The Sadowsky SBP-2 is a preamp/DI pedal for bass, made by Sadowsky. It puts the company's onboard preamp electronics into a floor unit, so a player can run any bass into a mixing desk or recording interface with a balanced XLR output while keeping the tone-shaping Sadowsky is known for. It sits alongside its sibling, the SBP-1, covered on the Sadowsky SBP-1 and SBP-2 Preamp/DI Pedals page, and belongs to the wider family of preamp pedals12.
What it does
The SBP-2 takes a bass signal, shapes it with Sadowsky's preamp circuit, and sends it out three ways: an unbalanced quarter-inch output for an amp, a second quarter-inch tuner out, and a balanced XLR for going direct to a PA or audio interface. That combination lets a player feed the stage amp and the front-of-house mix from one box.2
The circuit is not a new design for the pedal. Roger Sadowsky explained its origin to Bass Musician Magazine1:
"It's the same circuit that we use in all Sadowsky basses."
That matters for players: the pedal carries the tone of the company's instruments into a setup with any bass, passive or active, rather than introducing a separate voicing1.
Related pedals
Sadowsky has built its preamp designs into several pedal formats. The SBP-1, its sibling in the same series, is the lower-priced model, listed at $190 street in the same 2017 review that put the SBP-2 at $290.2 The company has also offered the Sadowsky Will Lee Mid Boost Preamp, which takes a different approach to the midrange boost the brand's preamps are associated with.
Videos
Sadowsky Guitars
Sadowsky
Andy Irvine
Sources (2)
- Review - Sadowsky Preamp/DI Pedals SBP 1 and SBP 2 - Bass Musician Magazine, The Face of Bass, Bass Musician Magazine, 2017-05-29
- 8_2017_BP_preamp_pedal_reviews.pdf, Bass Player (bassplayer.com), hosted on sadowsky.com, 2017-08
