SansAmp Bass Driver DI (v2) as Pre-Amp

[Baker69]

I use my Sansamp VT21 Bass DI in a similar way to you (ie into the Return socket of my Bass combo), however I never have the Drive setting more than 9 O’Clock otherwise you will get distortion.

 

[prndltech]

The cab could be the culprit… I never had a hard time getting a good, useable tone with it. Heck if all else fails, set everything to noon and just turn it on!

as stated previously, I would use the sansamp to send my signal to FOH. My main board is a hx stomp and a khan vtdi, but I have a nano with a tuner, compressor and a BDDI v2 and it always sounds good as a set and forget rig.

Even though it’s basically a backup/loaner/etc. now, I will always have a Sansamp bddi v2 around just in case. I think it’s awesome you could just run that off phantom power in a pinch as your whole rig and even if it’s not ideal, you’ll sound good. I’ve even taken it off the board and stuck it in my bag for just this purpose.

Don’t give up on it! Keep playing around with different settings. It may not be for you and there’s things I like better, but I’ll always own one and I’ve given one as a gift to a newer player because it’s a staple for a reason. It may be boring to some, but if all you had is a P or J bass and a Sansamp bddi (any version) you can cover a lot of ground!

 

[Timmah]

Do you have any recommended SansAmp settings to get a bass tone similar to this?

If I had to guess:
- Jazz bass with fresh strings and both pickups full on
Sansamp settings guesstimate/starting point:
- Blend at half (it seems the secret with this is that the higher you go on drive, presence, and/or bass, the lower you want to go on the blend control)
- Treble at 11:00
- Mid 10:00 (mid shift at 500)
- Bass 11:00 (shift at 40)
- Presence at like 2:00
- Drive somewhere between 11 and 2 depending on how hot your bass is

For what it's worth, I've had very little luck running a BDDI into the effects return of an amp, and the results are almost always better when I just run it right into the front end.

 

[MDBass]

Hey, apologies in advance if this sounds daft (I am normally a straight into the amp input kinda guy and never used pedals for years, so my knowledge is quite minimal).

But I recently purchased a SansAmp Bass Driver DI (v2) pedal. I wanted my tone to come from this rather than my amp, so I plug into the Input of the SansAmp and use the 1/4" output into the effects loop return on my Ampeg Portaflex 350 head (assuming this bypasses the Ampegs sound giving me just the SansAmp?).

However, the lows seem to always be too "muddy' and I'm struggling to get that classic punchy, but crisp tone.

My question is, if I'm going via effects loop return, does the amphead itself make all that much of a difference? Would a more expensive/higher quality amphead sound better, even if I'm still going via SansAmp into effects loop return?

Gear wise I play a Fender Jazz Bass with Symour Duncan Quarter Pounder pickups and Ernie Ball Hybrid Cobalt strings. Straight into my SansAmp which is going into my Ampeg Portaflex head via effects loop return.

Cheers

Maybe I should start a “Sansamp FAQ” group: it’s a pedal people often struggle with dialing in, largely due to how interactive the controls are.

That Bouncing Souls tone should be fairly straightforward with a jazz bass.

To start, plug the Sansamp into the front end of your amp with the pedal bypassed: play your bass, and use your ears to decide what you’re looking to add to the sound (more drive, less honk, more clank, etc) to reach your tonal goal.

Once that’s established start with the drive at minimum, all other knobs on the Sansamp at noon, and use the level to gain match the pedal output first: it’s very easy to trick your ears that you’ve improved or worsened a tone when what you’ve actually done is boosted or cut the overall volume.

Dial in the amount of added drive you’re looking for next: this will affect every other aspect of the pedals’ functions, and the more drive you add the more you’ll have to roll back the level control to keep the output at unity gain.

Finally, dial in any additional EQ adjustments needed, and keep in mind that the Blend control introduces a significant notch at 800Hz.

If the tone is still too “honky” or “boxy” with Blend at noon, increase the Blend: if the tone is too “scooped”, decrease the Blend.

The presence knob is boost only and highly interactive with the treble control as well: I tend to prefer rolling off the treble a bit from noon, and boosting the presence a bit from noon.

With higher Blend or Gain settings, I frequently run the Treble as low as 10 or even 9 o’clock.

Hope this helps, feel free to DM if you have any additional questions

 

[MDBass]

Not only did I do that, I also documented the process here:
https://www.talkbass.com/threads/my-preamp-bender-a-journal.1527426/

In a nutshell:

Pedalboard 1: Broughton RFE into Noble DI

Pedalboard 2: Empress Para EQ Deluxe into ZeroFive LowRider into Effectrode LA-1A.

Board 1 sounds expensive, noble and natural, Board 2 sounds so fat you will have to call it obese.

No doubt both those boards sound great.

Definitely speaks to how much the Sansamp does well that it took two to three pedals run in series, including a $2000 tube DI (or a $1300 tube DI if one is willing to wait 44 weeks for it to be built) to dethrone it

 

[jpaulo]

Interesting thread - I can drive my VTDI but could not yet find a good dial for my Paradriver - and I bought the latter instead of the BDDI to have more mid control, but I am still sunk in muddy territory with it…
Will try @MDBass script and would love to see a SansAmp settings FAQ.