Sansamp VT Bass character pedal

[NickSpector]

Just seen a review of one of these and it looks impressive. Seen some sound clips and it soundsp retty decent too. Anyone know where I can try one? I hope they're not like Sansamp Bass Drivers in that they get bigged up, but are infact utterly sh*te and useless!

[dannybuoy]

[quote name='NickSpector' post='198565' date='May 14 2008, 10:47 AM']Just seen a review of one of these and it looks impressive. Seen some sound clips and it soundsp retty decent too. Anyone know where I can try one? I hope they're not like Sansamp Bass Drivers in that they get bigged up, but are infact utterly sh*te and useless![/quote]

I don't think they're over here yet. Digital Village have them up for £150 on their site but I don't think they are in stock. There is a guy on ebay selling the other character pedals for $150 - I have emailed him and he says he's gonna get a batch of VT Bass pedals in 2 weeks time, you can pre-order with him if you like. I'm thinking of getting one, and if I don't like it I'll be able to sell it on easily over here and perhaps even make a profit!

Contact this man if you want one:

[url="http://myworld.ebay.com/proaudioland?&ssPageName=ADME:X:RTQ:GB:1181"]http://myworld.ebay.com/proaudioland?&...E:X:RTQ:GB:1181[/url]

Edited May 14, 2008 by dannybuoy

[ahpook]

so is the speaker emulation on all the time with these pedals ?

that strikes me as a bit stupid for something being marketed as a stompbox...


anyway...i'd like to try one, but after being ultimately unhappy with the sabddi i'll not be rushing out and getting one.

[dannybuoy]

It is, yes, and I agree, I wish you could switch it off. I'm not sure it's a discrete part of the circuit that can be switched on and off. I wonder if the Tech21 Landmark amp head has speaker sim on the speaker outputs or just the XLR out?

Anyway, other preamp boxes I want to try out are the Hartke Bass Attack, Tronographic Rusty Box, and Aguilar Tone Hammer. I'm interested in the Rusty Box as it's supposed to be an agressive sound, and Dangerboy on this forum is a fan of it and it made him sell his Sansamp. The Aguilar Tone Hammer is brand new and looks promising too...

Edited May 14, 2008 by dannybuoy

[johnnylager]

[quote name='NickSpector' post='198565' date='May 14 2008, 10:47 AM']I hope they're not like Sansamp Bass Drivers in that they get bigged up, but are infact utterly sh*te and useless![/quote]
I've got the Para Driver and that has a mid control making it much better. 100 notes off fleabay and of course I paid the import duty your honour Or save and get an EBS Microbass II like I should have EDIT: And probably will when the heat's off from Mrs Lager.

Edited May 14, 2008 by johnnylager

[wateroftyne]

EBS aaaaaaall the way...

[ahpook]

just a thought - we're seeing boss pedals that claim to mimic certain amps and now these sansamp ones.

kindof reminds me of a plug-ins in cubase or nuendo...



um..that's it, just a wee bit o' musing.

[Adee]

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xr8kdWpB3U4"]DEMO OF THE VT PEDAL[/url]


Tech 21 blurb . . . .

The tower of power pumping through a stack of 10-inchers is the legendary bass tone for players who enjoy being heard. From chunky funk with the ubiquitous flip top, to the higher gain growl of indie rock. Still need more? Lean on the Character control for the fat distortion of Crimson and King’s X. It all sounds massive DI. Clean SVT® thump to dirty earthquaking rump, you dial it in.

Edited May 15, 2008 by Adee

[phagor]

Mine just arrived today, so I thought I'd post an early-days review.

I bought mine from Digital Village. They matched the Thomann price. Neither are showing them in stock on their websites.

This is not a true bypass pedal. The switch is the short travel momentary contact type, not a DPDT switch. On the plus side, the pedal is very quiet in bypass mode. No pops or clicks when switching. Also, for people doing the amp-less thing and sending the output to a mixer, the pedal will drive long cables well even when in bypass mode. No balanced output and no XLR though.

With the Character and Drive knobs down, you get a clean sound with a bit of extra thickness and a slight boost at the top end.

The character knob is supposed to be a speaker simulator emulating the Ampeg SVT and B15 flip top. To my ears, this knob controls the level of a filter set around the high-mids. It may be doing something cleverer than that however. With the knob all the way down, the EQ sounds scooped, with a round bottom end and some presence that enhances the 'click' of notes. As you turn the knob up, the high mids are introduced, making the sound more chunky. At the top, the sound is quite aggressive and clangy.

