Looking for experience from anyone who uses just a Sansamp Bass Driver (new, old, GT, classic, programmable, rbi whatever) and a power amp. Pros will obviously start with weight and protability lets hear the other pros and cons....
hahaha thanks Bro. The Newer programmable Bass driver stompbox has a "1/4 Boost" buuton, which so far as I can tell from the manual boosts the out +6db from line level. Just wanted to hear who's happy with the SOUND and who isnt and why.
I'm using just the rackmount SansAmp RBI and a power amp, a Crown Macro Tech 1200. I have it bridged mono and I'm running it into a Euphonic Audio NL-210. I think it sounds awesome, it's incredibly simple but I think you'll find the SansAmp RBI to be very powerful too in that the tone controls do a lot, a little often goes a long way to be careful to not over EQ your sound, then you'll be fine.
i tried the sans amp pedal with the power section of my ampeg and i wasnt happy, but im sure it would rock with a power amp.
The newer bass drivers (non-programmable) also have 2 switchs, for the XLR and 1/4 out, one is for instrument level (using as effect pedal) the other is for Line level (boosts it so it can be used properly by a power amp/mixer)
I am using that setup with my SABDDI.......I just got my power amp the other day, so I've only played through it a few times. So far, the only thing I'm not pleased with is the lack of control for the mids. fwiw, mine is the newer one with the "line/inst" selector. I'm planning on buying the RBI so I can just rack it and forget it.
Running a pedal pre to a poweramp is totally do-able. I run a Fishman Pro Platinum into a stewart pr 1000 and it works well. I am also about to do this w/ a sabddi. I emailed Tech 21 and they said that the Sabddi can also do this no problem, but you have to make sure the boost switch is correctly positioned at Line to get the necessary output boost to drive a poweramp. You can also mod the older units if you have one of the those. What I am wondering is what are the differences b/n the output of the sabddi with boost on VS the output of the RBI. Does the RBI have greater output? and if so would that make a significant difference in terms of sound quality?
I was running a Sansamp ADI into my QSC USA 900 until a couple of months ago. It wasn't able to fully power my power amp but it sounded good. It was loud enough for the small gigs I was doing but my never ending curiosity forced me to sell it and pick up a rack pre. I wish I had kept it and found another way to fund my Bmax, but I can also say that about my old Ampeg B2r, Aguilar DB924.............................etc. BTW the ADI has outstanding mid control for those of you not quite happy with you BDDI. You can boost the mids on the BDDI by cutting the "active" bass and treble, but the ADI has a dedicated "active" mid control and a semi-parametric functiion as well.
The line boost will make it the same (roughly) output level as the RBI, and it will be the same sound quality, just with added mid control
I am also considering the tech 21 para driver which has a dedicated mid but no presence knob. I am not much for distortion. Will i miss the presence knob?
i dont like the prescence knob, it seems to add too much treble past the 50% mark, its like having 2 treble dials in an eq ( imho )
I found that I don't use the presence control very much either, I leave it on about 1 or so and I mean the 6:30 position. With my NL-210 cab I run it with the drive at about 12:00, Bass at 12:00, mid at 11:30, treble 12:00, output level set to taste. I think it sounds great. When I first started using this cab I had it over EQ'ed with too much bass and too much presense, it sounded fine with my old cabs, so just remember that the EQ is VERY powerful on these things, it can do a lot of good but it's also possible to dial up an nasty sound if you try hard enough.
To me the best use for my BDDI is to fatten up the sound of my SWR on songs that call for it. (a close second is to get a geddy lee or live at leeds tone). I like to use the presence control in the latter case, but i generally compensate by cutting a bit of treble (which tech 21 does reccomend for some settings) I also never use blend past 12 o'clock (50/50). In fact the bass and treble eq's are so powerful i dont go past 11 and 1 o'clock with them. I also use drive at 11 o'clock or below.
