dannybuoy

I have a Sansamp VT Bass and recommend it. I also highly regard the DHA stuff, the VT1-EQ-Drive is a solid preamp with glorious tubey tone. Also gotta love the blood splatter paint job!

DHA tube pedals do low gain grit very nicely. I'd also suggest a Sansamp Bass Driver or VT Bass.

Hi Dave, I had a VT2 and one thing I did not like about it was the volume jump when engaging the 2nd valve stage. It would be much more useful to have either 2 separate channels that you can switch between, or just add a separate master volume control for 1+2 mode. It would also be great to have a switchable 5kHz low pass filter (i.e. speaker sim) on the DI and headphone outputs! I also preferred not to use the colour switch, and the clipping switch was very subtle - Si seemed to not affect the sound much, and Ge dropped the volume by a large amount. Personally I would prefer to not have these features and instead have a cleaner and more low-cost layout. Pokey-out-lightey-up valves are a great idea though! As long as they're well protected like on the EHX tube pedals.

I go like this: VT Bass -> Diamond Compressor -> Radial JDI (if going direct to PA) -> Amp FX Return socket I'm really happy with the sound I get out of this setup, it sounds the same wherever I go no matter what crappy amp I happen to be using. It's not really a good idea to plug a Sansamp BDDI or VT Bass into a regular amp input as the amp will impart it's own tone on the Sansamp signal. If you go into the FX return socket you bypass the amp's pre-amp and you will get 'your sound' going straight to the power amp stage. The sound coming from the amp will also closely match what is going through the PA.

I've gone in a slightly different direction, nabbing a Euphonic Audio iAmp 350 combo. This is a very hi-fi combo that would work well with bass or guitar, and is more like a transparent studio monitor than your typical amp - what you put in is what you get out. It can also power a separate cab for bigger gigs. The VT Bass is supposed to mimic a mic'ed up Ampeg rig and sounds great for recording or going direct - with this I should be able to recreate that tone in the practice room and on stage!

imuso have the 350 listed for £200... I really hope it's worth buying as I want but can't afford a MarkBass or Genz Benz and this looks like the next best thing. I need a small but powerful amp, and I dig the green giant logo!

I've just spotted the Ashdown Little Giant 350W head for £200 new... I'll do a bit more research first, but I might go with this unless I find a better option. I like the fact that I can sling this into the pocket of my gig bag as it only weighs 3kg, and it has line-in and an fx loop in case I want to try bypassing the pre-amp and using the VT Bass instead. Basically it's a poor man's Mark Bass! Then I can look for a cheapo cab from ebay or here and upgrade to a nicer one later on when I can afford something better. Sound like a plan? I hope these heads aren't rubbish, off I go to search for some reviews...

Hi there, I'm a long-time lurker of the FX forum, but now I seek some advice from you amp-heads... I've recently got hold of a VT Bass pedal which I'm using as a preamp. I don't have an amp at the moment, but would like to use this as my primary tone shaper, either plugging into the fx return of a combo amp (to bypass the onboard preamp) or going into a power amp and cab. I'm on a very tight budget and like the idea of separates so was thinking of going with the latter. I'd like it to be cheap, lightweight able to cope with small/medium gigs, and possibly have a wide enough freq response to be used with guitar also. So I was thinking of maybe a 1x15" cab with an adjustable tweeter, and a cheapo power amp like this: [url="http://www.guitarampkeyboard.com/en/juice-800/68590"]http://www.guitarampkeyboard.com/en/juice-800/68590[/url] Would this be suitable? There's loads of cabs out there but it's hard making a choice. I've seen the Bergantino, Tech, Zoot, etc cabs but they all seem above my price range! I'd like to spend under £400 on both the amp and cab together (2nd hand if possible), any ideas or advice for me? What's the best bang for my buck?

I haven't heard from anyone using the other guitar oriented pedals in the character series on bass, but there's a good chance you'll lose some of your low frequencies. The DI is used for sending a balanced signal (which gives you better signal transmission and less noise ) to the PA when playing live, for practice I just plug the VT straight into a combo amp, bypassing the on-board pre by plugging into the fx return socket.

I use a Tech 21 VT Bass and a Radial JDI, plugging into the fx loop return socket on whatever crappy amp I happen to be using. Highly recommended! You're best off importing one from the US, but they can be hard to find as they're new and they can't keep up with demand! Also check out the Aguilar Tone Hammer and EBS Micro Bass.

Also worth checking out is the Diamond Compressor, that's what I've settled on now!

You got it right, flanger near the end and limiter last.

Is that 9v AC? If so, then I don't know. If it's DC try a generic 9v pedal power supply like the johnnyshredfreak one.

I use the Stereo Memory man with Hazarai, it can add unlimited layers, including recording the delayed signal. Then you can pitch-shift, tap-tempo-timestretch, reverse and filter the loops. Only problem is you cannot undo them, only erase the whole lot. I think the Headrush can undo the last recorded loop though. I reckon the SMMH is a bit smaller, and the Headrush is a bit cheaper...

The Diamond compressor wipes the floor with the EBS now that I'm running it at 18v courtesy of a Diago 9v->18v converter (it was clipping at 9v when thumping the low E), got mine imported from Humbucker music. Subtle squash, very smooth quiet studio like sound. Unfortunately the ratio is fixed and the comp knob controls the threshold, but it's set just right for me plus the eq is useful for rolling off the highs. On the board it goes!

The Dunlop is as you say just a daisy chain brick. Each pedal shares the same ground connection so you can get ground loops causing noise and sometimes you'll get a pedal with a positive ground that willl just not work with it. More expensive ones like the Voodoo Lab Pedal Power and BBE Supa Charger have isolated outputs (each one takes a seperate output coil from the main transformer). Not sure if this Maplins one has isolated outputs, it doesn't say. But it's only got 450mA on tap, you'd be better off getting something a bit meatier if you have a lot of pedals, or any power hungry digital ones.

[quote name='bass_ferret' post='288319' date='Sep 21 2008, 12:24 AM']There are lots of options. The Carl Martin is a proper compressor limiter with a full set of knobs, look for second hand in your budget. T-rex do a nice looking valve compressor but that is new and expensive so dont expect to see any used. DHA also does a valve compressor. I use an EBS but it does have a pad for hot basses - not sure if dannybouy had/used that. The thing is active/passive switches can be misleading depending on how you use your actives. I always gain from flat so if I give it loads of boost I roll back the volume to compensate.[/quote] Actually I did solve the problem on the EBS by using the internal trimpots (I turned the left one down to about 10 o'clock). My Diamond comp just distorts big time on the low E, there's no trimpot to adjust as it's a fixed ratio pedal and the comp knob is actually a pre-gain control. I'm hoping that running it at a higher voltage (t can take 9v to 24v) will improve the headroom, as apart from this problem this pedal is great. Otherwise it'll be sold to a guitar player who'll get more love out of it!