Preamps with distinctive flavour

[JoeEvans]

Which preamp pedals would you say have a distinctive tone, even with fairly neutral settings and clean sound?

A bit like the channel strips from certain older mixing desks, which imparted their own vibe to whatever went through them, so much so that they now get stripped out of the old desks, mounted in racks and sold as high-end mic preamps.

 

Edited Thursday at 19:15 by JoeEvans

[LukeFRC]

13 hours ago, JoeEvans said:

Which preamp pedals would you say have a distinctive tone, even with fairly neutral settings and clean sound?

A bit like the channel strips from certain older mixing desks, which imparted their own vibe to whatever went through them, so much so that they now get stripped out of the old desks, mounted in racks and sold as high-end mic preamps.

 

erm - that’s a rabbit hole.

some preamps are aimed to sound a bit like a console transformer sound. (Caveman bp1, Jhs colourbox, api tranzformer, Hudson broadcast)

others give a valvey colouration to the sound. (Sushibox, Nobel preamp, shiftline and a million more)

Then there’s all sorts to give specific preamp crunchy sounds like bass amps.

 

but you’ll need to be more specific about what you’re after. For instance the Hudson broadcast and caveman stuff is both based loosely off studio preamp things - but very very different things! 

[JoeEvans]

I think I'm just interested to hear about any preamp pedals that successfully give a specific character to a clean-ish sound. Obviously lots of them promise that, but which pedals have you plugged in and heard a definite, useful, specific tone?

[fretmeister]

Mark Bass Vintage preamp has an excellent versatile tone right out of the box. Flat on the EQ and with the “old” option engaged and it sounds thick but defined, useful if many genres.

 

I’m spending my afternoon trying to program my HX Stomp to match it!

[LukeFRC]

44 minutes ago, fretmeister said:

 

I’m spending my afternoon trying to program my HX Stomp to match it!

Retro reel into valve preamp with high end rolled off? 

[LukeFRC]

2 hours ago, JoeEvans said:

I think I'm just interested to hear about any preamp pedals that successfully give a specific character to a clean-ish sound. Obviously lots of them promise that, but which pedals have you plugged in and heard a definite, useful, specific tone?

yes, but you’ll need to get to the point that they all do. 
the sound in my head is a Warwick hellborg preamp

currently I get close to that with the Jhs colourbox 

 

but it’s a definite, useful and specific tone to me, and I wouldn’t use it as a recomendation to everybody ! 

[LukeFRC]

 
 

thus is a good starting place 

[fretmeister]

18 minutes ago, LukeFRC said:

Retro reel into valve preamp with high end rolled off? 

yes, although maybe the noble. 

[JoeEvans]

1 hour ago, LukeFRC said:

yes, but you’ll need to get to the point that they all do. 
the sound in my head is a Warwick hellborg preamp

currently I get close to that with the Jhs colourbox 

 

but it’s a definite, useful and specific tone to me, and I wouldn’t use it as a recomendation to everybody ! 

I've tried a few that were good at adding eq, drive etc but seemed pretty transparent in themselves. I want something which adds a bit of warmth and solidity ideally, but just interested to hear people's experiences about what's out there.

[Paddy777]

If you like the Gallien Kreuger sound then the GK Plex preamp does a very, very good job of replicating it in pedal format. It has a 4 band EQ and loads of different contour options etc, but the main ‘special sauce’ it has is the ‘Voicing’ button which selects 1 of 4 diff GK amps to use/sim (800RB, Fusion 550, MB800 & MB150).

Anyway those amp sim’s alone, with no other EQ or anything else -  particularly #2 (Fusion 550) and even more so #3 (MB800), give your bass that GK ‘sound’ in an incredibly authentic way - it’s definitely as you described, totally flat with just the MB800 voicing selected. It blew me away the first time I ran it through a PA and went out front for a listen whilst sound checking - I knew it sounded good at home, was very impressed, but it’s sometimes hard to know what it’s really gonna sound like till you’ve tested it at volume, and the GK Plex is fantastic.
 

When I actually sit and think of all the preamps I’ve had & gigged with, a lot of them sound pretty plain if you’re just talking about how they sound flat -stuff like the Aguilar Tone Hammer, Ampeg SGT-DI, Capo etc - they all dont start giving you the special bit of mojo you wanted until you engage the drive/gain channels and fiddle about a bit, they all sound pretty different but just going into the board flat you might not tell one from the other, but the Plex is unmistakable as the ‘GK sound’ 

 

I had a WA Goliath tube preamp/DI for a bit and that had a very unique and thick sound too just at flat, but for the amount it cost it bloody well should have done 👀 

[MrDinsdale]

The Traynor TSb inspired preamps such as the Rusty Box, Cosmic Trigger and the 0xEAE Bass Driver (my current favourite thing) all have a very distinctive clank.

 

I had a Master Effects Super 800+ which absolutely nailed the GK 800rb tone.

 

Other preamps ive tried like the SLO sounded great but less distinct. 

[LukeFRC]

20 hours ago, JoeEvans said:

I want something which adds a bit of warmth and solidity ideally

What genres are you mostly paying and are you putting this preamp on a pedalboard before an amp, or direct input? who’s tones do you love and want to aim for? 

[Lozz196]

Providing the blend is on full I’d say Tech21 preamps all add in a lot of their own voicing when set flat.

[JoeEvans]

3 hours ago, LukeFRC said:

What genres are you mostly paying and are you putting this preamp on a pedalboard before an amp, or direct input? who’s tones do you love and want to aim for? 

I'm after something that will work for just DI but which I will probably also use with an amp. Warm, clean or nearly clean sound, nice solid low end. Ultimately I suppose the kind of sound I used to get from a large, cranked-up Trace Elliot, in a package that weighs about 50kg less...

But I'm also more broadly interested to know what's out there and to hear some user experiences, I find it hard to hear subtle tonal differences in YouTube review videos ...

[Passinwind]

On 17/04/2025 at 12:14, JoeEvans said:

Which preamp pedals would you say have a distinctive tone, even with fairly neutral settings and clean sound?

 

 

I am of course rather biased, but one or another of these open source DIY jobs:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Bagman]

On 19/04/2025 at 00:37, JoeEvans said:

I think I'm just interested to hear about any preamp pedals that successfully give a specific character to a clean-ish sound. Obviously lots of them promise that, but which pedals have you plugged in and heard a definite, useful, specific tone?

 have limited experience with preamps but the Sadowsky has been good for me maybe 30 years(?) 

it sort of adds "body" 

[LukeFRC]

Neve style in a pedal 

 

[JoeEvans]

1 hour ago, LukeFRC said:

Neve style in a pedal 

 

Ooh that's interesting. Thanks!

[Bolo]

On 19/04/2025 at 17:23, JoeEvans said:

I'm after something that will work for just DI but which I will probably also use with an amp. Warm, clean or nearly clean sound, nice solid low end. Ultimately I suppose the kind of sound I used to get from a large, cranked-up Trace Elliot, in a package that weighs about 50kg less...

But I'm also more broadly interested to know what's out there and to hear some user experiences, I find it hard to hear subtle tonal differences in YouTube review videos ...

Sounds like any of the Aguilar preamps could do this.

[JoeEvans]

4 hours ago, Bolo said:

Sounds like any of the Aguilar preamps could do this.

Aguilar's website seems to suggest that the AG preamp pedals are super transparent, whereas the Tone Hammer aims for valve amp character, does that sound about right?

[prowla]

I think that every amp has its own inherent voicing.

I like the "clean" channel of my EBS Microbass 3 - it just adds more authority to the sound.