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The best DI box for bass

#281
I looked up the Countryman 85 in my 2004 Orion book and it shows the date of release as 1981, BUT that could also be the date when it was available as a real commercial product and it was in fact produced and sold directly to pro audio companies earlier (as I would suspect for this kind of product, quite niche at the time)
 
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#282
yep..Unless im tripping. .Im sure that im not though :) I used one in the late 70s.. Then i bought mine. Im pretty sure about the dates.. I used one at Kingdom Sound on Long Island about 1980 or so ,,,They were very RARE at the time but talked about by people.. Martin Audio was a store in NYC that praised them.. .. Everyone had passive DI boxes or home made Tube type DI.. A studio in Philadelphia had an old Tube one that was home grown. Used it a lot..
I actually heard about if from an engineer i recorded with jeff Kowalek at House Of Music in West Orange NJ... He was on a john tropea record at the time.

The graphics on mine are different than the very first edition.and different from the current one. Ill post a photo as soon as i find it.. it in a pile of cables somewhere or under my desk..
 
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#284
I was working at a very nice 2" 16 track room in the late 90's and I remember when we got one and it was a BIG deal; this was probably 1981 or 1982
That studio went under but the Countryman is still working
 
#285
I just sold the 6 that I owned for probably 20 years, got a pretty darn good price for them too! after all these years, they probably cost me a couple dollars per year to use ;)
 
#286
In the early 80s i was in a bar band in the hamptons on LI, NY. The band brought their own drum riser to gigs etc.. The soundman didnt have access to his hammer.. ironic right? no hammer but has a drum riser i tow?
so instead of using an SM 58 :cool: I handed him the Type 85... It nailed the nail and doubles as a DI.:smug::) true story
 
#287
Not sure where to post this.

Is it better to keep the ground lifted as default position on a DI box or only use the lift when needed? Which position is most likely to yield best results?

I assume that there must be some advantage to not lifting the ground, otherwise there wouldn't be a switch. It would just be lifted as the default.
 
#289
In general there's no compelling reason to connect that ground. It's a very very rare situation where it would be noisier with pin one lifted than with it grounded and that ground connection is not needed for balanced signal transmission. The switch is just something that is done because that's the way it's always been done as far as I can tell. I didn't bother to connect pin one of any of my DIY boxes so it's always lifted. Haven't encountered any issues doing it that way so far, though if I ever decide to commercialize, I will add the switch because it's something that people expect on a DI. :D
 
#290
svtb15 said:
Whatever stops the ground hum.. Either In or out... Just flip it so the Hum goes away.
Click to expand...

Right, but is it 50/50 or is one more likely to be silent...and therefore the better place to start?

Never had a problem, but at last gig the sound man was wondering around looking for a hum source. I don't think it was me, but it got me wondering.
 
#291
Mark Reccord said:
In general there's no compelling reason to connect that ground. It's a very very rare situation where it would be noisier with pin one lifted than with it grounded and that ground connection is not needed for balanced signal transmission. The switch is just something that is done because that's the way it's always been done as far as I can tell. I didn't bother to connect pin one of any of my DIY boxes so it's always lifted. Haven't encountered any issues doing it that way so far, though if I ever decide to commercialize, I will add the switch because it's something that people expect on a DI. :D
Click to expand...

This is what I suspected but wanted to confirm. I will leave in the lifted position as my default. Thanks.
 
#292
Sometimes it will be quieter in the pin 1 connected position because of how the grounding connection is accomplished within the system's cabling. I have certainly encountered conditions where there was noise on the supplied FOH ground and the more solid reference via the DI reduced the noise.

In general it will usually be quieter in the lifted position, but in practice I have found that it's more like 75% to 25% rather than either 50-50 or 100-0.
 
#293
I've been using a LR Baggs Paracoustic DI for a while. Got it cause it's really helpful with double bass eq; but, it's a nice overall DI too.

l-r-baggs-para-acoustic-d-i-478781.jpg
 
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#294
fretno said:
There are some very high dollar esoteric jobbies out there but getting back to Earth a little I like the Sansamp VTDI , the Countryman , The Cable factory Lundahl , which you can get direct from those fine folks and my current rig and pre DI the Summit which is fat and warm and punchy.
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Click to expand...
I have one of these and used it exclusively until I picked up a REDDI. I never knew of anyone else that had one. It's a real nice passive box.
 
#298
So I took this guy and rehoused it into a smaller pedal sized box.
Man it was a tight fit but it works.

20140912_000616_zpsa676eeb7.jpg


It has a level control that only affects the XLR output to House instead of db pad switches.
It has a passive tone control that is designed for active instruments.
The passive tone control affects both the House and the Thru signal to your Amp.
I find even though I use active Basses I like a passive tone controls ability to control string clack better.
The passive tone control only works with active instruments unless you put a buffer in front.
OEP actually designed these transformers for me, so far I have three of them.
I installed one on the output of my DBX160A compressor and one is setting around waiting for me to delve into another project.

The DI is on the far left.

20150925_123648_zpsqtuahcrp.jpg
 
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