Sansamp/MXR M80 enquiry

[Lozz196]

This is probably a question that has been covered before, but am looking at getting one of either of these two units, for gigs where I`m using venue provided gear - we have a few next year already like this - and usually the rigs provided are "hi-fi" gear, and not "old-school" sounding.

I had the Sansamp a few years ago, and thought it was great, but many people seem to favour the MXR over it.

The sound I have is a cut on the mids at 320, and a boost at 2500, and use the valve pre-amp feature on my amp. I don`t want to go too "hi-fi" preferring the "old-school" valve sound. I know the Sansamp can do what I want, but it is a fair bit dearer than the MXR.

So, will the MXR be able to replicate what I`m after? It seems to have more tonal control than the Sansamp, however, if it can`t do old-school valvey tone, then it`s no good for me.

[phil.i.stein]

i personally prefer the m-80 sound, and am currently 'in the market' for one.

my sansamp bddi seemed too scooped and i found that my sound got lost behind everything.

if you don't need a d.i. maybe the catalinbread sft might be more up your street.

Edited October 24, 2010 by phil.i.stein

[Salt on your Bass?]

Thought about the vt bass, or deluxe? Old school, tubey and a variety of tones packed in there. Totally different to the sansamp. No experience of the m80 im afraid, but thought id throw in another option.

[geoffbyrne]

I have, and use, an MXR-80+ and for what I do, it's great.

However, I don't think it'll meet your EQ needs,

Somewhere in Talkbass.com, there's a thread in which someone actually connects an MXR-80+ to some gadgetry & works out its frequencies - I've had a quick look, but can't find it offhand.

If I remember correctly, the bass is at 40Hz, the mids at 500Hz & the highs round about 4Khz and the button scoops around 800Hz.


Pesonally I like to boost around 180Hz and cut around 1.2 Hz. I found the Yamaha NE-1 quite useful in this respect which is basically a semi-parametric cut filter.

After that I used a 5 band parametric EQ which allowed me to get exactly the sound I wanted, until I tried the MXR-80+ which also pretty much got me where I wanted to go and was much easier to carry around. Part of the reason I used this was the fact I got it for £20 as its signal was 'intermittent'. On opening it up I found it needed a drop of solder on the jack-socket connection and has been thereafter perfect.

You can not only boost the gain from nil to 'quite a lot', but there is a 'Mix' or 'Blend' knob which allows you to blend the unaffected signal with the distorted signal, therebye *not* loosing the Thump in the higher frequencies of the distortion. I have used it on only one number for which it really worked well.

It will allow you to introduce a bit of grit if you want - Old School Valve? Not so sure.

I find that with the two tone stacks (the MXR-80+ and the Shuttle 6 with semi-parametric mids) I can boost or cut the low mids on the GB & push the top end on the MXR - it effectively gives me a multi-band EQ setup.

And I also have a John East R-Retro on the bass...........

G.

[Lfalex v1.1]

I have an MXR M-80. It's okay, I suppose. Tough, alright DI (The Hartke VXL's is [u]superb[/u]). Still don't get on with the EQ, mind. At least you can get 3 basic sounds;

Clean >> EQ only >> EQ + Distortion

But alas, No Distortion only!!!

I find it irritating that so many units impose their EQ upon you. I've yet to find a [i]really[/i] good OD/Distortion that just keeps the tone of my bass and gives it a little bit of drive. Best so far? Ampeg SVP Pro, but it's unreliable, you can't switch the drive with a pedal, and it seems to suck the bass out quite a lot (mid-range can be lovely, though!)

Valve tone? M-80? Not really IMHO. YMMV, though.