Recommend me a preamp pedal with DI to help restore my sound!

[mattyb]

So I've started to get into effects and while I love having my pedals especially for ambient stuff I've noticed that quite a lot of my low end has disappeared which is very disappointing! My current signal chain is:

Fender Jazz 5 (passive) -> Boss TU2 -> EHX Octave Mutliplexer -> Earthquaker Devices Speaker Cranker -> EHX Bass Big Muff -> AMT LLM2 -> Line 6 M5 (in true bypass mode) -> Boss DD20 -> Ashdown LB30.

I occasionally run an Avalon U5 between the board and the amp which can help bring the bottom end back a bit but it's borrowed so I would usually just use whatever DI is avaioable for FOH. I'd really like something on my board to get my thump back and have a good DI for FOH all the time!

I'm pretty open to any suggestions and size isn't a huge concern but I'm pretty sure I don't need one of those massive programmable 3 channel ones! The more affordable the better too but I know good tone isn't cheap

[dannybuoy]

Sounds like you want it before the FX, so if you opt for a passive DI, put it after the TU-2 so it's getting a nice buffered signal. Passive DIs don't have a very high input impedance, so don't sound great with a passive bass hooked up direct. You might want to get an active DI so you can put it first, in case you might switch to a true bypass tuner later on.

Radial SB-2 / ProDI / JDI for passives, or SB-1 / Pro48 / J48 for actives.

Or, just put your whole chain in a blend loop so you can control the blend and feed a mix of clean/effected signal to both your amp and FOH (using the DI on your head or the one provided by the venue)! Lots of blending pedals available for this.

When blending signals however, either in your own blend pedal or by sending the FOH a pre-FX DI signal, you can run into issues where you stomp on a pedal and it inverts the phase, resulting in sound cancellation and low end loss. I'm not sure if the speaker cranker does this, but I suspect it does (I have the speaker cranker but no longer have a blend pedal to confirm).

Edited June 9, 2014 by dannybuoy

[cheddatom]

I can't see anything in your list which should lose low end. Have you tried each pedal individually to find out where the problem is?

[goblin]

It doesn't look like an FX chain that's causing the issue, or it shouldn't be anyway. Do the usual thing of checking each pedal individually though, check leads and slowly build up the chain and see where the change may occur.

As for preamps, I've just started using an MXR M80+ and I can't fault it. For the money, you really can't argue. I think there's also one for sale on here the moment too!

[mattyb]

Well after taking my pedal board apart and connecting each pedal individually - turns out it's the LLM2 there was no tone loss at all with everything except it and then when it's in the chain, good bye low end and about 40% of my signal strength! So it's being returned, what a shame because it's such a nice little pedal

[dannybuoy]

Good news then, although very surprising for a volume pedal to cause that. Perhaps it was faulty? Definitely not a dodgy cable that you only used when hooking up this one in the chain?

[mattyb]

I don't think so, I tried a few different cables in every different position. I was able to get the output level back up by enabling the boost in the LLM but the thump and low end remained gone, just a hotter thin signal. I have read a few reports about LLMs causing tone lose, and then some of the opposite so I guess QC may not be fantastic in the AMT factory? Who knows!