VT Bass Pedal saves the day

[rumblefish]

I had a gig last Saturday and I brought my brand new VT Bass pedal to try out in a live situation. I've never used any effects before and was eager to hear this device thru my Ampeg B5R rig powering two Avatar Cabs ( a 212 and a 115 ).
Loading in that afternoon things were snowy and I set my amp down in some snow that apparently got into the power cord socket, I blew the snow out and let the amp sit for 3 hours before the show.
Show time comes, the amp won't power up. 20 minutes to music time, panic sets in. I scrambled to reconfigure my PA: I comandeered one channel of a QSC RMX1850HD for my bass, the other channel for monitors.
The results were amazing. I dialed in a tone in a minute, a deep gnarly tone I've never heard out of my rig before.
Bandmates and followers alike complimented my on my tone. Sustain increased, deadspots disappeared and the night was saved for me. I'm in no hurry to fix the Ampeg, future gigs will be handled the same way now.
The real heros of the show, of course, were the VT pedal and my QSC1850HD. I threw a 2-Ohm load at it all night and it just shrugged it off and gave me almost unlimited headroom.
Thank you TECH 21 and QSC for saving the day.

 

[St Drogo]

Cool story! Necessity is the mother of invention. (also Frank Zappa of course).

So this:

QSC RMX1850HD

is just a bunch of random letters to me, bringing back horrible visions of algebra in highschool. Could you elaborate? Is that a head you found backstage or something? Or did you run bass --> vtpedal --> mixer or something?

 

[chjohnst]

Similar story, last weekend I was recording a demo and we went straight to the board. Sound engineer was impressed by the overall tone, he was trying to dial in a fat tone and it was effortless. Its nice to keep the sound engineer happy makes both our jobs even easier.

 

[rumblefish]

My signal went from Hoppus bass to VT Pedal to the QSC power amp. I did not go thru the board that night. I own the pa and used an underutilized amp to its fullest potential.

 

[blackba]

So is your ampeg amp working now? If your amp had worked, would you have run your VT bass pedal in the input or into the power amp of the ampeg head?

I have seriously thought about picking up a VT bass pedal, looks like you found to be a great backup and might be handy for recording too...

 

[chjohnst]

Its great for recording, I seem to have the best results bypassing my pre on my amp and just using the power amp.

 

[iamdenialNJ]

Saves the day

 

[fenderhutz]

I carry my Power Block to every gig. It can be a DI if my amp dies, the guitarist can unhook his tube amp if it dies and use it through his cab. If the drummer's digital kit monitor dies he can use it to power a small monitor. etc etc etc.

 

[GroovyBaby]

I was playing a show once where my Ampeg B2R overheated and shut down (after giving off a very nice smell)...I kept playing because my signal went through a SansAmp before my amp and I had the signal going to the PA BEFORE the head. I played the rest of the show that way and just asked to have the bass turned up in the monitors when that song was over.

 

[rumblefish]

I'm taking the Ampeg in tonite to have it analyzed. But even after it's fixed I plan to leave it at home and use the Vt Bass/QSC rig exclusively, it sounds that good!

 

[JimmyM]

pedal of the future.

 

[FronTowardEnemy]

pedal of the future.

+1
I got the Deluxe! Love the six channels.