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haven't drank the emulator koolaid yet

jellymax

jellymax

Don't fry any wooden fish
Supporting Member
Nov 29, 2006
1,353
1,079
SF CA
#1
i hear a lot about running boxes in front of amps for purposes of
basic tone. sansamp, etc... being a gearhead myself i
should get it but i don't. i guess i am from the less is
more camp. if i don't like the tone of my amp, i get rid of it &
get one i like. adding another device in the chain is against
my gut instinct.

what advantages am i missing out on? fill me in dudes
 
#3
Emulators, Modeling, simulators are tone shaping tools in the hands of musicians. Not every musician needs every tool. Some get more out of it.

Problem is, it doesn't work so well with regular bass heads and cabinets. Why it's prevalent in recording studios is they listen on better gear.
 
#4
seamonkey said:
Emulators, Modeling, simulators are tone shaping tools in the hands of musicians. Not every musician needs every tool. Some get more out of it.

Problem is, it doesn't work so well with regular bass heads and cabinets. Why it's prevalent in recording studios is they listen on better gear.
Click to expand...


makes sense to me. in the studio, a quick, tried & true bass
tone can save time & money.

on the gig, i prefer to carry as few items as possible anyhow, plus a
short signal path
 
#5
I have recently added a MXR Bass DI with Distortion and a compressor. I used to be a bass to amp guy myself. I use the compressor more than the distortion. With my LMII I get my old SVT feeling, minus the weight and tube issues. I am the same way less to load in less to load out.
 
#7
I agree they go better straight into a PA than they do into an amp, that's why...

...I'm digging my VT Bass pedal so much I've got my GK for sale and am building a DIY set up with an all in one design containing a stereo power amp (425 per side), two 10's and one 15. I'll have a thread set up with construction pics soon, probably over the weekend.
 
#8
I'm a plug-n-play guy, and I sound like me whatever I plug into (with obvious gear limitations). I couldn't imagine needing some pedal (no matter how good it is) to get my basic tone. Granted, some pedals can make some cool sounds but after a few minutes, I wish you'd just unhook that thing and plug into the amp.;) Rigs and effects have a good deal to do with it yes, but most of your "tone" is in your fingers and how new your strings are.:D
 
#9
one young kid of my acquaintance bought a Line6 Bass Pod floor unit, and plugged it into the front end his small combo and was extremely dissatisfied with the resulting tones....
things improved once he understood the fallacy of running amp emulations into an amp...

if one wants or needs to forego an amp/cab rig the emulators can be very useful, especially for recording purposes...
 
#11
I'm a passionate amateur hack. I have and love all-tube, no-tube and hybrid heads. I'm not sure who's drinking what. Some believe 10 lbs of micro head and pedal can sound like a 100lb head and some don't. In a live setting, the audience falls squarely into the former group. If the player wants to feel the weight of the latter and groove to it, that's cool, but don't delude yourself into thinking the audience can tell the difference, because they cannot. Studio is another matter and I have no experience or strong opinions in that regard, but if Geddy Lee and so many others use a Sansamp, you can pour me a cup.
 
#12
I was a diehard Bass > Cord > Amp guy until I found the Sansamp BDDI (7-8 years ago, now.) I was already running a Mesa Bass 400+ into Bag End cabs, but the sans was the great equalizer at every crappy venue we played. I could put my cabs wherever I wanted, and every soundguy was psyched that I had my own DI that sounded better than theirs.

In my new band, I'm sick of the mids scoop, and I just this week picked up a Rusty Box (Tronographic.) I'm still playing around with using it in place of the Mesa preamp, but even as a stompbox it sounds killer. I get that natural overdrive from hitting the preamp tubes without having to crank the volume as high.


Recording I'm actually on the opposite front - I don't think there's any way to really capture the right bass sound without moving some air.
 
#13
I've never really looked at Sansamp products as being emulators. I know they're marketed that way, but once you throw out the stigma of trying to emulate something else and just realize that they're great sounding preamps there shouldn't be any difference between using a preamp from Sansamp, BBE, Demeter, Kern, Fender, etc.
 
#16
silky smoove said:
I've never really looked at Sansamp products as being emulators. I know they're marketed that way, but once you throw out the stigma of trying to emulate something else and just realize that they're great sounding preamps there shouldn't be any difference between using a preamp from Sansamp, BBE, Demeter, Kern, Fender, etc.
Click to expand...

Very good point. Never looked at it that way.
 
#18
I like the flexibility - my amp gives me one distict tone I really love, but by clicking a switch I have another distinct tone I really love without twisting knobs. There is a difference in how and where you pluck the string, but I think that can only go so far. A for people in cover bands more options helps. I see as no different than using any other effect - or another bass for that matter.
 
#20
maestrovert said:
one young kid of my acquaintance bought a Line6 Bass Pod floor unit, and plugged it into the front end his small combo and was extremely dissatisfied with the resulting tones....
things improved once he understood the fallacy of running amp emulations into an amp...

if one wants or needs to forego an amp/cab rig the emulators can be very useful, especially for recording purposes...
Click to expand...

He was probably disappointed because he was plugging it into a small combo amp. When I first got my GT-10B all I had was a Fender Rumble 100 15''...I could get some cool sounds, but nothing great.

When I got my SVT-4 pro and my 810, the GT-10B was so much more valuable because everything sounded like it should. You have to start out with decent gear to get these emulators, models, effects, etc. to sound like they should. You can't plug into a crappy combo and expect the world.
 

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