| Its funny how a guy with a username could be Ed, you never know ; )
Anyway, the recent Hartke/Youtube ad does show a PSA in his rack from 2008. I personally have never heard a GK head that could get the tone of "Jet City Woman" or " I Dont Believe in Love". I know he is using the new Hartke Hydrive stuff now, which is even cleaner. If you listen to the Hartke ad at the end, he plays a few notes from "Walk In The Shadows" and that sound no doubt has a Sansamp in it, be it the PSA in the rack or from a stompbox BDDI somewhere.
Another poster mentioned earlier that the PSA doesnt have a blend on it like the BDDI so it would be hard to mix clean/dry without 2 direct boxes, or one clean DI and an amp mic.
Ive been an EdBass fan since 91, but continued to grow my roots in country music, as it has become my professional career, but recently I came across a 1990 Kramer Spector that renewed my interest in the band, the tone, etc. So I picked up a programmable BDDI from Craigslist and have been experimenting to find that tone. Honestly, you can get a close approximation by simply plugging the Spector in to any amp or direct to mixer. Alot of it has to do with the bass itself, its heavy mass, maple woods, EMG P/J pickups and HAZLABS preamp. Get some bright SS strings, and a medium pick and your 80% there IMO. So the final 20% is made up of what I believe is the Sansamp and either a combination of a clean DI or a good mix on the blend knob. The level of drive is possibly the hardest to match, as I believe the bass and treble should be set flat. I hear the presence knob on "JCW", so Im guessing about 2-3 oclock on that one. The level knob is a no-brainer, as it should be just a notch louder than your clean signal. I brought down the treble to about 10 oclock, just for some added mids, then beefed up the bass to about 1 oclock for the "whoomph" factor. I just cant decide whether to turn the drive knob up most of the way and blend more to the sansamp side, or to back off the drive some and blend more to the direct side, because you dont want to lose that raw punch of the Spector.
Finally, I dont want to copy EdBass, I just want to rediscover a tone from days gone by and have that sound in my arsenal should I ever need it. Kudos to Eddie and the production staff for always nailing this tone, time after time, in both the studio and live. Im going to see them here in Nashville on November 11 for the "American Soldier" tour. Cant wait. | 
