Urgent help. No amp for tonight. DI options?
 

Hi all. I'm a bit under the pump and I apologise if this is not a question directly with regard to amps. I'm not sure if I should post this in effects or what.

I have a cr@ppy show to play tonight all the way across town. It's truly going to suck. I can't get access to my car to get my rig from the studio and the promoter is scratching his head about backline availability.

Long story short I don't think I'm going to be able to get access to an amp. The promoter has told me that he will let me know one way or the other by midday which is when I'm going to pick up my newly set-up bass from the store.

I'm thinking that if I don't have an answer about an amp I need to get a Direct box urgently so I can go straight into the desk. The DI pedals the store have are the Aguilar tone hammer for apx $300au, Sansamp for about the same, VT for $245 and the Eden WTDI on Special for $145au.

Im torn because I love the tone of the Tone Hammer and I'm more likely to use it again as a pedal in the future, especially since it has the drive tone. But it's double the price of the WTDI, which I'm told doesn't possess the same level of gumption but has an excellent Eden sound nonetheless. Im not big on the Sansamp sound and the VT has never really hooked me.

Does anyone have experience with any of these units?
If you were in my position which would you get?

I'm leaning toward the Eden because it's half the price and should 'suffice' for these isolated instances where I can't get at my rig and I can probably stick my TubeZone in front of it anyway. I certainly don't feel like shelling out $300 for the sake of this p.o.s. gig but it's not like anyone's going to take the pedal off me afterward.

For reference I play metal, tuned to C and my main bass Is a Spector Legend Custom.

Me personally? I'd rather use a Countryman Type 85 or a Radial JDI. Not tone controls, since the soundguy is going to do his thing to "my" tone no matter what.

Honestly, in this kind of crunch I would suggest the Sansamp because the soundman has probably used one before in that venue. it will be the easiest for you and he to negotiate a tone that works for both of you. The others will be more of a struggle since probably neither of you has spent time dialing those ones in, in that room.

Some people find that very high-output basses distort the WTDI in a way that doesn't sound good. Seems like everyone's experiences of it are different though, so you'll just have to try it and see.

Agreed, and will add in the J48 - any one of those 3 will work well for years to come...


- georgestrings

Id love to try those other pedals out but unfortunately I only have access to the ones I listed above. Kinda a meager list I know.

Won't the soundman have a DI for you to use? If the show truly is going to suck, why shell out a bunch of money for a DI that you'll rarely use?

I have the Tone Hammer pedal and love it. I use it as a preamp for a power amp. If you have a power amp around this would make an excellent backup amp... or maybe even primary amp...?

Anyway, if cash is really tight maybe just rent something for now and then take your time to go thru your options without stress or time pressures.

Exactly my issue; I don't really want to fork out cash. There will probably be a generic DI unit there; probably a Behringer or something to that effect but I've gone straight through one of them before and I didn't even end up sounding like a bass player and there was none of me in the foldback.

It's a POS gig but that doesn't allow me to let my band down by sounding like a torn backside.

Maybe the sound guy already has a DI that you can use that's half decent. Why wouldn't the sound guy carry a good one? I suspect most sound guys carry one just in case. I'd try calling the promoter or the sound reinforcement company direct so you can save some time and money.

What is your location? I can lend you a rig if you're in NEOhio.

Im in Australia. Might be a bit of a drive for you man but cheers anyway..

I dig that the sound guy will have something, I also will in all likelihood be offered a backline by one of the other bands; I just can't guarantee it because we're working with a promoter we haven't worked with before 2 hours from home. I just do not want to turn up to my gig without a solid rig option in hand. I've never done that before and I'd like to be able to set my watch by what's going to happen on the night.

Also if I make the right call on the DI pedal and it works nicely I could use it anytime I don't feel like trying to wedge my Trace 4x10s into my hatchback.

+1

I dig mine too.

Personally, I'd find out FOR SURE what EXACTLY is at the gig, and go from there.
Any decent soundman should have several moderate quality passive DI boxes.

Don't buy something you don't really like or won't use. That's just a waste of money.
If you really have to buy something, make sure it's something you will want to use again.

Well the advantage would be that if I choose the right thing and it works for me I'd never have to worry about having a rig for any show where I can take a gig bag. I don't mind spending a bit of money to get that kind of portability.

I've been thinking about doing this for yonks but I've heard that people who only use DI boxes for heavy music really struggle to get a good stage sound in the foldback, and since you can't really test how that's going to feel without gigging it's quite the catch 22.

I had a similar thing happen last year and bought a used $25 Yorkville DI. Sounded ok. A good Radial can be had for $99.

Don't spend $300 if you can avoid it.

Just keep in mind that you'll still need to hear yourself with some sort of monitor. Around here the sound guy will not run bass through the monitors, so that basically means I have to bring my amp no matter what.

If you have to get something I'd suggest the sansamp or tone hammer. I know it sucks to put out that much cash but you'll get future use out of either of those. The WTDI sucks with high output basses. If you get a chance, go to the store and play with both since they cost the same and see which one sounds best for you. Personally I like the sansamp but that is subjective and doesn't mean it's better than the tone hammer. It's just better for my particular style and tastes. If you do try the sansamp at the store remember that the blend knob is your friend. Use it sparingly no matter what the instructions say. I'd recommend between 11 and 1 o'clock on the blend.

I know I've tried the Sans before with my Ibanez and I just couldn't find a tone I liked. I think I found it too thin and scratchy in the high department. We tried it for my tone when we did our record and both my engineer and I didn't favour the response. We use it for studio vocals though and it's awesome. I haven't tried it with the Spector which is a completely different ax obviously.

Seems weird hey, it being the industry standard and all.

I might refresh my ears on the Tonehammer in this case and see how much the service on the bass is going to cost before I do anything.

The cool thing about the TH is that it can be used as both a DI and preamp. It sounds great without having a huge amount of colour like the Sansamp stuff.

So, from those guys with the TH how would it go If I just threw it into the frontend of my GK1001rb? would it overdrive the input too much or could I pull some nice dirty tones with it. I remember last time I tested it I ran it into a Mesa Big Block which would more or less make anything sound titanic.