Dicosimo RB800

The RB800 is an analog preamp pedal from Dicosimo, a maker of bass-oriented gear. It sits in the preamp category and is aimed at bass players: RockBoard's PedalPedia describes it as an accurate recreation of the preamp section of the Gallien-Krueger 800RB bass amp, a head with a long history among bassists.¹

What it does

The RB800 recreates the 800RB preamp circuit. according to RockBoard's PedalPedia, the only change from the original design is the position of the DI output: on the pedal it sits after the Boost effect rather than before it, so a signal sent to a mixing desk or recording interface carries the boost with it.¹

The maker also points to the power design as part of that fidelity. The pedal takes a standard 9V DC, center negative supply and converts it internally to plus and minus 15V rails, which RockBoard's PedalPedia says gives the full headroom of the original amp.¹

For a player, that makes the RB800 a way to put the tone-shaping and DI section of a known bass amp design on a pedalboard, whether as a front end for a power amp or cab, or as a direct box straight to the desk. It belongs alongside other bass preamps, and players building a board around it often pair a preamp with a compressor or an equalization pedal further down the chain¹.