sansamp bass di

[badperson]

Hi,

I have a super cheap fender squire bass, which I send direct into my presonus tube pre. (imagine the fat, huge punchy sound I get; not.)

Anyhoo, I'm desperate to improve it, it sounds terrible. I'm not a bass player, so I don't one day aspire to own some awesome rig, but I soooooooo want to get better than what I have.

Are these a good solution? They go on ebay for $120 or so. The bass pod seems a little steep to me.

Thoughts?

bp

[silence_of_stone]

hey bp... I was talking with da basstard and I think he said he has one. You might want to check with him. If he is using one, like I think, then I want one too. His bass sounds are pretty damn good.

My wifes bass is a cheapo yamaha that probably would make your fender sound fantastic. I fight with that yamaha every mix I make with it - it has to be the crummiest bass ever.

I have one, and I think it's great!
It's basically one sound more or less, but not a bad one. I've read that some people like to put a tube pre in front of it to get a warmer sound. Since you have one already, it's perfect.

It's neat that you can take the DI signal and the modelled signal, and record them on different channels. I say go for it!

[bigbottombass]

Honestly, save your money. Skip the Bass POD and buy the SansAmp. It's an awesome sounding direct box that you can use right out of the box without a day or two of reading manuals and tweeking barely adequate factory patches.

I bought mine for $180 (5-6 months ago) with free 2-day shipping from SameDayMusic.com. They offer a 60-day return policy and 60-day price protection. So if you don't like it...send it back and try the POD.

http://www.samedaymusic.com/product--TCHBSDR

I like Line 6 stuff but I found the Bass POD a little awkward to tweek and limiting from an effects standpoint. I may TRY it again though if they came out with a Bass PODxt model.

[da BaSsTaRd!]

yuper... i got one. its phreakin amazing. it doesn't work magic, though. the bass guitar is really the most important part of the chain. the sansamp will definitely help your cheap bass sound better, but i wouldn't expect it to sound like my MTD.

by the way, i also have a fender mexican fretless jazz. its a little muddy through the sansamp, but its smooth as butter through my focusrite voicemaster... yum yum...

[8mmOverdose]

$168 out the door new with the power supply at the local music store here. brian (dabasstard) has the rack mount version, which is essentially the same as the pedal. see the specs for the differences. for studio recording, i run my tube distortion pedal through it and get a better sound than mic-ing my svt cab (at low volumes). IOW i cant crank my amp to get the desired tone and the bass di is my solution for direct recording. i actually run the di through a voicemaster pre (just the pre, no comp, etc) instead of straight to line in. i ABSOLUTELY HATE stuff like the pod. . . not necessarily how it sounds, it just has too d-amn many buttons and knobs to tweek. the bass di manual has a few examples of how to turn the (5) knobs to get specific amp sounds. it didnt take me long to get the sound i liked from there. it also can be powered via xlr phantom power, so you dont really "need" the power supply for studio recording. i also use it live. it has a paralell out that i run to my amp, and the xlr goes into the board. anyway, it works great for me and i highly recommend it!

[badperson]

To tell the truth, I'm a little disappointed with you guys...I need to know how to get a good bass sound with a bad bass, bad pre, and bad playing.

I'm sick of all this business about musicianship and good equipment.



In all seriousness,

yeah, then the sansamp di sounds like the ticket. Hopefully I'll get one off ebay and save myself a few bucks. I also need to build up feedback in case I ever want to buy something big.

Anyhoo, thanks for the help.

bp

[O.G. Killa]

You may have already tried this but sometimes it's worth mentioning... Have you tried different types of bass guitar strings? Sometimes all you need to do is find the strings that work well with your bass/pickups.

Plus if you've had the bass for a little while it might be time to change the strings anyway. The bass can sound really dull and muddy with old strings on it.

Anyone have any suggestions for bass strings that that they love?

[bigbottombass]

I like Line 6 stuff but I found the Bass POD a little awkward to tweek and limiting from an effects standpoint. I may TRY it again though if they came out with a Bass PODxt model.

OK...Where was I??? They DID come out with a Bass PODxt and I didn't know about it. Anybody try one yet?

[Gingley]

The SansAmp BDDI is a great unit that has helped out many a bass player/engineer. However, it's not your only option. A good preamp will go a long way, and believe it or not, some don't even cost an arm and a leg! Check out the preamp shootout on basstasters.com. These guys have done a fantastic job of providing unbiased samples from a very respectable variety of bass preamps (I sent them one for testing, myself). They have samples of the BDDI that you can listen to. Another preamp which is even cheaper and which I have found to be very useful is the Stewart UDP-1a. Check out its samples. I think it holds its own with several of the top end preamps in the shootout.

That said, I do think that your instrument (and the strings) are also going to have a huge impact. I have two friends with low end basses who struggle with the bass in every mix. On the other hand, my trusty Gibson Thunderbird has sounded fantastic pretty much no matter what we did to it. So, a nice box like the BDDI will certainly help, but you may have other gear-related limitations.

Hope this helps.