funkgod Posted May 13 Share Posted May 13 (edited) Thought id open this up as im interested in all things bass rack pre's, interesting to see whats out there and must be interesting for others thinking about getting one. if you have one please tell us a bit about it. Iv been using this of late for recording for a certain sounds and also in an 80s tribute band, which its perfect for, Its a 1980s Nomad Bassman, there was a guitar version as well called the Axman, but the bassman is far rarer and does not pop up very often., made in the UK it was quite expensive when it came out. Its got a few tricks up its sleeve some good some not so good iv just cut and pasted this to save me typing it all out... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ " its got Pre-EQ. Compressor with Ratio control, Attack, Release and Gate buttons. Octave divider to add sub bass. EQ with LF and HF controls with a filter button. Crossover control, It has a low pass output on the back. Chorus, with delay control and Flanger buttons Back Panel has Sub out, Right out, Left Mono out. Insert socket, foot switch sockets for Chorus and Octave. " ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In use the compressor is very good if your after that fat "click" at the beginning of your notes then you can dial that in easy. i found the compressor better than the boss compressor and 1 or two others i have tried, so when recording you can get your bass lines to really "POP" out, great when playing tight parts with the bass drum, or if wanted to cool down transient peaks it does not suck on your tone too much just sort of squashes your harder hitting notes good for leveling out slap lines and bringing lower notes up a bit. the octave is soso, but at least it does not glitch like my boss one does as the notes die, chorus is good, i use that in the 80s band when doing "im still standing by elton john" and is good at getting that Dee Murray sound. The sub out on the rear i found to be very handy as when im recording i can send out 2 chans crossed over one sub bass and one bass its very good when you want to dial in as much sub as you want and mixing the two sounds together which is not the same as doing it with the EQ on one normal bass track, but also you can add fx on to one of the crossed over signals say a sub wah on the low, say from the dod fx25b envelope filter which is one of the only things that wah sub frequency's, a fantastic little pedal that. so loads of options when splitting the sound. so yea i like this. cant find a manual for it anywhere on the planet, Anyone got one ? also looking for another one so i dont have to keep taking it from the studio to my gig bag I did also have my eye on a SWR pre a short time ago but someone beat me to it, anyone got one ? Edited Sunday at 14:50 by funkgod 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
itu Posted May 14 Share Posted May 14 SWR Interstellar Overdrive. I do have a tce 1140, too. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeftyJ Posted May 14 Share Posted May 14 Ampeg SVP-PRO, SVP-CL and an SWR Grand Prix here - though I only really use the SVP-PRO. The SWR needs maintenance, it has a constant little fizzy hum. The switch in one of the push-pull pots was broken but is working again now, and a previous owner modified one of the output jacks for some reason. Then again it was cheap (€100). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
funkgod Posted May 14 Author Share Posted May 14 (edited) 2 hours ago, itu said: SWR Interstellar Overdrive. I do have a tce 1140, too. itu and to lefty. cool i love all things swr, got more than my fair share of swr gear, would love a swr valve pre for the studio i have been using a redhead so something like this would be great. can you tell us abit about them ? Edited May 14 by funkgod Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
funkgod Posted May 14 Author Share Posted May 14 1 hour ago, LeftyJ said: Ampeg SVP-PRO, SVP-CL and an SWR Grand Prix here - though I only really use the SVP-PRO. The SWR needs maintenance, it has a constant little fizzy hum. The switch in one of the push-pull pots was broken but is working again now, and a previous owner modified one of the output jacks for some reason. Then again it was cheap (€100). tried changing the valve ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeftyJ Posted May 15 Share Posted May 15 9 hours ago, funkgod said: itu and to lefty. cool i love all things swr, got more than my fair share of swr gear, would love a swr valve pre for the studio i have been using a redhead so something like this would be great. can you tell us abit about them ? My Grand Prix (Grand PRE, get it? ) is the "redface" version, which in this case is a stupid nickname because all that's red is a small area around the SWR logo. If you're familiar with SWR amps there are no surprises on this one: it's got the typical SWR controls and tone. It has the aural enhancer, 4-band EQ with semi-parametric low mid and high mid, a push-pull pot on the bass knob for a high pass filter, and an FX blend on the front panel for the effects loop. On the back there's two balanced XLR outputs (one for recording with a ground lift and switching between line and direct), one with its own volume control, an effects loop, an output to tuner, two unbalanced outputs to a power amp or amp head, and an unbalanced output that sits before the preamp's master volume. On the front there's a headphone out with its own volume control. It's a great unit and very versatile. I bought it for home use, but I'm usually too lazy to plug it in and play either through a combo amp or straight into my little USB mixer. 9 hours ago, funkgod said: tried changing the valve ? Good call, I should try that. I have a few JJ 12AX7's laying around. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
