There's a preamp for every flavor of bass, from clean tones to upright to overdriven grit. This list covers a wealth of options for all budgets.
MXR BASS DI+
Fine-tune your sound on this 2-channel DI with a 3-band EQ, color switch, and noise gate.
$189 street
jimdunlop.com
WALRUS Badwater
This box features a 4-band EQ, optical compressor, and a blendable, 3-voice drive control.
$299 street
walrusaudio.com
AGUILAR Tone Hammer Preamp/Direct Box
Based on the company’s Tone Hammer amp, this box features bass and treble knobs, sweepable midrange controls, and switchable tube-like saturation.
$299 street
aguilaramp.com
RADIAL Bassbone V2
This 2-channel preamp includes two inputs plus a PZB booster and piezo input, so feel free to bring your upright on the gig for a few songs.
$399 street
Radialeng.com
TECH 21 DI-2112
Geddy Lee’s signature box is a feature-rich dual-channel affair with separate level controls, plus drive, saturation, and blend knobs.
$359 street
Tech21nyc.com
DARKGLASS Alpha Omega
Maximize your grit with this box, which is based on two blendable distortion circuits and features a 3-band EQ plus bite and growl toggles.
$349 street
Darkglass.com
AMPEG SGT-DI
Conjure classic Ampeg SVT and B15 tones with this stomp’s voice control and cab sim. A 3-band EQ plus switchable high and low boosts, plus overdrive and compression, round out the features.
$399 street
Ampeg.com
ELECTRO-HARMONIX Battalion
This affordable offering features a 4-band EQ, compression, noise gate, and three signal-flow modes.
$174 street
ehx.com
MARKBASS Mark Vintage Pre
Loaded with a glowing 12AX7, this box features a 4-band EQ, three EQ presets, aux in, and headphones out.
$399 street
markbass.it
FENDER Downtown Express
This unit features overdrive, compression, and a 3-band EQ, each with their own footswitch, plus switchable effect order.
$249 street
fender.com
The day before they played the coveted Blue Room at Third Man Records in Nashville, the Washington, D.C.-based garage-punk duo Teen Mortgage released their debut record, Devil Ultrasonic Dream. Not a bad couple of days for a young band.
PG’s Chris Kies caught up with guitarist and vocalist James Guile at the Blue Room to find out how he builds the band’s bombastic guitar attack.
Brought to you by D’Addario.
Devilish Dunable
Guile has been known to use Telecasters and Gretsches in the past, but this time out he’s sticking with this Dunable Cyclops DE, courtesy of Gwarsenio Hall—aka Jordan Olds of metal-themed comedy talk show Two Minutes to Late Night. Guile digs the Dunable’s lightness on his shoulders, and its balance of high and low frequencies.
Storm Warning
What does Guile like about this Squier Cyclone? Simple: its color. This one is also nice and easy on the back, and Guile picked it up from Atomic Music in Beltsville, Maryland.
Crushing It
Guile also scooped this Music Man 410-HD from Atomic, which he got just for this tour for a pretty sweet deal. It runs alongside an Orange Crush Bass 100 to rumble out the low end.
James Guile’s Pedalboard
The Electro-Harmonix Micro POG and Hiwatt Filter Fuzz MkII run to the Orange, while everything else—a DigiTech Whammy, Pro Co Lil’ RAT, and Death by Audio Echo Dream 2—runs to the Music Man. A TC Helicon Mic Mechanic is on board for vocal assistance, and a TC Electronic PolyTune 3, Morley ABY, and Voodoo Labs Pedal Power 3 Plus keep the ship afloat.
