Best clean boost for Bass Guitar?

[sevenisthenumber]

Advice?

[BubbaFet]

  Buy a Behringer Preamp Booster PB100 pedal.
  It is an extremely good clean boost, with bass and treble control knobs.
  It works with most everything.

[MarcoMike]

ehm... I am not a detractor of behringer products. I quite like them in general... but suggesting it as the best on a DIY contest... well...

my vote goes to the LPB, for guitar. it's not "clean" though.. if you need hi fidelity, mosfet things as the mosfet booster or superhardon are probably better... but mine (SHO) is a bit hissy... I am probably not used to hear all that brightness from my guitar...

lpb and sho are also extremely easy to build... something you can build in less than 1h, faster than taking the bike and go to buy the behringer

[Earthscum]

You may check this thread: http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=87606.0

I haven't, until recently, found a need for a booster in my bass rig, so I'm kind of looking around, too.

[Taylor]

If you want an actual clean boost, I'd go with an opamp booster like the Micro Amp. Simple, doesn't change your sound, just amplifies it. Many "clean" boosts have their own tonal character and will begin to overdrive at higher boost settings.

[BubbaFet]

ehm... I am not a detractor of behringer products. I quite like them in general... but suggesting it as the best on a DIY contest... well...

Yeah, I know what you mean... but....
...the PB100 can be obtained for between $25 to $30, new,
and the sound quality of a clean boost that you build for yourself
will not be any better than what the PB100 delivers.

If you really want to build something, go for one of the mentioned projects.
If you want to be playing your instrument, then PB100. It's a knockoff of a
Nobels PRE-1 preamp booster.
http://www.effectsdatabase.com/model/nobels/pre1

[petemoore]

  Start at say 15v. Grab a large chunk of perfboard, start building/testing/tweeking, test-jig and 'swap box' recommended for sampling this, then that booster.
  Something down the line such as speaker or amplifier will have a more accurate final say after some test-run-tweekings.
  Test-jig should be fitted with:
  Input/output jacks to test-clip-wires for connecting circuit board points at in/out/Gnd., a couple pot holes and bypass switch are nice options.
  Bring two to where the amp can be volumed to 'normal' or 'boost' [ie how loud it has to be], and A/B them, careful on the speakers with the LF's with bass-boost.
  Attenuating the LF's you 'dont use' [speakers either don't respond with wave output but build heat instead, or the guitar lowest frequency sets slowest driver movement attempts]...a HP filter set above the lowest frequency [amp probably covers the full range of string/speaker CPS] the guitar puts out may help tighten up the bass range.
  Amplifier could strain the speaker if clipped?

[Krallum]

no!!! don't build this. bass players need to turn down!


loljk

[Earthscum]

B-b-but... us bassists are what keep the people around to hear the end of your 10-minute drunken solos! 

[boog]

ehx hog's foot. simple build. built one fr my bass player in about 20 or 30 minutes. kick ass and waaaayyyyy too much boom. perfect.

[petemoore]

bass players need to turn down!
  No, everybody needs to turn down ! [lol].
  quite often the 'best boost' for bass involves a very scrutinous inspection of speaker data/speaker, because that's where the 'boost': should be 'cut'.
  Any rate, running a bunch of super LF's [which the speaker transduces into coil-heat] which don't create sound pressures at the speaker cone [because the speaker rolled off 'up there somewhere'] is a good thing to cut out, it reduces the waste-current flowing from amplifier [if it can supply it] through the speaker coil.
  Has everything to do with what speaker, what amp, what bass guitar, what settings, deep-bass cut/boost is an old standard 'deluxe' feature for bass amps, included in mics and mixers.
 

[Earthscum]

I heard 1 clip of the Hog's Foot last Wednesday and immediately printed a board, lol... I was just lazy this weekend after burning 4 boards, I still have 4 more. I'm doing a Hogs Foot and a bass-tuned LoFo MoFo, probably in the same box, just to be able to go from "wtf?" to "WTF!?!"

