LeftyBassist.com

I'm currently living in an apartment building with two roommates.
so my laney rbw300 "ghetto gold" and my bugera 6262 120w are stored at my parents's house.
so all my jamming is going straight into a sound card.
so here's the q' anyone has any recommendation for a bass pre-amp or d.i?
using the mesa boogie twin-v does wonders on a guitar tone, but distorts bass.
but that's the direction I want something that'll sound good with no cabinet and power amp.

Sans amp Bass DI

Or http://aguilaramp.com/products_preamps_tonehammer.htm

I own the Sansamp but I prefer the Aguilar Tonehammer as it does not color the sound as much and the distortion is awesome. Like the Sansamp it is a preamp with a DI. You can use it later for other applications (just as a distortion before your amp or just as a DI on stage). It iis alway good to have one of those boxes.

Are you going straight into your computer's soundcard or into an AD converter/external soundcard?

Or you could get this for quiet practicing http://www.guitarcenter.com/Rockman-Bas ... 1124979.gc

Unfortunately, I haven't tried the Aguilar Tonehammer yet. But after reading lots of positive reviews, I'm pretty curious now
Never tried a Sansamp either, although I have owned a Tech21 Trademark 30 guitar amp which is basically the Sansamp GT2 with a 30 watt solid state poweramp in a small 1x10 combo. Sounded amazingly close to the real amps it tries to simulate, and they're all-analog!

I have owned the Hartke VXL Bass Attack, still have an EBS MicroBass II (awesome piece of kit too, lots of options both in terms of control options and connections), and have two Ampeg tube preamps with a balanced Jensen DI out. All sound great directly plugged into a recording interface. The Hartke was nice too, very affordable, and even managed to capture that supertight and articulate aluminium speaker tone Hartke is wellknown for.

an external sound card. native instruments audio kontrol.

Or one of these http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=ima ... ORM=IQFRBA Now that's old school!

this won't be very helpful when I'll record my basslines.
but on the other hand, very affordable.

I'm a little confused. I too may be looking at getting a DI box and saw your needs. Ideally I would like a DI box that can also do some mild overdrive. Does the ToneHammer and the new VT Character bass DI do that as well?

I love the ToneHammer tone from the AMP. If it can do overdrive in a footactivated manner through the AGS circuit I might be sold.

Do these play nice with active basses?

If the box has an XLR and a Line out then you can use it as a DI and/or as a distortion. I owned the VT but sold it quickly. It was not the new DI version though. It sounded really harsh with my Stingray.
I think you'll be pleased with the TH

For what it's worth, I've been using both the MXR M80 Bass DI+ Distortion and the Electro Harmonix "Deluxe" Bass Big Muff Pi. Both are DI's with distortion/overdrive.

I LOVE the EHX overdrive. Especially this new version that includes a wet/dry mix knob that was sorrily lacking on the regular version. Plus, it's a simple DI.

But, while I don't like the MXR's distortion tone as much - it's definitely "distortion" as opposed to "overdrive" - it does have a very useful EQ section that allows you to shape your dry tone leaving the DI as well.

That's my two cents.