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Who here has run with no preamp?

jady

jady

Jul 21, 2006
4,726
8
54
Modesto, CA
www.myspace.com
#1
So I show up to a rehearsal today. I set up my rig, plug in and turn up the master and hear a loud hum but no signal. I thought it was the cable but swapping them did no good. I figured out it was the input jack on my Trace Elliot pre cutting out. I quickly switched the pre for my Boss VF-1 Multi effects unit and turned off the effects so it was just a signal boost to a decent level for the power amp.

I was using my MIM Jazz Standard with passive Dimarzio Ultra jazz pups. It sounded great!!!!! I had no real EQ but I tend to run pretty flat anyways. I was pushing one channel on my Crest power amp into my Accugroove El Whappo. The power amp and cab are so great sounding I think I may go with no preamp for a bit. Maybe my Sadowsky pre to tighten it up a smidge and give a simple bass/treble Tone shaping ability.

Has anyone else run a straight, uncolored signal to their rig?
 
#2
One of the onboard pre's I built will easily swing 2V and drive a poweramp if I up the gain a bit. I've tried it as a test, but not on stage, Seems there's some strong opinion either way on the benefits or pitfalls of running flat, direct.

Most onboard pre's don't have enough gain. Better check with Sadowsky that theirs does.
 
#4
A9X said:
One of the onboard pre's I built will easily swing 2V and drive a poweramp if I up the gain a bit. I've tried it as a test, but not on stage, Seems there's some strong opinion either way on the benefits or pitfalls of running flat, direct.

Most onboard pre's don't have enough gain. Better check with Sadowsky that theirs does.
Click to expand...

It's actually an old RSD-1. It is a Sadowsky outboard pre with a DI and a headphone amp built in. It will drive it just fine but I am thinking of maybe not even running that.

Passive pups ----> uncolored signal booster ----> power amp
 
#5
jady said:
It's actually an old RSD-1. It is a Sadowsky outboard pre with a DI and a headphone amp built in. It will drive it just fine but I am thinking of maybe not even running that.

Passive pups ----> uncolored signal booster ----> power amp
Click to expand...
Not sure of that unit, but if it works, great.

A booster would be simple to make as it's just an opamp with a bit of gain. You could also use JFET's like the Albert Kreuzer (www.albertkreuzer.com) designs. There'll be more measured distortion this way, but it'll be low order and very innocous. About $10-20 in parts either way and maybe an hour's work. Use a small diecast aluminium jiffy box for better shielding over plastic, and it'll be damn near indestructable too.
 
#7
Just before I sold my Eden WT-550, that's what I did. Actually, I would just plug my passive Warwick into the FX return of the Eden - prefered the tone this way, as the tube eden preamp was softening my attack and blurring my notes a bit. No problems whatsoever.
 
#9
When I was waiting for my Demeter preamp for my Roscoe SKB3006 (I got excited and took the Bartolini out too early) I had to play at church that Sunday morning so I wired the pickups straight to the output jack and released the DB cut switch on the input of my amp. A small tweak to the amp pre and my Roscoe still sounded great as ever.
 
#11
I have recently fallen in love with using a presonus Tubepre. Just has gain and drive on it, no EQ. And Running my Stingray flat. Its fantastic. I have an ampeg SVTII I am getting back from the tech (yesterday ERRR) and I am going to play it, I just don't know if it can cut it.

Someone above said they used a sansamp PBDDI. I did also and that was fantastic.

I also at some point prefered using the Effects return on an eden head.

Jonathan
 
#12
I actually tried this about a week ago through a homebrew 210 practice cab (Eminence DeltaLF's & Selenium tweeter in an old Peavey box) - I think I've found my new preferred tone! I will still keep my Ampeg SVP Pro preamp (at least for quite some time) until I'm certain this is the route I am going to stay on.
To be honest, I am not going completely straight into my QSC though, I am plugging into a rackmount 5-band fully parametric EQ mostly for added gain, EQ options & the ability to handle room acoustics problems on some gigs.
It sounded like I was suddenly playing through a much more expensive cab. To say I'm happy with the results is an understatement. Time may tell, but I may not ever go back to standard "bass preamps" again. As previously mentioned, the notes were much, much clearer sounding. Quite a bit of soft "blurriness" was removed.
 

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