I wanted to make a versatile bass preamp that had a clean tone as well as being capable of having a ton of overdrive. I started with a Benson Preamp circuit that was designed for guitar but it lacked low end for use with a bass so I modified it so that it had zero low end loss and could actually boost it. Its design has no opamps or diodes, but rather, uses all JFets (three J201's) that simulate tubes for a very natural clean and overdriven circuit. After using it on my most recent gig I am very pleased with how this one came out. I was previously using one of my two Origin Effects DCX Bass Pedals for that (which I love!) but wanted to see if this one could do the job of it and I pleased to say that I loved it, so I'll be using it on my gigs from now on. It actually can make my Fender JMJ Mustang bass with flatwounds sound very close to an overdriven Rickenbacker bass with roundwounds.
For this one, I used my own hand wired acid etched and tin plated PCB mounted it in a polished and labeled 1590B2 with a relayed true bypass and with all top jacks (Lumberg) and high quality Panasonic film capacitors.
I have been building effects pedals since 1974 (50 years!).
Quick soundclip (Mustang bass with flatwound strings)
