Not exactly sure how to use Sansamp

SirGrotius · #1 05-01-2010, 08:34 AM

I love my sansamp pedal to death (I have the VT character series), and I usually play it direct through my computer (I have nice Bose headphones, so it sounds great).

That said, in the practice space I use, or when I jam out at all, I'm not 100% sure how to use it with bass amps.

I usually set the pre- and post-gains at 2 (i.e., really low) and then adjust the master volume as needed, because I figure the sansamp is basically mimicing the pregain of the amp.

Is this the correct set up?

If I set the amp's gains too high it'll get farty in a second, but if I set them at zero or 1 there's no sound at all.

Sort of confused...

Thanks for any insights!

bassonthebrain · #2 05-01-2010, 08:59 AM

I have been using my Sansamp for about a year now and I also really like the sound. You are right about lowering the gain on your amp, because the Sansamp is basically working as a preamp. If your amp's gain is too high it will clip out or really overdrive the sound. To get the tones you are looking for, you really just have to play around with your eq settings, both on the amp and the sansamp. remember that you are fighting 2 sets of eq's off of each other, which can sound good, but can sommetimes be frustrating to get exactly what you are looking for. If you really like the sound of the sansamp by itself, try running the output of the sansamp directly to the power amp input on your amp. This bypasses your preamp and you can just control all of your tone with the sansamp. I do this alot with my cheep practice rig that doesn't have the greatest tone by itself, so I just amplify the sansamp signal.

sleepytime · #3 05-01-2010, 10:01 AM

Speaking from my experience with the BDDI, I usually run it to the 'Power Amp In' or 'Return'. From what I understand, the VT has a hotter output than the BDDI. If you run it to the Instrument input, turn the Level down on the VT so you have unity gain (same level as bass output), or run to the padded input on the amp.

Eublet · #4 05-02-2010, 01:41 PM

If you're running into the preamp of you bass head, then make sure you have the Sansamp output set to "Instrument". If you run into the FX return on your head, chances are you can run it at Line level. Other than that, just adjust the Level on the Sansamp and in the input gain your bass head so that neither at at extremes if possible.