Tube preamps for a “P”

In my last post I wrote about a 200 Watt tube amplifier, which is of course overkill for anything you might want to do at home, or in a studio. In a studio, even James Jamerson went directly into the console, but these guys had some very nice custom-built DIs and preamps for that.

And yes, a preamp – preferably with tubes – and a Precision bass will give a tone which has that proverbial “sits in the mix” quality. Listen:

And yes, pricey stuff, this, except maybe if you can build it yourself. But that tone!

Edit: I’m currently reading through a thread in TalkBass about this, covering several years. I’m almost halfway through now (arrived at approximately May 2020, so two years left), and so far, the following preamp seems to be the sweet spot, with the best sound and features, and costing about half of a Noble preamp which you saw above. Listen why this makes a difference to a very good audio interface (Focusrite Clarett, a bit more costly than my Scarlett):

That’s a nice one for sure… and if you like Vulfpeck, watch it through to the end 🙂 And here is a review of this Arkham Oracle from Chris Tromp (who is also on TalkBass).

Another example of a great sounding (and played!) “P” bass. With that “Monique” preamp again, which costs more than my fretless P and the upright together:

Nice bass, and cheaper than some other American made models… the bridge looks cool as well 🙂

And another one, this time a Reggae tune, over a preamp made in Russia, with no further processing:

What a nice tone, and what a nice tune, and awesome playing. Cool.

Oh, and here is a very good comparison between a really good combination of compressor and bass preamp, and one which costs much less. Both are good, but I hear a huge difference (which could also be influenced by the first being a bit louder as one commenter also wrote)… but that second setup has a digital bass pre with a tube device somewhere in front of it, while in the first both the compressor and bass pre used tubes. Big difference IMO… that first one sounds like money, and like a studio recording, the second one not so much…

… and after reading the whole thread now, I think that at least two of User “scubaduba”‘s top 5 choices would also be mine – one is from Canada, and one even from Germany…

But in the end, I probably don’t need any of these… but thanks for reading, viewing, and listening anyway. For me at least, that was a fun journey 🙂