A first: I'm - most of the times - not interested in rock sounds, distortion etc. I want a classic recording chain, but with a bit of color. I'm playing mostly Fender basses, mostly Jazz basses and most of the times with flatwounds.
My goal was to sound like the bass on recordings I love. Very different ones, but most of the bass players I admire went directly into a mixing desk. Like Robbie Shakespear, Jamerson, Bernard Edwards, Carol Kaye, the Roxy Music guy, Joe Osborn etc. Very different players that have recording straight to the mixing desk and not caring much about amps in common.
These are the chains I'm using after years of experimenting.
Recording chain 1: Bass into Warm Audio Tonebeast (sometimes using a Neve RNDI-DI box into the mic-input), Tonebeast into a EQP from Warm Audio, than into a WA76 followed by a Klark LA2A clone.
To be honest: I use the Warm Audio EQP Pultec clone simply because I own it. Doesn't do a lot for me.
This chain is kind of the classic: a fast FET comp followed by a slower opto comp for leveling.
Recording chain 2: a Universal Audio LA610 MKII (their classic tube preamp combined with a simple EQ and a LA2A like opto comp).
As you might see, I was on a budget when starting with the Warm Audio gear about 10 years ago. The WA76 was a revolution for me: for the first time, I had the impression to sound like "on a professional recording". After countless pedals - esp. comps, and amps and amp simulators. I've used it first with a GAP preamp, for pragmatic reasons: I had to change the bass signal to line level.
Now I'm mostly using the UA 610. Got it way cheap used. I miss the fast 1176 like comp for the peaks, but the preamps I've used before (tonebeast and GAP 73 DLX) didn't do much for me. The tube preamp of the UA makes a real difference. The other chain is mostly used by my vocalist now.
But I still think, preamps are kind of overrated. A real transformer or tube based compressor makes a real difference. And there is a huge quality gap between even these clones of the classic comps I own and most pedals available. For live gigs I'm using one of the better 1176 like pedals from Cali / Origin effects, but there is still a difference.
I can simply switch between chain 1 and chain 2 on my mixer while playing the same bass. The difference that makes me prefer the Universal Audio - despite the 1176 in chain 1 - is very small, but it is there.
My lesson learned: I have the most regrets buying numerous budget pedals or < 500,- boxes, that "do it all". This was wasted money. The cheapest piece of gear I own, I would recommend to bassists on a budget is the KT-2A from Klark. It is incredible good for 300,-.
Last edited by DirkP; 5th April 2021 at 01:21 AM..