AMT Electronics AMT Bricks O-Bass

The AMT Bricks O-Bass is a tube bass preamp from AMT Electronics AMT O-BASS maker AMT Electronics, built in the company's small Bricks pedal format. AMT says the basis of the preamp is the nature of sound of the Orange AD200 mark3, which it calls a legendary bass amp¹. The pedal is listed as available now, and AMT classifies it under bass overdrive, distortion and fuzz².

Preamp mode, drive mode, and connections

The O-Bass is built to sit in a rig in two different ways. AMT lists the ability to use its overloaded channels in preamp mode, connected to the amp's return, or in drive pedal mode, connected to the amp's input¹. In practice that means the same pedal can act as the front end of a rig, feeding a power amp directly, or push an existing bass amp's input the way a drive pedal would.

Despite the compact design, AMT gives the pedal a full set of regulation knobs: Gain, Treble, Middle, Bass and Volume¹. The company also describes the unit as an analog preamp with Clean, Low gain and High gain modes², so a player can move between a clean bass voice and progressively hotter gain stages on one channel.

That anode voltage is worth noting: many compact tube pedals run their tube at a fraction of that, and AMT presents the +250 to 300V figure as a feature of the design¹.

Other features AMT lists for the Bricks O-Bass include:

• IR cabsim, with one IR for both L/R channels per preset²
• Power Amp section with 9 types²
• Noise Gate as a global setting³
• CTRL A and CTRL B connectors, so the pedal can control other devices or be controlled by them¹

The CTRL A and CTRL B connectors are how the O-Bass talks to the rest of a rig. AMT describes them as special connectors for controlling or being controlled by other devices¹, which suits players who switch several units together.

The Orange AD200 mark3 circuit and the Bricks series

The O-Bass takes its circuit character from the Orange AD200 mark3 bass amp, according to AMT's product page¹. For a player, that points to a preamp voice drawn from a well-known British bass head rather than a generic overdrive circuit, packaged in what AMT calls Snickers-size dimensions¹.

The O-Bass sits inside the wider AMT Bricks series of devices¹. The Bricks range covers tube preamps: AMT's artist page, in the words of endorser Roger Öjersson, describes the "AMT BRICKS X-Lead/X-Clean line of tube guitar preamps"⁵, and AMT's own detailed review of the series, written by Ivan Demichev, counts the last two preamps as "the X-Bass product line"⁶. In the same review, Demichev describes the X-Clean line as an emulation of "a clean channel of the legendary Fender Twin and VOX AC30 amplifiers"⁶, which gives a sense of how the series pairs amp-inspired preamps across guitar and bass.

Players who want to compare within AMT's bass range can look at the related AMT Electronics AMT Bricks A-Bass, the AMT Electronics AMT BC-1, the AMT Electronics AMT Bass ZEALOT BZ-300 power amp, and the AMT Electronics AMT WH-1B, alongside the wider field of bass pedals and preamp pedals.

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