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DI'ing a bass head with no speaker load


Merton
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Here's the thing - can I DI my Trace bass head in the studio, using it as a preamp basically, but not plug any speakers in to load the power amp? Will everything go bang?

Got some recording coming up next week and I'm gonna have fun experimenting - gonna be mic'ing up the V-Type combo but for one song I think the 12-band preamp would sound sweet. I know I could just take a cab and not mic it, but there are a few reasons why I'm against this:

1. means carrying 3 basses, a combo, a cab and an amp head about half a mile from carpark to studio
2. the studio is only a little one in a residential area so the minimum noise I create the better (but for the combo it's OK!!)
3. while I love my TE cabs for live work, I think they lack "something" for recording the sound I hear in my head

Anyhoo, stooooopid question now asked, please feel free to laugh at me and throw me a dunce hat whilst pointing into the corner.

(This is also on basstalk, just thought I'd put it here as well for a stoopid early question to be saved for posterity and to help other people :) )

Edited by Merton
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Indeed it does, just worried about frying the power amp if I don't connect a (speaker) load to it. According to Rich and DaN it should be OK if I keep the volume firmly planted on zero :-)

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Yeah I would have thought it would be cool. The only problem I see with it is that you might lose a bit of your amps sound DI'ing? I would either mic up (in your case that may prove to be mega awkward) or like I did last time I recorded, go clean into the desk and then use Ampeg SVX, which if used properly, produces some brilliant sounds :)

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Aye, I see whatcha mean. I think the sound I have in my head for one song is very much one with no speakers colouring the pre-amp sound, if you see what I mean, and I think the TE head will do it perfectly. I'm referencing lots of my favourite bass sounds on albums at the mo and trying to find out how the bass was recorded, one has the perfect sound for me and it was a DI'd 12-band TE preamp!! I can give it a whirl and see where we get to. I may well try the Ampeg SVX software too coz I have heard such good things about it.

Cheers :-)

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Soopoib. I think I'll try it and just keep the volume firmly on zilch. If it goes bang (which by all accounts here shouldn't happen!) then I have plenty of back-up amps for the time it takes to fix it :)

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[quote name='velvetkevorkian' post='842' date='May 17 2007, 09:30 PM']FWIW my (allegedly indestructible) Peavey Mark IV is out of commission for exactly this reason. Be wary![/quote]

Bit of a strange one, that.
Particulary as its all solid state
I had a Mark VIII that I used the same way and it was OK.

Wonder if they changed specs ?

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Just for reference, you should NEVER run a valve power amp without a speaker load. There's a fair chance the (expensive) output transformer will go if you do.

Solid state power amps should be ok but again it's better to turn down the master volume (it shouldn't have any on the DI signal anyway as this signal is tapped off before the power amp/master volume).

If in doubt, keep the speakers attached and turn the master volume down to 0. And since the volume is at 0 you could use any speaker cabinet (making sure the impedance of the amp is correctly set for the cab) you don't have to use you 8 x 10" monster cab.

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  • 1 month later...

[quote name='BOD2' post='2179' date='May 19 2007, 12:35 PM']Just for reference, you should NEVER run a valve power amp without a speaker load. There's a fair chance the (expensive) output transformer will go if you do.[/quote]
Does this account for my Trace AH400SMX too? Though the valve in that isnt actually powering anything is it? I used if a couple of times with just headphones plugged into it, no cabs...

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