Bass Pre-amp pedal with Compressor

[Danage]

Hi all. 

Has anyone got any recommendations/suggestions for a pedal preamp that has a decent compressor on it? It would be used for rehearsal and small gigs with a 200w pedal board power amp which has only basic EQ on it (3 band plus scoop switch).

Currently I'm feeding the power amp with a compressor pedal with the volume boosted, which gives it a healthy signal to work with, as I have a low output passive bass. Getting some good sounds despite how basic the setup is.

The aim is to get a bit of compression just to tighten things up a bit, and a reasonably flexible EQ for handling the variations encountered at different venues, different speaker cabs, different bass drums to compete with. Ideally EQ and compressor would be in one pedal for the sake of simplicity. 

The Darkglass lumina booster ultra totally caught my eye, but it's a ridiculous amount of money to spend for amateur stage gigging... 

EHX Battalion - Compressor is very basic. Drive is bonus that I'm 99% sure I won't need.

Walrus Badwater - same as above. and more expensive.

Harley Benton Custom Line Bass DI-Expander - Threshold and compression for the compressor is attractive, would prefer a graphic EQ but a sweepable mid might do me alright.

Anything else I ought to be looking at? I'm hoping Joyo have got a clone of the Lumina Booster Ultra in the pipeline... 

[Rollin Thunder]

I owned a Battalion once, nice little prdal as a low mid budget pedal. Get nice tone from it. The drive is an acquired taste its harsh but with blend dualled back can get some subtle grit. Compressor ok will do a job if you just want some light always on compressor. Had some amps with built in compressor as well and they i would say are the same just ok.Think if you really want good compression with more defined dynamics even in pedal form you wont get it in a preamp, be better with a keeley bass or Seymour duncan bass compressor, both under £200.

 

The MXR M80 i would say is better than the battalion but its a bit more money and no compressor.

 

if you have a larger budget The Two notes revolt bass is very underrated, real tube built in so has more natural compression & Dynamics on channel A & B but no dedicated compressor. 

[ped]

Check out the Bassics BPA 01. There’s one on Reverb now. Expensive maybe but top quality and will hold its value. 

[lemmywinks]

Been using a Fishman Platinum Pro EQ for years, love the comp and eq (with sweepable mids) on it plus it has an accurate tuner and a really nice DI. The HPF and brilliance controls are handy for taming excess at either end of the bass frequency range.

 

The Sonicake B Factory might be a good cheaper option, I would tell you all about it but the one I ordered went missing!

[lemmywinks]

Some people complained about background noise on the Harley Benton btw, might be worth looking into before buying.

[ped]

7 minutes ago, lemmywinks said:

Some people complained about background noise on the Harley Benton btw, might be worth looking into before buying.

Yeah I had one a while ago and found it very noisy. Could have been a defective unit or maybe a problem elsewhere but I think I sent it back. 

[paul_5]

Just as a side note - any compressor will add noise to your signal. 

[lemmywinks]

1 hour ago, ped said:

Yeah I had one a while ago and found it very noisy. Could have been a defective unit or maybe a problem elsewhere but I think I sent it back. 

 

 

I think someone mentioned on one of the HB Block 800B threads found that the noise from that was due to paint preventing it from being properly grounded, same deal with some of their guitars (there's a KDH video with a tele he bought) which have painted bridges and saddles that don't ground properly. Maybe as simple as that.

[warwickhunt]

1 hour ago, lemmywinks said:

Been using a Fishman Platinum Pro EQ for years, love the comp and eq (with sweepable mids) on it plus it has an accurate tuner and a really nice DI. The HPF and brilliance controls are handy for taming excess at either end of the bass frequency range.

 

 

Ditto.  I find the Fishman Plat Pro exceptional.  I ALWAYS use the HPF and though I'm not a fan of most pedal compressors, this weeks so well.  

 

The only downside is if you swap basses mid gig and they are vastly different outputs, it is difficult to quickly adjust/match the side mounted (recessed) trim control.  This is not an issue if using one bass or if you have time between sets to adjust... it really is minor and despite using basses with massive differences, I manage.

