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Double Bass What Direct Boxes are You Folks Using

#21
I use an avalon U5 as both a preamp and a DI, and it's been great. I used it before with a ply bass and a fishman full circle; I use it now with a carved shen 7/8 and a clef revolution solo, into an aguilar cab and the PA. Sometimes I need to roll off some bass and I use on opf the three higher presets on the Avalon
 
#22
Uncletoad said:
Right. In fact piezos are very sensitive to what they are plugged in to. The relationship between the piezo and the preamp is crucial to getting a good tone from them. Piezos sound really different depending on what they are plugged into. The Woods has an excellent relationship with piezo pickups. A passive DI on the output of the Woods sounds great too, although it seems less consistent from room to room even when using the pre EQ signal. I'm not sure why.
Click to expand...


Uncle Toad,
This is very useful as well. Thanks loads. I talked with Don Underwood for around two hours once upon a time (very interesting guy) and he told me that he and Walter actually collaborated on the design of his pick up so it matched input on the Woods amps. According to Don, you can use a buffer pre amp with his pickup, but you actually don't need it if you are going
into one of Walter's amps. I'm seriously considering the Radial JDI box
since it's a passive unit and relatively affordable.

The Avalon, Tube Works, and LL. Bags are a little beyond my price range. All of them are exceptional units though. If I were to go with a DI on the input then the Country Man looks like the Active DI of choice. Thanks to all for making this easier to understand and you're recommendations.

Ric
 
#23
I have a nice little collection of DI's, and my favorites would be the Aguilar DB 900, Demeter VTBP-2B, Summit Audio TD-100, and the Avalon U5. All but the Avalon are tube-based DI's, and I guess I like what a tube does in this role (the end result is just a tad more "musical" to my ear, although the U5 is great, and I have also used a Countryman to good effect. The Aggie and the Dem are normally my top choice for DI role, but the U5 and the Summit Audio can take the place of a preamp in many cases, so they have perhaps enhanced flexibility.

Tom.
 
#24
On the impedance question, I just did an A/B comparing the Avalon U5 (3 m-ohm impedance) and a Raven Labs PMB-1 (10 meg ohm impedance) They are very different units, but the avalon sounded much better with my bass and the clef solo pickup into an aggie 1x12. So I guess I could maybe conclude that 3 m-ohms is enough
 
#25
PB+J said:
On the impedance question, I just did an A/B comparing the Avalon U5 (3 m-ohm impedance) and a Raven Labs PMB-1 (10 meg ohm impedance) They are very different units, but the avalon sounded much better with my bass and the clef solo pickup into an aggie 1x12. So I guess I could maybe conclude that 3 m-ohms is enough
Click to expand...
The TW4001 comes with a 1 Meg input resistance, which I changed for a 3.3 Meg.
There was a small enhancement, but between 3.3 and 10 I don't think anybody would hear a difference. When the input impedance is very very high, there can be an increase in noise.
 
#26
hi - I checked out a lot of DI boxes. The Demeter Tube Direct is the best 'fancy exspensive' one my opinion. BUT I purchsed a sans amp bass driver Di box while on tour to have for emergencies and I love it. for under $150 you cant beat it - this is for my upright bass by the way
 
#27
I've used a sansamp for upright many times--both the bass driver and the newer "para driver," which has a sweepable midrange. It's a good unit, but I've been more and more unhappy with the tones I get--sort of "grainy," and irritating. The avalon sounds better IMHO, but it's more than twice the cost of a sansamp
 
#28
I'm a real newbie at this - I got a K&K bass max a few weeks ago. On advice of Bob G's son, I started off putting it through a Baggs PADI to my PA which is powered by JBL Eon G215 powered speakers. Satisfactory results so I didn't do any more experiments. A friend came over with an acoustic guitar and wanted to use the Baggs, so I tried my Bass POD on the "tube preamp" setting. Even better results after some tweaking. Still working on this, but that's my (very limited) experience. If there is any lesson here, it is to try everything you have on hand. You can end up with surprisingly good combinations of equipment.
 
#29
I've heard good things about the D.W. Fearn stuff and the Millenia TD-1 is nice, too. These are probably a little overkill but I'm just rattling off anything that comes to mind. I'm getting a Radial JDI to go with my WW. I've used the JDI before and all my instruments seem to like it. I recently tracked through both the Aggie 900 and the 659 at the same studio on different occasions. I wasn't thrilled about what got to "tape" with the 659 but the 900 was clear and exciting. I did have them check the tubes, too. I can't take my Demeter 201 to every gig but every so often I use a Raven MDB-1 as a DI. I don't have much money to throw down on a dedicated tube DI so the JDI seemed like a great fit.
 
#31
This is a great thread on DI's and I appreciate all the opinions I have read here. I have a question tho on how you test a DI.
I have used the DI's many times, but always to connect to the soundboard. I cannot hear the mains when I am playing. How do you tell what the DI sounds like in the mains? I do use monitors, but I believe they color the sound a bit.
thanks,
Dwight
 
#32
Well you've got to hear it through a good speaker to really know. Either trust the audience/sound guy, or get a PA or studio monitor to play through yourself.

Many times, live sound monitors are so crappy, there's no way anyone will ever know the difference between a $30 Behringer DI box (which are perfectly decent, by the way) and a $600 Avalon U5.

Recording really shows the difference, though.
 
#35
GrooveMonkey said:
Has anyone here tried using a SansAmp BDDI with an URB? I have one but still need to equip my URB with a pickup. Just curious...
Click to expand...

Yeah -- not so great, I found. Not clear enough. Maybe you could do better by playing around with it for a while. Turn the "drive" way down.

Also, I don't think the input impedance on the BDDI is really meant for a piezo, which would also "deaden" the sound -- but I could be wrong.
 
#36
francois said:
I suppose that tube DIs have a higher input voltage capability.
However the 4001's front end is solid state; only the output uses a tube.
Its input voltage is 3.8VRMS max, in instrument mode.

The Fishman B-II spec says -20dBV max input voltage.
If 0dbV = 1 Volt, -20 dBV = 0.1 Volt, which seems rather small. (and could explain why it's clipping)
Click to expand...
Correction: the PDF datasheet states nominal input level is -20dBV (0.1V) but max input is +8dBV (2.5V), which makes much more sense!
Sorry for the mistake then!
 

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