The Drive knob introduces distortion ranging from a little extra warmth, through fluffiness, grittiness all the way to huge fuzz. As you would expect, the Drive affects the overall volume, so you tend to use this in combination with the Level control. With loads of Drive, the Character knob brings out the snarly tone of the bass and prevents it being lost in a wash of fuzz.

The three EQ bands are very musical and well voiced. In particular, the Mid and High controls don't seem to fight with the Character control at all. The High frequency is maybe a little bit high for my liking, but is still usable.

There's no Blend control to mix your dry bass signal with the effect, however the Drive knob is pretty flexible. It sounds as though the EQ comes after the gain stage so you can pile on the Bass knob to warm up even the dirtiest settings. I'll probably use this in a loop with a blend control anyway.

Soundwise, this is a very versatile pedal. I have never owned an Ampeg amp, but have used SVTs in the past, and this does indeed sound reminiscent of them. More importantly, the sound is organic and warm, not tinny and thin.

I mostly play using a clean tone, but often need to dirty things up for rock gigs etc. This will do the trick nicely. I can see using it for a bread and butter rock tone, a full-on overdrive, for a clean boost or just as an EQ and DI for gigs without an amp. Will also be handy recording direct into a computer sound card.

[Clarky]

I got a Sansamp VT Bass pedal last week from a Proaudioland in the US (eBay listing). I used it at a gig on Saturday and it added a great grittiness to my tone when playing through a fairly rubbish house-supplied Peavey combo but the overall volume of the gig was so loud that it was hard to truly assess it.

Then used it at a band practice this evening at lower volume levels (!) It really is a great pedal for emulating a gently overdriven, warm-sounding Ampeg SVT stack using the left side of the 'character' knob and some 'drive'. Crank up the 'character' and 'drive' knobs and you have the nearest emulation of Lemmy's Marshall sound that I have ever heard with a pedal - so much so that my guitarist and I had an extended blast through 'Motorhead' while waiting for our drummer. Fantastic! Unlike the Sansamp BDDI it has a Mid control so there's a bit more tweakable tone on offer although its probably not as useful an all-round tool. For a plug-in overdrive pedal which truly sounds valve-like and has a real variety of tones, though, its the mutt's nuts

[sk8]

just ordered a VT Bass. Hopefully it will arrive tomorrow

[fede162162]

Now I'm really curios to see a challenge between the VT and the Paradriver!!
I still don't understand why the paradriver hasn't become as famous as the bddi!!
It seems to be the SAME pedal but with added mid, which is great considering that many people and I don't like the BDDI for his mid scooping which mellows the tone too much unless you don't pump the drive!

[Musicman20]

I already have a Sansamp BDDI which is extremely useful to me...and helps when things go wrong or the promoter has failed to sort out gear between bands.

Is it worth getting the VT as well as the BDDI? Or....go for the Aguilar Tone hammer?!

Ive seen the VT for about £130....so its not a massive amount of money, but obviously I dont want to get something thats basically nearly the same but not as good for DI work.

Cheers!

Edited June 15, 2009 by Musicman20

[kingforaday]

[quote name='Musicman20' post='513933' date='Jun 15 2009, 10:45 AM']I already have a Sansamp BDDI which is extremely useful to me...and helps when things go wrong or the promoter has failed to sort out gear between bands.

Is it worth getting the VT as well as the BDDI? Or....go for the Aguilar Tone hammer?!

Ive seen the VT for about £130....so its not a massive amount of money, but obviously I dont want to get something thats basically nearly the same but not as good for DI work.

Cheers![/quote]


it doesn't have all the outputs and switches that the BDDI has and is therefore just a pedal rather than a DI box but having owned both its definately the daddy of the two. way more usable tones and really captures the driven tube amp tone. for me the BDDI always sounded a bit thin, i bought the behringer clone of it and to be honest i'd say that holds up against the sansamp... the VT is in a different class though for me, i'm very happy with it!

Edited June 15, 2009 by kingforaday

[Etienne]

I use the VT Bass and BDDI pedals together on DI-only gigs with great results! Most of the time I use the VT Bass for my sound, and connect it to the PA through the BDDI's XLR, effectively using the BDDI as a mutable passive DI (by turning all the knobs fully anti-clockwise, it cuts the signal when you switch it on- turning it off lets the VT Bass signal through). You can also connect a tuner to the parallel output of the BDDI too... very useful!

