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What difference does a preamp make in a bass?


la bam

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On 22/03/2023 at 16:39, la bam said:

Hi all,

 

I have an active bass and made the mistake of going down the youtube rabbit hole regarding active basses...... bad mistake :)

 

anywho, I've had active basses before (a sire v7 v2 and a g&l l2000 usa) and I just assumed the bass was the bass and that was it and most of the sound is the pickups. Now I've seen people saying change/upgrade your preamp and itll bring your pickups to life!

 

So, my questions are:

 

Does the preamp really change the characteristics of your bass?

 

Is it worth doing?

 

What preamps would work well with a pj with dimarzio pickups in?

 

thanks in advance.

You should've kept the L2000.

Active and passive, no need to change the pickups...they might be the best stock pickups made.

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27 minutes ago, jd56hawk said:

You should've kept the L2000.

Active and passive, no need to change the pickups...they might be the best stock pickups made.

 

In truth ...... I didnt like it. It sounded amazing on it's own- unlike any other bass. But in the mix ...... it just didnt work. No punch, no character. The only way I could get it to give a half decent sound was with what I considered the worst tone I could get out of it when solo'd.

 

The bass i have now has passive and active options, so I'm lucky.

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7 hours ago, la bam said:

 

In truth ...... I didnt like it. It sounded amazing on it's own- unlike any other bass. But in the mix ...... it just didnt work. No punch, no character. The only way I could get it to give a half decent sound was with what I considered the worst tone I could get out of it when solo'd.

 

The bass i have now has passive and active options, so I'm lucky.

The L2000 has passive and active options...you didn't like either mode?

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41 minutes ago, jd56hawk said:

The L2000 has passive and active options...you didn't like either mode?

 

In all honesty, no, unfortunately. It was the clf one as well.

 

Really really didnt like it, no matter how much I wanted to. It was probably more to do with the band I was in, but it just didnt fit no matter what I did. Shame as it looked cool, sounded great isolated and I had a l100 which was superb and fitted any music without so much as a struggle.

 

Just one of those weird things. 

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On 23/03/2023 at 05:25, Harlequin74 said:

I am removing my Sire V7 preamp - complicated and not well voiced imho - for a Sadowsky 4, which includes the nice VTC control……

I'm thinking of doing the same. It's OK but I'm a simple soul so need as few options available as possible. Honestly I'm tempted to just make it passive at the moment. 

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On 24/03/2023 at 21:49, la bam said:

 

In all honesty, no, unfortunately. It was the clf one as well.

 

Really really didnt like it, no matter how much I wanted to. It was probably more to do with the band I was in, but it just didnt fit no matter what I did. Shame as it looked cool, sounded great isolated and I had a l100 which was superb and fitted any music without so much as a struggle.

 

Just one of those weird things. 

 

I loved the build, concept, neck shape, flexibility and loudness, but I didn't get on with it either - tried for about a year gigging and recording - never could quite get a sound I really wanted. US L2000 - horses for courses!

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18 minutes ago, bloke_zero said:

 

I loved the build, concept, neck shape, flexibility and loudness, but I didn't get on with it either - tried for about a year gigging and recording - never could quite get a sound I really wanted. US L2000 - horses for courses!

 

Yes, it was really strange.

 

My trib l100 used to slam and cut through a mix great, but I just couldnt get any punch out of the l2000 at all. No matter what configuration or amp settings. Some people make them sound great, but it just didnt work for me.

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