Tech 21 VT Bass DI with Pork & Pickle

[Bassray_82]

Hey everyone, I’m looking for some help with my signal chain.

I’ve recently upgraded to a VT bass DI and it sounds absolutely amazing, however I’m struggling a bit to dial in the Pork & Pickle to get the warm OD sound I’m after.

Some of the songs we play are acoustic guitar with Keys and I’d like to add a bit of extra character to my tone by using the P&P. On its own the P&P sounds great, but introducing it into my signal chain it seems to lose a bit of definition.

However I’ve tried a signal chain of P&P > comp > VT and it sounds a bit messy.

I’ve also tried VT > p&p > comp and it’s a bit better but still not the warm OD I’m after.

So just looking for some suggestions. Bass is a fender jazz into an ampeg rocket.

Note out of shot is a wiretap I’ve been using to play back my tone.

Thanks!

 

[BaltBass5]

I found the Pork & Pickle to be a lot "Fizzier" than the original Pork Loin. A few suggestions:

1. Have you adjusted any of the internal trim pots? If not, you may want to do that. (Specifically 3 and 4)
2. In the settings above, you have the Clean Tone fully CW which is the "brightest" setting. I would start with that CCW and adjust CW as necessary.


The internal Trim pots:

2 CURVE trimpot fine-tunes corner frequencies of OD signal
3 PRESENCE trimpot tweaks high end of OD signal
4 OVERDRIVE OUTPUT trimpot adjusts mix of OD signal

As a side note, using the Optocomp AND the VT bass seems a little bit of an overkill as the VT Bass compresses quite a bit. Personally, I'd run the VT Bass last in the chain (as it is bassically the equivalent of a bass pre-amp) with the P&P before it and drop the Optocomp. If you do use the Opto I'd run it first in the chain.

Opto > P&P > VT Bass

 

[_Some Dude]

Put the VT last. It's meant to emulate an amplifier and has a speaker sim that'll help tame any distortion before it.

 

[gregmon79]

Put the VT last. It's meant to emulate an amplifier and has a speaker sim that'll help tame any distortion before it.

That's what I was going to suggest. Gotta put the preamp AFTER the dirt. Always IMO.

 

[Bassray_82]

I found the Pork & Pickle to be a lot "Fizzier" than the original Pork Loin. A few suggestions:

1. Have you adjusted any of the internal trim pots? If not, you may want to do that. (Specifically 3 and 4)
2. In the settings above, you have the Clean Tone fully CW which is the "brightest" setting. I would start with that CCW and adjust CW as necessary.


The internal Trim pots:

2 CURVE trimpot fine-tunes corner frequencies of OD signal
3 PRESENCE trimpot tweaks high end of OD signal
4 OVERDRIVE OUTPUT trimpot adjusts mix of OD signal

As a side note, using the Optocomp AND the VT bass seems a little bit of an overkill as the VT Bass compresses quite a bit. Personally, I'd run the VT Bass last in the chain (as it is bassically the equivalent of a bass pre-amp) with the P&P before it and drop the Optocomp. If you do use the Opto I'd run it first in the chain.

Opto > P&P > VT Bass

This is really useful thanks, I’ll experiment more with the clean tone settings first and then try internal trimpots 3&4 and see if that gets me closer to what’s in my head. I’ll also try dropping the opto comp.

 

[gregmon79]

This is really useful thanks, I'll experiment more with the clean tone settings first and then try internal trimpots 3&4 and see if that gets me closer to what's in my head. I'll also try dropping the opto comp.

Also try the comp earlier. It appears you have more pedals on the board. But I'd try tuner > comp > P&P > VTDI....

 

[Ian774]

Comp first. Will tame and even out your bass sound.

Then P&P.

Then VT Bass DI. It’s an amp emulation, always got to be last (I mean, strongly recommended). Would you put your amp before your OD pedal? No you wouldn’t.

Also in my experience the Ampeg Optocomp doesn’t go well with SansAmp pedals. It has a signature tone to it that just ends up being too much. An OE Cali76 or Keeley Bassist work much better.

 

[dax21]

Seems easier to just bump the VTDI drive knob up to 12 o'clock and click on the bite switch if its off, that will give you all the warmth and OD you possibly need. Additional drive pedal seems kind of redundant, but I would first see if turning the compressor off does the thing for you because stacking two drive pedals will already compress a lot.
And like others said, VTDI always last in the chain.

VTDI tends to make every dirt pedal before it sound kind of the same due to extreme coloration of the tone the pedal does. It becomes essentially "VTDI but with more gain" channel.

 

[Wallace320]

Hi Bassray, how're ya doin' man?
I think I can just go with what I'd do

Boss Tu - Ampeg Opto comp - Tech 21 vt bass - Way Huge P&P

If tuner always comes first, receiving the unadultered dry signal
- then comes the compressor to even everything following out
- then the overall preamp, scuplting the parameters of tone
- finally, the od/fuzz, processing the dynamics of your sound

And, regardless the impulse to directly access like this, with an
amp, I'd go thru the send & return fx loop: so bass in the input,
then amp eq string, then your offboard chain into send/return.

