Bileofwood

I use a Blackstar HT Dual - but the DistX also works very well.

Really helps to bump it up with an EQ pedal though.

Of course, if you then play through a DI live you start running into difficulties, but that'll be the case whatever you use.

I know this topic has been discussed before, however my question is slightly different.

I have long been battling the issue of using a heavily distorted bass with DI happy live sound men.

At the moment I am using this set up:

Bass> Tuner> Noisegate> Blackstar HT Distortion> EQ pedal

I have bought a Behringer DI with a 4x21 emulator which I insist sound guys use but sometimes they cannot - and even when they do it's not really designed for bass anyway.

I have also tried using the emulated out from the Blackstar, often with catastrophic results.

But we were playing a gig last night and the bassist in another band showed me his Bass driver deluxe - I had used a smaller Sansamp before and been fairly underwhelmed - however the bass driver deluxe not only had XLR out for the desk, but also, crucially, an effects loop, meaning I could insert my noisegate and Blackstar pedal (and maybe the EQ if needed) into the whole mix.

So I guess what I am asking is which of these items would be most receptive to a distortion pedal? I have read about the VT being more vintage sounding, but the BassDriver having better Mids control - I am not sure about the idea of the Bass Driver scooped - while I do like that sound it's not something I would want to be stuck with - however if the option was always scooped or never scooped I would choose the former.

Also, any suggestions on whether or not I could be looking a different route here?

Basically what I am looking for is a way to dial in my Blackstar pedal into my bass sound and control what comes out of the PA FOH. A standard DI is obviously no use, I do need something which sounds like a bass amp speaker. It might even be the these boxes here won't do what I am after. I find that every DI, except my 4x12 emulator, retains too much hi and lo frequencies - a bit like plugging a distortion pedal into your hi fi basically.

Kinda at my wits end, am really thinking that the only method would be to spend big bucks on a bass microphone - this option above could be my last attempt into feeding the PA a dialled in tone which I would prefer in order to retain 100% control of my sound 100% of the time.