NAMM: Fender Intros Tube Bass Preamp

Front Panel (Click for a close-up)

Rear Panel (Click for a close-up)

Fender Bass Amplification announced the new TBP-1 Tube Bass Pre-Amp. The new TBP-1 is a professional single rack-space tube preamp designed specifically for bassists who rely on modern amplifier features, but who also love the classic warm tones of a tube-driven amp.

Says Jay Piccirillo, Marketing Manager for Fender Bass Amplification, "Many preamp designs of today are based on the passive tone circuit found in a lot of classic Fender amps, which offers a warm and clean bass tone. The major drawback with these preamps is a lack of fine tuning capability from the EQ section."

"The new TBP-1 Tube Bass Pre-Amp is designed to speak to the bass purist who loves the warm tube tone from a simple passive tone stack, but who also wants a flexible, modern feature set that helps to define their sound," adds Piccirillo. "The new TBP-1 has features that allow the user to bring in subtle overdrive for 'grind', or the Vari-Q to cut harsh frequencies for thumb style playing."

Front panel features on the TBP-1 include a Tube Overdrive section with Gain, Volume and Blend controls, the new Vari-Q smart semi-parametric EQ, and a Room Balance section allowing for a global EQ shift that can be tailored for any given stage or studio situation.

Rear panel features include a Balanced XLR Line Output with Ground Lift and Pre/Post switches and level control, a Jensen Line Out Transformer for maintaining a clean balanced line out signal, Tuner Send, Effects Loop with trim control and level switch, Bi-amp low and high sends with active crossover, Full-Range Main Output, and Footswitch input.

US MSRP is $857.13. A 4-button footswitch is included.