Pre-amp/DI advice

[Jackroadkill]

Hi all, as a newbie to both the forum and the bass I was hoping that some of you might be able to help me regarding a pre-amp with DI to replace my stage amp when playing small gigs.  What I'm looking for is decent tone (subjective, I know....), some gain/overdrive for certain songs and an XLR out to the desk.  I know there are lots available but this is something I'm not au fait with at all, being a refugee from six-string land where plugging into the PA is Just Not Done.  I'm scouring YouTube for ideas but it can be hard to avoid the sneaky sell. 

 

I have played the Orange Bass Butler and quite liked it, but that would really be the top end of my budget.  If any of you have any advice or experience please let me know what you'd suggest.

 

Thanks very much,

 

JRK

Edited March 12, 2023 by Jackroadkill

[tayste_2000]

What’s your budget and what music do you play?

[Jackroadkill]

2 hours ago, tayste_2000 said:

What’s your budget and what music do you play?

 

Rock covers, mainly from the last 30 years, so a bit of growl would be welcome.  Budget can be up to about £300 if necessary but if what I'd like can be had for less that would be ideal.

[Boodang]

TC Electronic Spectradrive. DI, drive, comp and 4 band eq. Plus the toneprints give you access to tons of drive types, and comps, so it's very flexible. 

[pn_day]

2nd hand HX Stomp. Small, portable, and it will do more than you need. Then a cheap DI to isolate the Stomp from phantom power from Orchid electronics (or buy a cheap 2nd hand passive DI from Canford Electronics - under the brand EMO). 

 

With the Stomp you can use it with other instruments as well if you ever abandon the bass brotherhood again...!

 

There are tons of choices. Zoom at the cheaper end are also good, but I've happily used a Stomp for 3 years, and once you get to know it and setup patches that work for you, there is little wrong with it. 

[dmc79]

2 hours ago, Boodang said:

TC Electronic Spectradrive. DI, drive, comp and 4 band eq. Plus the toneprints give you access to tons of drive types, and comps, so it's very flexible. 

 

There is one for sale in the Classifieds here:

 

 

Otherwise plenty of options out there. Some have an optional footswitch operated distortion circuit built in. Some have option of plugging in earphones for silent practice / aux in for playing along to phone, iPod, etc. Some have sweepable mids if that matters to you. Here are a few to start you off:

 

MXR M81 (very transparent preamp/DI) 

MXR M80 (more colour to this, and optional distortion) 

Ampeg SCR-DI (distortion circuit and headphone input) 

Aguilar Tone Hammer (a popular one, has higher power needs than some, overdrive switch)

TC Spectradrive

EBS Microbass / 2 / 3

GK Plex

DSM Noisemaker OmniCabSim - Deluxe & Mini versions

3 Leaf Enabler (discontinued) 

DSM & Humboldt Simplifier 

NUX Melvin Lee Davis NBP-5

Broughton Messenger

Radial Bassbone OD

Tech 21 BDDI (& version 2 with more mid options) 

Tech 21 BDDI Programmable

Tech 21 BDDI Deluxe

Tech 21 Para Driver (think this has a V2 as well) 

Tech 21 VTDI 

Tech 21 VT Bass Deluxe

Tech 21 Fly Rig

Tech 21 Steve Harris

Tech 21 Dug Pinnick

Tech 21 Q Strip (more transparent than their other options I believe, with low & high pass filter controls) 

Orange Bass Butler

Caline Wine Cellar

Behringer BDI V-Tone Bass Driver

Lehle RMI Basswitch IQ DI

Walrus Audio Badwater

Laney Digbeth

Eden World Tour DI

Darkglass B7K

Darkglass Vintage Ultra

Darkglass Microtubes X7

Two Notes Le Bass tube (dual channel)

Sushi Box Finally Tube DI box 

 

Then there are the more expensive tube DI boxes such as:

Shift Line Olympic 

Noble preamp

REDDI 

 

My list certainly isn't exhaustive. It's somewhat of a minefield, depending on budget and what exactly you think you need. I'll get back with my thoughts soon based on the few I've tried. 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 13, 2023 by dmc79

[dmc79]

There’s also a Two Notes Le Bass for sale currently. There’s nearly always someone selling a Preamp/DI box here 

 

 

Edited March 13, 2023 by dmc79

[Baloney Balderdash]

This is really growing on me, amazing preamp/IR loader/DI, astonishing value for the money:

 

The NUX NBP-5 Melvin Lee Davis Bass Preamp

 

All digital, but really high quality at that, 32Bit A/D converter and signal processing, and a just 1ms latency.

