Should I Get a DI Box?

[Groovy_Gravy]

I use a Yorkville 200watt 1x15 combo. At practice i run just them amp and it sounds great.

At gigs, for a little more power we run the bass through the yorkville and the PA through the amps line out. (we have a 1000W JBL sub)

Do I need a DI box for this? will it get me a better sound? Ive been struggling at some gigs to get my sound where i want it. It can be too "boomy" in certain venues.

If i do need a DI which ones are recommended?


THanks

[T-Bird]

Hi.

Regardless of Your rig, IMHO a DI is one of the most important piece of gear a bassplayer should have. And most of us have at least one to choose from.

Better sound is always highly subjective, so only You can answer that.
It'll be better than Yorkville's line out, that's for sure.


As for the DI itself, everyone has their favourite.

Countryman and Radial are industry standards, and You can't really go wrong with either one.

The cheapo's work fine as well, especially if the rest of the signal chain has a higher noise floor so the inadequacies are blanketed. Won't work that well when recording though, so if that's something You like to do in the future, I'd look for quality.

On shared rehearsal spaces or shoddy gigs, it's best to have a brand ( :cough: Behringer :cough: ) that no one bothers to steal.



I use SVTDI for no particular reason other than that it gets the job done.
And looks cool doing it .

Regards
Sam

[1954bassman]

Every bass player should carry a quality DI box, and not a cheapo, there is a difference. You will end up getting a good one some day anyway, so you may as well skip over the $30 cheepies, and get a Radial, Countryman, etc.

[kanonfodr]

I use a SansAmp BDDI for all of my tone shaping and sending to both the PA and my rig. Definitely a great product to have, and has a bunch of uses. As a matter of fact I'm thinking about getting a second one to put on the pedal board, 1 for tone shaping pre-pedals and then the second at the end running clean to output to my amp, the house, and my incoming IEM system.

Peace,
Greg

[Lo-E]

I concur with the others here. In fact, T-Bird wrote almost exactly what I would have written, so from now on just do whatever T-Bird says!

[Groovy_Gravy]

Thanks for the Info, I checked those brands out....Kind of pricey, are there certain pones from those companies that you suggest? or even ones from other companies that arent so hard on the wallet....

[countrybassist]

Yes get a good one. I have a JDI and a Countryman.

[Groovy_Gravy]

nevermind, i found a Type 85 for $175 not too bad

[Groovy_Gravy]

Originally Posted by countrybassist

Yes get a good one. I have a JDI and a Countryman.

Which ones do you have? Type 10? type 85?

which one would you recommend?

[countrybassist]

85

[Biggbass]

I carry two in my gig bag. One standard DI and one Sadowsky DI

[tink9975]

Originally Posted by Groovy_Gravy

nevermind, i found a Type 85 for $175 not too bad

these guys have them for $148

[stedtale]

Originally Posted by tink9975

these guys have them for $148

Or you can find them used for even less.

[bassgod0dmw]

Originally Posted by tink9975

these guys have them for $148

And just in case they're out of stock, these guys have it for $149.

Originally Posted by stedtale

Or you can find them used for even less.

+1

As for less expensive options, the Radial Pro series is a good bargain. The Pro48 or ProDI are the less expensive versions of the J48 and JDI.

I've got a JDI and Type 85 myself. They are both great boxes.

[stedtale]

Originally Posted by stedtale

Or you can find them used for even less.

Like these:

https://www.google.com/search?q=goog...iw=827&bih=437

[georgestrings]

Originally Posted by 1954bassman

Every bass player should carry a quality DI box, and not a cheapo, there is a difference. You will end up getting a good one some day anyway, so you may as well skip over the $30 cheepies, and get a Radial, Countryman, etc.

Yup - I bought a used Countryman off of the classifieds here for $100, and consider it money very well spent... I used to have a JDI, also - but not all my passives sounded that great with it...


- georgestrings

[jplumansoc]

When you're playing live, going through a DI box and mixing it with a signal coming from your head/cab will give you a tone that can actually cut through the mix. I found that just micing and/or sending a signal from my ampeg didn't always give me the tone i wanted and a DI box really helped with that.

Right now I'm using a Ampeg SVT-DI box with a Radial BigShot i/o box infront of it to split my G&L, Ibanez and Lakland.

I used to use a JDI and loved it. It does however impart its own tone when you use a bass with active electronics. I personally liked it when I had my G&L going through it.

Before that I used the Sansamp DI and a Fender p bass which wasn't a bad combo either.

That being said, Countryman and Radial as noted by previous people are industry standards and you can't go wrong. Products like the ampeg SVT DI and Sansamp will change your sound which can be good or bad for you depending on how you view it. For me, I'm in love with my SVT DI, when I play at church, i'll often just use that and then use IEM's.

[Mendouza]

Originally Posted by T-Bird

Hi.

....
I use SVTDI for no particular reason other than that it gets the job done.
And looks cool doing it .

Regards
Sam

Hi, i´m reviving this particular comment as i can´t find information about this Ampeg SVT DI BOX. i recently aquired it and would like to know if somwone knows if i could use this Ampeg SVT DI Box with 220v as i´m in South America? It´s not clear on the box, it only indicates Fuse T. 5A/125v - T. 25A/250v. Do i only have to replace the fuse or use a 125 v transformer?
Thanxs.

[TimmyP]

Radial Pro48 or the active DI from Audiopile.net.

[guy n. cognito]

Originally Posted by Groovy_Gravy

Do I need a DI box for this?

Nope. If you like the tone of your head, send a post-eq signal to the PA, and then eq it properly in the board.