Testing EBS Bass Drive Preamp/DI
Still no live gigs yet so I decided to test the EBS Valve Drive Bass Preamp/DI. I used several EBS (a Swedish company) pedals years ago and EBS was once endorsed by Marcus Miller! I would tend to call the Valve Drive an actual bass preamp as opposed to a bass preamp pedal. The feature that grabbed my attention was a single 12AX-7 tube (aka Valve). Interesting enough the bass and treble were flat all the way to the left and the mid was flat at 12:00. The more you turn up the gain to the right the more distortion you will get. Since I play clean finger style and slap I kept the gain at about 9:00. You can see the settings that worked best for me in the photo. I also preferred Modern so the Vintage foot switch. I pulled out my goto Sadowsky bass. I first tested the EBS Valve Drive in my Mac home studio using headphones, DarkGlass compressor, 3Leaf Audio Enabler, and Radial Mix Blender. I was very surprised how quiet the Valve Drive was, especially since there is a tube in the signal path. I first played alone and then cued up some disco/funk and 80's covers. It was easy to find the sweet spot that works best for me with this preamp and I was happy with what I was hearing. Next I plugged the Valve Drive into Aguilar TH700 and AG700 amps with an SL410 cab. The Valve Drive seemed to warm up both the TH700 and AG700 class D amps. For those familiar with Aguilar, unfortunately it did not sound like the mighty preamp tube section in the DB750/DB751, but does add a nice warmth to class D amps. I plan to use the Valve Drive in a live situation whenever the pandemic is over and really push it. I believe this preamp is worth checking out for those with micro class D bass amps. Since bass tone is pretty much subjective let your own ears be the judge. For me the Bass Drive receives 5 stars!
Lee
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