Fender TBP-1 to offer the best of both worlds

Fender Bass Amplification will be launching the TBP-1 Tube Bass Pre-Amp at summer NAMM 2004. 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 uutput 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.