 

If you want something all analog, including the build in cab sim, I'd recommend the Tech 21 SansAmp SH1 Steve Harris signature bass preamp, which also sounds amazing, and is far far more versatile than it's name might otherwise suggest, however also twice as expensive as the NUX.

 

Edited March 13, 2023 by Baloney Balderdash

[Bassmidget209]

I would put the Laney digbeth preamp in.

 

It has clean and overdrive channel that are mixable, di and and effects loop as well as a 4band eq. Cheaper than most Di boxes aside from Chinese clones. 

Only issue I would mention (as rediculous as this sounds) you need to like the sound of your bass. It doesn't colour the tone the same way a sansamp or the like does. I had some issues with that for a while until I got a new bass and realised why I wasn't getting on with it😐.

 

 

Something like a second hand sansamp has the advantage of sounding more or less the same regardless of what amp/sound system you plug it into. That's something that can be very valuable if your not using your own amp.

[dmc79]

Just to fry your brain even more, I've added those mentioned since and some more I thought of, to my original list. There's more for sale here currently than I realised. 

[StingRayBoy42]

The Tech 21 Sansamps are great and tick all your boxes. 
 

[thisisswanbon]

1 hour ago, dmc79 said:

There’s also a Two Notes Le Bass for sale currently. There’s nearly always someone selling a Preamp/DI box here 

 

 

Thanks for the shout, pal!

 

Preamps can feel like a bit of a minefield, the Le bass is a great choice but as mentioned, for what you're looking for you're spoilt for choice really  🙂

[Jackroadkill]

Thanks chaps, I'm at work now so I'll have a proper read of your suggestions when I get home this evening.  Thanks very much for your input - it looks like there are plenty of candidates for consideration.

[warwickhunt]

Get a used Tech 21 Sansamp, it does what you ask and the added advantage, if it doesn't work for you it'll be worth what you paid for it when you resell. 

[paul_5]

Best stand-alone DIs I’ve used were the sansamp paradriver and. Dave Hall VT2.

 

just my 2p worth.

[Lozz196]

If wanting to add in some drive for certain songs only then many of the preamps on the market won’t be suitable.

 

For one many don’t have selectable gain, just a gain control and when this is turned up the volume goes up too.

 

For some others, Aguilar Tonehammer for example although the gain is selectable separately it really jumps the volume.

 

For these reasons I use the Ampeg SCR-DI, separate gain which can be added in when desired at no extra volume.

[Baloney Balderdash]

2 hours ago, Lozz196 said:

If wanting to add in some drive for certain songs only then many of the preamps on the market won’t be suitable.

 

For one many don’t have selectable gain, just a gain control and when this is turned up the volume goes up too.

 

For some others, Aguilar Tonehammer for example although the gain is selectable separately it really jumps the volume.

 

For these reasons I use the Ampeg SCR-DI, separate gain which can be added in when desired at no extra volume.

Yeah, the drive being foot switchable on the Aguilar Tonehammer seems pretty pointless, as it will cause a huge volume jump.

 

Great for adding some tube like grid and extra harmonic complexity/depth to your basic "clean" tone though, as an always on thing.

 

But yeah, being foot switchable seems pointless and frankly a bit misleading, and as I understood OP wouldn't really work for what they had in mind.

 

I should probably add that the NUX MLD Bass Preamp that I suggested got the same issue, blendable drive control that works great as an always on thing for adding grid and extra depth/complexity to your clean signal, but causing a volume jump that makes it useless as an extra effect for driven parts and the separate dedicated drive footswitch pretty pointless.

