Audio Kitchen - The Big Trees. UK Noble killer?

[sk8]

Was unsure where to put this as it can be a preamp too amongst many other things. 
 

Received my Big Trees yesterday and had a very quick play. Initial thoughts are it sounds really good. 
 

I’ve previously owned the noble and was after an interface that could also overdrive itself. I’ve only used it for five minutes but I’m thinking this will meet my expectations. 
 

[naxos10]

That looks a nice pedal, I hope it sounds as good.

[Bigwan]

Feature list looks great. Aesthetically not so much. Not a cheap unit either! 

[sk8]

55 minutes ago, Bigwan said:

Feature list looks great. Aesthetically not so much. Not a cheap unit either! 

It is a bit marmite! 

[sk8]

1 hour ago, naxos10 said:

That looks a nice pedal, I hope it sounds as good.

Sounds good so far. Need to put it through its paces 

[SumOne]

They have an impressive list of users https://www.audiokitchen.co.uk/users/?product=the-big-trees  

[sk8]

Using this tonight at church practice. Straight to the board via an orchid electronics micro DI. 

 

looking forward to seeing how it does 

[sk8]

Used it last night. Sounded great in the mix and as a bonus I was able to use the clean channel as a mute by turning it down 

[Brucegill]

Are you using this for Bass? 
 

I had one a while ago but used it for Guitar. Sounded great! Great with synths too. 

[Brucegill]

Great guys to deal with too. Really helpful

[Dosi Y'Anarchy]

I’ve got my eye on a Fake Plastic Trees at the moment….at some I’ll get one, saw a great comparison between that and the Benson Preamp (which I’ve owned before). The FPT seems brighter and less compressed than the Benson, which is a plus in my book.

 

 I’d love to have their whole range of pedals but frankly they cost too much for me to afford but I’ve not heard a bad word said about any of their line and the fact that they seem to be as at home on guitar as bass means there’s some a lot of value there

[sk8]

On 19/09/2022 at 08:51, Brucegill said:

Are you using this for Bass? 
 

I had one a while ago but used it for Guitar. Sounded great! Great with synths too. 

Yep. That was the primary purchase reason. 
 

put my acoustic through the clean channel and it was unbelievable. Don’t think this can make anything sound bad. 

[sk8]

On 20/09/2022 at 15:12, Dosi Y'Anarchy said:

I’ve got my eye on a Fake Plastic Trees at the moment….at some I’ll get one, saw a great comparison between that and the Benson Preamp (which I’ve owned before). The FPT seems brighter and less compressed than the Benson, which is a plus in my book.

 

 I’d love to have their whole range of pedals but frankly they cost too much for me to afford but I’ve not heard a bad word said about any of their line and the fact that they seem to be as at home on guitar as bass means there’s some a lot of value there

I had my eye on one too but settled on the TBT to try and cover all bases…..

[Owen]

Ooooh Ooooh. A preamp I have not tried! <scoots off to read up on it>

[sk8]

Interesting use of this last night. Played a pub with two acoustic guitars and cajon. Everything through the PA but no monitoring. Used the amp out on the TBT to power a small speaker. Worked a treat. 

[sk8]

Pairs nicely with the sumo monster 

[nekomatic]

À propos of nothing, part of Audio Kitchen is Kendra Jane Frost who played bass for Lonelady on her last tour.

[Sibob]

On 15/09/2022 at 09:26, sk8 said:

Using this tonight at church practice. Straight to the board via an orchid electronics micro DI. 

 

looking forward to seeing how it does 

I’m not sure we can call it a like-for-like comparison with the Noble if you need a 3rd party DI to go straight to board haha (good call on the Orchid though).

I think they’re just very different beasts, this is a general use Pre, the Noble is a B-15 soundalike. I’d say the Noble is way more pedalboard friendly, it looks smaller than TBT and also powers 6 other pedals. But I’ve certainly heard good things tonally from TBT.

 

Si

 

[sk8]

1 hour ago, Sibob said:

I’m not sure we can call it a like-for-like comparison with the Noble if you need a 3rd party DI to go straight to board haha (good call on the Orchid though).

