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All-New Ampeg SCR-DI!

#901
Ox Boris said:
What about the current amps thing electricity volts blah?
Click to expand...
It has sufficient current to drive the pedal and will not blow it up providing you get the polarity correct.

But it might whine like crazy, this depends upon the design of the adaptor and pedal (the pedal's tolerance to noisy supplies).

Some adaptors work at a switching frequency within the audio range, if the pedal is not designed to work with these you will here the switching frequency as a whine.

One-Spot, Boss, etc have a lot higher switching frequency which you will not hear.
 
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#908
TL;DR: Picked up an SCR-DI yesterday (in large part based on the reviews in this thread) and agree whole-heartedly with those who love it. It has knocked a BDDI off my board (quite easily).

So I've tried a bunch of preamps over the years and have always come back to my old standby, a BDDI. I recently purchased a TC Electronics BH250 to use in my practice room and I just haven't been thrilled with the the way the BDDI interacts with it. Maybe after a dozen years or so of BDDI, I'm just sick of it...who knows. So yesterday I went down to Sam Ash on 34th to see what Larry Hartke had in stock in the way of preamps. I had no real ideas for what I wanted, mostly I just wanted to see what was there and see if anything grabbed my attention.

Once there, Larry showed me what he had. A Hartke Bass Attack 2 (of course...lol), an MXR M81, an MXR M-80, a Darkglass B7K, a BDDI, an Ampeg SCR-DI and a few others that are escaping me right now. I've owned (and sold) all of those with the exception of the Hartke Bass Attack 2 and the Ampeg. The Hartke is $50 cheaper but cost wasn't going to be the deciding factor. I had the first Hartke Bass Attack pedal and wasn't all that happy with it, although this newer version seemed to be an improvement. Be that as it may, I quickly decided I would be walking out with the SCR-DI or nothing at all. Knowing next to nothing about the pedal, I pulled out my phone and did a quick search on Talkbass which landed me on this thread. So I sat there in the Hartke Bass Lounge and read through this thread and have to say, you guys sold me on it.

Once I got it home and plugged it into the BH250 it took all of about 30 seconds for me to know I finally found the pedal to knock the BDDI off my board. The descriptions others have used in this thread (more natural organic tone, Ampegy, etc.) were all quite accurate. I set the EQ controls on the BH250 flat and was immediately able to dial in a very usable, rich Ampegy tone with the SCR-DI. Its hard to imagine an easier pedal to use in terms of dialing in tone. I also found the Scrambler to be quite good. Again, it took almost no time to dial in a very usable distortion. As others have said, I think you'd have to really work to dial in something "un-usable" with this pedal. After I finished A/Bing with with the BDDI, I added it to my board and it plays well with my other pedals (Source Audio Bass Envelope Filter, MXR Bass Distortion, TC Electronics SpectraComp, and my non-tone shaping pedals: a BeatBuddy Mini, TC Electronics Ditto and TC Electronics WireTap).

I have yet to use the Aux In/phones feature as the BH250 has the same feature with the added bonus of piping the Aux In *and* my bass signal through to my cab so I can practice using the Aux In with or without headphones. But it will be nice to have the ability to use the SCR-DI as a stand-alone practice tool for times I don't have my BH250 handy (although because the BH250 is so small and light, I almost always throw it in my gig bag anyway). It never hurts to have redundant practice capabilities.

Bottom line - the SCR-DI far exceeded my expectations and has definitely found a home as my main tone-shaping pedal. Thanks to everyone who contributed to this thread - tons of useful posts that really helped me get a sense of the thing before I purchased it.
 
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#909
The SCR-DI may have just met its match:

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DI, headphone amp, color, but no Scrambler equivalent. Both are huge, respectively.

Assuming Module has true bypass, which the Ampeg lacks, it then all comes down to one's preference for an Eden sound vs. Ampeg sound.
 
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#910
I wouldn't say "met it's match", sensational as that sounds...

It does look like a good DI. Like the sweeps, always a good feature. Am sure it has many good and useful tones.

To me looks like an improved version of:
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But apart from similar features like the headphone out, DI out, and large footprint, it's like saying SCR-DI has met it's match, and then fill in whatever you like here....

It does look like a mighty useful pedal though!
 
#912
In terms of the SCR-DI meeting its match, a couple of things immediately stand out. First, the SCR-DI has a far more simple design and interface. One of the big selling points of the SCR-DI for me is its simplicity. Also (as pointed out in Btbp's post) no Scrambler/overdrive option on the Eden. Then there's the angled front which all but requires the unit be on the first row of my pedalboard. So before I even get to the voicing (of which I clearly prefer Ampeg over Eden), I would say the SCR-DI hasn't exactly met its match with the Eden.
 
#914
JimmyM has a point. So many products out there for what fits us. I still like the SansAmp Paradriver (SansAmp next step up). I did replace it with the BassFly but there are issues with overdriving it. It does not have really good headroom. But a bunch of toys are in easy reach. But I often wonder if I should go back to the ParaDriver
 
#915
Jazz Ad said:
A true bypass on a preamp is a horrible idea, especially if you use it by itself.
You will constantly run into impedance and erratic sound variations as you turn it on and off.
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We can agree to disagree. But then there is this, at 1:07:
- now these I might get, seems they didn't perpetuate the issue with the SCR-DI.

The video is less than compelling, as evidenced by the majority of the comments, and I'd prefer to see if the stand-alone Scrambler and Eq sound as good as the SCR-DI's, sans the unavoidable coloration.
 
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