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6 Preamp Pedals for All Styles of Bassist

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Whether you’re taking your instrument to the stage or the studio, these bass preamp pedals have you covered.



Genzler Amplification

Magellan Preamp/DI Pedal

This all-analog, full-featured bass preamp pedal offers all of the functions and performance from Genzler’s Magellan series bass amps.

$299 street

genzleramplification.com

Darkglass Electronics

Microtubes B7K2

Tone-crushing overdrive and super transparent modern sound is the essence of the Microtubes B7K. There’s no compromise of the original sound of the instrument: It enhances presence in the mix.

$349 street

darkglass.com

EBS Sweden AB

EBS MicroBass 3 bass preamp

This feature-packed, analog, 2-channel bass preamp includes a built-in drive, operates with a professional-grade signal level, and can blend or switch between channels.

$399 street

ebssweden.com

Electro-Harmonix

Battalion Bass Preamp & DI

Packed with a 4-band EQ, MOSFET distortion, compressor, gate, and a comprehensive I/O, this is an all-in-one tone tank for your bass guitar.

$174 street

ehx.com

Aguilar

AG Preamp

Revered for its tight, fast response and wide tonal flexibility, this preamp takes the beloved AG sound and places it in a compact pedal/DI.

$299 street

aguilaramp.com

Radial Engineering

Bassbone V2

This pedal combines high-quality audio performance with unmatched flexibility in a 2-channel bass preamp and DI box. It features separate level controls, powerful EQ, and a PZB booster for piezo pickups.

$399 street

radialeng.com

Elliott Sharp is a dapper dude. Not a dandy, mind you, but an elegant gentleman.

Photo by Andreas Sterzing

The outside-the-box 6-string swami pays homage to the even-further-outside-the-box musician who’s played a formative role in the downtown Manhattan scene and continues to quietly—and almost compulsively—shape the worlds of experimental and roots music.

Often the most potent and iconoclastic artists generate extraordinary work for decades, yet seem to be relegated to the shadows, to a kind of perma-underground status. Certainly an artist like my friend Elliott Sharp fits this category. Yes, his work can be resolutely avant-garde. But perhaps the most challenging thing about trying to track this man is the utterly remarkable breadth of his work.

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Do you overuse vibrato? Could you survive without it?

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An ode, and historical snapshot, to the tone-bar played, many-stringed thing in the room, and its place in the national musical firmament.

Blues, jazz, rock, country, bluegrass, rap.… When it comes to inventing musical genres, the U.S. totally nailed it. But how about inventing instruments?

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By refining an already amazing homage to low-wattage 1960s Fenders, Carr flirts with perfection—and adds a Hiwatt-flavored twist.

Killer low end for a low-wattage amp. Mid and presence controls extend range beyond Princeton or tweed tone templates. Hiwatt-styled voice expands vocabulary. Built like heirloom furniture.

Two-hundred-eighty-two bucks per watt.

$3,390

Carr Skylark Special
carramps.com

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Steve Carr could probably build fantastic Fender amp clones while cooking up a crème brulee. But the beauty of Carr Amps is that they are never simply a copy of something else. Carr has a knack for taking Fender tone and circuit design elements—and, to a lesser extent, highlights from the Vox and Marshall playbook—and reimagining them as something new.

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