 

I mean sure you can balance off the volume difference with the gain and blend knob, but that kind of defeats the point of the drive actually being adjustable as you will then be stuck with only a few predetermined settings that actually works for this.

 

Edited March 13, 2023 by Baloney Balderdash

[BreadBin]

8 minutes ago, Lozz196 said:

If wanting to add in some drive for certain songs only then many of the preamps on the market won’t be suitable.

 

For one many don’t have selectable gain, just a gain control and when this is turned up the volume goes up too.

 

For some others, Aguilar Tonehammer for example although the gain is selectable separately it really jumps the volume.

 

For these reasons I use the Ampeg SCR-DI, separate gain which can be added in when desired at no extra volume.

The Two Notes Le Bass will work for this, and has three different switchable modes (4 if you count off!)

[Jackroadkill]

Thanks very much to everyone who's contributed.  I'm slowly working through all of the suggestions and watching Youtube videos (if only every video was clear and simple, and wasn't just an opportunity for endless widdling...) to get my head around what I actually need.  A decent DI driven by a proper pre-amp section is probably the most important aspect as I have an overdrive pedal that I can stick in front of it if needed.  I'm tending towards the Laney Digbeth DB-PRE, the Tech 21 VDTI or the Bass Butler at the moment, but will keep looking because I want to get the right pre-amp.  I'm not really interested in one as a pedal, it's to replace my amp when space is at a premium.

 

Again, thanks very much to you all - I really appreciate the time you've taken to help a newbie out.

 

JRK

[dmc79]

27 minutes ago, Jackroadkill said:

I'm tending towards the Laney Digbeth DB-PRE, the Tech 21 VDTI or the Bass Butler at the moment, but will keep looking because I want to get the right pre-amp

VTDI is excellent, and very versatile. It’s what I use now. I’ll post more tomorrow but here is one of the better demos of it. No talking, just on screen explanations and some of the many sounds you can get from this ‘magic box’:

 

One quick thing to note is the Blend knob. I’ve read a ton of stuff on this pedal and while some would say you either want cab simulation / tube emulation or you don’t, just because the sample settings have the Blend at 100% doesn’t mean you have to. I’ve seen plenty of examples (and tried myself of course) of people having the Blend at 3pm, noon or even just left of noon. I’ve never been keen on it fully cranked myself. Lots of options with this box

 

 

 

Edited March 13, 2023 by dmc79

[Mornats]

10 hours ago, Lozz196 said:

If wanting to add in some drive for certain songs only then many of the preamps on the market won’t be suitable.

 

For one many don’t have selectable gain, just a gain control and when this is turned up the volume goes up too.

 

For some others, Aguilar Tonehammer for example although the gain is selectable separately it really jumps the volume.

 

For these reasons I use the Ampeg SCR-DI, separate gain which can be added in when desired at no extra volume.

The Laney Digbeth would be a good option as you can switch between the FET (clean) preamp and the tube, and have the tube setup with some drive on it. The footswitch can be set to do a swap between the FET and tube or add the tube as a mix to the FET. For the former, you can set the volume for the FET and tube separately so you could match them easily.

 

For the OP, it might be worth checking this video out, it's pretty good for a comparison of lots of preamp pedals in situ, being played in different genres, in a band mix with a focus on the bass:

 

 

[Skybone]

There's the Tech 21 VTDI Deluxe in the For Sale section, six channels of VT DI.

 

I'd add the Line6 POD Go, even though it doesn't have an XLR Out, and it's a bit over the quoted £300 budget, but second hand can come towards the budget. 

 

There's the new Zoom B2, and the B3n.

[Jack]

If you need switchable drive then I'd hit up the closeout deals on the PSA2.0 on Thomann at the moment. You'd need a DI, but thankfully you can pick one up whilst you're there as well.

[Jackroadkill]

Thanks for all the suggestions - I'll have a butchers at the videos suggested this evening.

[la bam]

The behringer bdi21 at around £30 new is phenomenal value - especially if you're trying preamps for the first time.