over a year since your post, but I'd still like to know about the experience you had with the Providence Brick Drive if you have the time to share.
Thanks,
JL
To be honest with you, I haven't used it in a long time, and when I did use it, I didn't use it enough to discover all its potential. That said, it served my purposes very well. For the International Blues Challenge, I needed to have a DI available, and was not allowed to bring an amp (those were the IBC rules), so I had to use whatever was on the backline. To accomplish this, I wanted to have the DI double as a preamp, and I wanted it mounted to my very tiny pedal board. The only other things on the pedal board were my Shure GLX-D wireless receiver (which doubles as a tuner) and a Broughton HPF/LPF, so altogether it made a very neat package that was very quick to set up and tear down -- important when they're swapping out bands on a limited schedule.
Somehow, I hit magic with it. Our first performance, I completely by accident found the sweet spot, or at least a sweet spot. It gave me normal tone when I played normally, but the instant I started to dig in it gave me some really nice growl and snarl. It made playing with dynamics soooo much more expressive and entertaining! The bass I was using was my three-pickup Warmoth jazz, which has quite a bit of output for a passive bass, but can't push an amp or preamp like an active bass can. Hello, active-bass-in-a-box.
I got the impression from playing around with it a bit that it could turn my bass into quite a buzzsaw if I so choose. It can also be obnoxiously bright. (That's not a knock, a lot of things can be obnoxiously bright if set that way.) Since I normally don't use a preamp or a DI, I didn't really explore all the possibilities. But I did get to know it enough that I know I like what it can do, and I plan to keep it for other similar future events in case they come up. I hope this satisfied your curiosity a bit.
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