Radial JDI confirmation

[JimmyM]

Thanks for all the responses. The main goal is a DI from between the cab and head for when I use that set up. I have a Milkman head with DI when I use it, or I’m using a Bassrig 64 pre/di at church.

Well I’ve done it a million times between head and cab (including the JDI) and it’s always fine. Radial may say not to do it, but I’ve never had problems with them. The amp pretty much takes over the DI sonically when you do it, so you can use anything as long as it does speaker level.

 

[TomB]

…In any case, I would personally follow Radial's advice on what the OP originally asked about and NOT use the JDI between the amp/speaker. Radial is a company that make top quality products without any of the dubious claims and hyped up marketing BS that's so common with many other manufacturers of musical equipment. If Radial say something like this about one of their own product, I believe they do it for credible, technical reasons, and not to sell you the LESS expensive JDX that is actually specifically designed for this purpose.

If the JDX is specifically designed for this role, isn’t it what the OP has been looking for all along?

 

[Tim Payne]

don't get an active DI, if you are ditching the modern amp, you don't want an active DI, it's the modern sound. the passive DI will have a transformer that will give you a little coloration, like a good tube amp would (nothing close, but the parallel exists). passive DI with passive has been happening forever and is the sound of so many hits and records you love. Motown had the Wolfbox, Sigma Sound in Philly had/has their Sigma DI, and on and on.

The passive bass needs active DI is an invention by the music companies to get you to buy more poopie, its bunk. Also its a lot easier to have a bass, tuner, passive di all in your case/gig bag when you go to the studio instead of hauling power supplies for active di and stuff.

That's helpful, I'm looking at getting a DI for my bass setup. My basses are all passive except for one which I don't use all that often; I run my Fender Jazz through a Boss Bass Equalizer and a Seymour Duncan Studio Bass Compressor. From what I gather the EQ will act as an active buffer therefore a Passive DI will work fine for what I need?

I don't have much experience with using a DI so am looking for some pointers.

 

[markjazzbassist]

That's helpful, I'm looking at getting a DI for my bass setup. My basses are all passive except for one which I don't use all that often; I run my Fender Jazz through a Boss Bass Equalizer and a Seymour Duncan Studio Bass Compressor. From what I gather the EQ will act as an active buffer therefore a Passive DI will work fine for what I need?

I don't have much experience with using a DI so am looking for some pointers.

Yeah just buy a Radial JDI they are industry standard passive DI and are excellent.

 

[sunbeast]

That's helpful, I'm looking at getting a DI for my bass setup. My basses are all passive except for one which I don't use all that often; I run my Fender Jazz through a Boss Bass Equalizer and a Seymour Duncan Studio Bass Compressor. From what I gather the EQ will act as an active buffer therefore a Passive DI will work fine for what I need?

I don't have much experience with using a DI so am looking for some pointers.

Both the compressor and EQ when turned on will effectively buffer your signal before the DI and so the JDI will work great and provide minimal coloration in most any context with one or both of those active. Even the coloration/loading resulting from a fully passive signal into a JDI sounds pretty good IMO, though as others have mentioned it can result in a relatively low output and definitely adds some more color this way (not to mention the potential for loading of your pickups dependent on the cable-lengths you are using).

Well I’ve done it a million times between head and cab (including the JDI) and it’s always fine. Radial may say not to do it, but I’ve never had problems with them. The amp pretty much takes over the DI sonically when you do it, so you can use anything as long as it does speaker level.

I'm sure it can work, but if you look at gutshots of the JDI you will see that the JDI has its jacks directly attached to a PCB so by attaching the JDI in-between your amp and speaker you are sending the full wattage of your amp through little PCB traces which the company itself has advised against. Something like the Countryman Type 85 (which I have used in between amp and cab many times before) has the in and thru jacks directly hardwired using suitable wire to handle that full power. Even so, with any speaker-level DI it is much safer to just attach it to an extra speaker out on the amp or parallel out on one of the cabs at which point it is only pulling a tiny bit of signal due to the high input impedance. Attaching it between amp and speaker is just an unnecessary risk IMO that could take out your amp

 

[denton57]

So between amp and head = j48

 

[mbrain]

Agedhorse spent a fair amount of time explaining why running a di this way can be a very bad idea a decade ago. For what it's worth.

https://www.talkbass.com/threads/di-problems.645657/