Bass Preamps

[JonnyAngle]

Excane actually didn't dig the Meatsmoke but as far as I know he only tried the first version. The second version is the SHIT. I had to sell it sadly but knew I would upon buying it. LOL! It's mega expensive. The Rusty is awesome as well and even better if you can have it modded to accept a non 30v power supply or whatever the fuck. I mean, seriously, stupidest supply ever. Jack Nelson Angel nuts modded his to 9v and it sounded killer.

My favorite preamps have been

Darkglass B7K and VMT Deluxe (did not dig the Ultra)
Providence Dual Bass Station
AMT Bass Crunch (although it was a bit noisy on my board, I've heard it was dead quite for others)
Rusty Box
Metasonix TM-5 (biggest sale regret ever)

And I really want to try the new Gallien Krueger one. It sounds fucking great!

Those are my favorites so far.

BOSS power or GTFO

[neonblack]

Wow, blast from the past. Weird how much my needs have changed in 2 years.

[hamletpowpowpow]

Excane actually didn't dig the Meatsmoke but as far as I know he only tried the first version (EDIT! Though you were talking the Meatsmoke but you were talking Darkglass with Excane he and I do love it as we do each other....). The second version is the SHIT. I had to sell it sadly but knew I would upon buying it. LOL! It's mega expensive. The Rusty is awesome as well and even better if you can have it modded to accept a non 30v power supply or whatever the fuck. I mean, seriously, stupidest supply ever. Jack Nelson Angel nuts modded his to 9v and it sounded killer.

Helpful answers, everyone.

Welp, I went for the Darkglass 900 - it seems really flexible for my needs. And no one is knocking it per se - it's just that Darkglass is very "Talkbass" compared to the way I usually roll. But I'm older, and my needs are different now.

I've had a Rusty Box on order for a while now - just waiting for it to show up.
I still want the Verellen tho.

But yeah, when the 900 arrives, I'll report back, for what it's worth...

[Jwar]

From what I've heard of the 900 you'll be in for a treat! If I had a grand to drop, I'd hit that in a second!

[hamletpowpowpow]

From what I've heard of the 900 you'll be in for a treat! If I had a grand to drop, I'd hit that in a second!

I'm stoked to check it out. I can't really afford it - but Zzounds offers some nice quarterly payment options without a credit check - no tax, free shipping made it easier to pull the trigger on this than trying to figure out 1900 for the Verellen build.

[D.o.S.]

If you could do clips of the 900 that would be pretty sweet as well, especially if you're not a very "talkbass-y" player -- there are some stupid good musicians over there but their demos don't have a lot of stylistic overlap for me, usually (unless it's excane who makes everything sound puuuurdy)

[JonnyAngle]

Excane actually didn't dig the Meatsmoke but as far as I know he only tried the first version (EDIT! Though you were talking the Meatsmoke but you were talking Darkglass with Excane he and I do love it as we do each other....). The second version is the SHIT. I had to sell it sadly but knew I would upon buying it. LOL! It's mega expensive. The Rusty is awesome as well and even better if you can have it modded to accept a non 30v power supply or whatever the fuck. I mean, seriously, stupidest supply ever. Jack Nelson Angel nuts modded his to 9v and it sounded killer.

Helpful answers, everyone.

Welp, I went for the Darkglass 900 - it seems really flexible for my needs. And no one is knocking it per se - it's just that Darkglass is very "Talkbass" compared to the way I usually roll. But I'm older, and my needs are different now.

I've had a Rusty Box on order for a while now - just waiting for it to show up.
I still want the Verellen tho.

But yeah, when the 900 arrives, I'll report back, for what it's worth...

Rusty box does not dissapoint.

Not great for uber lows tho.

[rickenbastard]

I LOVE my MXR M80 pre/DI. Sounds great running into a solid state or pushing tubes. Has enough character to retain the tone you like on other peoples' setups in plug in and play situations. I can't say I've tried any other preamps aside from the sansamp which I hated though so I can't compare it to the others in question. The dirt it provides is really organic sounding and it offers a lot for the price. Just my $0.02.

[rickenbastard]

Has anyone tried that new(ish) Ampeg DI/pre? It was released soon after ingot the M80 so I didn't really investigate it

[Jwar]

Has anyone tried that new(ish) Ampeg DI/pre? It was released soon after ingot the M80 so I didn't really investigate it

I have not tried that one. I don't really dig Ampeg's tone (I know blasphemy) but I have been interested in it. If I found it for a good deal, I'd be hard pressed not to try it.

[rickenbastard]

I like the Ampeg sound and I think they make a good product but I also have no interest in personally having that tone haha but that preamp did catch my eye, regardless

[hamletpowpowpow]

If you could do clips of the 900 that would be pretty sweet as well, especially if you're not a very "talkbass-y" player -- there are some stupid good musicians over there but their demos don't have a lot of stylistic overlap for me, usually (unless it's excane who makes everything sound puuuurdy)

Alright - I'll try and figure something out. I've never done demos before.

My first impressions are pretty good. I'm not blown away by it - it's not instantly amazing - but after some messing around, I was able to basically dial in my sound. It's very clean - and I suspect it'll take to other preamps really well.
I was actually more impressed with how it handled guitar.

I don't have it running to a speaker load, just using it as a DI. I'm not sure if it would be any better than my 800RB, or any of the more modern amps I've used. But for a device that's 7lbs or so, this is pretty great for an old man like me.