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Mic preamps and channel strips for bass


Waddycall

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Following on from this thread

....

 

 

 and my acquisition of a rack mount power amp and focusrite channel strip I’ve been disappearing down a rabbit hole of outdated heavy rack gear and have come across a few old threads wihere people are/were using mic pres and channel strips in their live rigs.  Anyone  still doing this and if so what are you using?

Edited by Waddycall
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After selling my Aguilar DB751, I’ve gone back to my Eden head. Wanting a bit more ‘heft’, I use it into a Crest CA9. 
 

Sometimes I use the headphone out into the amp, or if I fancy bypassing the tone controls, I use the effects loop into the amp- so the Eden is then just a basic pre amp, with no tone controls. This works really well, and got me thinking. 
 

So my final big buy after the cull of most of my gear is the Sonic Farm 2DI4 DI/pre. Just waiting now for delivery. 
 

So I’m now firmly going down this road. There’s a few on here doing this I think, and quite a few threads over on Talkbass about DI’s and Mic pres straight into amps. 

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Sort of doing this.  I use a Warwick Hellborg PR40 preamp into the power section of an Agi DB750.  The Warwick, I'm told, is a bass optimised version of a Neve channel strip.  To me it sounds lovely.  Very nuanced and present with a kind of viscous element and a 'produced' sheen.  I've used a Pultec clone (Warm Audio EQP) too and that was lovely.  The only valve pre that I really liked - I'm not sure why I sold it.

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Brings me back to when I first got my first amp modeler - a Line 6 PODX3 Live. For my Chapman Stick. After much time spent w/ every amp model on both bass and guitar settings, I accidently tried the Prog Vocal preset (vintage-style channel strip) and was AMAZED at the clearness of tone. At once the words of the engineer at my first recording studio gig came back to me as I was plugging all my noisy live gig equipment in, "No, we're running your bass straight into the board." So I'm still using the POD 11 years later (it hasn't blown up yet) and while I have my favourite amp models programed, the easiest good sounding sounds are the channel strip sims. 

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Thanks for the info. Currently looking around for different options for rack mount pres and channel strips. I’ve put a post in the wanted section so it’ll be interesting to see if anything turns up.

i dreamt of having a rack set up years ago. Quite nice to have a go at putting one together while I’m still strong enough to carry it.

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I love studio/rack gear and as a result I've kinda taken that as 'inspiration' with my pedal board or at least in my head that's what I'm trying to do. I'm using a tube DI, a Neve style, transformer based, EQ pedal and a compressor as the main always on kit going to the desk. It would have probably been as easy/cost effective to just buy a rack for gigging and leave it in the case with the desk 😄

 

I run things comp-EQ-tube di which goes to the desk via xlr and I also take the 1/4" output/thru from the DI back to my pedal board and into my drive unit and on to the amp. I could omit the tube DI and go DI out from my EQ pedal but it's always better to complicate things right?

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My years of chasing a channel strip style signal path in my own bass gear has lead me to my fave amp, the Bergantino B|Amp. The parametric EQ, parallel compression and bendable drive elements alone are worth the saving of rack space. I must find a picture of my old "touring" behemoth with it's 10u rack! The whole lot fits in my gig bag now!

 

If the B|Amp didn't exist, I think I'd be trying to get the Scheps Omni Channel Plugin from Waves or the UniChannel (which is excellent) from United Plugins working on hardware! 

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I use the Warwick Hellborg PR40 preamp going into the Mono 500w power amp. It's stupidly heavy thanks to the transformers in the power amp but it's the best sounding amp I've yet played through, and the Preamp sounds absolutely beautiful recorded.

Edited by funkypenguin
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Finally got to try out my power amp and focusrite channel strip with the band last night. Sounded great but the eq on the trakmaster isn’t great for on the fly tweaking. I wanted to boost and cut two frequencies covered by the one parametric bass control so I’m confident I’m going on the right track for me. I'm after something similar but with more comprehensive eq.  Drummer liked it to - “sounds amazing” 👍

Edited by Waddycall
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Well, I'm slighly in a parallel lane; after faffing around with modelling amps and valve pedals, I've bought one of these (and may get a 2nd, so I can run the bass in stereo).

 

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and am now looking for a power amp to go with it (/them).

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My new to mic preamp/channel strip is here. Only used it into the effects return of my little rumble head as a headphone amp but so far very pleased. Pots are a bit scratchy but some use seems to be doing it a lot of good. I really like the e.q. and compressor. The surprise bonus is the gate which works a treat. 

Not sure when I’ll get to try it out in anger as the band just fell apart🙄😂

ill stick it in my rack with the power amp tomorrow and blow the paintings off the wall for a bit while Mrs Waddycall is out.

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This came today. Won’t be able to try it out properly until tomorrow, when I’ll have an empty house for 3 hours - which never happens. 
 

Idea is for it to run straight into a Crest CA9, then into two Berg HD212’s. 
 

I’ll see how that pans out

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1 hour ago, E sharp said:

The tone controls are quite limited; but it’s really a high end DI, and basic pre. I’ll see how it goes. Can always add a simple EQ pedal on the board


I added a JHS Colourbox v.2 to a tube di to achieve a similar thing. It’s a great unit but it’s a spendy option. 

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F2CE0FDF-8E27-4A4C-A590-67F51B3879AE.thumb.jpeg.4d17c96576154828e33da3c8616a84ad.jpegi37D0A02E-B026-46F6-9D73-8FF124D7F246.thumb.jpeg.f1fc289df401b9e28a6071c44e31a135.jpegWell it looks a bit OTT 🤣but its so easy to dial in a nice bedroom tone. Not sure when I’ll get to try this out with the/a band which is a shame. I think it’s going to be ace.  

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Edited by Waddycall
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