My SansAmp RBI, along with my first Stingray5 are the two pieces of gear that changed me and my playing the most, ever. Don't know what specifical aspect about the guy's tone made such impression on you but I can bet the CONCISE yet THICK LOWEND delivery, the CRUNCH and a natural PUNCHY COMPRESSION might be coming from the SA. Not to demerit the Aggie, terrific amp of course and his bass of choice. But what makes (for me) the SansAmp paradigm that good is the sort of "mastered" tone it delivers, amazingly easy to record gnarly sounds out of with any range of basses (sample with Maruszczyk bass, sample with cheap DIY P+J kit build), and easily pairable with any loud clean amp, sort of "compatible"/"frendly" with a wide variety of them. The basses I currently use thru' it are Stingray5, Yammie BB615, Epiphone Viola and the aforementioned P+J kit build, so the price range is WIDE (from a mere 88 to some 1000+€). The BDDI/RBI makes them all shine, moreso at the picked hc/punk/metal game.
As a side note, a P bass (for my taste, the more "non-tame" the variety the better) plus a SansAmp pedal is the session rig of choice for MANY pro bassists. And it has some logic, you're taking your tone with you anywhere and plug in any amp/mixer/recorder/whatever, also you keep some control in your hands. The RBI I own is a rackmount unit so it doesn't come with me unless I take the whole rack (+wireless+tuner+SS head). But I still have a SA emulation inside a Zoom MS60B I got as a b'day gift from my wife a couple years ago. It's been my #1 gigging "preamp" eversince. I haven't even A/Bed it's with the real thing, don't care, it serves the same purpose with equal tweakability (plus I have 3 more FX slots to chain). I've gigged any amp no problem, just use the amp's EQ to adapt to room conditions (mostly kill resonances). If it's loud, low and tweakable enough it's OK with me. And that's why these days, except for the old trusty HA3500 head in my rack, everything else is Peavey (4 combos, 2 cabs).
I recently did a concert with a metal band I occasionally sub for and the bassist in the band doing soundcheck before us was the one sharing his 810 cab (a Classis Series head was paired to it, didn't care to check which, the cab was a chinese 810E I liked A LOT). When I plugged my RBI+HA3500 into the 810 the guy simply couldn't believe his cab could sound so wild. My SansAmp+HA3500 really push Ampeg cabs in a similar manner an SVT-CL (my fave) would, really does the trick to that point, but with even more control options. In the same way, I show up at serious gigs with this (300$?) rig, either with 1 or both combos, and it's always a blast to see some eyes wide open when I hit the first note.
As a side note, a P bass (for my taste, the more "non-tame" the variety the better) plus a SansAmp pedal is the session rig of choice for MANY pro bassists. And it has some logic, you're taking your tone with you anywhere and plug in any amp/mixer/recorder/whatever, also you keep some control in your hands. The RBI I own is a rackmount unit so it doesn't come with me unless I take the whole rack (+wireless+tuner+SS head). But I still have a SA emulation inside a Zoom MS60B I got as a b'day gift from my wife a couple years ago. It's been my #1 gigging "preamp" eversince. I haven't even A/Bed it's with the real thing, don't care, it serves the same purpose with equal tweakability (plus I have 3 more FX slots to chain). I've gigged any amp no problem, just use the amp's EQ to adapt to room conditions (mostly kill resonances). If it's loud, low and tweakable enough it's OK with me. And that's why these days, except for the old trusty HA3500 head in my rack, everything else is Peavey (4 combos, 2 cabs).
I recently did a concert with a metal band I occasionally sub for and the bassist in the band doing soundcheck before us was the one sharing his 810 cab (a Classis Series head was paired to it, didn't care to check which, the cab was a chinese 810E I liked A LOT). When I plugged my RBI+HA3500 into the 810 the guy simply couldn't believe his cab could sound so wild. My SansAmp+HA3500 really push Ampeg cabs in a similar manner an SVT-CL (my fave) would, really does the trick to that point, but with even more control options. In the same way, I show up at serious gigs with this (300$?) rig, either with 1 or both combos, and it's always a blast to see some eyes wide open when I hit the first note.
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