ezbass Posted March 26, 2018 Share Posted March 26, 2018 I've had been using a VT DI for the occasional song where I need a more scooped tone for slap work. However, last Friday (and with a slightly different EQ) I had it switched throughout the gig and it sounded monster. I even found myself using a pick a bit more often which really had it snarling (even the guitar player commented). Could be the way of the future. For the record my chain is: wireless; octaver; chorus; VT DI; tuner (with mute); straight into the front of my Phil Jones Flightcase. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
borntohang Posted March 28, 2018 Share Posted March 28, 2018 I was never a big fan of the BDDI, but the VTDI has totally revolutionised my playing and I've not bothered taking an amp to shows since I bought one. I just run straight into whatever is onstage - it's only backfired once when I was given an old Carlsboro which appeared incapable of reproducing bass frequencies, but I just cranked the mids and pretended I was Lemmy for the evening... I've had so much fun with it that I'm starting to get curious about picking up a second BDDI/VTDI and running them in parallel to front of house for dual gnarly/vintage sounds. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acroxixo Posted March 28, 2018 Share Posted March 28, 2018 On 13/03/2018 at 13:31, FinnDave said: Just the one lead, Lozz, from the SansAmp output to the amps' FX return. Plugging into that cuts the Rootmaster's preamp out of the circuit, so the only front panel control on the amp that still works is the master volume. I'm playing it at the moment (well, put the bass on my lap to type) and even my Jazz basses sound great through it! I'm technically ignorant as well, but this was written out clearly in the SansAmp's instruction manual, which has been hiding in the box since I bought it several years ago! Hi, Does it work with another preamp? I have a Darkglass VMTD and a B7K. I use a Warwick Wamp 800. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
la bam Posted March 28, 2018 Share Posted March 28, 2018 ive just done this with a behringer bdi21. bass guitar - pedal bdi21 - return socket on back of amp (in this case an ashdown lg1000) - and it sounds absolutely fantastic. how to transform an amp for £30!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dannybuoy Posted March 28, 2018 Share Posted March 28, 2018 3 hours ago, borntohang said: I was never a big fan of the BDDI, but the VTDI has totally revolutionised my playing and I've not bothered taking an amp to shows since I bought one. I just run straight into whatever is onstage - it's only backfired once when I was given an old Carlsboro which appeared incapable of reproducing bass frequencies, but I just cranked the mids and pretended I was Lemmy for the evening... I've had so much fun with it that I'm starting to get curious about picking up a second BDDI/VTDI and running them in parallel to front of house for dual gnarly/vintage sounds. I was thinking of picking up a BDDI to pair with my VTDI for the same reason, but I've pre-ordered the new DP3-X for now instead! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FinnDave Posted March 28, 2018 Share Posted March 28, 2018 2 hours ago, acroxixo said: Hi, Does it work with another preamp? I have a Darkglass VMTD and a B7K. I use a Warwick Wamp 800. I would have thought so, but I have tried it only with my own Ashdown amp. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrevorR Posted April 5, 2018 Share Posted April 5, 2018 I love my VTDI which II use as a speaker emulated feed to the desk. I’m not a fan of big OD so I use it as a low gain preamp in a variant on the recommended B15 setting. The SVT settings sound great to but for the music I’m doing I don’t need that much clank in my tone. It’s so much better than a flat DI, really brings the bass sound alive. Gain probably sits a smidge higher these days but only at about 9 o’clock. Now, I don’t care whether it accurately emulates a B15 or an SVT in a way that would pass a blind test or whether it supposedly has a “baked in tone”. What I do know and what is important to me is that the tone it produces sounds absolutely amazing to my ears. Wouldn’t be without it now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
borntohang Posted April 6, 2018 Share Posted April 6, 2018 One of the things I find interesting about the VT Bass and other Character series is how little adjustment you have tend to have to make to the EQ controls; most of the drastic change in sound comes out of just altering the Character control and I rarely tweak the three band more than a few notches each way to account for room sound. Got some big gigs coming up this summer and we're probably going to have to move to in-ears, so I'm looking forward to seeing how well it works! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