I think they’re just very different beasts, this is a general use Pre, the Noble is a B-15 soundalike. I’d say the Noble is way more pedalboard friendly, it looks smaller than TBT and also powers 6 other pedals. But I’ve certainly heard good things tonally from TBT.

 

Si

 

Having owned both the TBT is better suited to what I want out of a preamp and the clean channel is to die for. 
it has more flexibility than the noble IMO 

[Brucegill]

Would love to try a Noble, but likelihood of me finding one is pretty slim. I do wish I still had the Big Tree to try with bass though.... This threads not helping my GAS levels.

[sk8]

I think the clean channel of TBT is as good as Noble 

[sk8]

On 12/10/2022 at 07:38, Sibob said:

I’m not sure we can call it a like-for-like comparison with the Noble if you need a 3rd party DI to go straight to board haha (good call on the Orchid though).

I think they’re just very different beasts, this is a general use Pre, the Noble is a B-15 soundalike. I’d say the Noble is way more pedalboard friendly, it looks smaller than TBT and also powers 6 other pedals. But I’ve certainly heard good things tonally from TBT.

 

Si

 

The time I spend with the big trees the more I like it over the noble. The noble was a one trick pony, a fantastic trick but one only. 
the big trees can do clean, gritty, overdriven, fuzzy and synthy and if that’s too much you can just switch to the beautiful clean channel. 
I can buy (and have bought) a great DI cheaply (orchid) and an isolated power supply (the noble outputs aren’t isolated) to complement the big trees and the total including the TBT will be less than importing a noble. 
I did miss my noble but not anymore. 

[Bunion]

5 minutes ago, sk8 said:

The time I spend with the big trees the more I like it over the noble. The noble was a one trick pony, a fantastic trick but one only. 
the big trees can do clean, gritty, overdriven, fuzzy and synthy and if that’s too much you can just switch to the beautiful clean channel. 
I can buy (and have bought) a great DI cheaply (orchid) and an isolated power supply (the noble outputs aren’t isolated) to complement the big trees and the total including the TBT will be less than importing a noble. 
I did miss my noble but not anymore. 

Hmm I still don’t know why your comparing this to a Noble you’d be better comparing to an ampeg B15, SVT IIP, or an ashdown ‘lil bastard’, 
The Noble is a tube DI, it’s not an amp designed to get gritty, overdriven fuzzy or synthy(sic) 

The Noble is a one trick pony because it’s meant to be just that. It’s warms the tone with the tubes and allows clean boost of the bass and treble without distorting. 

The fact you had to buy a separate DI puts the TBT in a different class of box and indeed it was designed for and is a guitar class A 2.5 watt power amp/preamp in stomp box format, although it has found other niches in studios. 
Im sure it’s a great piece of kit and I’d sure like to try one. 
However take the Noble for its purpose of a tube DI and compare the BTB In the same parameters and then the Noble wins. 
 

TLDR: TBT is a 2.5watt guitar amp/preamp, the Noble is a clean Tube DI, no comparison. 

 

[sk8]

1 hour ago, Bunion said:

Hmm I still don’t know why your comparing this to a Noble you’d be better comparing to an ampeg B15, SVT IIP, or an ashdown ‘lil bastard’, 
The Noble is a tube DI, it’s not an amp designed to get gritty, overdriven fuzzy or synthy(sic) 

The Noble is a one trick pony because it’s meant to be just that. It’s warms the tone with the tubes and allows clean boost of the bass and treble without distorting. 

The fact you had to buy a separate DI puts the TBT in a different class of box and indeed it was designed for and is a guitar class A 2.5 watt power amp/preamp in stomp box format, although it has found other niches in studios. 
Im sure it’s a great piece of kit and I’d sure like to try one. 
However take the Noble for its purpose of a tube DI and compare the BTB In the same parameters and then the Noble wins. 
 

TLDR: TBT is a 2.5watt guitar amp/preamp, the Noble is a clean Tube DI, no comparison. 

 

I’ll agree to disagree!