A Good Option For passive Basses

[greghagger]

If you play a passive bass, you might be finding that it doesn't quite give you the fat tone that you're after when you play live. Or you might already be on an endless search for a way to boost your bass signal.

 

As a professional bassist, I need to play a mixture of active and passive basses at my gigs, and although I love passive basses for plugging directly into my computer for teaching or recording YouTube videos, I used to find that my tone was lacking when playing live through an amp. Then I stumbled upon a pedal that fixed this exact problem - the Xotic RC Booster.

 

Now, I'm not one for using loads of effects, but I always use this pedal with my passive basses, for good reason. 

 

Check out my latest YouTube video where I chat about the pedal and give you some samples of how it sounds. 

 

 

[Lozz196]

Great demo, and def a pedal worth checking out 

[Supernaut]

It's more useful for FOH EQ in my opinion. 

[ezbass]

I use a Sadowsky SBP2 for much the same reason/effect.

[BigRedX]

Or you could just set the gain and tone controls on your amp to get the same effect.

[greghagger]

3 hours ago, BigRedX said:

Or you could just set the gain and tone controls on your amp to get the same effect.

Hi @BigRedX - the RC Booster does a different thing than just upping gain on the amp. It helps to drive the amp more giving clarity and more presence. 

[greghagger]

14 hours ago, Supernaut said:

It's more useful for FOH EQ in my opinion. 

Hi @Supernaut I don’t quite understand what you mean. The RC Booster is good for boosting bass level before going to FOH. 

[BigRedX]

4 minutes ago, greghagger said:

Hi @BigRedX - the RC Booster does a different thing than just upping gain on the amp. It helps to drive the amp more giving clarity and more presence. 

 

They should be exactly the same thing, unless you are using it to deliberately overload the input of the amp which is hardly likely to give you more clarity.

 

You'll need to explain further because I am not convinced and think it's either marketing bullshit or listening with your eyes.

[Supernaut]

45 minutes ago, greghagger said:

Hi @Supernaut I don’t quite understand what you mean. The RC Booster is good for boosting bass level before going to FOH. 

Two EQs during a show. One is FOH and one is on stage. Putting the RC before the DI out can help control and get a better EQ out front. The amp on stage can be used to sort EQ levels... on stage. 

[ezbass]

7 hours ago, BigRedX said:

Or you could just set the gain and tone controls on your amp to get the same effect.

Depends on the EQ notches of your amp. My SBP2 does something that neither my amp or VTDI do. Plus there’s the buffering element.

[greghagger]

4 hours ago, BigRedX said:

 

They should be exactly the same thing, unless you are using it to deliberately overload the input of the amp which is hardly likely to give you more clarity.

 

You'll need to explain further because I am not convinced and think it's either marketing bullshit or listening with your eyes.

Boosting your signal before you go into the amp is different than cracking the gain on your amp. 
 

Listen though, I’m not in the business of persuading people to buy this, that’s for Xotic to do. I’ve made a review video. If you want to find out more, watch my video then try the pedal out in a store and let your ears the guide. If it’s not for you, cool - it’s just an option. 

[Lozz196]

Well I really liked it, and for me it sounds like a pedal that could chunk up a Jazz pretty much to Precision territory. 

[BassAdder60]

I think it has a useful place on your board and it’s a bit like the TC Spark Booster although the TC does more. 
 

I think increasing amp gain is sort of the same thing but perhaps not quite as some of the weaker bass signal is already lost in a long lead and you cannot increase gain on frequencies that are no longer present so I see some mileage in your points. It might also be the pedal EQ points are voiced differently to your amp EQ tone stack. 
 

Either way it was a nice pedal and often used by guitarists as a boost pedal in the FX loop for solo boosts 

[BigRedX]

16 hours ago, ezbass said:

Depends on the EQ notches of your amp. My SBP2 does something that neither my amp or VTDI do. Plus there’s the buffering element.

 

If you need this because it has better EQ centres than the tone controls on your amp then you have the wrong amp.

[BigRedX]

15 hours ago, greghagger said:

Boosting your signal before you go into the amp is different than cracking the gain on your amp. 
 

Listen though, I’m not in the business of persuading people to buy this, that’s for Xotic to do. I’ve made a review video. If you want to find out more, watch my video then try the pedal out in a store and let your ears the guide. If it’s not for you, cool - it’s just an option. 

 

Is it? Please explain how.

 

Unless the pre-amp has been badly designed the gain control should be the first thing the input signal passes through. Whether you boost the signal before or after the input jack socket should make zero difference. 

 

And stop assuming that passive basses have a lower output than actives. This is not 100% true.

[BigRedX]

12 hours ago, BassAdder60 said:

I think increasing amp gain is sort of the same thing but perhaps not quite as some of the weaker bass signal is already lost in a long lead and you cannot increase gain on frequencies that are no longer present so I see some mileage in your points. It might also be the pedal EQ points are voiced differently to your amp EQ tone stack. 