afterimage Posted April 6, 2018 Share Posted April 6, 2018 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chaddy Posted May 23, 2018 Share Posted May 23, 2018 Not to bump this up or anything Ive been using the Tech 21 VT500 head that has the VT built in. Its pretty darn good over all for a "cheap" head . Controls are easy to use though the d.i at the front etc is abit odd l The only thing I have noticed is when the character dial is turned when the blend is up is that its horribly noisy, this can be countered by turning the blend down. Current settings are drive around 10 o'clock. Mids 9 or just below, bass and treble at 1/2 o clock with blend at full gives a lush deep with a high sparkle sound. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dannybuoy Posted May 23, 2018 Share Posted May 23, 2018 Indeed the blend knob is a bit of a revelation when it comes to exploring grindy tones from the VT. As a low gain tube amp sim it's best to have the blend all the way up, but high gain with the character at noon or below turns to mush as a result of too much low end being fed to the overdrive section. Solution - whack up that character control to send predominantly mids to the overdrive section, then redress the balance by cutting mids and backing off the blend. It's a good way to approximate the sound of the new Tech21 DP-3X pedal if all you have to work with is the VT! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
borntohang Posted May 23, 2018 Share Posted May 23, 2018 1 hour ago, dannybuoy said: Indeed the blend knob is a bit of a revelation when it comes to exploring grindy tones from the VT. As a low gain tube amp sim it's best to have the blend all the way up, but high gain with the character at noon or below turns to mush as a result of too much low end being fed to the overdrive section. Solution - whack up that character control to send predominantly mids to the overdrive section, then redress the balance by cutting mids and backing off the blend. It's a good way to approximate the sound of the new Tech21 DP-3X pedal if all you have to work with is the VT! That's interesting - I haven't really played around with the blend much but recently I've been running it lower. The woofiness/woollyness you get at boosted gain levels irritates the hell out of me and I've spent ages trying to dial it out, but never occured to me to cut the mids that much. I'm actually going for a fairly smooth, classic sound rather than grind but that makes sense. Going to have a play around with it again at next practice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chaddy Posted May 23, 2018 Share Posted May 23, 2018 https://www.manualslib.com/manual/1018755/Tech-21-Vt-Bass-500.html?page=9#manual Theres some recommend settings on here you could give a whirl if you a VT or sansamp ( drive blend etc ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dannybuoy Posted May 23, 2018 Share Posted May 23, 2018 3 hours ago, borntohang said: That's interesting - I haven't really played around with the blend much but recently I've been running it lower. The woofiness/woollyness you get at boosted gain levels irritates the hell out of me and I've spent ages trying to dial it out, but never occured to me to cut the mids that much. I'm actually going for a fairly smooth, classic sound rather than grind but that makes sense. Going to have a play around with it again at next practice. The EQ is placed after the distortion, but the character control is effectively a midrange control before the distortion. So if you boost character, you boost mids. But this allows you to get more upper mid grind without having to push the gain so high, then pull the mids back afterwards to try and flatten everything out again! E.g. try character at 3 o'clock, mids at 10 o'clock, blend at 11 o'clock. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyquipment Posted May 25, 2018 Share Posted May 25, 2018 On 08/03/2018 at 16:38, BassBod said: Don’t think so, as long as the bass and treble aren’t boosted. Thanks for the contribution Tech21 - very interesting to read. I always used mine in front of SWR’s to warm them up a bit - never thought of using the uneffected output for the amp 😳. After 20 years I’ve retired my original Bass Driver due to scratchy pots (most of them!) Is it possible to “re-pot” a Sansamp and get it back into service? Take it all apart clean it and get some contact cleaner on there. That will make it brand new! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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