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Verified Purchaser zZounds has verified that this reviewer purchased this specific product from us.

I bought this a year or so ago just to try something new. I have lots of other affordable outboard preamps but the B12A has become my go-to for basically every mono source (and often followed by a DBX 160A when appropriate). It's my best DI for bass guitar hands down- so rich and full! Paired with an e906 in front of a V30, it's perfect for clean, dirty and heavy guitars, but I haven't tried DI for IRs yet (not really my thing). Perfect on kick drum, but since I only own one B12A I haven't tried it on other drums. Pairs really really well with my WA67- I've never heard my vocals or acoustic guitar sound more "finished". In all cases, the GAIN knob is between 11 and 1 o'clock depending on the source, so BLA has it dialed in at noon as a good design should. I used to think the lack of output control was a major flaw, but I got the quad version a few months ago and it just doesn't seem to have the same mojo. The paperwork for the quad says the OUTPUT knob is just an attenuator but I don't think that's quite right. More importantly, I find it significantly more difficult to dial in the right GAIN and OUTPUT on the quad and always second guess if a different blend would make it sound more like the single channel unit. So, I've become thankful for the simplicity (purity?) of the single B12A mkIII and it's musical representation. I don't think it's entirely clean because it does add coloration, but if there is any distortion around the noon position, I think it's mostly in the low end and very tastefully subtle. Besides, if I want real dirt, I have Neve clones and other preamps that do just fine for that.

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Verified Purchaser zZounds has verified that this reviewer purchased this specific product from us.

I love this preamp for instruments! Sounds nice and open on acoustic guitar, percussion, and on my drum set kick. The DI is killer on Bass. My only wish is that it had an LED by the Hi-Z button so I can tell when I accidentally leave it in lol

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