Ho… ly… cow that thing is cool @Koldunya ! Tim Sway is an amazing builder. I hadn’t seen that video yet but it adds inspiration to a lingering project.
Years ago I took some favorite elements from multiple classic basses. All icons in their own right. Most of the pieces readily recognizable but never assembled in this way. A true hot rod of sorts. I stopped the project about three years ago because… life. I’ve since moved and lost my work space and had to sell/gift tools (it’s hurts to say it) to downsize. But seeing some of Rick Toone’s work on a particular instrument filled in the gaps for some ideas that were rough or missing. That video is right up the alley for blending classic, modern, and overall function to this thing we live so much. I’ll start a thread when the build starts. Thank you for the additional inspiration!
My newfound interest in Orange amps had me looking at the Bass Butler preamp pedal. And I ran across this:
18V DC, positive center power supply (included)
…and I died a little on the inside 
What I liked about it other than the sound was that the “clean” side was always on, and it has separate outs for each channel. Each channel has its own, albeit limited, EQ I can’t really do that with my Darkglass B7K. I can, however, use the parallel out (the original bass input signal) to send to another preamp, but then things are getting complicated because well, now I have two signal paths to deal with 
The B7K is just a fancy single channel preamp/distortion that you can turn on and off. And it’s a bit played out on metal bass to the point people even use plugins of it XD I don’t really use it for distortion, either. Just a little ‘edge’ or ‘bite’ to the sound.
I almost never go full on distortion, so I’m probably over-complicating things as I tend to do, and just need to STFU and put a fuzz like the Fur Coat after before it for when I want absolute sonic destruction 
Sucks so bad when they do this. So easy to accidentally fry a pedal.
That said the Bass Butler looks awesome.
Based on what you’re describing though you might want to check out the Two Notes Le Bass. It’s not the tube preamp I ended up with, but it’s a good one.
Saturnworks makes a simple cheap passive blend pedal. I have one on the board I posted over on the “first pedalboard” thread. They’re cheap and super easy to blend two channels of signal together. What about running an ABY box, the Orange Terror stamp in one channel since it has a real tube preamp and whatever you want in the other channel and back together? A bit like a complicated blend knob, but given that the Terror Stamp would cut a bit of the bottom end out it would mid push some drive in the mix and still hold down the low with the other signal? Thunder…. And lightning.
The Terror Stamp requires its own power, but I have one on my other board and I just run it off the accessory port of my Voodoo Power Plus 2.
Not bad at all, I forget about Two Notes a lot for some reason (probably because fairly new to me). 12V, but at least it’s negative center and some supplies have that. 18V pedal power supplies I’ve found are also center negative. That positive is just… well, as I recall my pedalboard power supply did come with one polarity switcher cable, so there’s that.
Sweetwater’s pic of the power supply has it facing away, so no idea on the mA consumption, and I even dug through Orange’s manual and it just says:
“The Bass Butler only runs on a 18V DC centre-positive polarity power supply (regulated) and the barrel plug should be a ‘standard 2.5mm pedal type’. Make sure your power supply meets these specifications.”
Standard pedal type, so opposite polarity with the same size jack. Really smart, dumb asses (aforementioned adapter aside). This is just… infuriating lol. And that I still haven’t figured out the current draw for this thing is just dumb. Companies just suck so badly about gear sometimes…
Edit Lol very first review on Sweetwater is lambasting it for the power supply but it did answer the all-important question:
“The power supply is 1,000 MA at 18V so you HAVE to use the poor quality power supply included. A normal power cable will not fit has to be the included power supply.”
Well, sort of. The included supply can supply up to 1A, but that does not mean this pedal takes that much power. It’s probably just the cheapest 18V power supply Orange could get out of China and is within spec. One could speculate that the pedal is 800mA for a 20% margin of safety, and that Two Note preamp says 500mA on the side of it. Still seems a lot…
Meanwhile my B7K is 9V and 30mA
1000mA is insane draw for a solid state preamp.
I agree. the Two Notes at least has some preamp tubes in it, justifying the larger power draw and I suppose the 12V. It’s actually not that easy to find pedalboard power supplies that will give you this much current. They’re out there and typically pretty pricey. Occasionally I see supplies that will have 1-2 300mA or 500mA outputs while most of the 9V are 100mA or so.
