Getting a Good Tone with my Sansamp BDDI

[shoulderpet]

On 19/07/2022 at 12:06, Bassmaster General said:

I have to confess, my strings are quite old but I used the old 'boil them in hot water for 15 minutes' trick and they sound quite new and twangy!

I think this may be the issue, boiling them will get some of the brightness back but there is no substitute for new strings, you mentioned you replaced the electrics, not sure what you are using but replacing the tone pot with a 1meg or a no load tone pot will brighten up the tone.

 

Finally as a last resort, a pickup swap might help, I say as a last resort as it is easy to get sucked down the rabbit hole of endless pickup swaps to find "the one" but some Seymour Duncan SJB-3's will give you a good meaty tone, Model J's also will but will be darker sounding

[Baloney Balderdash]

What you lack is high mids frequency content, which that preamp scoops right out of your tone.

 

Sorry, but you picked the wrong preamp for what you are trying to achieve.

 

Edited July 25, 2022 by Baloney Balderdash

[paul_5]

Sansamp Paradriver is much more versatile as a preamp.

[Misdee]

On 22/07/2022 at 23:15, 4000 said:

But you can use something entirely different and not sound bland. You don’t have to use a BDDI. 😉

I totally agree. I was just trying to say that the BDDI adds a very definite character to the sound, some (not me) would say a bit too much.

 

I use mine primarily for recording. To be honest, I can't understand why so many people use the Bass Driver and similar preamps through an amp. Why not just buy an amp you like the sound of in the first place? I suppose if it makes the sound better then fair enough, and with so many bass players using distortion nowadays ( it wasn't always that way, I remember when most bass players were trying to get as clean a signal as possible) at least with a BDDI you can  rely on a bit of fuzz with plenty of bottom end.

 

Whatever you want to use it for, I think the BDDI is excellent value for money. To me it sounds as good in its own way as much more expensive competition and it's very nicely made. 

[Lozz196]

I use the BDDI so that whichever rig is there at the gigs I play i get the sound I want. I`d prefer to use my amp (Ashdown ABM600) but if the provided rig is a combo then I`m in a sticky situation, so BDDI all the way so I get consistency to FOH. In past years I had the Blend on full so got the full Sansamp flavour, however now I have it around midday-ish, find it retains more of the bass`s actual character that way, but as with anything that`s more to do with what the band needs, I love the full-on BDDI sound but it`s not really right for my current band.

[4000]

1 hour ago, Misdee said:

I totally agree. I was just trying to say that the BDDI adds a very definite character to the sound, some (not me) would say a bit too much.

 

I use mine primarily for recording. To be honest, I can't understand why so many people use the Bass Driver and similar preamps through an amp. Why not just buy an amp you like the sound of in the first place? I suppose if it makes the sound better then fair enough, and with so many bass players using distortion nowadays ( it wasn't always that way, I remember when most bass players were trying to get as clean a signal as possible) at least with a BDDI you can  rely on a bit of fuzz with plenty of bottom end.

 

Whatever you want to use it for, I think the BDDI is excellent value for money. To me it sounds as good in its own way as much more expensive competition and it's very nicely made. 

I remember all through the ‘80s being completely unable to use any sort of drive in studios, they just wouldn’t have it. 😂

[Misdee]

5 hours ago, Lozz196 said:

I use the BDDI so that whichever rig is there at the gigs I play i get the sound I want. I`d prefer to use my amp (Ashdown ABM600) but if the provided rig is a combo then I`m in a sticky situation, so BDDI all the way so I get consistency to FOH. In past years I had the Blend on full so got the full Sansamp flavour, however now I have it around midday-ish, find it retains more of the bass`s actual character that way, but as with anything that`s more to do with what the band needs, I love the full-on BDDI sound but it`s not really right for my current band.

I take your point entirely  about giving you some consistency with a range of amps.

 

I have also had a bit of a journey with learning how the blend control interacts with the other controls. One of the good things about the Sansamp is the way it can faithfully recreate the subtle distortion you get when you dig in playing through a valve amp. I have learnt that dialling the blend control back a bit really enhances that sound.

 

[Jonesy]

I'd def agree with Lozz's point about not being able to use your own head all of the time and it's one of the reasons I use a separate preamp pedal.

 

Another reason is that I'm in multiple bands and I want a completely different tone for each one. Ones a blues band that I want a warm, slightly overdriven, tube tone for. The other is more grunge/noise that I want a really horrible metallic aggy tone for. It's easier for me to bung my quilter head and small board in a back pack for a gig than have 2 big heads kicking around.

 

If money was no object then having different heads would be an option, but a small class D head and a few preamp pedals works out cheaper too👍

[visog]

How are we doing on your tone? Sounds like dead strings and neck joint shenanigans are causing a fundamental problem with your tone. This unit should produce a good clean tone and potentially overdrive grit but more distorted tone's been hijacked by Dark Glass and this won't replicate that sound. Good advice previously to go flat and play in context bringing the tone shaping. Pretty confident good things will happen....