Harley Benton Custom Line Bass DI-Expander

1) first of all, it is cheap. lets say you need a preamp, for example, for home quiet rehearsels (like me). You will only find 2 or 3 models in China with a similar price, (but absolutely incomprehensible quality). this is different
2) it has an equalizer and a parametric middle. Adjusting the frequency of the middle is the most important thing in the equalizer - its awsome. Look at the more, much more expensive preamos - many of them dont have middle freq control.
3) it has a compressor. Yes, it's a primitive compressor, but it does its job VERY VERY VERY WELL! I can't play without a compressor now. with a small threshold and a small compression level - it evens out your sound without suppressing it too much NOTE - pushing the compressor will raise your signal level. You can find the position of the controlers when the level of the compressed signal and without the compressor is the same - but for me this is too compressed signal. Loses the attack. I like to hear the attack. I always leave it on. lifehack - you can use this button as a booster - during solo, for example. cool, right?
4) it has a balanced output - sound engineers will love you right away when you come on stage and say I've already set everything up - here's my di box. where is your cable?)
5) it has a headphone output. yeah! my girlfriend dont hate me)
6) it has a player input for quiet reharsels - yeah - my wife dont hate me) 6) it is in a steel frame. I already dropped it. the paint on the corner broke off. well, okay) it's paint. there's metal under it!
7) smooth controlers.
Now about the features. I have a jazz bass. As everyone knows, if you play only on one pickup there is hum noise. this is normal. it phisics.
If you add treble, the high-frequency humb are become more noisy. but this is with single coils and if the controller more then 75%.
As for the blend controller - it is superfluous there. why it is needed it is not clear (but i know). let me explain - you can adjust how much to send the signal that was processed by the equalizer, and blend it with the clean dignal. I think ( iam sure) that this blend was left, because the template of the case and the printed circuit Board on which the chips are standard for a few products. because the same preamps are available for acoustic guitars. the manufacturer did not fool around too much and left this blend option, although it is not necessary for bass players. is this a problem? - no. just leave e always in the extreme right position. By the way, if you set it for 12 hours, the signal level becomes higher.
By the way, here's an interesting life hack - this preamp can be used to record three tracks at the same time (if you need it). I'm recording 2 tracks. Explaining.... I take one signal from the balanced output (XLR) into input 1 of my sound card, the second signal from the parallel output (raw signal into the sound card by pressing HI-Z) to the input 2 of the sound card. In total, we get the processed signal via the XLR cable and the raw signal via the jack cable. Want a third sound? send a signal from JACL LINE OUT to the combo and use the microphone to record the speaker sound into input 3 oа the microphone. Want 4 tracks at the same time? - use DI out from your amp or youre combo into input 4 oа youre audio card. Here are 4 different sounds of Your one bass. just one preamp. And then remember how much you paid for it)
By the way, for the sake of interest, I went to the store with it and compared it with other preamps. there weren't many of them - result - it worth the price! believe me)

Been using this for a little over a year now and I love it!

Very straight forward to use, has a great tone and neatly fits on my pedalboard - at rehearsals I go straight into the P.A. and don't even bother with an amp, the EQ and controls are very intuitive, have a great sweep and really let you dial in your tone, I'm not a big compressor user but having one built in that I can click on when I needed is a great benefit - maybe used it a couple times when I thought I was being drowned out by one of my guitarists using a headrush through the P.A.

With gigging a lot of sound guys won't change the set up when they use the line out of a bass amp so going out the jack it does lift your tone through a bass amp - kind of like having a limited EQ pedal in front and another one of those times the compressor is handy if you feel like some of your notes seem a bit quiet - I like a very mid-rangey bass tone with a bit of growl and it's easy to achieve that in conjunction with an amp in a live setting

While there's not much growl on it's own, you can clip the gain for some, but it does get really loud and one of those things you really need to dial in with the volume and blend controls, so it's not recommended, but if you want just a fantastic clean bass tone for not much money compared to the likes of a sansamp etc. - it's definitely the way to go especially if you want to build an ampless set up with pedals

A DI box is expensive. I think it's because they usually have an AMP simulation... I think. I don't know.

I needed a bass DI box to convert my bass signal to XLR output, and I decided to try out this Thomann one.

As a DI box, it works perfectly. For my purpose of use, I think this box will last literally forever. XLR almost never break down, you know. Also, this can be used as a bass headphone amp, and it is a nice feature.

Hardware-wise, this is made excellently, Metal casing, smooth knobs, all firm sturdy ports and switches and buttons.
You need a philips head screw driver to put in a 9V battery if you want to use it battery powered, which means the battery replacement is not the most convenient way.

The only questionable functionality of this product is the compressor. It does adjust the output level as it should, but I don't like the final tone quality. I usually don't use compressor, but if you expect better and more natural tone through the compressor, I recommend a separate compressor.

Harley Benton has blown my expectations out of the water yet again! This DI-expander has really expanded my sound and playing capabilities in live settings. I am a very involved bassist on my church's worship team and do my own music ministry as well and have used this thing on a very regular basis. After some time experimenting when I first purchased this item, I am now able to sculpt my bass' sound exactly how I like it before it enters the soundboard and the sound engineer's hands. The compressor also has greatly improved my dynamic range when playing with the rest of the band so I don't get lost in the sound mix. The one recommendation I have is that if you purchase this item you should also buy the optional DC adapter because the 9V batteries die quite quickly during regular use. Apart from the power draw, this thing is incredible! The item quality is top notch and very durable. This product is perfect for any bass player's tool kit. The utility and functionality is too good pass on! It can be a DI box, a nice pedalboard addition, or even a nice sound mixing interface for practicing with headphones on. It is a must buy. I never leave home without putting it in my gig bag!

this really didn't do what i wanted it to do.

i mostly bought this as a headphone practice box so i can play in my bedroom while keeping the amp in the garage for when i really want to jam out. unfortunately, when i plug headphones into it, it just sounds extremely distorted and buzzy, not pleasant to play along with at all (unless you exclusively use a fuzz pedal!). i've tried a couple different types of headphones and the problem persists (maybe i have a faulty model?)

the compressor is also not very great. adds a boost to the sound but even dialled all the way up the sound isn't very compressed.

so why didn't i send it back? well, the preamp part works pretty well. definitely makes my bass sound fuller and tube-ier. though there is a lot of hiss from the treble control so if you want a very trebley sound from your bass, i'd look elsewhere.

the line-in jack to play along with music from your phone or your laptop works great, too. this is the other main reason i wanted the pedal and i'm very happy with that part.

haven't tried the DI so can't comment on that.

basically, it could be worse and it could be a lot better. depends what you're buying it for.

I bought this pedal just in сase I won't have a deсent amp on the gig and this pedal сouldn't manage with that.
The pedal is very small and solid whiсh is great. Knobs and buttons work niсe and smooth. The preamp is quite niсe, the сompressor works... well...
Though it has one serious problem: the hiss when you сrank up the volume 2/3 or more. I've tried different power supplies, even different batteries (lol), the hiss still won't go away.
I find quite... сounterintuitive to make the green lights mean "off" and red lights mean "on".

Nevertheless...
Will I use it in my pedalboard? - definitely not
Do I regret I bought it? - definitely not either.
I think the pedal сan be useful but not on gigs.