Bass preamp before keyboard amp

[Simon C]

Hi all, I'm wondering whether to get a bass preamp pedal or not.

 

At home I usually go straight from my basses to a keyboard amp.  Both are active basses: a G&L L2000 (great preamp, if a bit odd in that it has voicings with bass and treble being cut only) and a Sire V7 fretless (with the stock preamp which is well regarded by many on youtube and I guess on Basschat too).  Sometimes I go via my pedal-board to my keyboard amp (signal chain is: bass, switch to select bass, tuner, compressor, tube overdrive, chorus, amp).  Sometimes I go via a Behringer Bass V-amp, which I use for the SVT amp and Cab sim - it sounds good in that mode, but I find the other amp/cab sims a little underwhelming.   I tend to like the V-AMP if I'm using a pick, but don't really think it is worth the 5 mins of set-up and take-down if I'm playing finger style (approx 80% of my playing) or slapping ( less than 10% of my playing).

 

At Church I go into a Gallien Krueger 210 combo - I'm not sure where the Sound Techs take the signal from.

 

As I understand things, Keyboard Amps have preamps but they are transparent / neutral so don't impart any flavour, colour (pick your adjective) to the sound in the way that bass or guitar amps do.  Mine does have treble and bass eq knobs on it.  It has (I think) a 12" speaker.  The Amp is a Carlsbro Colt combo about 23 years old.

 

I think the main use of the preamp would likely be at home, in order to make the basses sound more like they would if I went into a bass amp and cab (which I don't have room for).  Do you think I would achieve this?

 

If I find out where the Sound Techs at Church are taking the signal from, then I may or may not use the preamp pedal there.

 

Some things to consider:

 

Both my basses are active so they already have preamps.  Am I achieving anything by putting another preamp in the signal chain?

 

If I had a passive bass going into a pedal preamp then a bass combo , I'd still be going through 2 colouring preamps (pedal, then combo preamp) unless I was able to bypass the combo's preamp.  So I don't think there are any more preamps that are colouring the sound than I'm suggesting for my home rig (preamp in the instrument if indeed they do add any colour, preamp in the pedal, transparent {i.e. non colouring} preamp in the keyboard combo).

 

Feel free to answer the questions I should have asked, if it helps you to answer the questions above.

 

P.S. The Tube Overdrive pedal on my pedal board is a guitar one, rather than being voiced for bass.  I may well replace it.  So a preamp with a drive channel or blend may make sense - but I think that's secondary to the main questions above.

 

   

Edited May 24, 2022 by Simon C

[moley6knipe]

A decent all in one with DI, preamp, drive, EQ (bonus points for switchable) etc makes sense if you want a bass amp flavour and if in future you go bigger with speakers just get an active speaker or a neutral voiced speaker (eg Barefaced Compact) and a little class D power amp. Loads to choose from: I’d look for a second hand GK Plex personally coz I love GK sounds!

 

I would guess there’d be some way to jack into the power stage of the GK at church and the keyboard amp and thus bypass the inbuilt pres…. then you’d have your pre sound for both situations, plus a DI with your sound (or clean assuming the preamp pedal supports that sort of routing).

 

That said: most bass cabs are part of the flavour to some extent. I use Barefaced so they’re pretty tone neutral.

Edited May 24, 2022 by moley6knipe

[Downunderwonder]

11 hours ago, Simon C said:

Sometimes I go via my pedal-board to my keyboard amp (signal chain is: bass, switch to select bass, tuner, compressor, tube overdrive, chorus, amp). 

Keep doing that.

[Simon C]

11 hours ago, Downunderwonder said:

Keep doing that.

Thanks for the response.  Do you mean that there isn't much to be gained in getting a preamp pedal?

[Boodang]

Amps are not the only place to find a preamp! I do all my tone shaping on a pedal board, so yes, a preamp pedal can be a good thing to get. 

However.... there's a few ways you can do this. A simple preamp like a tc electronic spectradrive, an all in one like a Helix or the latest Zoom, or a series of individual pedals. Sounds like it's time for a bit of gas and some experimentation!

[Simon C]

I bought a Spectradrive via this site.

 

We were short on numbers in the church band  last Sunday. There were only 3 of us and only 2 instruments ( guitar and bass).  I suggested to the sound tech that to try and fill the sound out we take 2 signals from the Spectradrive: a pre eq from the DI out and a driven signal from the 1/4” out, then he could blend as he wished. Amazingly he agreed.  After the service he said it worked well: pre eq as the main sound with a bit of drive filling out.

 

I tried the same thing through my keyboard Amp. It works well - sounding more bass like. With only 1 signal it sounds a little more bass like but not much difference. But with 1 signal it is enough improvement that I put the pedal board in the signal chain before most practice sessions - this means I’m always playing through a compressor (a Hypergravity rather than the one in the Spectradrive) which I think helps with right hand technique, particularly pick and slap.

 

 One thing it has done is introduced a bit more creativity. I probably wouldn’t have thought about 2 signals if I didn’t have the possibility to do it.

 

 So a good experience thus far.