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A great preamp/DI has had a price drop (Studiospares 458190)


Jack

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Mine arrived today, plugged it in straight into the amp using Fully functional brick power supply. Nothing no power light no sound zilch. Tried it with a 9v battery, and no luck.

Contacted supplier and got me a replacement in the post super fast, cannot fault the customer service, hopefully the Replacement unit is fully working and can pass judgement on the unit then. I am pragmatic these things happen. 

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5 hours ago, Rollin Thunder said:

Mine arrived today, plugged it in straight into the amp using Fully functional brick power supply. Nothing no power light no sound zilch. Tried it with a 9v battery, and no luck.

Contacted supplier and got me a replacement in the post super fast, cannot fault the customer service, hopefully the Replacement unit is fully working and can pass judgement on the unit then. I am pragmatic these things happen. 

Forgive me for asking, but you know that they're centre positive?

 

Regardless I hope you get it sorted asap.

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Got my replacement yesterday. Thought i would do a bit of a review.

 

Great little unit, (i say Little) its a hefty unit not in a bad way.

sounds great, i tested in straight into the amp  all flatten the amp and flat on the preamp. volume at 3 line level at 4 this was about the same volume level as direct into the amp and it was completely transparent into my amp.  A B'ed it with Bass straight into amp on these settings and its was completely uncoloured tone of the bass. So then played with the EQ which was nice, Bass 6.5 mid 4 treble 6 amp flat eq. very nice sounding eq. Played straight into the amp using similar eq settings on amp and again very close nothing disernable to the ear. Back to the amp flat and preamp on the above eq, increased the volume (input) to around 5 and it was still clear but the tone starting to warm up a bit really nice. Up to 6-7 and the peak input was starting to flicker specially when dig in a bit, i was not expecting this but sounded really nice real amp in a box tube overdrive boost. Up to 8-9 and the red light really flickering and a nice tube overdrive, had to turn the line level down by this time to around 3. was not expecting to get such a nice  tubey overdrive sound from this. increase the bass and treble a bit more and drop the mid a bit sounds really really good. Honestly as good as my old Tech 21 VT bass. Then everything back to flat and engaged the Shape switch. this really scored the sound, bit too m much for my taste, similar to a MXR 81 colour switch. Sounded good but not my thing used the Notch filter and boosted the higher frequencies and added some more mid on the eq to bring it back to my taste a bit more, it works well just not my sound. I ended up playing for about an house on my preferred settings just enjoying the tone

Not tried using the Di out into garage band yet, as currently don't have a working di cable. so hopefully this works fine with a separate level control not envisaging this being a problem.

I will mainly use this all flat and run my stomp into it and Di out into Mac/Pa if required, having the second line out means i can still run into my amp. It will also be used for my acoustic guitar. At this price its a great bit of back up kit or a great addition to anyones existing kit and i would have no quorms using this as my tone shaping pre amp. I have had Sansamps and Mxr 81 and had an EHX Battallion and this is bearing mine the cost up there with these.

Anyone want a cheap preamp Di that's still versatile get your hand in your pocket.

 

 

Edited by Rollin Thunder
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  • 6 months later...
13 hours ago, funky8884 said:

Hi Guys,

Can someone measure their DI Box as I cannot seem to find the dimensions and thought this could fit on a Pedal Train Nano 

https://www.studiospares.com/microphones/di-boxes/active-di/studiospares-di-boxpreamp-458190.htm

Thanks 

I will measure one tomorrow, I even have a pt nano to check for you. My gut feeling is 'no' though, the studiospares is roughly the size of an imperial star destroyer.

