DESCRIPTION

The Nordstrand 3B Preamp sits firmly in the camp of transparent, high-fidelity onboard bass electronics. This is not a preamp designed to hijack your signal or impose an artificial footprint onto your instrument. Instead, Carey Nordstrand and his team engineered this circuit to respect your bass's natural voice, delivering several highly practical benefits tailored for the working musician.

First and foremost, the 3B acts as an exceptional onboard buffer. It lowers your output impedance, ensuring that you do not lose any crucial high-end clarity or transient attack, even when running through long cables or heavily populated pedalboards. Another highly practical feature is the inclusion of an adjustable internal output trim control. This utility comes in handy if you are matching the preamp with low-output vintage single coils or overwound modern soapbars. It allows you to precisely trim the input stage, letting you push the gain up or pull it back to match the sweet spot of your signal chain.

The 3B features three EQ frequency centers that make it exceptionally flexible on a gig. It will effortlessly help you make the instrument you choose to install it in sound noticeably bigger, thicker, and more mid-forward when you need to cut through a dense rock mix. Conversely, you can use it to bring out airy high-end detail for slap techniques, or pull the treble back to make your tone warmer and smoother for an R&B gig.

No matter where you set the knobs, the Nordstrand 3B inherently sounds natural and well-balanced. It operates with a low noise floor and plenty of headroom, ensuring your tone doesn’t feel compressed.

If you are searching for a flexible, road-ready preamp that will help a bass you already love sound much more like the best version of itself, take a serious look at the Nordstrand 3B. It provides a reliable, transparent foundation that translates perfectly to both live stages and recording environments, giving you the control you need to consistently sound your best.

From Nordstrand Audio

Sonically spotless, original, and easy to use, Nordstrand's 3-Band preamp module provides players with an uninhibited musicality derived from Carey Nordstrand’s own personal design. With an ideal feature set facilitating its great sound, this module has become popular with high end bass builders who love to install them as standard OEM preamps on their top level instruments.

These preamps have become extremely popular upgrades for basses at all levels of quality. Just pick the configuration that matches the control layout on your bass!

Harnesses are professionally wired in the Fat Bass Tone shop.

All of our pre-wired harnesses are now wired using solderless connectors. This means that you should be able to install the harness without any soldering. A mini flathead screwdriver is included to allow you to screw down the terminals on to the necessary wires. Read more here.
(*If you are installing into a bass with a barrel jack, you may need to solder a couple connections) or grab one of our prewired barrel jacks)

Artists: Vivian d'Souza, Fernando Vallin, Paulo Roberto Diniz Jr, Will Birckhead, Travis Carlton, Scott Pazera