I still gotta decide on another booster though, like a clean boost. If I end up redesigning an LPB circuit like I think, I'll pop the values up for ya, seven. I'm seriously considering trying something around an MPSA13 and MPF102... an idea I had awhile back. Just gotta find the sketch I did and try it out.

[Mark Hammer]

Bah!!  Why do I have to keep asking this?

"Best" depends on what you want it to do.  If the goal is simply optimizing S/N ratio and maintaining signal; integrity, that's one set of goals.  If the intent is to provide tonal shaping near the start of the signal chain, that's another.  If the goal is to overdrive the amp with a too-hot signal that has not been already altered, other than by amplitude, that's another.

[sevenisthenumber]

Bah!!  Why do I have to keep asking this?

"Best" depends on what you want it to do.  If the goal is simply optimizing S/N ratio and maintaining signal; integrity, that's one set of goals.  If the intent is to provide tonal shaping near the start of the signal chain, that's another.  If the goal is to overdrive the amp with a too-hot signal that has not been already altered, other than by amplitude, that's another.

I want a totally clean boost that does not color. Also low noise would be a +.

[Mark Hammer]

Well if that's the case, ANY IC-based or transistor-based boost will do fine.  Use a higher supply voltage, whether by means of more than one 9v battery, or a voltage multiplier, or 48V phantom supply from the mixing board, so you can have more clean headroom.  If it is going directly after your bass, and your bass is 100% passive, then you can probably even skip any input cap, further improving bandwidth, and noise specs.

[candidate]

Did anybody suggest using the volume knob on the guitar?  Starting out quieter maybe?

[chicago_mike]

Xotic Bass RC Booster. Madbean has a guitar diy one, but you can switch the treble and bass cap values for bass.

[petemoore]

  Nope: SVT, industry standard 'bass booster'.
 Bass amps generally have booster or two in them, the suggestions to use them in above threads are good, often times they have sufficient clean output to either make the amp-clip light glow dimly or make the extension cabinet or other amp output/speaker system come into question.
 Boosting boosters with very high amplitude output:
 What looks ''perfect'' on a scope may be more difficult for what is down the line to 'deal with'. It may put great demand on the speaker, sometimes 'spongy' is easier for the speaker to follow 'nicely'.
 If the amp gets into clipping it can damage the speaker.
 Perhaps a milder boost with some waveshape 'smoothing' so the peaks aren't so...peaky could sound 'cleaner' [sweet with character] than a boost that is 'perfect' in wave shape output being nearly identical to input waveshape.
 "Clean" becomes impossible if the power supply isn't sufficient, this is more often the case with bass than guitar, 15v supply increases headroom to accomodate most bass guitar outputs, as well as the booster output.
 Opamp: Clean, pristine, some say sterile sounding.
 Mosfet booster: 35db output @9v, clean clean and very strong.
 That's it for the clean full frequency side, BJT and other active boosts can sound very clean also.
 Cheep EQ pedal will allow lots of clean boost and tone-shaping which is what it will be all about when trying to eek more output that sounds clean from any amplifier [and speaker] whis has insufficient 'boost'.
  Volume change = tone change to some degree or other...try the EQ on bass amp if it has one.
 2x9v batteries = 18v, a high quality booster built on the cheap [ie just the board and parts] costs about the same as this excellent power supply...use 25v or bigger caps, find one that works, build the box/switching etc. perhaps a regulated supply.  
 Reasons to mess with EQ: some frequencies gains are 'grown' in boosters, to choose flat-ish or other frequency response curves, some voicing of the circuit is required, the EQ with boost in it allows the EQ knob chart to give some semblance of 'barometer' as to which frequencies say freq out the speaker or become harsh sounding when treble comes on.
 For DIY, something like [15v or so supply] Buffer>Parametric>Any boost>
would probably qualify as candidate for best clean boost after much more is known [nothing quite like a quick field test to see what 'it' is like].