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On 26/10/2020 at 10:36, funky8884 said:

Hi Guys,

Can someone measure their DI Box as I cannot seem to find the dimensions and thought this could fit on a Pedal Train Nano 

https://www.studiospares.com/microphones/di-boxes/active-di/studiospares-di-boxpreamp-458190.htm

Thanks 

195 x 125 x 35 (body) or 70 (feet and knobs) mm. It will fit on a PT nano if you turn it sideways, but then with the jacks on the two ends there's not much room for anything else. If you are happy with output jacks hanging off the board and you can use low profile connectors for the input side you might make it work. I mean, it's a fantastic box and I really do like it a lot, but when you consider it's actually a bit bigger than the hx stomp it does start to feel a little silly. If this was Sansamp-sized and center negative it'd be perfect IMO.

 

studiosparescomparison.jpg

Edited by Jack
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  • 9 months later...
1 hour ago, Newfoundfreedom said:

Can you use the line out and XLR simultaneously on these to send one signal to your amp / cab, and another direct to the PA? My guitarist has an old valve amp with no DI so other than micing the cab there's no way to get him to the FOH PA. This could potentially be a great, cheap solution. 

You can and it will work brilliantly but it's hardly unique for that. Most DI boxes have a through output to keep your signal chain going. 

 

I'd personally try a speaker level DI between the amp and speaker (most combos have the speaker plugged in to the amp in some sort of easily detachable way even if they're one unit) and run that to the PA, especially if you have a digital mixer with some kind of speaker simulation. Nothing wrong with the Studiospares and a whole lot right with it but it's a clean preamp that's really meant for acoustic instruments, you might find it lacking for rock guitar tone. I guess it depends what sound they're going for.

Edited by Jack
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1 hour ago, moley6knipe said:

£26.95 delivered direct from the Studiospares website?!?! Kay, ordered one even though no immediate need - would be insane not to at that price right?

That's what I said . . . . then never used it . . . . . until . . . . . I wanted to record some bass and provide two tracks - one unadulterated line in, and one through a miced up valve amp - bingo - £26 well spent!

Edited by King Tut
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  • 3 weeks later...

Currently 20 of them left….  No wait.   19 now.

For £23 and some change I’ll take a punt.  
It can sit in a drawer as a standby at that price.

 

yeah btw, don’t forget to claim the £5 off offer if it’s your first purchase.   It’s on the front page of the web site.

Edited by GremlinAndy
£5 off reminder. 😬
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It just arrived.  
 

It’s a brick.

 

Not showing lights with either a 9v supply, or a battery.

I saw someone else had this same problem in this thread too.

 

I phoned them and they were very nice about it, they’re sending a replacement Monday, with next day delivery, so should be here Tuesday.    
 

I asked what I should do with this one, and they said it’ll cost more for them to arrange a courier to pick it up, and get it repaired than it’s value. So, basically, keep it or chuck it away.

 

Well since it’s not working …and is free, I figured it worth opening it up and see if there’s anything obvious going on….  Maybe a drop of solder will get it working again.

To my surprise there’s fresh flux surrounding the input joints on the circuit board. So it looks like it’s been returned before for a repair, which obviously still has a problem.

 

As nice as they’ve been about it, I can’t say I’m impressed with them selling me a faulty/repaired (but still faulty) unit.

 

Maybe it’s the one our basschat companion sent back?

I think I’d be happier if that was the case tbh, because that would mean it’s a one off, rather than a common fault.

Oh well, I’ll let you know if the replacement works on Tuesday.
 

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Ok.   When I looked back at the box it came in, it looked like it had been badly handled in the post.   The knobs had been pushed almost through the cardboard by some impact.   
So maybe it wasn’t their fault.   I dunno.
The replacement did turn up as promised today (Tuesday) after reporting it on Friday.

I haven’t checked it yet, but I can’t fault their service.

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  • 2 months later...

Day off today so just having a look and see what gear I can buy for not a lot of cash and came upon this. I actually do need something similar since I stupidly sold my Sadowsky di a few months back when I was going back to using an amp and cab but lack of gigs has scuppered that idea.

 

Had a look and it`s bought for £35 delivered. Going to use it into my RCF speaker and see what happens. 

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