About a week ago I was honored to try out the Nitewalker Bass Pre-Amp for a show. I didn’t know what to expect considering I have never even heard of the Pre-Amp.

Overall, my review on The Nitewalker Bass Pre-Amp is that it’s probably the best bass Pre-Amp for live performance use. It gives off that fat, round and full tone with the perfect amount of punch to cut through the mix. Finally, the bass tone is topped off with a touch of warm fuzz that you hear in many bass tracks from top studios. In other words, the Nitewalker gives you the bass tone that ussually takes hours to create in a professional studio during post-production during your live performance.

Here is my entire review of the Nitewalker Bass Pre-Amp.

Durability And Longevity

The second you hold the Nitewalker Bass Pre-Amp, you can instantly tell how durable it is. Built to last, the preamp is made entirely of metal. Metal units are significantly more “roadworthy” than plastic units. Your music equipment is consistently being tossed around when you are touring from state to state.

A very overlooked important factor of metal vs. plastic housings is that plastic casing not only breaks easier, but there is a higher chance that the plugging ports will come apart. Thus, longevity will not be an issue with the Nitewalker Bass Preamp.

Tone

The Nitewalker Bass Pre-Amp gives your bass an incredibly rich tone. The preamp uses some newer technology with it’s modernized circuits giving it a Tube Effect. In my opinion, the pre-amp gave my bass the exact tone I have been striving to achieve for years. The best I can describe the bass tone the Nitewalker gave me was full, well rounded, fat but not muddy, warm but punchy, and rich tone that typically takes hours to recreate in a high-quality studio.

How Does The Nitewalker Get It’s Superior Tone?

With a Class A 12AX7 preamp circuit, it merges smaller and more modern oil signal condensers with larger sized oil signal condensers. The low-frequency tone gets its lively sound if the circuit uses a 500-630VDC paper in oil capacitor. This is possible due to the use of physically large sized paper in oil condensers considering they are able to minimize high-frequency transmission. In other words, the higher the voltage rating is, the larger in physical size of the paper in oil capacitor.

“The Nitewalker Bass Guitar Tube Preamp is a beautiful addition to any bass guitarists tone production. It has a warm beefy tube sound (for Real), It’s a warmth that makes the bass notes feel like a comfortable cushion under the band. Highly recommended!”

Bruce Gertz, Professor at Berklee College of Music, Bassist, Composer, Author.

Genre Of Music

The Nitewalker Bass Pre-Amp is compatible with nearly of style of music. While using it for my 4-hour gig, my band went through multiple genres anywhere from rock, blues, country, Motown, to current pop. While some songs called for a bit punchier tone, an easy increase in the “High Freq” gave my bass just what it needed. Likewise for the songs calling for a deeper bass tone, a slight increase in the “Low Freq” did the trick.

Using The Nitewalker With Pedals

While using the Nitewalker for the first time during my 4 hour gig, I was nervous as to how it would affect my effect pedals I use. Many of the effect pedals I use are important factors during my set. However,

To use the Nitewalker Bass Pre-Amp with pedals, you must attach instrument cable from pedal board that normally plugs into amp into the Nitewalker socket labeled “Input.” From there, you will connect Pre-Amp to your bass amps head. Detailed set up instruction are below.

Steps To Set Up Nitewalker

1. Power up pre-amp
2. Place on top of your amp unless you attach it to your pedalboard
3. Plug instrument cable from pedalboard or bass into socket labeled “input”
4. Plug patch or instrument cable from the bass amp into one of 2 output sockets labeled “Low Freq/Mono” or “High Freq”
5. Turn pre-amp and bass amp head on
6. Adjust the “Low Freq” and “High Freq” volume to your preferred amount
7. Play

Nitewalker Uses

The Nitewalker Bass Pre-Amp can be used during a live performance or tracking bass in a studio. It’s a very convenient Pre-Amp to travel with making it easy to walk into your next studio session with the Nitewalker. The producer who hired you to track bass will be pleased that you’re giving them an option to use your own Pre-Amp. They may like the Nitwalker’s tone enough that they decide to track the bass with your own Pre-Amp. Thus, giving you a higher chance to receive more studio session offers in the future.

“I’ve always desired to hear a bass tone that was fat, warm, punchy, low on the mid’s and with a clean, well-rounded tone. With the Nite Walker Bass Guitar Tube Pre-amp I can truly say I have found the tone I’ve always striven for. When I run the pre-amp through my pedal board, it really comes alive and makes my chorus, delay, wah-wah and multi-combination effects pedal sound amazing… and running it as a bi-amped rig, wow. Thank you Cliff for seeking and finding that tone you always wanted to re-create after playing your first bass amp … I am proud to endorse the @newbasstone Nite Walker pre-amp and have become a huge fan… Bravo sir!”

Kevin Scholl, So. Cal. bassist

Compatible Instruments With the Nitewalker Bass Pre-Amp

• Bass Guitar
• Stand-Up Bass
• Cello

The Bottom Line

The Nitewalker Pre-Amp is an incredible tonal solution for your bass, Cello, or Standup. It can be used for a live setting or studio setting making an excellent 2 in 1 deal. I highly recommend this for any bassist that has been looking for that warm, punchy, fat, clean, and well rounded tone that can only be achieved with hours of tweeking in a studio.