I removed my other posts because I kinda felt that I was making it more complicated for you… Maybe the DSM Bass station could also be an interesting alternative?
I have a DG B7K and a Tech 21 VT Bass DI that essentially do what this does and I love both.
I need something that makes loud noise without coloring what I put into it.
This thread started with ‘i want a big boy loud thing that makes loud noise without coloring what I put into it for playing with others and maybe one day playing in front of a bunch of people’ - which I got great recos on and am going to go try over the next few months…
However, my question now is ‘is there a small boy not-as-loud thing that makes not-as-loud noise without coloring what I put into it for playing at home and practicing in case getting the big boy loud one takes a long time to try/buy or I decide I don’t want to invest in all that power and not use it’.
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Have you tried running one of your preamps into the return on the Studio 40? That will let you skip the Fender preamp completely.
It also might give you an idea of how much the preamp versus the speaker is effecting your sound.
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Yes, that experiment resulted in “wow, the power amp and speaker on this thing are crap. I bet they cover that fact up with the modeling sim stuff’.
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Im thinking your discerning ear is going to cost you quite a bit on this.
Consider Genzler Amplification, Bergantino, or Darkglass.
The first two are supposed to be about as clean as you can get and Darkglass let’s you use software to turn off any coloring.
@joergkutter can comment on the Bergantino. He’s had one for a few months.
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Yes that is my ‘big boy’ list for sure.
Along with the Harley Benton amp which has the same power block but would bypass the preamp but then still need a cab.
There is a Bergantino showroom in jersey that i have to make an appointment for yet and then I will be near Sweetwater’s actual store in November for the others.
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The flat frequency response is the pricey part of this more so than the wattage. It’s going to be difficult to scale down and have it cost any less.
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That’s what I had thought, understood.
Thanks Dave.
yeah, i might have mentioned it above but the combo of the harley benton amp and my phil jones cab is really transparent - i actually bought it to do a sort of frfr thing.
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I tried the clean audio preamp in the amp last night. To me it sounds like my bass is in a tin can and couldn’t eq a good sound.
Wouldn’t it be funny if “clean” is something I actually don’t like.
I was going to hold off going to Bergantino till the fall but maybe a trip there sooner will help me better understand “clean”. Considering I might not have even heard clean yet. I’m just going by what I hear in my DAW plugged in direct Vs the amp.
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Yes, you might not like “clean” at all… but it is the best baseline (no typo) that you can get to start off from 
If you already start “tainted/colored”, that is hard to get rid of…
If you have a chance, find a place to listen to more than one type of (high-end) amp - our ears are much better in hearing differences while they are happening than remembering a sound until you enter the next store to listen to another amp. I know, this is not often the case… I had a chance to listen to myself through a Bergantino and through an Eich amp at the same place; both great amps, but I could immediately tell which I liked better… without really having all the words to precisely describe “why” I liked it better…
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This would not be surprising at all. A clean DI signal played through monitors without an amp and cab sim sounds generally much less rich and dynamic than what most people want.
Clean is the opposite of what I would look for in preamps/amps/sims. I love the ones that add color to the tone.
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Same!
What did you think of the the Eich amp @joergkutter ?
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Not a bad amp at all… my bass hero plays one 
But, it was more mids-scooped to begin with, and, as was explained to me, works better for players that dig in and/or slap a lot. Since I do neither, and since I liked the tone/sound I got from the Berg, that was that for me (bass hero or not)
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Which Berg amp/cab did you end up with?
And why did you choose that one vs. other Berg combos?
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I got the B|Amp and two 1x12 cabinets (the HDN112 and the ENXT112). I bought the cabs at different times, which is why I have two different versions; I was going to get another HDN112, but they are discontinued now.
The B|Amp has all the right specs for me and receives continued upgrades, which can be uploaded via USB stick. (Well, mine is now at its final firmware, but that is because they just released the B|Amp Mark 2, which will receive all upgrades in the future). As I also mentioned elsewhere, I like the tone of that amp (I guess I like “clean” 
)
My reasoning for all this was that I wanted a solution that would work for almost all possible scenarios, so:
- I have one cab at home for practicing
- I have one cab at the rehearsal room for rehearsal (the amp can store different EQ settings that you might have pre-determined for different venues)
- depending on the venue (for gigs), I can take one or both cabs with me (the amp gives about 350 W with one cab, and 700 W with both)
- or I can go through the venue’s PA and use my amp/1 cab as a monitor solution
- the amp has a very good compressor built-in, and also lets you add some distortion and fuzz (I don’t use these so often).
- all other tone shaping is via pedals on my pedal board.
Thus, I typically carry a bass, the amp (weighs 6.5 lbs) and my pedal board with me when I go from home to rehearsal.
I have yet to start gigging…
(PS: the fact that I have a “practice” setup at home that can potentially give me 350 W doesn’t bother me at all - I don’t consider it overkill; I like the sound and I don’t have different setups for different venues!)
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I had only played through the bass amp until recently when I got a Nux plug and didn’t notice it was on the guitar preset range. Wow, I loved having all the extra tones available. I’d like to get into some melodic tapping and I think the clean concept really works for that style of playing.
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There ain’t no kill like overkill 
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Thank you @joergkutter, this is really helpful.
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I am glad it gives some food for thought, @John_E! I think I have been through a very similar process that you are going through right now, and - with lots of input from experts in here - this is the solution I arrived at, which both gives me the tone shaping possibilities I was after, and is likely a sustainable long-term solution.
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