If anyone else has both pedals, I really recommend that you try mixing them together- you can get some truly amazing rock tones that way! I've found that their differently-voiced EQs compliment each other really well- try using the BDDI's Blend knob to gradually mix its signal in with the VT Bass, and see if you like what you hear!

[mildmanofrock]

[quote name='NickSpector' post='198565' date='May 14 2008, 10:47 AM']I hope they're not like Sansamp Bass Drivers in that they get bigged up, but are infact utterly sh*te and useless![/quote]

Eh? Why's that?

[Musicman20]

I find the BDDI really useful. I once went straight into the board to record, and they just tweaked it a bit at the other end. Jees...it sounded awesome. I couldnt believe a tiny pedal made my bass sound so massive.

Anyway, yeah im gonna go for the VT as well. Then I can mix and match.

Anyone here used Tonefactor in USA?

Im tempted to order two pedals and get the postage free on the second...but I dont want to risk getting stung on charges if I order two.

Cheers

Gareth

Edited June 16, 2009 by Musicman20

[dannybuoy]

Any package coming through marked as being worth $25 or less should escape customs charges. They should sort you out, that's why I try and order from them when possible

[Musicman20]

Ah cool...im tempted to get a Bass Big Muff as well....but not sure its necessary. I suppose if I just order one there is less chance of being messed about with charges.

[Tee]

[quote name='Musicman20' post='515215' date='Jun 16 2009, 12:41 PM']Anyone here used Tonefactor in USA?

Cheers

Gareth[/quote]

I purchased a pedal from them, earlier this year, via one of their ebay listings. Everything was fine. It came direct to my work address.

[rmorris]

[quote name='Musicman20' post='515215' date='Jun 16 2009, 12:41 PM']I find the BDDI really useful. I once went straight into the board to record, and they just tweaked it a bit ...[/quote]

+1

yeah - they are very good at what they do. It isn't, I think, good for 'effect' distortion/overdrive - after a certain point the Drive control just breaks up the sound in a fairly non euphonic way. But for getting an 'amp tone' down it's a real good tool - see players who mention the usefulness ( and not necessarily endorsees ).
ParaDriver has dedicated mid control I know - do the drive / presence work the same as BDDI. I'm thinking freq ranges might differ ?

Edited July 2, 2009 by rmorris

[rodl2005]

I use mine with every amp & at every gig. NOT on all the time. I've a SVTII(non-pro) & an Ampeg V4BH & this VT BASS will actually sound almost exactly the same as both these amps if I adjust it to do so... I don't NEED it to do that, but it was fun to try & do.
I find I like using it to slightly alter my all tube amps sound- w/ the SVTII I use it to make it sound as tho it's JUST on the break up point & sumtimes as a compltet OD pedal.
With the V4BH I use it to add another dimension- I USUALLY have the V4BH set reight at the 'sweet spot'( breaking up slighly when i dig in-clean when I play normally) So I use the VTBASS to add MORE Distortion when needed, & therefore am able to turn it off & go back to a clean sound quickly.
I also use it w/ a LMII > Berg AE112- at our li'l Jazz/blues gigs & I've had SO MANY compliments on my tone with this set up. All ages of ppl ... one old timer came up & said- "is that a vintage set up U got there?" No it's actually a modern lite weight amp & cab etc.. was my reply. "gee it sounds just like bass did when I used to go to gigs back in the day" Thats a pretty good compliment I think- as the tone I was going for was like a B-15-Fender Jazz w/ flats>VTBASS (set as B-15 w/ a touch of grit)> LMII (VLE & VPF -8 0clock) >Berg AE112.

[MuseMatt]

Managed to buy one for 110 euros, should come in somewhere next week. Can't wait!

[BassBod]

I bought one here last week - used it at the weekend for EUB gigs, made the GK combo sound a lot warmer and "older". I've only played through B15's a few times, years apart, so I've no idea if this pedal does a good emulation or not. But I like the sound it makes in front of a small modern combo.

[phagor]

Still loving my VT. I've used it with double bass to warm up the tone a little. Nice with fretless too.

My favourite use for it at the moment is after my EHX Bass Micro Synth - it makes it sound filthy and huuge!