Nobelium - tube bass preamp project

XjFred said:
Thank you both. These kits come at a price. But they look pretty neat. More than the KLD one.
I'll dig into the description of both before letting my GAS act. 👍
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For my wants and needs for bass a 100 watt DIY build runs about the same and actually has enough headroom to keep me reasonably happy, but of course the B-15 is iconic for a reason. My recent build as seen in the amps section here wasn’t from a kit though, and you will pretty much always pay a premium for that convenience. Welcome to the PPCB forum, BTW.
 
Your amp is really inspiring. Even if I don't have the chance to source parts from an old amp factory, your solutions will help me figure out how to get a little bit more power from a 15W kit that I could use as a base (like this one : 15W tube amp portaflex style ). 30 tube Watts would be great. 50W would be holy grail.
 
XjFred said:
Your amp is really inspiring. Even if I don't have the chance to source parts from an old amp factory, your solutions will help me figure out how to get a little bit more power from a 15W kit that I could use as a base (like this one : 15W tube amp portaflex style ). 30 tube Watts would be great. 50W would be holy grail.
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So you live in Europe then? I still have some cool leftover parts from my buy out but shipping outside the US might be prohibitive.
 
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xconverge said:
Any chance you have an ETA on when faceplates are coming in? They seem to be OOS. I don't need to replace my (MBP SludgeHammer) Sansamp BDDI but I don't have any projects going on now and was considering a nobelium
🤷‍♂️

If I don't really NEED another DI, is it a fun build without the DI, just as the preamp?
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Took a little longer than I hoped, but Nobelium faceplates are back in stock.
 
First gig with the Nobelium.
It was a big room, on a stage. Very loud.

The good:
- Worked reliably.
- Great studio/bedroom sound. Lots of youtube clips showcasing the lovely low-medium volume B15 tone.
- I find on a lot of DIY pedals/pre-amps the control ranges are not optimal. They are very good on the Nobelium, the bass treble and volume pots are all in (roughly) the sweet spot. On a power amp set to 0.775 v sensitivity the volume control worked perfectly from 0 to f*&$$%ng loud.
- Great headroom, very clean. With a passive bass I couldn't get it to clip.
- Sound guy (a bassist) praised the balanced output sound.
- The valves Klaus supplies are relatively inexpensive but very high quality. Used to be JJ, now Psvane. I find that the meaty JJ valve is warm and lovely in the first position, the hi-fi clean Psvane good in the second.
The less good:
- Used by itself into a power amp at very loud volume I find it doesn't have enough tonal control for me, particularly the mids. At high volume it tends to be boomy (but never farty nor distorted).
I found loud and live setting it flat was optimal (bass and treble at 0) at high volume. But then you don't have a lot of further tonal control.
Chaining into another preamp is probably a more common use case, so none of this is a problem, just not the way I was using it.
- Gets quite warm. Klaus uses 105 C rated electrolytic caps in his kits, but I don't know the rated hours. Vig suggested drilling ventilation holes in the enclosure to improve air circulation, I'll probably do that.

I'll keep at it.
I think it has a beautiful recording/bedroom tone.
Very useable, tons of clean headroom and warmth.
For me, the live usecase would be for low-medium volume gigs. Loud, difficult rooms might require further tone shaping.

What do you peeps reckon?
Anyone else using a Nobelium in anger?
 
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