Interesting tube preamp

Dave W · October 02, 2013, 08:24:48 PM

From Tech 21

If you get a "Jaco-style" sound with the character switch disengaged, then it definitely wouldn't appeal to me. And it's wee bit expensive for a preamp. Still, it's hand-built and will be a limited run.

amptech · October 03, 2013, 02:01:57 AM

Quote from: Dave W on October 02, 2013, 08:24:48 PM
From Tech 21

If you get a "Jaco-style" sound with the character switch disengaged, then it definitely wouldn't appeal to me.

Agreed! Genius or not, my first years of learning to play jazz/fusion was unfortunately overshadowed by that punk

I'm still in therapy, trying to get rid of those 16th notes...

Granny Gremlin · October 03, 2013, 07:44:57 AM

A tube preamp that's as big as my (integrated) amp and costs 2K? No thanks. Pretty cab though (would get scuffed up so quickly with any gigging).

For that price I'd get a 1RU Demeter and have 1K left over.

It is a very pretty cabinet though.

dadagoboi · October 03, 2013, 09:04:44 AM

Quote from: Granny Gremlin on October 03, 2013, 07:44:57 AM
A tube preamp that's as big as my (integrated) amp and costs 2K? No thanks. Pretty cab though (would get scuffed up so quickly with any gigging).

For that price I'd get a 1RU Demeter and have 1K left over.

It is a very pretty cabinet though.

I'm in agreement...except I'll just keep my 1st generation Demeter VTBP-201.

Psycho Bass Guy · October 03, 2013, 10:22:16 AM

If it is, as suggested, just a tube version of the Bass Driver, why bother? All they're done is use more expensive parts to make a guitar-head-sized preamp that copies a much less expensive pedal/rack unit. SansAmp makes some killer pedals, but their speaker drive level units have all been quiet failures, cabinets included.

Hörnisse · October 03, 2013, 11:27:21 AM

Quote from: amptech on October 03, 2013, 02:01:57 AM
Agreed! Genius or not, my first years of learning to play jazz/fusion was unfortunately overshadowed by that punk
I'm still in therapy, trying to get rid of those 16th notes...

Jaco could groove as well.

leftybass · October 03, 2013, 11:51:07 AM

Quote from: Dave W on October 02, 2013, 08:24:48 PM
From Tech 21

If you get a "Jaco-style" sound with the character switch disengaged, then it definitely wouldn't appeal to me.

Yep, definitely not a selling point for me.

amptech · October 04, 2013, 02:24:14 AM

Quote from: Hörnisse on October 03, 2013, 11:27:21 AM
Jaco could groove as well.

That is a great album, his playing on this is far more tasteful here than on the solo album...

jumbodbassman · October 05, 2013, 03:37:47 PM

+1 and he could groove too. I was never a huge fan of "the" sound but you must admit very few have had the influence he has. Other than Macca and the "motown" sound which IMHO really came from 3 or 4 folks from that time frame and for a smaller audience JAE treble lead bass and the ric/prog CS tone and melody, he helped change for good or bad the bass forever.

Psycho Bass Guy · October 05, 2013, 04:02:10 PM

Jaco could be the most interesting and the most boring boring bass player in the world in the same song. You can really tell from his live recordings that on some nights, he was pure genius, while on others, anything but. His groove was impeccable when he could keep it together, but the mental illness that made his life a mess also made his playing one, too. His instability may have contributed to his creativity but unlike Jimi on guitar, his closest musical analog, Jaco pioneered a completely new way of looking at the bass, simlutaneously adding melody(ies) harmony and rhythm to an instrument whose most adventurous excusion to that point had been countermelody or rhythm.

Everything Jimi did on guitar had been done before by others separately. He just added it togther, incorporated technology and took it to the next level. I'm not detracting from Jimi, but it's not an understatement of his talent to say that he had the discipline to know when to color between the lines while Jaco simply through the rule book completely out the window. Jimi's social standing required that he have a functional understanding of the world in order to survive to make music. Had Jaco been black, we would have never heard of him because he wouldn't have lived to make the music he did. His premature death is a testament to that.

Highlander · October 05, 2013, 05:02:49 PM

Probably the primary reason I have more fretless instruments than fretted, regardless of anyone's opinion of him... he certainly made me sit up and listen...

amptech · October 06, 2013, 04:26:18 AM

Quote from: CAR-54 on October 05, 2013, 05:02:49 PM
Probably the primary reason I have more fretless instruments than fretted, regardless of anyone's opinion of him... he certainly made me sit up and listen...

I more or less switched from rock to fusion at the age of 15, and yes - 8:30 was the reason. I had already unfretted a fender P, a japanese J and a Cort bass - but that was after listening to jack bruce´s ´songs for a tailor`.

After hearing 8:30 I suddenly played bass all day, even strictly playing an hour in the dark before I went to bed

Of course, at that age learning jaco bass was hard. I think it was a couple of months later that i realized that there was a looped bass riff and zawinul playing bass keyboard along with jaco that I struggled to play simultaneously with my poor bleeding teenage hands