itu Posted May 15 Share Posted May 15 Interstellar Overdrive is somewhat peculiar: it can be used as an amp (few watts, home rehearsal etc.), but the eq is not working then. Overdrive section can be controlled via ext. volume pedal which is pretty nice feature. - heavy weight +/- rehearsal amp, but no eq + a good sounding unit + connections and ext. vol pedal option Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cd_david Posted Saturday at 19:14 Share Posted Saturday at 19:14 My home studio rack and my gigging rack (3u) which isn’t normally there but I record a lot with the TC 1140HS pre. I used it so much I’ve actually sold the Ged 2112 and replaced it with a second 1140 permanently in the recording rack. Top to bottom; Yamaha 01v96 (summing mixer) Gigging Rack dbx 160 TC 1140HS BBE 411 Sonic Maximiser Recording Rack Furman PL 8 power conditioner Patch Bay dbx 163 Sansamp RPM Sansamp Ged 2112 Home made Fender Bassman Valve shelf, Sansamp BDDI, TC Tuner, Ampeg SCRDI Avalon U5 Boss SDD10 digital delay BBE 362 Sonic maximiser. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JPJ Posted Sunday at 11:39 Share Posted Sunday at 11:39 I have these two, both SWR, both very different. The Grand Prix is a relatively simple valve pre. It’s still clean SWR and has the aural enhancer, but it’s warmer than most other SWR gear I’ve owned/tried/used. The Marcus Miller is about a full featured pre as you can get. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
funkgod Posted Sunday at 14:45 Author Share Posted Sunday at 14:45 3 hours ago, JPJ said: I have these two, both SWR, both very different. The Grand Prix is a relatively simple valve pre. It’s still clean SWR and has the aural enhancer, but it’s warmer than most other SWR gear I’ve owned/tried/used. The Marcus Miller is about a full featured pre as you can get. seen the SWR marcus knocking about, did always wonder about that, if the extra cash was worth it, can you give us a bit of a run down on the difference between the two please ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
funkgod Posted Sunday at 14:48 Author Share Posted Sunday at 14:48 19 hours ago, cd_david said: My home studio rack and my gigging rack (3u) which isn’t normally there but I record a lot with the TC 1140HS pre. I used it so much I’ve actually sold the Ged 2112 and replaced it with a second 1140 permanently in the recording rack. Top to bottom; Yamaha 01v96 (summing mixer) Gigging Rack dbx 160 TC 1140HS BBE 411 Sonic Maximiser Recording Rack Furman PL 8 power conditioner Patch Bay dbx 163 Sansamp RPM Sansamp Ged 2112 Home made Fender Bassman Valve shelf, Sansamp BDDI, TC Tuner, Ampeg SCRDI Avalon U5 Boss SDD10 digital delay BBE 362 Sonic maximiser. nice collection of bass toys 🙂 which one or ones do you use most for recording ? what into what ? and why ? cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cd_david Posted Monday at 08:03 Share Posted Monday at 08:03 17 hours ago, funkgod said: nice collection of bass toys 🙂 which one or ones do you use most for recording ? what into what ? and why ? cheers I always go from the bass into one of the dBx compressors, into the TC or U5 and Sonic maximiser. I Love the clarity and transparency of the TC. They’re both the HS version which makes quite a big difference to the standard 1140. Just a tighter overall sound. The signal fits very well into a mix with very little need for post production. Occasionally I’ll track a dirty channel too, go into the Sansamps or the Ampeg. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JPJ Posted Monday at 09:30 Share Posted Monday at 09:30 18 hours ago, funkgod said: seen the SWR marcus knocking about, did always wonder about that, if the extra cash was worth it, can you give us a bit of a run down on the difference between the two please ? Well where to start. They are both SWR, they both have a aural enhancer (although you can switch it off on the MM), so they are both capable of that glassy SWR tone, but after that they are very different. Starting with the older Grand Prix, I defy you to get a bad sound out of this box. The valve gives a warmth to the tone but you’re not going to be able to get it dirty or even to the point of breakup. The EQ is simple and logical, logical that is once you’ve learned that most bass tone is in the lower mids. If you want a clean fat sound this box will supply it all day and still come back for more. The Marcus Miller (‘MM’) however is a very different beast. It’s still got the classic SWR sound despite being from what many consider to be the inferior ‘Fender era’. After that, well it’s basically your Swiss Army knife of tone options. The feature set is very similar to the behemoth SM1500 (that I also own) but obviously in a much lighter package. Having the five band eq with low, mid, and high semi-parametric mids takes a bit of getting used to, but I’ve found that less is definitely more with this setup. Having a fully featured compressor onboard is a bonus but in truth I prefer the multi band compression in my TC Plethora these days. The bass intensifier circuit is a great addition, but hard to describe, it fattens up the bottom end and adds ‘width’ to your tone. Recording, I’ll tend to start with the Grand Prix and only switch to the MM if I need something I can’t get out of the Grand Prix. Live, if I’m using this rack then it’ll be the MM as it punches through the mix better to my old ears, using the SWR amplite 400 racked below the MM. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cd_david Posted Tuesday at 19:47 Share Posted Tuesday at 19:47 I’ve always fancied a Grand Prix Pre. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NAS Bass Posted 12 hours ago Share Posted 12 hours ago Always regretted selling my Grand Prix! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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