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Double Bass Sansamp

#2
I use one sometimes. Have for years. I like it. To me piezos can sound cold and have a strange mid range honk. The Sansamp seems to take care of both. I feel like it smooths out the mids and adds a little bit of warmth to the sound. Especially with my AI, which is very flat, it brings the tone to life IMO.
 
#6
I've got the Para DI, which I like many things about, for both DB & slab. To the other sansamp users here, do you use the Drive function at all? I'm not sure whether I think it adds some nice pseudo-tubey warmth or whether it muds it up... I can't decide. Then again, I don't blend in a ton of the drive circuitry, nor do I turn it up too high.

What do you other folks do or not do with the Drive circuit on your SansAmp?
 
#7
For any kind of jazz playing that drive function on the paradriver is all all the way off (little blend knob all the way counter-clockwise). I just use the EQ functionality.

For funk and rock on electric sometimes I'll add just a little bit of drive (blend knob at 12 o'clock, big drive knob on top right at 10-11 o'clock).
 
#8
I leave the drive all the way off BUT I have the blend all the way cranked. The Realist and AI are just not friends. I need the Sanamp to make the two play well together.

My GK doesn't need it. I use a Fishman Platinum Pro mostly for the HPF and phase switch but the sound is super plug and play.
 
#10
Hi fingers - could you explain this a little more?

Why do you put the blend all the way up if the drive is off? Isn't the blend there just to blend the non-driven (but eq'd) signal with the drive circuit signal?

Also curious about your comment with respect to the Realist and the AI amps since I have the same setup.

Cheers,

Jeff
 
#11
I use the Bass Driver DI as a preamp for my Underwood into the effects return of my AI. My Underwood sounds awful straight into the preamp section of the AI. I definitely think the tube-emulation of the Sansamp warms up the rather harsh sound of the Underwood. I usually have the blend almost all the way up, and the drive at about 12 o'clock.

An additional benefit is that I can then run a mic into the AI preamp and blend the mic and pickup signals without needing a 2-channel amp or a separate blender.
 
#12
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That's what I use most of the time. I don't really know much about the inner workings of the thing since it is really just a tube emulator but it seems like any use of the 'drive' adds a little bit of overdrive. With the blend all the way up you are using 100% of the eq and adding some Sansamp magic w/o 'saturating' the 'tube'. I've also used it as Mike describes.

btw Mike. Do you know Damian Espinosa. Piano player. He is a frequent partner in crime on the bandstands here in Chicago and he hails from the land of Sandia Peaks too.
 
#15
Yeah I use it with my Eminence. I think the Realist has just started to go south on it so I put an underwood on it as a second pickup. The underwood right now straight into AI Clarus is way hotter than the Realist.
The sansamp warms it up nicely and fills out the bottom while smoothing out mids like you guys said. I'm going to try to put the blend all way up like fingers says.
 
#16
I use the BDDI - blend 1/4 to half, drive and presence off, sometimes a bit of bass boost gig dependant. Works for me.

Have tried, U5, TD1, TD100, WW ultra, et al, but keep coming back to this little box. Thinking of trying Glockenklang Soul II to see whether i'll need the buffer/preamp in front?
 

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