Portable and Practical

  This is a great little preamp. It is fairly small, measuring in at 1.375" high x 3.5 wide x 5" long. The company believes it is small enough to wear on a belt, and they include a decent enough belt clip to accomplish the task at hand. Personally, I find it a shade too clunky for that, but I love the sound it gives my "Baritone Cello" and I also use it on my Passive Electric bass to cut out the pickup hum that old Fender Jazz Bass Pickups are so notorious for. --It helps keep the sound man happy.

Versatility and Ease of Use

   Controls include input gain, treble, bass and volume. The bands are separate and easy to adjust on the fly--even if you don't use the belt clip arrangement. "Input accepts all piezo and magnetic pickups, passive or active..." and that's what makes her such a great fit for the Baby Bass/Baritone Cello and the Passive 5 String Electric. She scores good in the durability department too, as, despite her all plastic construction, I have yet to leave a mark on her.

Money Saver In Many Ways

    Battery life, the usual bane of all preamps and active basses, is an incredible 400 hours. That's not only a manufacturer's claim, but a claim that I can substantiate as well. It even helped me ressurect an old acoustic bass pickup I was using as a stop gap for the Baby Bass, and smoothed the sound out so much, that I feel no need to upgrade the 15 year old.(and far from state of the art), pickup which I have on that instrument. Heck--if the soundman ain't happy---ain't no one in the whole dang band gonna be happy--and this thing keeps a smile on his face.

An Absolute Bargain

   At the street price of roughly $50--I find it hard to believe you can find a better bargain. I'm sure there's some super whizz bang techno-monster preamp out there somewhere that costs 5 times as much--if not more--that might sound a hair better----but if you're running through the big board---only you and the band members listening to the monitors on stage will hear that slightest modicum of difference. ---This thing is a steal. If you have an upright bass, and the pickup sounds "pinched" or "nasally"--getcha one of these. If you have an electric with a single or pair of  Fender Jazz Bass Style Pickups--this might be the only way to get rid of that hum that the soundman is always griping about. Besides--it really enhances the midranges that Leo Fender was going for when he designed those pickups in the first place. Again I say--"Getcha one of these!"

Recommended: Yes