 

If you are getting noticeable signal loss due to your leads, then you need some better ones. And as I said in a previous post if the EQ centres on this are more suitable for your sound than those on your amp, then you have the wrong amp.

 

[BassAdder60]

😉

Edited 6 hours ago by BassAdder60

[ezbass]

4 hours ago, BigRedX said:

 

If you need this because it has better EQ centres than the tone controls on your amp then you have the wrong amp.

That’s like saying no one should have a graphic or parametric pedal, or indeed an active EQ bass, they should buy the right amp for that bass/basses. I don’t need, or want, a different amp, I like what mine does and if I want to enhance it to my tastes, then that’s my choice, plus I’ve had it longer than all my current basses and I wasn’t going to buy a new amp with every new bass I’ve acquired over the years. YMMV of course and you’re free to buy as many amps you think are right for your basses. 

[BassAdder60]

11 minutes ago, ezbass said:

That’s like saying no one should have a graphic or parametric pedal, or indeed an active EQ bass, they should buy the right amp for that bass/basses. I don’t need, or want, a different amp, I like what mine does and if I want to enhance it to my tastes, then that’s my choice, plus I’ve had it longer than all my current basses and I wasn’t going to buy a new amp with every new bass I’ve acquired over the years. YMMV of course and you’re free to buy as many amps you think are right for your basses. 

+1 ^ 👍😄

[BigRedX]

I have exactly the right number of amps for my needs. None.

 

I go direct from my multi-effects (Helix) into the PA. That way I can choose the right EQ for each song without having to have multiple EQs all potentially conflicting or cancelling each other out. At the moment I am mostly using the model of the Dark Glass pre-amp, but there are songs  where those EQ centres don't work as well as they could and then I'll have something else in the signal chain. I have a couple of songs where the amp model has been picked solely because the mids EQ frequency is in the right place to sit the bass in amongst all the synth sounds we use. I rarely use the EQ on any bass whether active or passive and if I could be bothered to do the soldering I'd bypass them entirely. 

[ezbass]

31 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

I have exactly the right number of amps for my needs. None.

 

I go direct from my multi-effects (Helix) into the PA.

Sweet, a nice solution you have there and it plainly works for you and your band.
 

32 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

if I could be bothered to do the soldering I'd bypass them entirely. 

There’s certainly precedent for this, IIRC Robben Ford’s own, signature Fender was wired directly from the pickup selector to the jack output, he controlled volume and tone from his pedalboard. Not for everyone, but it’s an elegant solution, removing unwanted capacitance, etc from the signal path.

[Woodinblack]

6 hours ago, BigRedX said:

If you are getting noticeable signal loss due to your leads, then you need some better ones.

 

You will always have signal loss in your leads on a passive bass, however good the leads are, but if you go to an amp or a preamp box makes no difference to the loss in the cable - the signal is the same whichever it hits, so as you say, if you can get better EQ on this thing, then change your amp for one that gives you the same thing. Unless you want a choice of EQ on a footpedal, or you want to change the EQ before a load of effects pedals.

 

But I assume the point of this pedal is to give a boost or eq change on a switch.

[BigRedX]

1 minute ago, ezbass said:

There’s certainly precedent for this, IIRC Robben Ford’s own, signature Fender was wired directly from the pickup selector to the jack output, he controlled volume and tone from his pedalboard. Not for everyone, but it’s an elegant solution, removing unwanted capacitance, etc from the signal path.

 

It's not so much removing unwanted capacitance. With the amount of processing that the Helix is doing I doubt I'd notice any difference. It's more so the tone control doesn't get accidentally moved from it's full on position when putting my bass in it's gig bag between sound checking and playing our set. This has happened on a couple of occasions so now I make a point a checking before I start to play, but it would be nice to not have to do that.

 

4 minutes ago, ezbass said:

Sweet, a nice solution you have there and it plainly works for you and your band.

 

I don't think I've ever run a bass rig with multiple EQs in the signal path. Once I started using programmable multi-effects in the late 80s I ditched conventional bass amps in favour of PA-style power amps. Before that I only had EQ on the amp. Since switching to the Helix it has allowed me to use a single EQ module that is most appropriate for getting me the right sound for each song. 

[Obrienp]

Wow! £170 from Andertons! Not cheap.

 

I have to turn the input gain on the amp down when using most of my passive basses at jams, because they start to overdrive the preamp. I guess it just depends on what pickups you have in your basses. Most of mine seem to have a lot more grunt than your average Fender/Fender clone, if the jams are anything to go by. That includes my Maruszczyk Elwood (Jazz clone), which I always use in passive mode.

[ezbass]

56 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

the tone control doesn't get accidentally moved from it's full on position

 Been there, done that, tone, volumes, D Tuners. Rite of passage that never seems to end. My best one was a guitar gig, where my lead had snaked itself through a pedal’s controls. I walked around a bit and suddenly had no sound, took me a while to fine that said cable had rolled the input gain to zero.