Waddycall

It’s a no from me.

I have a microbass 3 coming my way shortly so I’ll give it go direct into my power amp and report back.

I’m with Bunion. The wording is enough to put me off even if I was looking for a PJ.

I’ve emailed EBS and they’ve said both the microbass 3 and Reidmar 752 have stereo channels from aux in to headphones out so there’s a possibility.

Interesting stuff but doesn’t get me any clearer. Surely in a pro Audio PA installation you’d size your speakers to the venue and the amp to the speakers to maintain the headroom as stated? My cab has a power handling of 1200w and can apparently handle double that intermittently but there’s no way anyone’s going to power a single 210 with 3600W or even 2400W so as you say it’s a different application. im asssuming that you can plug what you want into the front of a power amp and as long as it’s not clipping and it gets the output level you want it’s all good. I plugged my bass direct into my QSC the other day. Sounded lovely but was only at living room volume when maxed out. Bit of fun though.

Thanks for the suggestions but it’s specifically bass amp heads with this function that I’m interested in. 98% of my playing is through headphones and I’d like to use the amp I use with the band to get the most out of it and to become familiar with the eq etc. I currently use a channel strip into a power amp which sounds fantastic but for jamming along with songs or learning parts through headphones I run it into my zoom R24 recorder and run the output from my iPad into another pair of channels I pan left and right. It works really well but needs a fair bit of setting up. I’m considering going for a micro bass 3 to go into my power amp as mentioned in a seperate thread or changing to a class d head with stereo channels from aux in to headphones out. My 150 watt rumble does this but it’s not got enough oomph for the band. I could use it as a pre amp into my power amp but it has no onboard compression which I’d prefer.

The Crown XLi has switchable input sensitivity down to 0.775v so the microbass should definitely drive that ok

What’s not helping me is the mix of specs and a lack of understanding of their correlation. My QSC amp has a rated input sensitivy at full output into 8 ohms of 1.15 Vrms (+3.4 dbu). the microbass 3 has a nominal output level of 0dbv. Consumer line level is -10dbv so it’s clearly higher output than that. Pro line level is +4dbu. A bit of playing around with an online calculator puts 0dbv at 1 Vrms (+2.21 dbu). im concluding from this that the microbass won’t get my power amp to full output but it should get it fairly close. does that seem right?

Thanks Franticsmurf 👍

So if you plug in a phone/mp3 player to it and a pair of headphones you get stereo sound in your headphones?

Anyone know what currently available heads have stereo aux in and headphone out? My old Rumble 150 head does this. The Ashdown RM800 I had didnt as it mixed the two channels to mono which really annoyed me as most of my practice and song learning is done with headphones.

I think EBS claim that the microbass 3 has enough output (0dbv) to go straight into a power amp. It’s something I’m considering as I have a decent QSC power amp and the microbass 3 has all the tone shaping I need. https://ebssweden.com/content2/effects/ebs-microbass-3-professional-outboard-preamp/

I bought one of the sleeves I put a link to above and it’s probably the cheapest way to buy the materials. You should be able to disassemble it and adjust it to suit. Mine is ply

You can get ready made rack sleeves which might fit or be a good donor for cheap parts - https://www.prebeat.co.uk/accessories-cases-c2/rack-cases-c19/pulse-rksl-2u-rack-sleeve-p1210/s1294?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=pulse-rksl-2u-rack-sleeve-rksl-2u&utm_campaign=product%2Blisting%2Bads&cid=GBP&glCurrency=GBP&glCountry=GB&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIqcmutfP2-gIVTbDtCh0-aQAQEAQYAiABEgL_sfD_BwE

I’ve got a fantastic Ray34 that I’ve modded with Delano hybrid pickups so it’s a Jazz and a Ray in one bass. I love everything about it but the weight (and the colour matched headstock). Recent neck/arm/wrist problems resulted in me buying a lightweight shortscale which is much more comfortable to play but every time I plug in my JazzRay it sounds so much better. I’m thinking if I can make it lighter it could become my number 1 again. any suggestions how I can do this? Tuners are an obvious one. Would chambering the body help? It’s already heavily modified so I’m happy to take a router to it again if it’s worth it. im wondering if the weight of the neck would be the limiting factor? i already use a wide strap so I don’t think there’s much to gain there. Cheers

Thanks for this Phil - great thread 👍

I really like the channel strip I use as a pre amp for the semi parametric eq. The bass and treble are shelving and you can select the frequency for these as we’ll as the high and low mids. It also has a nice compressor.

Why are people baffled by the desire to hear the tone of a bass amplified without alteration? Of course other parts of the signal chain are going to colour the sound but why not have the option of adding what you want e.g. amp modelling to an otherwise “flat” amplified signal? Seems pretty valid to me. My mustang sounds sh#te through a scooped bass amp but lovely through my flat(ish) channel strip which I can tweak as required.

I can’t begin to comprehend how those can be built and sold for that price and everyone make a profit. Probably best no to know.

And here’s what it takes to get my rumble head to sound like the channel strip with eq bypassed- f

Interesting experiment with my Fender Rumble head (old 150w) and my channel strip. Output from channel strip into effects return on rumble so bypassing eq. Alternating between bass into the rumble and into the channel strip. I left the head flat and adjusted the channel strip to sound as close to the rumble head as possible. Quite an obvious mid scoop there I’d say.f