Aguilar DB924 Pre-Amp Reviews 
4 / 5 based on 1 reviews$80 from Marz, the Muzikians' Planetoid.
It was on their clearance table, just a
few weeks B4 they put the whole store[s]
on clearance tables.
This is an outboard portable, battery
powered pre-amp that has better tone
[to my taste] than the pre-amp section
of my SWR head, or many other "modern"
sounding amps that I've tried. All I
really need for a simple set-up using
this pre-amp, is a "Power Amp In" jack
or just a power amp.
You have to unscrew [and not lose] four
screws to replace the batteries [2x9v],
and there is no jack for a DC converter
to power it from an AC line.
Since it's battery-power-only, it would
have been great to have a belt clip, or
other means to maximize it's portability
and convenience. You don't want to tape
it onto your strap: it's a metal box and
twice the size of an outboard Fishman.
Very solid box containing a small circuit
and two 9v batteries. Has 1/4" in and out
jacks, and 3 knobs for volume-bass-treble.
The input jack is the power switch, which
is typical of such devices. It's a very
quiet circuit, offering clean gain equal
to about a 1/2 turn on the gain knob of
your typical combo or head.
It's not just gain. It has a modest but
pleasant [to me] coloration effect even
with the controls flat. Twisting the
knobs, effect is similar to most active
EQs built into basses [except there are
only two tone knobs, no mid control]. I
don't use it with active EQ basses, but
you can [although I don't know what for].
If you use one of those sound-hole PUs
for an acoustic, or are electrifying an
URB, you want one of these.
Im rating it a 4. It's a 5 based on its
performance and quality of build, but in
convenience features it's lacking.
Golem rated this unit
on
2004-09-16.
