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Well, I have had the VT Bass v1 since introduction, and somewhat impulsively copped a VT DI last week. With its very slight feature upgrade, it's really all i need! Great piece of gear.
Result: My PSA 2.0 is in the classifieds!
Result: My PSA 2.0 is in the classifieds!
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I've owned every bass pedal Tech 21 has ever made except the SH. Some I loved, some were meh, some were downright terrible (to be fair the 2 I hated are no longer in production). Currently down to 2: VTDI and the v1 BDDI. The VTDI would be my lone survivor.
- Feb 16, 2008
- 21,240
- 23,638
- Disclosures
- John K Custom Basses
i like their yyz so much that i just bought another one so i have two. i often take two different basses to my gigs and alternate them between sets, so rather than adjust them on the fly, i just pre set up each one for each bass. i now wish that they made a progamammble one for that reason.
You've clearly had a lot of experience with Tech 21 pedals! Love to pick your brains and hear from you which of them fell into the "some I loved" category? Out of interest (and to provide a bit of context) what is your usual rig & bass and what genre music do you usually play?
Jazz or Stingray into a GK stack. I play mostly rock, but I've done plenty of country, metal, and church gigs. The VTDI, while based on the Ampeg sound, can do everything thanks to the Character and Blend knobs. It has great HP/LP filters too.
Other pedals I loved:
Blonde: made for guitar but sounds great on bass. Nice fat, dirty, old school tones. I actually have (and prefer) the Joyo clone, the American Sound.
BDDI: big mid scoop but the built-in EQ curve sounds perfect in some situations. Blend at zero gives you a transparent DI with EQ.
Oxford: great for Billy Gould clank. My favorite Orange flavored pedal.
Boost Chorus: best bass chorus out there IMO.
YYZ: I love Geddy. This sounds like modern Geddy. Awesomeness.
@birminghambass thanks very much for that! I'd missed the HP/LP filter on the VTDI - but such a useful feature set to have. Any details on the slope and frequency they cut in at? The HP/LP alone justifies this being an always on pedal, and you can pay the same again for a dedicated pedal eg a Broughton, but obviously that has a lot more tweakability.
(Btw are you Birmingham, Alabama? I grew up in the "mother" City here in the UK
). The Joyo American has a bunch of avid fans, but I'm guessing I'll have it largely covered by the VTDI?
You've got me (and I suspect a few others) intrigued now as to which two discontinued pedals fell into the "you didn't like at all" category!
(Btw are you Birmingham, Alabama? I grew up in the "mother" City here in the UK
). The Joyo American has a bunch of avid fans, but I'm guessing I'll have it largely covered by the VTDI?You've got me (and I suspect a few others) intrigued now as to which two discontinued pedals fell into the "you didn't like at all" category!
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The LPF only comes in when the speaker sim is on, and the HPF I believe is only on when the Bite switch is on. Also they are only on the wet signal, so no filters at 0% blend.
Long time VTDI "always on" user, recently switched to the Steve Harris pedal.
It has everything I love about the VTDI, but easier to get the midrange clank I like.
It has everything I love about the VTDI, but easier to get the midrange clank I like.
I have always been pushing about the Oxford, and the only thing I've owned that comes closer is an actual Peavey Century(and soon to be Centurion) in a pedal. But I use it with the Oxford(and a low pass blender bc of the Oxfords lack of true lows).
But yeah, it has that grunt in the middle. From what I hear, the SH-1 does as well. (Something I was never able to replicate with any other Tech21 pedals I owned, from the BDDI, to the VT Bass and most of the Character series.)
The new Geddy DI pedal has me curious though. I had the YYZ, and although I didn't love its' distortion tone by itself, it made an awesome preamp/eq/DI
From my VTDI:
Teal: Bite On, Speaker Sim Off
Blue: Bite On, Speaker Sim On
Green: Bite Off, Speaker Sim On
I guess?, though it's somewhat settings dependent. It's been rumored that the low-end reduction may not be technically a true HPF. Technically Tech 21 bills it as a "subsonic filter" that is engaged via the bite button as @dannybuoy mentioned, but at you can see in the image above, if bite does make some difference, it's subtle against what the pedal does with bite off.
TrueRTA. There is other software that's available for free (name is currently escaping me, I think it's from the home audio world), but I like the TrueRTA features and simplicity - well worth the cost to satisfy my curiosity.
TrueRTA. There is other software that's available for free (name is currently escaping me, I think it's from the home audio world), but I like the TrueRTA features and simplicity - well worth the cost to satisfy my curiosity.
Thanks very much for that. So what is your full signal chain from pedal to PC i.e. how are you interfacing?
Just because I think it's interesting, there is still some very slight reduction in highs and lows when blend is at full dry and EQ is leveled off. Nothing that I'd expect to have real world ramifications though:
- green is calibrated closed loop
- pink is VTDI in bypass (note even here a slight reduction in lows)
- yellow is blend full CCW/100% dry flat
- blue is same flat setting as above, blend full CW/100% wet, no speaker sim or bite
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For these tests, it's direct into my PC via the integrated audio interface on my mainboard. It's a good mainboard though, and in this day and age, I'm of the mind that dedicated audio cards aren't necessary as long as the mainboard is up to the task (one of my hobbies is building my computers).
So 1/8" headphone out into the 1/4" input of whatever I'm testing, and then from the output to the 1/8" mic-in. As you can see via the green line above, TrueRTA has handy calibration abilities.
That's just for when I'm testing things though. For tracking I use a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2.
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Man, I really want that clean Hiwatt sound mixed with my Fender amp's tone. How's that Leeds compared to something like Catalinbread's Rah?
Al Kraft
Supporting Member
- May 2, 2016
- 10,780
- 40,483
- Disclosures
- Mesa Boogie beta product tester and player support
While our ears always have to cast the final vote, I find it very helpful when folks post things like this to help us understand what is actually going on with boxes/settings we like the sound of. FWIW, that GK 4 string setting curve on post 72 was surprising (in an effective HPF kind of way). Thanks for taking time to do and share these frequency plots Kro.
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Sorry pal but I cannot give an opinion on the Catalinbread as I have not used one. Obviously with me being a Who fan I had to get this pedal which is based on the Hiwatt 103 which both Entwistle and Townshend used during the Tommy era and the recording of Live At Leeds.It is basically a dirt pedal but clean tones are easily achievable, the only problem is that it is now discontinued.
Bummer about it being discontinued, all the good Hiwatt pedals are discontinued like the Wiio. I might as well keep my eyes open for a used one on Reverb. I want to place it in my amp's fx loop. Nice avatar picture.
