What cable length (2 your board and 2 your amp)?

[basswave]

What cable length (2 your board and 2 your amp)?

I'm starting to really use my EBS (not true bypass pedals) and have to start gigging with them (some of the new material is dependent on it). I will eventually switch to true bypass...

I love going straight into my amp and using the effects loop, however I don't think I can mix rack gear and EBS pedals. Not to mention I need to send a wet signal to the house.

Question(s) to the void -

What length are you sending to your perspective pedal boards?

From your pedal boards what are you running to your AMPs?
Or do you send a wet signal to your DI?

I usually run 21' to a DI and then 3' to an amp.
(compression and sonic maximizer is going through a effects loop).

Any thoughts are appreciated.

[Jazz Ad]

Going true bypass with long cables isn't the smartest thing to do. You want buffers along the signal path to keep impedance low and signal strong.

[scotch]

Originally Posted by Jazz Ad

Going true bypass with long cables isn't the smartest thing to do. You want buffers along the signal path to keep impedance low and signal strong.

+1 !!!!

You need to brush up on both the pro's and con's of true-bypass! Especially with long cables. Know why you insist on tb before committing to it.

To answer your question, though- I use a 20' to the board, a 20' back to the di and a 2' from the di to amp.
I send the fully 'wet' signal to my di and amp. It's important to co-ordinate with the FOH engineer if you're doing any "whacky' effecting (and of course, make sure your effects are appropriate for the song!). I'm also picky about di's when using effects. Lots of effected tones often sound crappy without an amps coloration and response. For this reason, I choose somewhat colored di's that respond better to the sounds I'm producing.

When I'm in the studio, I use significantly shorter cabling- usually a 6' or shorter from the instrument & then the shortest possible from device to device.

[scotch]

I don't like using anything longer than 20' directly after a passive bass. After that, buffering really needs to happen to preserve high-end detail. Or, 20' straight into an amp or active di...

[kevteop]

I currently have 20' cables from bass to pedalboard and pedalboard to amp, but I have to make sure there's always a buffer active on my board because signal degradation down 40' of cable is awful, even with active basses.

I keep meaning to switch to shorter cables, I don't really need 20' of movement with my bass. I'm bound to a mic stand for most of the time anyway.

[derridiandrift]

My $.02... keep the pedals you have. There's nothing wrong with them.

I run 18' of cable from the pedal board at the front of the stage to the amp. I'd like to use a longer cable because I don't like having any cables under my feet. My signal chain is pretty simple... bass--->wireless transmitter/receiver--->pedal board with my assorted tricks--->SVT. I use an M-pulse as a backup, and when I do, I set the DI to be pre-eq.

Years ago I found that many house techs refused to take a line out from an amp. I'm finding that to be different now, except when I play large outdoor shows. Then they always put a DI in front of my amp. Regardless, the house is always getting my signal "wet" from my effects chain and my cable run is 18 feet with maybe 3 feet added if they insert a DI.

I hope that helps.

[basswave]

Hello Folks thanks for the input.

I'm a bit ignorant in this area (hence my posting).

Ok it looks like what is going on from the postings is really not much different then what Im doing except my next gig I will run a wet signal to the DI.

I just looking for a cleaner way to send a wet signal to the house without having to add anything in direct line from my bass. Maybe its overkill in thought...Who knows.

I need check out what JMJ and Wimbish are doing.

[walker rosewood]

interesting thread... i have similar problems. The FOH guy never wants to take the DI out of my head. They insist that 'the power here is bad, so I always use these DI's". Even though I'm running through a power conditioner, and the built in DI has a ground lift. Some of my effects sound way different without the amp. It's frustrating.

How do you deal with this? I always try to be nice to the sound guys (I'm also a sound engineer), but they're stuck in their ways. If they insist on an outboard DI box, do most of you find they'll let you use your own? I have an active DI, the cheap behringer one (the only piece of Behringer I'll use). Is that something I should be bringing to all my gigs?

[scotch]

Originally Posted by walker rosewood

interesting thread... i have similar problems. The FOH guy never wants to take the DI out of my head. They insist that 'the power here is bad, so I always use these DI's". Even though I'm running through a power conditioner, and the built in DI has a ground lift. Some of my effects sound way different without the amp. It's frustrating.

How do you deal with this? I always try to be nice to the sound guys (I'm also a sound engineer), but they're stuck in their ways. If they insist on an outboard DI box, do most of you find they'll let you use your own? I have an active DI, the cheap behringer one (the only piece of Behringer I'll use). Is that something I should be bringing to all my gigs?

I feel there are a lot of great reasons to use an outboard DI as opposed to using your amos built-in DI. The LEAST of these reasons is the FOH engineers insistence.

1) Most (not all, of course) amp DI's are an engineering afterthought. The $15 worth of additional parts added to your amp aren't going to equal the purpose-built quality of a good stand-alone DI. Of course Aguilar & some other amp manufacturers have put some time into their DI sections, but by & large- it's not something that a lot of time was spent on!

2) Reliability. Amps fail, stage power fails - it happens & it's not necessarily your fault! Having an independent, outboard DI can mean the difference between completing the gig or not!

3) More flexible signal chain placement. Often you don't want all of the effects or tone shaping going to the DI channel. Having a separate device allows for placing the DI elsewhere in the chain.

These are just my experiences over the last 15 years of full-time playing. In that time, it's rare to see an amp DI being used on a 'national/professional' level. The 1st thing to break on stage is the amp. Instruments (strings excepted), pedals, DI's pa, etc... rarely fail. Amps, on the other hand, while being very reliable these days- are still the first to die for some reason!

I will occasionally (very rarely) use the DI off of one of my amps. usually for a rehearsal or impromptu small bar gig. I never rely on my amps' DI at a full-scale paying show.

[Yodhan]

I use about a 20 footer (made it myself from mogami cable). The last pedal in my chain is a VT Bass pedal. Luckily for me, my amp is really an over priced power amp at this point, so a standalone DI isn't all that bad for me. I would go with it. Most FOH guys know what sounds good in the room and it is hard to tell that up on the stage.