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Sansamp RBI


Hoffbass
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Hi Fellow Chaters

Recently I’m trying to get into the pre-/poweramp setting game with my 410 cab.One of the options could be a rackmount Sansamp RBI with a Crown or QSC poweramp. The videos and reviews I’ve found are mostly about the driven ( SVT sort of...) sound, but cannot really hear that how it works with clean tone.

Does this preamp do a Marcus Miller hifi slap, or a Jaco Pastorius tight back sound without colouring the sound of the bass?

I’d appreciate any input here guys👍

Many thanks

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I had a look at the manual on Tech 21’s website and among the suggested settings are ‘SVT’, ‘Bassman’ and ‘Slap’, all of which employ the gain set to the left of the dial. Whether those would match the sounds in your head I don’t know.

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From using the old Bass Driver for years from which the RBI is based, you  get a much more transparent sound by reducing the 'Gain' and 'Blend' controls. When you reduce the Blend I think you also reduce the speaker simulation which always adds an inherent 'thick' coloured tone that you might not want when doing slap or back pickup Jaco stuff. However Tech 21 demos nearly always seem to have the blend set at 100% on so you generally can only access these tones when trying the unit out. If you have a nice bass you get far better sounds with the Blend control at under 50% in my opinion. 

The bass and treble controls still work even when the blend is reduced so that would be my starting point when looking for a transparent tone, particularly if was also using a pedal preamp. 

If you want a more transparent preamp there will be other options. The Tech 21 stuff is really good stuff though. 

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Cheers Thodrik,

I agree.They’re great stuff, and it would be the best to try and hear the sound  when the blend control is turned down for a transparent sound.

If the amp doesn’t lose the bottom end and the clean ‘thickness’ remains there without colouring or overdriving the tone,it would be the deal for me.

Thanks for you input.

 

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The Bass Driver/RBI like many of our SansAmps can be set clean. Because they are emulating the sound of a vintage tube amp many demos focus on the more over driven sounds. The reason we have the Blend up all the way in many sample settings is simple, vintage tube amps have no Blend control. The Blend control was part of the original design conception and goes back to how bass guitar used to be recorded in a studio setting. The bass guitar would go to a DI and the direct signal went to the board and the through of the DI went to a mic'd bass amp and both signals were "blended" at the board. It was a composite sound. In most settings whether live or in the studio the bass is DI'd these days.

Your clean sound with our SansAmps will depend upon how much headroom you are playing with. With less headroom you will tend to play harder and hit the circuit harder. If you want no amp emulation you can turn the Blend all the way off and now you have a DI with EQ.

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There is also the Sansamp RPM which is a general instrument pre-amp but it works great on bass. This is because the RPM has a parametric mids control which is always a great feature to when sculpting a tone. I think I would actually personally go for the RPM over the RBI but really both would be great units. 

There is also a PSA-1 in the classifieds here which has loads of programmable presets for different guitar and bass tones. 

 

Edited by thodrik
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7 hours ago, Tech21NYC said:

The Bass Driver/RBI like many of our SansAmps can be set clean. Because they are emulating the sound of a vintage tube amp many demos focus on the more over driven sounds. The reason we have the Blend up all the way in many sample settings is simple, vintage tube amps have no Blend control. The Blend control was part of the original design conception and goes back to how bass guitar used to be recorded in a studio setting. The bass guitar would go to a DI and the direct signal went to the board and the through of the DI went to a mic'd bass amp and both signals were "blended" at the board. It was a composite sound. In most settings whether live or in the studio the bass is DI'd these days.

Your clean sound with our SansAmps will depend upon how much headroom you are playing with. With less headroom you will tend to play harder and hit the circuit harder. If you want no amp emulation you can turn the Blend all the way off and now you have a DI with EQ.

Wow! Sounds like an excellent customer service from the producer! I am glad to hear this confirmation. I checked the rating of possible power-amps and I think I'd have enough clean headroom to play sensibly without distortion. I think an 800watts cab with a bridged power-amp provides enough headroom for clean sound too. The RBI has started to grow on me now....Thanks for the input guys!

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7 hours ago, thodrik said:

There is also the Sansamp RPM which is a general instrument pre-amp but it works great on bass. This is because the RPM has a parametric mids control which is always a great feature to when sculpting a tone. I think I would actually personally go for the RPM over the RBI but really both would be great units. 

There is also a PSA-1 in the classifieds here which has loads of programmable presets for different guitar and bass tones. 

 

Just reading the specs of them...so great stuff . Thanks again!

 

 

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7 hours ago, thodrik said:

There is also the Sansamp RPM which is a general instrument pre-amp but it works great on bass. This is because the RPM has a parametric mids control which is always a great feature to when sculpting a tone. I think I would actually personally go for the RPM over the RBI but really both would be great units. 

There is also a PSA-1 in the classifieds here which has loads of programmable presets for different guitar and bass tones. 

 

Also a GED2112 in the classifieds.

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