Bass preamp pedals - which one?

[alex.s]

I'm planning to build a bass preamp pedal for my brother, as he usually plays straight in the PA when with his band and has been lamenting a certain lack of beef to the sound. The idea is to give him a nice pre to go into a DI and into the desk.

What are your experiences with these? Been looking at the Kreuzer Submarine, the Altec and the Bassman pres along with their mods and tweaks, but is there anything else I should be considering?

He plays mostly Johnny Cash tune, or other covers in a Cash-esque style, so no need for mid scoop and sizzle or any of that modern lark  Just a nice, round warm tone.

Thanks a lot in advance!

[inefficiency]

I know a lot of people swear by the Sansamp stuff.

I've been trying to sort out a pre for my upright bass using FDecks HPF-Pre as a starting point and adding tone controls and whatnot onto that. The FDeck pre is designed for use with piezo pickups though, so if he's using a regular electric bass it probably isn't too useful. Someone else might say I'm wrong there, but that's just my estimate on it.

[rocket88]

I had a Sansamp, a real one, with 3 memory spots. I sold it. I found it very noisey, and ended up not be crazy about the tonestack/controls. I know johnk posted a layout for it that supposedly corrects the issues. Plus, since I bought my mesa, I just use the controls on the amp.

[Silver Blues]

the Submarine is a great preamp IMO. Actually John made a pedal that was a BBBOD double-boxed with a Submarine that sounded so good that I've been dying to make one for myself. (It would help if I could find a good layout for the Submarine though.) Rusty Box is nice too, as is the Sadowsky Bass pre, both of which are on this site.

[rocket88]

silver, i searched through john's posts and found what i was thinking he made. it was the sansamp bddi "lite" cause there was no XLR output. here's the link. it sounds much better than what i had.

[alex.s]

Thanks everyone for the feedback!

I've decided I'm going to give the Sadowsky and/or the Submarine a go as they are very simple circuits anyway, and I've put together a yet-to-be-verified layout for the Submarine (posted in the contributions section of the forum).

Should I feel the need for more flexibility and/or character I might then move on to the bigger circuits (rusty box/simplified sans amp..), otherwise I'll just box it up with a compressor in front of it (thinking about the bearhug)/

Will report back when done!