Putting some bass circuits in a rackmount chassis

GroupDIY Audio Forum

Help Support GroupDIY Audio Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Gabriel Simões

New member
Joined
Oct 21, 2005
Messages
4
Location
Brazil - Salvador - BA
Hello all.
Based on the theory that bass players always have less products on the market to shape their sound if compared with guitarrists and, since building chassis and boxes is the worst diy part to me, I decided to get a bigger chalenge since I'm a begginer (some stompboxes for now) and build a rackmount unit with some great stuff, that could be controled by a footswitch unit I would build too.
But I'm now facing 2 problems:
First of all I think it would be great to put 2 different preamps in there (and always have one receiving the input signal and throwing it out on the audio path for the other circuits) so I could choose between them based on my needs at each playing situation (now I'm trying to go in the passive bass guitars path so this could help me forget the active onboard electronics too), but since I'm not that skilled with electronics and voltages and stuff I do not want to go with tubes right now, so wich preamps do you recommend for bass in a situation like this since I just know the stompbox pres, my gallien and some onboard ones like ntmb (mid based on inductors) and stuff ?
I've found some material on the net about acoustic 360 and portaflex (using mpf102 and j201 instead of tubes) ....
Second: Some of the units I've been thinking of using are rated with different kinds of PSUs, some bipolar, some with different voltages .... like acosutic 360, portaflex, bassballs, sparkledrive (modded for bass), what compressor, bass paralooper (for effects loop), .... any tips or ideas about how to handle this?

I'm sure some of you do not understand why putting all this stuff into one unit, but my idea is portability, good live sound, and for sure the chalenge, at least for me. Groupping this units and some others for other features like headphone, different outs, is still not that clear or easy to me and this, I think, will be a good oportunity to learn, building things I will use instead of guitar stompboxes =).

I hope you guys can help me...
Thanks
Gabriel Simões

ps: sorry for my bad english, it's 00:10 here and I'm almost sleeping in front of the PC. Gotta close my eyes right now ....
 
Welcome to the Lab. Glad to see another bassplayer around here!
The last time I recorded I plugged straight into my G1176 followed by G-Pultec. This rocks.
You will find lots of projects around here which can give a hell of a great basspreamp. For example greenpre+GcalrecEQ if you want to stay away from tubes. A little tweaking will turn a H*amptone-pre into a great basspre. Tons of ideas are floating aroud here. Grap one and just do it (and don´t forget to tell us about your progress). Helpful people are around here if problems occur.
Have a look through the Meta-Meta
:guinness:
 
Personally I have found that the speaker cabinet makes a big difference in bass tone. The Ampeg "Portaflex" amps had a small sealed cabinet, while the Acoustic amps often had a big folded horn. Very big difference in highs vs. lows!

But for rackmounting and switching different preamps, I would suggest having the bass input go into a "distribution amp" to provide a good signal into each different preamp. Then a simple mixer with foot-switch controlled muting to select which preamp(s) are in use.
 
For bass-amps so many approaches to choose from... it could be a good idea to try as many if you can to see what you like best
(obvious suggestion)

If you can't get your hands on too many different amps I think playing around with a borrowed amp-modeller (Pod, BassV-Amp etc) could bring you a bit further as well with determining what kind of sound you like best.
(bold statement :wink: )
 
Thanks for answering!
I have a basspodxt, but sometimes I do not want it all, and sometimes I do not want to bring it since it's expensive, and sometimes I want to use the things I build hehehe (good excuse to keep building even having a basspod xt) hehe...
The idea is to have inicially 2 different pres to choose from and some effects from stompboxes or moded ones, like an auto wah like coloursound wah with an envelope follower .... those things ...
But the biggest problem is that here in my city is difficult to have access to some dedicated and good sound bass preamps, plus my restriction not to work with valves right now, my list of choices from what I know get too small ...
So I have already thought about acosutic 360, bartolinni ntmb (someone from diystompboxes traced it, built and gave an ok to the scheamtic), portaflex with j201 and mpf102, things like this ... I've never tried to get a basspre and try do add an eq after this, so thats an other idea wich gives a hand full of choices now ...
I think the worst problem in a project like this would be the power supply: some projects need bipolar PS, some needs 12v, some 9v, some logic ics get only 6v ... the world of the power supplies is still unkown for me (hey, I got a lot to learn from this project! hehehe) .... so thats an other thing to think about and study!
But ok, I thank you all for the tips and the great ideas (I think there will be no need for a mixer right now but thats an other idea I think I will try to develop in the future! mix preamps :D).
I will search the forum and see what I get ... thanks !
Gabriel Simões
 
clintrubber

The amps I like most (at least from the ones I've had the chance to try) are the edens ... wt800 is on my list of equipment desires for sure!
But as I said I do not think I'm ready for tubes right now. I like ampegs too, and swrs, because they do not sound too cold like my gallien krueger .. I have a mb115s112 combo ... and to me it sounds cold ... I don't know if you understand me ...
As I said I'm now going back to passive bass, looking for punch and growl (a warm and clear tone from ash plus maple neck and board ... as geroge fullertano sais ... more presense and dynamics , less compression!) ...
So I'm thinking of using preamps in this unit to suit my needs with a passive bass ... and I think the 360, or even the ntmb would work at least well ... but since this project will not be small and I will need to put some money I'm looking for the best stuff I can make ...
Thats why I'm asking you guys ... I'm only a bassplayer who likes to build things , but you're the studio men! you know what sounds best most of the times hehe...
Cheers ...
 
Now you shouldnt listen to me cause i work for the company that builds them, but the JLM DI into a 99V pre (with a lundahl input xform) is a seriously magical DI path for bass. You can forget about compression and eq with it...its just so punchy. My other fave is our TG pre, but more for guitar or a dirtier bass sound. Thats why I have a box with both pres in it :grin:


But again, you should definitely ignore my advice cause im only interested in making money and never do any actual recording :twisted: :razz: :grin:



M
 

Latest posts

Back
Top