Hellborg pre-amp

Hey Everyone, I was lucky enough to “Borrow” a hellborg preamp from work for the weekend. I had two gigs with the preamp in very different rooms & had it for the day at home in my office. I have been playing with it quite a bit and would love to put my 2 cents worth on the preamp.

Just to bring you up to spec, I use a tubepath 5.1 head with a neo quad box & a neo 15 cab, my Tomkins passive 5 string bass & no effects. The two gigs were both covers gigs playing everything from rock to disco & all in between!



The first gig was in a nightclub situation at crown casino here in Melbourne, a big room, with a big PA and very high roof structure. (So I could be as loud as I wanted )!!



At first I hooked the Hellborg pre into the return loop of the tubepath & adjusted away with my bass & pre levels & played with the master on the tubepath. I wasn’t all that impressed at first, as the sound was kind of flat and the master on the tubepath was at about 8. It rarely gets past 5! I had plenty of time at sound check to fiddle, so I decided to pull it out of the effects return & plugged it straight into the instrument input on the tubepath with everything set flat. Well blow me down, that fixed it!! The best way to describe the sound (even with the EQ switched off) is “Clarity” with a capital “C”! We play a lot of funk & disco music with heaps of double tap octave disco lines and fast “Zenderish” bass lines. I was amazed at how focused the mids were & how clear it made the bass come alive. I fiddled with the controls a little more & found the sound I was after with the high mids boosted a bit & the bottom end boosted just a little & I left it at that. With the band playing full tilt the bass sounded amazing. I could hear everything (Including my mistakes!!) so clearly. Even the lead singer commented on how good it sounded! The sound guy was also impressed which is amazing. This guy is NEVER impressed!!

The second gig the night after was a wedding at a smaller reception center, the band was in an alcove with a low roof height, and I decided to use just the neo quad box (No 15) and proceeded to set up as the night before. The room was very difficult to get a good bass sound out of, as this time I wasn’t through the PA & we were suffering from a lot of Boom in the room. As a bass player, that is one thing I can’t stand is when you get one frequency that sets off what I call “The moose” and it drones away through the PA and fold back. It’s usually through the kick drum mike or tom mikes on the drum kit. Anyhow I fought with my sound all night to try and get it to where I was happy, but in the end (and this may upset some), I ended up bypassing the helborg & ran the bass into the amp as normal. It helped with the drone & was almost acceptable. I think because the Hellborg is so focused on some individual frequencies and clarity, it was actually helping “The Moose” as these frequencies were natural for the room. Does that make sense? By removing the Hellborg & relying on the normal tubepath preamp, these natural frequencies were not as amplified or boosted.



The last test was at home in my office with the full rig & some of my basses (see picture).



I had the time to play around with it even more and try different combinations, basses (including my double bass) and also a few electric guitars as well. I must say I am impressed to say the least, each of my basses sounded great through the preamp, the thumb bass was so focused & with a bit of bottom end push, was the warmest & growliest I have ever heard it. I am impressed by the adjustable frequencies in the low & high mids, each one with a little tweak suits all of my basses. The preamp & DI are super quiet to, even with the gain & masters cranked, there was no noise that I could hear. Surprisingly the double bass sounded great too! It has a realist piezo under the bridge & the pre seemed to amplify the sound without coloring it too much & allowing feedback which is common with acoustic upright basses. I played my strat & tele guitars thru it also & loved what I was hearing. Very sparkly, spanky & clear.



In conclusion, I can see why a lot of studio’s are buying this preamp, cause its ease of use & controls, its deathly quiet & the focus and clarity that comes from this beast are to die for. Just what a sound engineer loves!! You could plug a $50 Taiwanese turd bass into this & it would sound great with a few tweaks. It suits certain live venues only, but to be fair, this was just the preamp & not the hellborg power amp & speakers! I will have to talk work into letting me try the whole hellborg rig at a gig soon!!

Please also note that these are only my observations & they may differ from other peoples, I’ve only had the pre amp for a weekend, but even still, im considering buying one…..

If its clarity & tight focus that your after, this is the preamp for You!!!

Please feel free to ask me any questions or leave comments if you wish.

Now im off to talk to my bank manager!!!

Cheers all’

Rusty