AMT A-bass

The AMT A-bass is a bass preamp from AMT Electronics that puts the main stages of a bass amplifier in one unit: an analog preamp section, a power amp section with nine types, and an IR cab simulator. AMT's media center reviewed it alongside the O-bass preamp, and both are listed as preamps by the maker¹. AMT also builds a separate, related pedal, the AMT Bricks A-Bass, a compact fully analog bass preamp in the Bricks series²³.

Preamp, power amp and cab sim sections

AMT lays the A-bass out in three blocks that follow the signal path of a bass rig. The front end is an analog preamp with three modes, Clean, Low gain and High gain, so a player can set how hard the first stage is driven before anything else in the chain¹. Behind it sits a power amp section with nine types to choose from¹, and after that an IR cab simulator. The cab sim uses one impulse response for both L/R channels, stored per preset¹.

Two more blocks round out the feature set:

• Compressor, listed by AMT's media center review and the product page¹⁴
• Noise Gate, which AMT specifies as a global setting rather than a per-preset one¹⁴

The per-preset versus global split matters in practice: the IR choice is saved with each preset¹, while the gate applies everywhere until changed.

The A-Bass and the Bricks A-Bass

AMT makes two bass preamps with the A-Bass name, and they are different animals. The A-bass covered above combines an analog preamp section with an IR cab simulator and preset storage¹. The Bricks A-Bass is a compact bass preamp pedal in AMT's Bricks series, and RockBoard's PedalPedia describes its circuit as fully analog and optimized for bass guitar³.

The Bricks A-Bass has its own pedigree. AMT says the device "is based on the scheme of the legendary Alembic bass preamps line"². It is designed to deliver classic bass amplifier tone in a pedal format, according to RockBoard's entry³, and it can be used directly into a power amp, mixing console, or audio interface³.

AMT lists the Bricks A-Bass as AVAILABLE NOW². It can run its overloaded channels in preamp mode, connected to an amp's return, or in drive pedal mode, connected to the amp's input².

Where they sit in AMT's range

The Bricks A-Bass is part of the AMT Bricks series of devices², a line AMT introduced alongside its X-Lead/X-Clean tube guitar preamplifiers². Bass players looking at the same family can also compare the AMT Bricks O-Bass, and AMT's wider bass offerings include the AMT Bass ZEALOT BZ-300. For more on the category, see Preamp Pedals and Bass Pedals.

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