Leaderboard

onboard preamp is too hot (!?!?)

Bob Hoover Ross

Junior Member
Messages
194
I recently installed a brand new Bartolini NTMB 3.4 preamp into a bass equipped with a Bartoloni MV52CBJD pickup. Sounds fantastic! Really fat, present, warm yet clear...

...also really loud! Like, seriously conspicuously much hotter than any of my other active basses (some of which are equipped with EMG BTC or ACG/East EQ-02 preamps).

In fact, its output is so hot that it's completely clipping the input to most of my analog stompboxes, rendering them unusable, and it's almost clipping the input to my amp (the Alembic F1-X is just starting to hint at some slightly fuzzy preamp tube distortion).

I checked the internal gain trimpot on the Bart NTMB and confirmed it's all the way down, fully counterclockwise; this thing can even get hotter! but it can't get any quieter.

Only running with a single 9V battery.

Any ideas? Any solutions to similar issues?
I really love the sound of this bass now, but unless I can find a way to pad the output level down significantly it will be very difficult to use.

Thanks.
 
Odd, how about for grins and giggles you max out that trimpot in the other direction. Maybe it is backwards.
 
TBurst Std said:
Odd, how about for grins and giggles you max out that trimpot in the other direction. Maybe it is backwards.

Already tried that, that's how I confirmed it was currently at its lowest setting.
 
Well, the vendor shipped me a replacement NTMB and it works perfectly, so obviously the previous one was defective. No surprise, but nice to see my concern validated...and nice to do business with a vendor who stands behind their transactions.
 
Back
Top