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differing opinion - VTbass not for me

#42
JazznFunk said:
If you can't get a workable/usable tone out of it, you're not trying. You may not like the overall character of the tone, but to slander the pedal and say it's not even usable (like the last few posts have), show you're just edging toward and achieving hyperbole for effect. The pedal can be set as 'flat' as possible if one tries.
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I agree and I'm going to backpedal some on what I said about it. I don't actually "hate" it on any bass. I simply find it doesn't add anything to the sound of certain instruments. On the the other side of the coin though it transforms my beat old Fender into something truly formidable though every rig I've used it with so far.
 
#43
I know what your saying about liking the original sound of your instrument. I use the tech 21 RBI, I love it. The blend knob allows you to mix your plain bass signal level with the level of the pre amp tone, I see lot of guys run it all the way up which in my opinion makes a somewhat harsh and generic tone(makes different basses sound similar). I run the blend at about 1 o'clock for fretted and even lower for fretless to get a more organic tone. The RBI is great for a lot of stuff because of all the routing possibilities that most guys don't seem to get into. being able to select the type of effects loop (theres a button on the back for 50/50) is another bonus. You can run effects in the effect loop and still have an unaffected signal blended in, This is great when using pedals that suck low end but you don't want to run two rigs in parallel or the sound guy will only give you in channel. Also great if you've always wanted to run a clean and dirty rig (like Justin Chancellor of tool, Tim from RATM and countless others) because you can throw ANY distortion in the loop with it set on 50/50 and you still have a clean bass tone coming through and holding down the low end. I play a warwick thumb NT 5 and my RBI settings are very close to the "tube amp" setting in the RBI manual. the only thing I really ever tweak to get different tones is the blend knob. boosting EQ a lot can get noisy, but I don't have anything on mine past 1 o'clock and it sounds awesome.

I can blend 3 different bass signals into one XLR out. One is my natural bass tone, Two is the EQ'd pre amp tone, 3 is the effects loop. This is where I feel you can get some massive tones with the RBI
 
#44
I really wish I did not sell my BDDI in favor of this pedal...there is just something chinzy to the tone that doesn't hold up at all aginst the BDDI. I think I was enamored by the mid and gain control but I miss my BLEND! Plus, the power jack is in the stupidest place they could place it.
 

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