Warwick - The Bass Forum - Hellborg pre-amp Hopu

Hi everyone.
Although I'm a little late

, here are my thoughts about this great preamp.

I'll start with my gear:
bass - Ibanez SR1000 with Bartolini passive humbuckers (no onboard eq; by the way if anybody has a Vari-Mid HQ 3 active eq they should throw it to the garbage as it kills the natural sound of the instrument and seriously affects the clarity as I just recently experienced myself

)
Amp: Genz-Benz Shuttle 6.0;
Cab: Eden 410XLT;
Effects: EBS unichorus;
Cables: Monster.
The setup was: Bass->pedal->preamp->amp, no loops or anything else.

My first impression was exactly like what I read about it: nothing impressive but definitely some improvement. I used it only at a short rehearsal and a few loooog recording sessions. So I have no idea whaw it sounds in a live gig, but I did notice a few things:
1) It is very well build and it really looks cool (as it should for that price tag

)
2) The parametric eq is really great, best I've seen so far. It sound good at any setting; the dry/wet blend effect loop is nice (excellent for an old Big Muff without the dry setting (50%-50% mix) for example).
3) It has a distinctive sound. This could be either good or bad. Depends on the taste. I think that the compression it has is what makes this preamp sound so great. The low end sounds a bit better, more defined, but it adds a little color to the high end. Personally I don't like this, but the compression, improved low end and exceptional clarity is definitely worth the sacrifice (sounds dramatic but it's not

).
4) The D.I., one of the strong points of this preamp, has very low noise. Great for recording. Compared to the D.I. on my Genz-Benz you can clearly tell it is quieter, but the small difference makes me proud of my little amp :D. One interesting fact is that you can hear that even the noise is colored with the Hellborg specific sound.

As a conclusion I can say that if you have the money it is definitely worth it, especially for recording. Truly a great piece of equipment. I never used a compressor but I am really curious how a "Hellborg compression unit" would sound, to have control over all the parameters...

Florin... do you know about any future "Hellborg" bass equipment ? BTW thank you for the opportunity to test this preamp as I don't know when I'll ever have the money for this.

Good luck to you all.