Take it to the stage or studio with these bass preamps/DIs.
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
Pure nickel wound strings designed to capture classic tones. Available in popular gauges (9s and 10s), these strings are intended to offer rich, warm tones and longer string life.
The Seymour Duncan Antiquity series of pickups have always given musicians access to the true vintage tones of the most famous guitars ever produced. To further our commitment to capturing these influential sounds, Seymour Duncan is now pleased to offer the perfectly voiced companion, a set of Antiquity Vintage Modern Strings.
Before nickel-alloy plated strings became commonplace, pure nickel wound strings were found on most electric guitars. Their rich, warm tone became a crucial ingredient to the sounds of classic blues and rock & roll. An added benefit of a pure nickel wrap is a longer string life and a more consistent tone between string changes. Now our Antiquity Vintage Modern Strings bring you even closer to the sound of electric guitar’s early heyday. Pure nickel wound and available in your favorite modern gauges (9s and 10s), Antiquity Vintage Modern Strings are the perfect start to your signal chain in the quest to unlock your favorite classic guitar sounds.
For more information, please visit seymourduncan.com.
Big New York may have six strings, but he’s leading from the low end.
Bandleading on bass offers a unique challenge. Here’s how one player rises to the occasion.
Bassists are natural leaders, both rhythmically and harmonically, but filling the foundational function doesn’t always lend itself to becoming an actual bandleader or solo artist. For most of us, that’s just fine. We’re perfectly happy holding it down and creatively keeping things together. (Of course there are plenty of exceptions: Stanley Clarke, Les Claypool, Meshell Ndegeocello, Thundercat, and Victor Wooten, to name a few.)
But for those who do envision themselves centerstage, making the shift to leader requires a new way of thinking. To get some perspective, I wanted to talk to a bassist with recent experience transitioning to being in charge. I immediately thought of Big New York.
I met Big New York nearly 20 years ago at Bass Player LIVE!, back when Bass Playermagazine held its annual event in Manhattan, before moving it to Hollywood from 2008 to its final act in 2017. Christian de Mesones told me people only started calling him Big New York after he moved to Virginia, where his stature and distinctive accent stuck out. “In New York, there’s about a million guys who look and sound like me,” he laughs. It turns out that he lived in my sorta-hometown of Woodbridge, Virginia, where he recently retired after nearly two decades driving school buses.
Following his late ’70s graduation from the Bass Institute of Technology, Christian played in dozens of bands over the years. Then, ten years ago—with his wife’s firm encouragement—he decided to start leading his own project. Though he grew up listening to hard rock and heavy metal—kids loved it when he played AC/DC and Black Sabbath on his bus—his own sound blends soul and jazz with Latin feels. After steadily releasing singles and holding high-profile performances with special guests, Christian released his debut album in 2020, They Call Me Big New York. The following year, his track “Hispanica (Instrumental),” featuring legendary pianist Bob James, climbed to No. 1 on Billboard’s Smooth Jazz Airplay charts. This spring he released his sophomore album, You Only Live Twice.
As a leader, Big New York is a composer, an arranger, a marketer, a strategist, a people manager, and a showman—all while still being a bass player. Here’s what he says about these different aspects:
On whether being a leader means always playing the lead: “I’ve always been writing music, from the day I first picked up the bass. I write everything on the bass—melodies, grooves, and chordal structures. I do almost all my writing on my Alembic Epic, but I don’t feel like everything I write has to be played on bass. There are only a few songs where I’m playing the lead melody on bass. If you’re coming into the market brand new, you can’t focus only on yourself or even be the best musician in your band. Believe it or not, the narcissism shows.”
On the critical importance of low end: “If you play lead bass, you have to have another bass player backing you because without it, the music drops. I don’t like that. That’s why I hire a keyboard player that doubles on bass. He keeps his bass nearby for when I play lead.”“I try to make that connection with the audience so they’re with us all the way.”
