According to Jackson, an engineer at Horse-Drawn Productions, The Avalon 737sp is a great unit to plug in a bass and start tracking. However, as Metallica proved with Kill 'Em All you don't need to even plug the bass into one of these bad boys -- or anything at all -- to get your desired bass tone.

Luckily, this preamp / compressor is flexible enough to handle acoustic guitar -- especially when miked -- and a range of other things. Plus, it does wonders if you actually want people to hear your bass guitar.