It’s highly annoying when shopping for power and while I really, really, really like multi-effect floor pedals like the HX Stomp 
One of the ones I found with 18V was 350mA
My EBS ValveDrive was 9V/700mA which was huge power draw but yeah, tube. The Le Bass is 12V/500mA but again like you note, tube.
18V/1A for solid state? ROFL no.
And while I am pretty set on a Wampler Ego compressor… I looked at the Darkglass Hyper Luminal and had another “wtf” moment -_-
It has no separate Attack and Release knob. It has a single “Time” knob, specific attack and release settings of it can be set in some software editor.
Bummer, Darkglass. Bummer… Probably works out okay once you dial it in, but…
Edit Found an in-depth review on TalkBass and it’s not as bad as I thought…
I never noticed that. Yeah, bummer. Kind of like the pedals that just have a “compression” knob instead of two for threshold and ratio.
I have this pedal and at first did not realize how it was set up. When I did I thought the same thing and was bummed. However, it works really well. Really well. It takes a bit more time to understand setting it up, as it is not the standard dials of most all other compressors. But again, it really doesn’t seem to matter. It just works.
This control thing on compressors seems to be fairly common across pedals as I look at more and more. Jackson Audio’s Bloom has a whole ass EQ but has preset modes with various attack settings. Wampler Ego has attack but no release (or it’s labeled something else). I can’t remember what all I’ve looked at. MXR is christly and god-fearing with its controls, at least.
On preamps, Radial’s Bassbone and Bassbone OD are 15V DC center positive, trololol… lol. Looking at floor preamps is only an experience in upset
I am finding it ain’t too hard to compress a bass with good results. Perhaps not as finicky as vocals or other things. So I think this is why simple works (that and lots of folks get confused about compressors and simple is a good thing too).
Not being able to turn the control I want drives me nuts, so I ended up with this thing. It’s big and expensive, but it does have all the knobs. I especially like that it has an EQ for the sidechain trigger. If you don’t want part of the spectrum triggering compression, you can EQ that out of just the trigger without changing the actual tone passing through the compressor.
It’s one of the favorites of Onvilabs . . .
ISP Beta Bass Preamp pedal:
9V AC power supply (included)
AC lol. Might as well just punch me in the throat while they are at it. Iirc from reading on FMR’s site, AC adapters are facing some sort of stiff regulations these days. I believe they are going to start using DC power supplies as a result. Hope my RNLA holds up!
Every time I find a preamp with features I like, something weird happens and it’s usually power-related XD The EBS Microbass 3 is a front-runner… 9V DC center negative like God and Boss intended (400mA though ), EQ for each channel (most are single EQs…) though the drive channel lacks bass.
Tbh I’m probably just going to stick with Darkglass at this point. It works, I own it already, and I like it without sounding like I’m trying to be Nolly Feelgood or Alex Webster
The worst GAS ever, I know. Maybe I’ll put myself in the market for a V2 or for the next limited edition one they do with fancy paint on it.
I would recommend the Empress if you are looking for a compressor that has plenty of controls and very good metering.
Personally I really love my Cali76 Bass compressor. It does lack a separate attack/release knob but includes a HPF. You can also buy the Cali76 without the HPF. Apparently Nolly Getgood use a Cali76 too. 
Ashdown Triple Shot - multiband overdrive/distortion. I like the sound of that, as I use multiband processing a lot on my computer…
Optional 18V power supply required
At least it’s center negative this time, and under 100mA.
That the Butler is center positive blows my mind. With a CIOKS power supply you can easily handle 9V and 18V.
This got my attention for a full-on amp…
A little iffy on using software to make the presets, but that’s how it goes in many cases these days. Five sounds is nice, though. No idea if it comes with the fancy 7-pin controller used to change presets, I can’t find one for sale on their site so I’m hoping for $1000 they include the damned thing lol. Probably not…
Need to hunt down unboxing videos for it If I like the included effects that would probably dismiss something like the HX Stomp anyway so $1000 doesn’t seem too terrible
The Exponent was on Thomann for €713. It changed realtime to €999 and I went sad panda. I really like the idea and it’s kinda cool that you can power cabs with it. But for now I have to stick with my Photon xD