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Tech 21 VT Bass

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#141
Mikeyd74 said:
Any of you guys have an 8 or 12 string bass? The Tech 21 site mentions King's X as one of the sounds you can achieve with the VT bass pedal. I have a 12-string and I've experimented trying to get close to Dug Pinnick's sound and I haven't even come close. Any of you tried to duplicate his sound yet?
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I have a Schecter Studio 8 that I run through the VT. All I do is tweak up the drive a hair from the setting I use with my Jazz and the things sounds flippin' huge. The boys in the band love it.

My settings are:
Low - 2:00
High - 12:00
Mid - 2:00
Character - 12:00
Drive - Jazz/9:00, Ocho/10:00
 
#144
my VT finally came in yesterday! that thing is great, best od ive used or heard. i dont like really harsh or buzzy ODs, and i only want a little dirt on my signal. this thing is perfect for me. great clean tube tone, and the tube od sounds amazing as well. i had the bddi, the ebs multidrive, the fulltone, and i really didnt like any of them. but this one is a keeper for sure. nice work tech 21.
 
#145
Welp, I just did my first gig with it. Ran it through my Markbass 12" combo. Definitely made my tone more edgy than the Markbass by itself, which is the one thing that the Markbass can't do. And I got a killer tone with it. But I don't know...while it's as close to a tube sound as I've heard in non-tube gear, there's just a little bit missing out of it. It might have been the combo, though. The head is fantastic but the cab is a different animal from my Ampeg cabs. I think I need to try it with an Ampeg cab before I make a judgment.
 
#146
i hooked it up through the power amp input on my svt 4pro, completly bipassing my amps pre. thing sounds sick coming through my 410xlt, it has such great clean tones, and it adds the perfect amount of dirt as well. to hear the pedal without it being mixed with the tone of my pre made me realize just how good this thing sounds. cant wait to use it with the band!
 
#147
JimmyM said:
Welp, I just did my first gig with it. Ran it through my Markbass 12" combo. Definitely made my tone more edgy than the Markbass by itself, which is the one thing that the Markbass can't do. And I got a killer tone with it. But I don't know...while it's as close to a tube sound as I've heard in non-tube gear, there's just a little bit missing out of it. It might have been the combo, though. The head is fantastic but the cab is a different animal from my Ampeg cabs. I think I need to try it with an Ampeg cab before I make a judgment.
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I totally expect that the type of cabinet that you use is a big part of the equation in how your bass reacts with the VT Bass. Part of the whole Ampeg experience is when you stand in front of those cabs and your bass vibrates and responds to the pressure waves coming out of the cab.
I would never expect to get the full effect of the VT Bass through my Marshall combo. It might sound a little Ampeg-ish, but that's it, there'd be no feeling it. I'm REALLY looking forward to getting one and playing it through my SWR and Ampeg SVT 410-HLF.
By the way, I'm in no way comparing your Markbass to a Marshall combo! I've had the priviledge to play through Markbass amps before and they are pure bass candy. In fact, I opted for the SWR over the Markbass because at the time I had never even heard of Markbass, they were setting them up for the first time at Guitar Center the day I tried them out.
 
#149
I gotcha, Mikey.

I've got a gig coming up soon where I'm going to take both B-15 cabs I have and one will be straight-up B-15 and the other will be the Markbass head and VT. Just gotta figure out the DI situation.
 
#151
I have no measurements to back me up but I have absolutely no problem driving the power section of my Yorkville XS400H head.

In addition, I can place the master volume at the same spot using either the Amp's Pre or the VT and get the same over-all volume, which leads me to conclude that the VT can drive the power-section just as hard (or harder) than the built-in pre.

I've had the windows shaking at "2" with the VT... soo.....

- Andrew



bongomania said:
Any word yet on whether the VT will properly drive a power amp, like can it put out a 1.25V signal?
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#152
Yeah, another guy posted in this thread that he had great results driving the power section of his Ampeg head with the VT, too. My only concern is that those power sections might easily have something like a .7V input sensitivity rating, while many PA-style power amps need around 1.2V to be driven properly. But that's good info you provided anyway!
 
#155
bongomania said:
Yeah, another guy posted in this thread that he had great results driving the power section of his Ampeg head with the VT, too. My only concern is that those power sections might easily have something like a .7V input sensitivity rating, while many PA-style power amps need around 1.2V to be driven properly. But that's good info you provided anyway!
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I've bypassed my preamp with the programmible sansamp, but it just does not get nearly as loud then through the preamp. Even though most of them suppose to drive a power amp. Need to do more testing to be sure. The VT Bass I've heard will power a power amp. I hope some more people can share experiences on that. A lot less noise that way for sure.

I've got the VT bass on order should be here by this week.

Well I actually run sansamp through effects first then to power amp so maybe reason why.
 
#156
Would one of those Catalinbread Serrano boost pedals be a good choice to boost up to power amp level?

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I'm really into the idea of running a compressor after the VT Bass (so that the volume on the VT can be used to adjust the sensitivity of my compressor which doesn't have a threshold control) followed by the Stereo Memory Man w/Hazarai. I can't have full volume going through these pedals so I am considering the Serrano boost for such an application.
 
#157
bassman251 said:
Well I actually run sansamp through effects first then to power amp so maybe reason why.
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Of course! You have to use a lower-level output from the Sansamp in order to not overload the other effects you're using, so they pass a signal which is just at "instrument level", def. not enough to get full power from a PA power amp.
 
#158
dannybuoy said:
Would one of those Catalinbread Serrano boost pedals be a good choice to boost up to power amp level?
Click to expand...

It's not 100% right for all applications. Sometimes merely increasing the gain isn't enough- it may also be necessary to lower the output impedance, or convert the signal to balanced, depending on the specific power amp being used. So it can work, but is not guaranteed to work in all cases.
 
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