On having a leadership personality: “You’re taking care of so much—the payroll, the bills, and so many things. So you’ve got to deal with people in a way that they don’t take any energy from you. You may not want to hear someone say, ‘Sorry, my car broke down,’ or ‘My dog ate my homework,’ but that’s what you’re going to get, even from the best musicians on the planet. It’s up to you to bite your tongue, not flip out, and just say everything’s going to be alright. You’ve gotta have backup players, so if one horn player is gone for the gig, you can still do the show. You’ve always got to think of a way to not lose your cool, but it can be hard when it’s your money on the line.”
On showmanship: “When it comes to the dynamics of the show, I know where the lows should be, where the highs should be, where the climax should be. I create it; that’s part of the job. I usually put the bass-led songs near the end. On a recent show I brought in Bill Dickens and Al Caldwell as bass guests, and after the show they paid me a great compliment. They said they really loved watching me leading the band and communicating with the audience. I try to make that connection with the audience so they’re with us all the way.”
On the biggest challenge to being an artist and a bandleader: “The fight to stay relevant. I’m mature enough to realize if I get my few minutes of fame, someone else should get theirs. But when it happens once, you are hoping it’s going to come around again for you. You don’t want to fade away.”L-R: Gibson’s Cesar Gueikian, Mesa/Boogie’s Randall Smith and Gibson’s JC Curleigh, pictured when Gibson acquired the brand in 2021.
Over three-and-a-half years after Randall Smith sold Mesa/Boogie to Gibson, Smith has completed his time with Gibson as the brand’s master designer and pioneer. Through his ground-breaking work at Mesa/Boogie, Smith was responsible for innovative modifications that gave small amplifiers more input gain, making them much louder, as well as creating an all-new high-gain distorted guitar tones.
Mesa/Boogie began as a small amplifier repair shop and was founded 55 years ago in 1969, in Mill Valley, CA by Smith who simultaneously respected and improved the vintage classics with his inventions. Smith’s ear for tone, passion for tube technology, and vision for building handcrafted high-performance amplifiers continues to redefine how we experience sound. Beginning at Prune Music in Northern California, Smith reconfigured amplifiers for more sound and power for all the great San Francisco area bands over 50 years ago when vintage gear was new. Being close to so many great guitar players, from Bloomfield to Santana and The Rolling Stones, Smith learned the virtues and shortcomings of the era’s gear and began a process of innovation, excellence, and invention that continues at the Mesa/Boogie craftory in Petaluma, CA today. Mesa/Boogie was the first boutique amplifier builder and revolutionized amplifier performance in ways that impact rock music worldwide.
Throughout the ‘80s and ‘90s a score of additional innovative and patented improvements saw Mesa Engineering emerge as the leader in tube amplifier technology. Today, Mesa/Boogie amplifiers and cabinets are renowned worldwide and unparalleled in performance and quality, every product is still hand-built, and our artisans are tenured with an average of 15 years at their post, many for much longer. We still hold true to the simple but increasingly rare principles Smith used to catapult Mesa/Boogie onto the world stage, hand-building the very best amps and cabinets and treating each customer as we wish to be treated.
Smith has positioned his legacy to be carried forward through the Mesa/Boogie team's continued commitment to quality and tone, and for the last two decades has been training the next generation of Mesa/Boogie designers.
Smith has been instrumental in growing the Mesa/Boogie portfolio with exciting new product offerings and overseeing the launch of the popular new Gibson Falcon amplifiers.
“I am incredibly grateful for Smith’s pioneering insights, design, and trust in Gibson,” says Cesar Gueikian, CEO of Gibson. “Randy’s DNA will always be present, and over the last few decades he has trained the new generation of designers that have been leading the way for Gibson and MESA/Boogie amps. As we evolve our Gibson Amps collection, including our Gibson and MESA/Boogie brands, Randy, and his original design ideas, will continue to inspire us to make the best and highest quality amplifiers we’ve ever made.”
“We’ve all talked about this day and have prepared for it in many ways over the years, but Randall Smith is a ‘force of nature’, and you can’t imagine it coming to fruition,” adds Doug West, Director of R&D at Mesa/Boogie. “Now, I reflect on the fact that few in this world ever get the chance to be mentored, coached to excellence and to perform at their consistent personal best in the ways our design team, and everyone here at Mesa/Boogie, have under his tutelage. Randy leaves us in good stead to carry on his legacy and tradition of excellence. With our respect for him and our shared love for what Gibson and Mesa/Boogie represent to music, Randy can bask in the contentment of knowing he has spread Tone and Joy the world over with his creations and that his contributions to music have made an indelible mark on generations, and the sound of electric guitar and bass over the last 55 years.”
