Using a preamp pedal

[SteveXFR]

I'm a bit confused about preamp pedals (and life in general).

My amp contains a preamp so would I use the preamp pedal in front of the amp preamp or in the effects loop?

Preamp pedals seem to offer a good bit of tone shaping which is what I want.

[Trueno]

You could put it directly into the effects return and bypass the amp’s pre-amp... or you could feed directly into a FRFR active speaker... or directly into a PA (with suitable monitoring). As I’m currectly in a band with backline and mostly vocal PA my preferred method is to get my set and forget tone on the preamp pedal and put into the amp preamp with eq and drive set flat... then I can make minor tweaks on the amp to suit the room (if necessary) with messing with my pedal killer tone.

[Al Krow]

Most folk go in at the front with their pedal boards. 

A few still use pedals in the amps effects loop, but it seems to becoming more of a minority sport this century 😁

I think a key reason for doing the latter is to avoid any colouration from the amp's preamp section. But if you dislike your amp's preamp that much, worth asking the question whether it's worth bothering to keep the amp? 

[Skybone]

If you prefer the sound you get from the preamp pedal over that of your amp's preamp, then you can simply plug your pedal into the Effects Return socket.

If you fancy adding another "flavour" to your amp sound, then add the preamp in front of your amp, and use it as an effect.

I plug mine into the Effects Return on the amp.

[SteveXFR]

Does a preamp boost the signal in the the amp or just shape the tone?

[paul_5]

A preamp should be able to do both. 
whether you choose to use it to just change the eq, and set the output to match bypassed signal is up to you. I’ve got a Dave Hall valve unit that I used to use as a preamp direct into a power amp - much like other BCers who run into the effects return socket of their amp; these days I just use it as an overdrive pedal, so I dial back the volume and that’s what it is.

Tone shaping is much easier (and safer) to do in the preamp stage, as the signal is significantly smaller (typically less than 1v) when compared to the signal coming out of the power amp stage, so that’s why it gets done at that particular part of the amp.

[ezbass]

A preamp pedal may give you access to some eq frequencies not covered by your amps eq section. It may also buffer your signal, preserving our signal through long cables if you use a passive bass. Some have a DI out (thus   potentially bi-passing your amp altogether). Some can add some drive if required. I use 2 on my board, a Sadowsky SBP2, which adds a certain something that my amp certainly can’t do (it also helped alleviate my Sadowsky bass GAS) and a VTDI which can add drive if I want and gives me a DI if the amp falls over (I actually bought it originally for its midrange boost frequency with a particular bass that my amp didn’t cover as much as I wanted).

[Lozz196]

As I was in a band that used many different rigs, be they gear shares or provided rigs I used a preamp pedal for my eq so that when I DI’d to the PA I knew it was getting the right sound so we would sound as we did recorded - am not keen on making do and not having the right sound. I’d then use the eq on whatever amp I was using for the on stage sound confident that it wouldn’t interfere with the sound to the audience. A couple of times the provided amps had given up so it was just the preamp pedal into PA and monitors, so invaluable at that point.

[peteb]

5 hours ago, SteveXFR said:

I'm a bit confused about preamp pedals (and life in general).

My amp contains a preamp so would I use the preamp pedal in front of the amp preamp or in the effects loop?

Preamp pedals seem to offer a good bit of tone shaping which is what I want.

The accepted logic is that you put your preamp pedal in front of the amp, along with overdrives / octave / filter pedals. You may want to put your modulation pedals i.e. chorus, phaser, flanger and delays in the effects loop. If you want to put everything in front of the amp then the modulation effects go towards the end of the chain. Of course, you may want to live dangerously and break free of the accepted norm and experiment where your pedals go in the chain.

I would think that most people use a preamp pedal to give them an alternative sound with just one stomp, or (as Loz says) so that you have some degree of control over your sound when you are using shared or house rigs rather than your own amp.

[Doddy]

If I'm using a preamp pedal I generally run it at the start of my signal chain, before my other pedals. I tend to keep the graphic EQ on my amp flat and only use it to notch certain frequencies that are causing trouble in the room, so I'll use a pedal as my main tone controls when I'm playing a passive bass. If I'm using an active bass, I'll use the onboard preamp as my main tone controls and sometimes use a preamp pedal to give me a different sound- for example, one of my active basses sounds amazing for fingerstyle playing but I don't like it's slap tone much, so I'll use a pedal to get that classic scooped slap sound.

[Downunderwonder]

6 hours ago, SteveXFR said:

Does a preamp boost the signal in the the amp or just shape the tone?

There's no properly accepted definition of preamp any more.

There are a lot of 9V pedals that people call preamps that are light in the boost department.

Some will have conniptions if you put them in an fx loop when they are designed for instrument level going in the front of an amp.

The boost you get might be enough that you need the Active pad on your amp front.

 

[andruca]

In the early 2000s I went from using just a HA3500 head to a SansAmp RBI + compressor + para EQ + power amp, then to RBI + HA3500 or any other bass amp. I find the preamp is great for carrying your tone with you and then you can plug into any clean amp's imput and use the particular amp's tone shaping to adapt to the room. Since 2015 I've only used a Zoom MS-60B for the same purpose (SansAmp emulation -my tone at a variety of gains- + comp) and I've never been happier, can get my tone on any clean loud amp with sufficient low end authority, no problem. Don't even use a stack anymore (seriously thinking about selling it), just 1 or 2 old Peavey TNT-150 combos. I really think the concept of bass preamp has changed. Used to be a stage just to take signal from instrument/mic level thru EQ and up to some 1V level that the power stage could amplify. We now expect bass preamps to OD, compress, etc. I think getting another device for that, a more personal territory, so you can take that everywhere and put it thru any shared/local amp or PA is a good idea.

Edited April 28, 2021 by andruca

[Jakester]

I use one as I have one active and one passive bass, or sometimes a bass and an EUB (and on a couple of memorable occasions running a set of triggers into Mainstage as a timpani sim) so it a) allows me to switch between them, b) ensure that the levels coming into the effects and amp are roughly the same between the active and passive bass and c) adjust the EQ of each to suit. 

I tried going into a power amp only but couldn't get the levels with the preamp I was using. 

[Low End Joe]

I use one for tone shaping (amp simulation) and DI as an always on pedal.

You could get a Behringer BDI21 to dip your toe into the preamp world.