My 2c.
Cheers,
Wallace

 

[Ian774]

Hi Bassray, how're ya doin' man?
I think I can just go with what I'd do

Boss Tu - Ampeg Opto comp - Tech 21 vt bass - Way Huge P&P

If tuner always comes first, receiving the unadultered dry signal
- then comes the compressor to even everything following out
- then the overall preamp, scuplting the parameters of tone
- finally, the od/fuzz, processing the dynamics of your sound

And, regardless the impulse to directly access like this, with an
amp, I'd go thru the send & return fx loop: so bass in the input,
then amp eq string, then your offboard chain into send/return.

My 2c.
Cheers,
Wallace

I’m sorry, but no, no, no.

Why would anyone put their OD AFTER a preamp that emulates an amp? I know there isn’t any absolute rule, but it just seems silly to me. The VT acts and reacts like an amp, you want the OD BEFORE it. With the VT last, you can go straight to PA with the DI as well, which the OD last doesn’t do.

 

[Camarillo]

Hey everyone, I’m looking for some help with my signal chain.

I’ve recently upgraded to a VT bass DI and it sounds absolutely amazing, however I’m struggling a bit to dial in the Pork & Pickle to get the warm OD sound I’m after.

Some of the songs we play are acoustic guitar with Keys and I’d like to add a bit of extra character to my tone by using the P&P. On its own the P&P sounds great, but introducing it into my signal chain it seems to lose a bit of definition.

However I’ve tried a signal chain of P&P > comp > VT and it sounds a bit messy.

I’ve also tried VT > p&p > comp and it’s a bit better but still not the warm OD I’m after.

So just looking for some suggestions. Bass is a fender jazz into an ampeg rocket.

Note out of shot is a wiretap I’ve been using to play back my tone.

Thanks!

I would put the compressor first (after tuner of course) and VT DI last.

 

[prndltech]

As already suggested… tuner first, then comp, pork n pickle, vt bass last.

That’s the order I would run

 

[micguy]

The Pork and Pickle and the VT Bass are both "overdrive" pedals - both of them will make dirt when pushed. If you're going to use 2 dirt pedals at one time, both of them will need to be dialed back a lot in order to not make a mess. Guitarists double up on dirt more than bassists, but they don't have to have clean low end, and they learn over time that if you're going to stack dirt, you need to have both of them set pretty subtle. We need to have clean low end running, so I'd either suggest one dirt at a time, or, if you're going to use 2 at once, they need to both be set really subtle - almost clean when run one at a time. That'll help.

 

[Wallace320]

I’m sorry, but no, no, no.

Why would anyone put their OD AFTER a preamp that emulates an amp? I know there isn’t any absolute rule, but it just seems silly to me. The VT acts and reacts like an amp, you want the OD BEFORE it. With the VT last, you can go straight to PA with the DI as well, which the OD last doesn’t do.

If using the vt bass as a d.i. what you're saying makes sense

In my option I just considered the vt bass much like an eq, more of a pedal, and the od/fuzz placed at the end if sparingly used only, making the tone out of anything else but the way huge
So clean signal made out of comp and preamp and the od/fuzz if need be (like, say, a bass solo... think about pulling teeth) not something to be on each an' everytime

In my own pedalboard I do the very same
wah - tuner - comp - preamp (these two are always on) - fuzz/8er - od (these two on demand)

Just that
Anyway sure no given science

Cheers,
Wallace

 

[mattyrudes]

I use the P&P for fuzz. For OD, try the DOD Overdrive 250. So good on bass.

 

[Swizzledoop]

I agree with previous recommendations to change the pedal order.

Another thing worth noting is that sometimes the clean side of the P&P can distort if you send it too much bass or a hot signal. If you haven't already, try running it at 15 or 18v (it can handle it just fine) and turn down the Clean blend to around 2 o'clock. Those two things fixed any issues for me and got me closer to the tone you're describing.

 

[gmarcus]

Get rid of the comp. The VT and your amp have plenty. Then run the P&P into the VT. Turn the blend all the way down on the VT and get the tone as close as you can then start turning up the blend on the VT until you like the results. Now turn of the P&P. How does that sound? Muck with the VT until you like that, now turn on P&P. Repeat until you have 2 tones you like.

With the VT a little blend goes a long way I often have it on 10 o'clock. Also the Bite control really tightens up the sound and if you are running into an amp, then turning off the amp Sim might sound better, but that is up to you.

 

[Nuisance]

Comp>>>>>P&P>>>>>>VT.

Run the VT VERY clean.

 

[Bassray_82]

Thanks for all of the suggestions. I removed the comp, and scaled the clean blend back to 3 o’clock and the clean tone to 9 o’clock on the p&p, on the VT it’s now last in the chain, running very clean - drive is about 10 o’clock. This is pretty much exactly the tone I’m after.

As a bonus there’s now space to put the old boss chorus back into my chain for a bit of 80s character.

 

[BaltBass5]

Thanks for all of the suggestions. I removed the comp, and scaled the clean blend back to 3 o’clock and the clean tone to 9 o’clock on the p&p, on the VT it’s now last in the chain, running very clean - drive is about 10 o’clock. This is pretty much exactly the tone I’m after.

As a bonus there’s now space to put the old boss chorus back into my chain for a bit of 80s character.

Awesome! Glad it worked out!