[lemmywinks]

2 minutes ago, warwickhunt said:

 

Ditto.  I find the Fishman Plat Pro exceptional.  I ALWAYS use the HPF and though I'm not a fan of most pedal compressors, this weeks so well.  

 

The only downside is if you swap basses mid gig and they are vastly different outputs, it is difficult to quickly adjust/match the side mounted (recessed) trim control.  This is not an issue if using one bass or if you have time between sets to adjust... it really is minor and despite using basses with massive differences, I manage.

 

 

You could just use the boost footswitch to quickly match levels if you don't use it for anything else.

[lee650]

EBS Microbass 3

[warwickhunt]

22 minutes ago, lemmywinks said:

 

 

You could just use the boost footswitch to quickly match levels if you don't use it for anything else.

 

Good shout I might just try that!

 

[Sambrook]

 

I'm not a compressor expert by any stretch of the imagination, but the above vid convinced me to get one, and I really like it...

 

[jimbobothy]

… saw this today, seems like a great price. Enquired and the postage is free to the UK, however I’d presume VAT and import etc would have to be added?

 

https://reverb.com/uk/item/87330620-used-bassics-bpa-1-bass-pre-amplifier-system-gib-yokohama

[tayste_2000]

On 19/02/2025 at 21:03, lemmywinks said:

Been using a Fishman Platinum Pro EQ for years, love the comp and eq (with sweepable mids) on it plus it has an accurate tuner and a really nice DI. The HPF and brilliance controls are handy for taming excess at either end of the bass frequency range.

 

The Sonicake B Factory might be a good cheaper option, I would tell you all about it but the one I ordered went missing!

+1 for this, one of my fav all in one pedals just a very clean sound vs most of the amp simulator preamp pedals out there.

[SumOne]

+1 again (so that must be = 4 now?!) for the Fishman Platinum Pro EQ if going for 'hands-on' analogue.

 

I kind of regret selling it, but once you are considering £250 for an EQ and compressor I started considering multi-fx. The Zoom B1-Four or MS 60B will do the similar EQ and compression and whole lot of other stuff for half the price....Or personally, I've now gone for a Boss GX-10, £75 more than the Fishman, but decent compressor, EQ and everything else it has. I mostly just use it for EQ and compression and drive though so Fishman +Drive could do similar- but having presents is useful.

[SimonK]

[Danage]

19 hours ago, SimonK said:

Oh, now THAT is tempting. Tuner as well.... Drive should I ever need it...  

[lemmywinks]

There's also the Gallien Krueger Plex, Tech 21 FLy Rig, EBS MicroBass 3 and also a cheaper Fly Rig clone I can't remember the name of

 

 

EDIT: Valeton Bass Dapper was the cheaper one

Edited 7 hours ago by lemmywinks

[lemmywinks]

Also the Tech 21 Dug Punnick pedal and the JHS Punchline.

[SimonK]

21 minutes ago, lemmywinks said:

There's also the Gallien Krueger Plex, Tech 21 FLy Rig, EBS MicroBass 3 and also a cheaper Fly Rig clone I can't remember the name of

 

 

EDIT: Valeton Bass Dapper was the cheaper one

 

I've been eyeing these all in one pedals up for a while, and for me it's between the Trace Elliot and the Fishman Platinum Pro EQ. The EBS and Tech21 have similar features but do not seem to be designed quite so well. There's plenty of other preamp pedals around, but these in particular are designed for being "all in one" solutions without quite getting into digital multi-effects. As a general TE fan I will probably end up with the Transit-B sooner or later as a grab and go option to put in the pocket of a gig bag.

[tayste_2000]

32 minutes ago, lemmywinks said:

There's also the Gallien Krueger Plex, Tech 21 FLy Rig, EBS MicroBass 3 and also a cheaper Fly Rig clone I can't remember the name of

 

 

EDIT: Valeton Bass Dapper was the cheaper one

Sonicake Boom Ave is another along with the Mini Bass Dapper.

 

Both are shockingly good, it’s pure snobbery that stops me using them as main rigs 😅