For more information, please visit mesaboogie.com.
This Delgado 6-string tres reflects the instrument’s global history. It’s made with a Sitka spruce top, Mexican rosewood back and sides, a Macassar ebony bridge, African ebony fretboard, and African mahogany neck.
Our columnist traces the history of the 6-string Cuban tres—from Africa, to Cuba, to the top of American country music.
I love that I was taught by my father and grandfather to build a variety of string instruments. I have continued to do this—I have built so many different types, and I learn from each one. I am currently building a nanga, a rectangular, harp-like African instrument played by the Ganda people of Uganda.
As I have been building this instrument and learning from the musician who commissioned it, I am often reminded of the influence Africa has on so many instruments, from drums to the banjo, or akonting as it was originally named. A popular instrument that I have recently been getting more requests for that is equally influenced by Africa’s music is the tres cubano, or Cuban tres.
In comparison to other chordophones—instruments whose sounds come from the vibration of stretched strings—from around the world, this instrument is relatively young, appearing first towards the end of the 1800s. The original tres is said to have three courses with a total of six strings, and while the 9-string version is now more associated to the Puerto Rican tres, a 9-string iteration of the Cuban tres is documented as early as 1913, though it’s believed that the Puerto Rican instrument influenced the additional strings.
Most early models of the tres have a similar body to a classical guitar or the requinto romántico, but the more common shape now is a smaller, pear-shaped body offered either with or without a cutaway. The tres has only begun to get more visibility in the past 25 years, so sizing can vary greatly from luthier to luthier, but to help players who are unfamiliar with this instrument to get a better idea of the size, here are some specs from a Delgado model.
“The note placements of the tres in a changüí summon something deep inside any musician who is stirred by tempo and a hypnotic rhythm.”
One of the models I make has a body depth of 4″. The upper bout is 9″ and the lower bout is 14 1/2″ with a scale length of 545 mm, or 21 1/2″. The tuning also depends upon the player, but the traditional tuning is G–G–C–C–E–E. The outer string pairs—the Gs and Es—are each tuned an octave apart. Their gauges, from top to bottom, are .031–.011–.014–.014–.012–.023.
Again, you will see a range of string placements, gauges, and differences in tuning, but this is the foundation to help give you a basic understanding.
Now to describe the sound and style of the tres—I am literally moving to the rhythms I hear in my mind as I write this. While my heritage is Mexican, I feel so in touch with so many genres of music from around the world, and the music from Cuba is one of them. I like to describe this instrument as a percussive string instrument, because the note placements of the tres in a changüí—the Cuban music form that gave way to the Son Cubano, or “Cuban Sound”—with its strong African-infused beats, summon something deep inside any musician who is stirred by tempo and a hypnotic rhythm.
Like how Linda Ronstadt was key in helping bring audiences to appreciate and invest in mariachi music with the release of Canciones de mi Padre, I would argue that Ry Cooder did the same for Cuban music when, after traveling to Cuba, he helped introduce the world to Cuban artists as old as 89 on the 1997 album, Buena Vista Social Club, the creation of which was captured in the 1999 documentary of the same name.
Since the release of this album, we have seen the tres grow in popularity and availability. Many artists and bands have fused the tres into their music, using it in untraditional styles, but the sound is still recognizable. We have even built custom electric tres cubanos for clients! Pancho Amat, an ambassador for the tres and arguably one of the greatest living musicians to play the instrument, blends his classical and jazz backgrounds with the tres’ natural sounds to create a unique sound. Thinking in terms of a drum pattern and African roots, you will have a better grip on the method when trying this instrument for the first time.
Now, do yourself a favor. Find an evening to relax, mix yourself a beverage—preferably a mojito—and rent the Buena Vista Social Club … then give me a call for your Delgado tres cubano.