krispn

I know exactly what you mean. There’s a way of designing a tube based preamp in conjunction with transformers which just sits right, sounds right and feels right to play. For many of us a compressor adds to that but at its fundamental core tone there’s a magic from transformers which is more present, deeply analogue and has a saturation and fatness which is very different to tubes. I’ve checked out the United D.I. on you tube and it’s a solid unit. We really should meet up and chat tone some day 🙂 The BR15 does a lovely thing but it’s not everyone’s ideal sound. It’s a classic sound but quite specific. I respect your choice and applaud it!

Many years ago I bought a Read Purity preamp and it sounded amazing. It’s not the tube sound people might think it has a clean more hi-fi type sound and I eventually gravitated to transformer based colouration. This for me is where it’s at. I still like tubes but transformer based colouration is what I’ve grown to appreciate.

Ooh I stand corrected it has deep dive functionality. It's officially multi fx unit

I think what it is essentially is a programmable bass driver DI. It’s repackaged, now digital and they’ve stuck a couple of extra features from the fly rig. Might be a better choice for someone who likes the T21 brand/sound and wants a simple throw in the gig bag unit. Looks pretty easy to use over a multi fx, no menu diving, mobile phone apps and all the stuff folks here and on TB complain about with some of these multi fx units. Too much to get your head around and they then get let in a drawer for 2 yrs or you’ve got something with the processing power to fly a fleet of 1960’s spacecraft and mange the control room too! Perhaps just a T21 diehard wanting midi integration of that classic sound? It’s not being branded or sold as multi fx if I’m reading the website correctly it’s a BDDI with added features rather than a very poorly realised T21 multi fx unit. Oh and it looks cool as… big and chunky, black, sturdy casing. Plus brands need to keep ‘innovating’ cause we all love to talk about gear on here 🙂

Caveat I’m not really that sure I know what I’m taking about she it comes to individual component costs etc but I have a couple of LBA 2020s transformers which add an audible impact and I think were about £90 but to buy the actual individual component form LBA is about $70 on average depending on the transformer. I digress. I get the discussion on price. Custom transformer are expense to make probably more expensive than sticking a tube in a pedal for the sake of it having tubes in it. There’s two custom TX’ers in this unit. The classic (very satisfying) clicky/stepped knobs like in studio gear are more expensive. I’d dare say the components are more expensive in this unit as well and from what I’ve learned so far it’s been made to be a high quality unit. A Behringer/TC rat clone is about £23 but a Jam Rattler is £229… I’ve not noticed the same kinda chat on Jam pedal threads going on about the cost. It’s been done again on the recent origin thread - Bassrig versus an affordable multifx and it’s a natural enough discussion to have. Price versus value etc. but it’s been done to death. A Caveman BP1 is about £750 and one could argue the Mantle has more features so comparatively it’s ’better value’ in this price range for this type of unit versus the Rat clones mentioned. Someone mentioned it’s cheaper than a Noble and having the transformers it might be a better suited unit for a wider range of players and more reliable as there’s no tubes involved -no additional cost down the line replacing tubes! Its got a well thought out EQ which does make sense and feels very studio-y! Not for everyone maybe but I like the LPF and HPF design. If you’re not into spending £750 on a bass let alone a pedal this was never for you. All opinions are ‘valid’ and I don’t really enjoy posting on these types of discussion as it’s all a bit pointless. I have a tube preamp which has 4 tubes, a custom Cinemag transformer, three band eq and I’d say it’s a far better ‘value’ unit than a Noble, ‘more versatile’, sounds great and isn’t the one trick pony (but what a lovely trick) the Noble is. I’d love to play through the Mantle and I wonder how the feel of it would be compared to a NAM capture of it. We’ll see them appear soon enough I’d say.

The meatball was so iconic. A local chap in the area has and may still have the love tone Four pedal pedalboard which he loaned me years ago. Brown Source, Big Cheese Fuzz, Meatball and I think the Doppleganger. It was mental!!! The meatball is such an iconic sounding pedal you just know its signature sound on recordings.

Naw my preamp needs have been well met by Simone these last number of years with a little dalliance with tube DI’s and transformer based fun. I think it’s already been discussed that they’re two different units and I’ve listened to the Phil Conrad A/B where he compared the SV and the SGT-DI and form those audio clips I preferred the Bassrig. We all have different needs and whatnot. To be fair on that thread there’s not that many responses and there’s some positive and negatives for both units. Build quality, bounce and feel of a tube amp and there’s nothing to say all those responding have A/B’d both units. Some folk are ever preferring the SGFX BetaV. Some dislike the built in cab sim on the SV, most folk didn’t rate the SGT-DI compressor choosing (somewhat ironically) the Origin unit. Banter aside lots of different flavours of Ampeg out there for all budgets and tastes.

It was only a matter of time 🙂

Another update from me… Some tweaks to the setup of pre-amp, compression and drive. Signal chain Tuner>Comp>Pre… I then I have a signal split Pre-amp DI out>CabM+>FOH/IEM and Pre-amp 1/4”out>Genz4OTF>LDP>Box ofWar>Thumpinator>Amp Box Of War - this is a custom shop version with the mid switch which fills out the scoop / fattens up the low mids from the 0700 to 1100 position but isn’t much use to me personally dialling it above noon. I keep the mid-switch engaged and am enjoying the thick muff tones which grew up listening to in the 90’s grunge stuff. My guitarist doesn’t really use much dirt live (he’s a cowboy chords kinda player) so there’s scope for the bass to do the more driven sounds in songs like Zombie and 7 Nation Army. LDP- boost and drive. The drive is a pretty solid sounding unit with bass specific touches and does the low gain to a moderate gain sounds we can appreciate on the gig. I like it set to low ish gain for character. The DEEP switches are engaged on both sides and they add a pleasant bump without getting muddy (I’m guessing around 100hz). The Boost side comes after the drive and is really good on its own to put a touch of something on the basic overall bass sound. I have the Tone knob rolled back for taking some of the zing out of my jazz bass in tracks like Proud Mary. Winding it up over noon can liven pick playing and I use it a lot finding it can be a really satisfying always on and versatile tone enhancer I.e turning the tone down completely for a warm pillowy sound which isn’t as muffled as turning g the bass tone control fully off. I dig it and it’s a pretty cool looking black and gold unit which I prefer to the older more industrial look Rodenberg used previously. API TranzFormer Cmp Wonderful sounding unit from studio giants API. It has the API output transformer and is a VCA style comp which can often translate to a faster punchier style of compression. The unit definitely has a colour to it from the transformer and that was part of the appeal. I have another VCA style comp which is great maybe a bit more transparent but the API ‘colour’ is real nice! In front of the tube pre amp it is adding its own thing and lifts the whole pedalboard. There’s some preset switches for attack and release so if these aren’t enough control this may not be the unit for you but there’s no denying the pedal adds something by being switched on and imparting it’s own vibe. It’s actually really straightforward and looking forward to gigging with it tonight. The blend is nice as you can push things a little more and hear that comp working but dial back in the clean to keep things juicy. I'm usually a one in, one out type of person but glad I nabbed these when I did and like I say looking forward to this board over the coming months for the live shows.