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Cheap pedal with enough gain to drive a power amp suggestions?


Jesso
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Just incase my Tone hammer pedal ever goes belly up....
I just realized I'd have no way to get a strong signal into my power amp! I'd also have no DI....
Is there a cheapo pedal , ideally something small, that would get me out of a pickle should this unlikely situation ever occur?
So, it'd have to be half alright sounding, with enough juice to drive a power amp, and with a working DI.
And be cheap.
Any suggestions?

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I've just bought a Behringer BDI21 as a back up in case either my head or cab fails.

I used it tonight at rehearsal with no head or cab. Plugged the bass straight into the desk via the BDI21. It worked very well - better than I was expecting. Certainly enough power and loudness to cope with a pub gig. Unsurprisingly, it didn't sound quite as sharp and clear as my usual gig rig, but it was perfectly acceptable as a back up. In fact, I've decided not to take my head or cab to rehearsals now - I'll just take the BDI and use the PA that lives in the rehearsal room. Saves lugging my gig rig to and from rehearsals.

Some initial observations regarding using the BDI without a head or amp:

Using my G&L L2000 bass, best results seem to be with bass on passive, blended pickups, all knobs set mid-way on BDI

Using my Ibanez Blazer or Fender MIJ P, best results were all knobs set to mid-way on BDI. The Blazer in particular sounded very good with the BDI adding some richness to the Blazer's natural middiness to give a full, lush tone. With the Fender P, the BDI's tube emulation was getting a bit close to producing a bottom-heavy thumpiness that was almost too thuddy. Depends what you're after, of course.

With all the basses, turning off the BDI but leaving it plugged in didn't work too well. There's quite a lot of noise, the tone is a bit woolly and the volume is reduced.

So, either use the BDI as a combined DI and tube emulator, or unplug it completely and remove it from the signal chain.

One final point: the red light on the BDI is pretty small and faint - in a brightly-lit rehearsal room it was difficult to see whether it was iluuminated or not. Also, Red light illuminated means the BDI is turned off - I find that confusing because red lights on my head generally mean a function is turned on.

Hope some of that helps,

Steve

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[quote name='solo4652' timestamp='1348095457' post='1809399']

One final point: the red light on the BDI is pretty small and faint - in a brightly-lit rehearsal room it was difficult to see whether it was iluuminated or not. Also, Red light illuminated means the BDI is turned off - I find that confusing because red lights on my head generally mean a function is turned on.
[/quote]

Mine is on when the red LED is on?! That's quite confusing.

Liam

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[quote name='LiamPodmore' timestamp='1348254838' post='1811584']
Mine is on when the red LED is on?! That's quite confusing.

Liam
[/quote]

Yes - you're right. I've just re-read the instructions: "The LED illuminates when the effect is activated". "The effect" = all the tone functions (EQ, Drive, Tube emulation). When they're deactivated (LED light off), "...the BDI functions solely as a transparent DI box".

So, I'm confused now! When using the BDI with no head and no speaker, it seems I was getting best results when the tone functions were turned off. When they were on, I immediately got hiss, lower volume and more muddiness, especially with the G&L. I'll need to do some more experimenting.

Steve

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