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Tech 21 VT Bass 1969

LedBelli Bass

LedBelli Bass

Fine, Handmade Custom Bass Guitars
Dec 25, 2008
1,169
104
Pasco, WA
www.ledbellibass.com
#1
Has anyone gotten one of these to try out?

I bought the pedal about 2 years ago. I fell so in love with it that the first thing I said was, "I wish they built an amplifier like this pedal."

Then, about 6 months after I wished that, the rumors began circulating that one was coming . . .

Anybody out there tried one out? Comments?
 
#3
5StringFool said:
Haven't tried one, but it seems a bit overpriced to me.
Click to expand...

Yah, I was hoping for something closer to $899 or less. $1100 is a bit high.

Also, I was wondering about the power at 300 watts . . . underpowered?

The pedal can be used as a preamp. I was thinking of using a Crest CA6 for power, and just directing the pedal to the CA6
 
#4
I wouldn't say it's underpowered... a lot of that depends on the band you play in and the cab you're running it into. I run my SWR WP400 into a single 8 ohm 410 and it's output with that cab is 250 watts. I've never needed to add anything to that unless we were outside then another 410 bumps it to 400 watts. So 300 should be enough power to cover quite a bit.

The thing that gets me is it seems you'd have much more flexibility with a VT Bass Deluxe and a power amp, and tally up a few hundred dollars cheaper, especially if you can find a good used power amp (then you'd be looking at $500 or less).

I've owned the VT Bass pedal and liked it quite a bit (I kind of regret selling it). If I ever go back to that route the above setup will be exactly what I do.
 
#5
I too am predisposed to finding the price a bit steep. I mean, you could feasibly find a used vt pedal and a used pa power amp for $400ish or less. OTOH, having not heard one in person, I cannot discount the possibility of some serious power section mojo being administered in there. After all, TC products are the loudest 236 watts I've ever heard ;)
 
#6
LedBelli Bass said:
Yah, I was hoping for something closer to $899 or less. $1100 is a bit high.

Also, I was wondering about the power at 300 watts . . . underpowered?

The pedal can be used as a preamp. I was thinking of using a Crest CA6 for power, and just directing the pedal to the CA6
Click to expand...

It is so much less expensive to get a VT Bass Deluxe and a power amp that many people haven't even paid attention to the head. I'd recommend getting the deluxe if you are using a power amp since you can have 6 channels saved on the deluxe that you can switch between on the fly. The effects loop, direct-out, and ability to be powered by phantom power from a board makes the deluxe WELL worth the money. Trust me, you will never let those other 5 channels go to waste :bassist:
 
#7
I think Tech 21 was so flush over the success of the VT and VT Deluxe that they got a little carried away. Great little pedal...not what I would want for the pre on an $1100 amp.
 
#8
JimmyM said:
I think Tech 21 was so flush over the success of the VT and VT Deluxe that they got a little carried away. Great little pedal...not what I would want for the pre on an $1100 amp.
Click to expand...

I was on the phone with Jim Bergantino this past Friday for about an hour. (I have an AE212 @ 4 ohms to power)

Jim is a die-hard advocate of the high wattage PA amplifier with the appropriate preamp. We even discussed using the VT Deluxe with a PA power amp, and he liked that idea immensely.

So, I guess that's the way I'm leaning for now.
 
#9
The only things I wouldn't like about that are the VTD being really hard to adjust quickly on the fly, and not having some sort of master volume to control overall volume of your presets. When you run it clean, unity gain with the bypass position is with the volume pretty much all the way up. You can add some drive and get more clean volume to a point, but it could really benefit from an extra master level control with some clean boost if you want to run it as a pre.
 
#13
Son of Bovril said:
Does the VTD have a speaker sim defeat or is it always on like the original VT?

I don't understand the point of the speaker sim on the original, considering it doesn't have a DI out... if you are driving a poweramp you probably don't want a speaker sim anyways, as your own cab should do that for you.

I guess it is part of the SVT sealed fridge no tweeter sound
Click to expand...
It was designed to do double duty. Even though it has no DI, you can still take it direct to a board with the 1/4" jack. Or you can get one added by P u t n a m G u i t a r s - CUSTOM GUITARS MODS AMPS PEDALS EFFECTS SPEAKERS .
 
#14
That is the one thing I didn't like about the VT, but honestly it wouldn't put me off the deluxe. If I go the poweramp route I'll be getting cab that's really hi-fi, maybe like a Carvin LS 1503 or 1523 pa speaker that has really good full range response. That's the key to getting the best sound out of a guitar modeler so I figure it will be the best if your modeling the speaker with a bass rig too.
 
#17
JimmyM said:
That's what Tech 21 says too, and I don't buy into it. I use it with my Ampegs, although since getting a REDDI I only use it for dirt and as a splitter.
Click to expand...

If I had the rigs you play I'd be loathe to use anything but them. :D

Not out of contention, but genuine curiosity; why don't you think it would work well? I've experienced it with modeling units when I played rhythm guitar. They would sound fantastic out of a powered PA speaker but out of a guitar amp I was always fighting to get the tone right, even if I was running directly into the effects return. The only way I could get close was to defeat the cab sim if I was running into a guitar rig. Why do you think the bass would be different?
 
#18
For no other reason than I thought it worked well. I set my VTD's clean tones to match the bypassed sound as closely as I can, and I base my overdrive settings on the clean tone as well. I don't use it for clean sounds at all anymore, though, and I would never use it for clean sounds when I have my B-15, SVT, and/or REDDI. But matching the bypassed sound as closely as possible makes a difference in how you'll like it in a standard bass rig IMHO. YMMV, but that's how I feel.
 
#20
The speaker emulation on all our SansAmp products are designed to work "with" your amp's speaker system as well as direct. When people have a difficult time with the SansAmp into the front end of an amp they blame it on the speaker sim but it really has more to do with the host amp's preamp settings. This is why we added the speaker sim defeat switch. It makes it easier to use with an amp that has it's high end emphasized.

The VT Bass Deluxe can be modded with the speaker sim defeat switch by us. The problem with doing it on the deluxe is that if you use the pedal into an amp with the speaker sim defeated and run the DI out to the PA, you will probably not get the best tone out of the DI with the speaker sim turned off.
 

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