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I've had a first gen Tech21 VT Bass as the foundation of my tone and on my pedal board for the last 15 years... I may finally be retiring it in favor of the new Ampeg SGT-DI. Gets here on Friday and I can't wait to see how it stacks up to the VT. Gonna take it to a gig on Saturday as well https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4A4nFrPztGo
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Mar 29, 2023 23:50
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| # ¿ May 10, 2024 01:05 |
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DrChu posted:Interested in how that turns out. I've been trying to make a simple headphone setup at home, using Tech 21 pedals into a Darkglass Elements and its been an exercise in frustration. The Tech 21 pedals (I've tried VT Bass and Leeds) have either way too much top end with the speaker simulation engaged, or sound muffled without it, and the Elements touch panel interface is pain to use and I can never get a good balance between the instrument and any aux input. I actually never got a VT with speaker sim. Unless those gen 1's had it and you just couldn't turn it off... I was always too skeptical of picking up that or the DI/Pro versions for fear that it just wouldn't sound the same. I'll be sure to report back, hopefully with some A/B samples between the two.
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Mar 30, 2023 00:57
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I consider myself meat and potatoes... I just season the poo poo out of the meat.
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Mar 30, 2023 01:08
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Trip report: Put the SGT-DI on my board in place of my v1 VT Bass for a show last night. Really happy with the results! Let me preface everything with saying that I was VERY happy with my tone through the VT Bass. It's been the sole preamp on my board since 2008. Setup was a Lakland 55-02 with the onboard EQ flat, save for a slight mid boost at 900hz. Strung with DR Nickel Lo-Riders that have about 3 shows under their belt. SGT's preamp out going into the power section of an Ampeg B2r through an Ampeg BSE410H cabinet. DI went straight to the board with the cab-sim off. That being said, what I really like about the SGT is that it's in the same sonic ballpark as the VT Bass; it wasn't a departure from my normal tone, it was super familiar. The SGT felt like a better or more "authentic" version of the VT. It's hard to quantify, and could totally be confirmation bias on my own part. It definitely seemed punchier than the VT. I will say that when I first hooked up the SGT set completely flat, I was a bit underwhelmed. It wasn't bad by any means, but it didn't excite me. I gave a slight boost across the EQ (mids at 1k) to about the 1'oclock position and that helped a good bit. The pedal really came alive once I engaged the SGT circuit though! I preferred the SVT voice and kept the gain relatively low, just shy of about 9'oclock. I left the Ultra Lo and High both disengaged and the compression knob turned all the way down (I use a Darkglass Hyper Luminal that I absolutely love). I was really impressed with the touch sensitivity of the SGT circuit. My normal playing resulted in a great, warm, near-breakup tone. When I started to dig in, I'd start to hear that great SVT-like drive. Really the only thing that hasn't won me over yet is the cab-sim, and granted I haven't tried it in a studio setting yet. But the factory voicings really didn't suit my needs. They sound authentic, but a little too wooly for this band. Am I happy I got the SGT? Absolutely! Am I going to say you need to ditch your VT (or any other preamp you love) in favor of it? Nah, I'm even keeping my VT because it's a slightly different "flavor," and in part for sentimental reasons... But I will say if you have the opportunity to spend some time with the SGT, definitely do so, because it might work out better for you like it did for me.
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Apr 2, 2023 21:08
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Passive summation at the end of a chain can have a lot of signal loss/degradation depending on what the chain looks like. The best result would be achieved with an active mixer before sending the signal to either an amp or the PA
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Apr 18, 2023 16:43
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So far I've played a little over half a dozen shows with the Ampeg SGT-DI... Still loving it. Still not planning on getting rid of my VT Bass, but I don't anticipate swapping it back onto my board any time soon. I still don't really have much of a use for the cabsim, but it's nice to know it's still there if I ever decide to go down that rabbit hole. It also sounds absolutely wonderful pumped through our massive PA at church.
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Apr 21, 2023 19:08
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Laserface posted:had a pretty big gig last night and got to play on the house backline. all Orange gear, had the 500W tube head and a fridge cab, guitarist had a full stack. Ha! I've done that with a solid-state amp... My old rear end Ampeg B2R started overheating due to the cooling fan burning out, which would result in my signal just randomly cutting out in later sets. So I started turning it off in between sets and put a little mini desk fan in the back of the rack case. Half the time I'd get back on stage for the next set and wonder why I was only hearing myself in FOH.
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Apr 25, 2023 00:58
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DrChu posted:
For what it's worth, I still love mine and don't see it leaving my board anytime soon. We're expecting 1000+ for the show this weekend so I'm going to break out the full stack and really stretch it's legs. At this point I'm really hoping they throw these circuits into a rack unit with a power section and sell it as a head. Scarf fucked around with this message at 16:11 on May 4, 2023 |
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May 4, 2023 15:50
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Scarf posted:For what it's worth, I still love mine and don't see it leaving my board anytime soon. We're expecting 1000+ for the show this weekend so I'm going to break out the full stack and really stretch it's legs. K well that just made me fall in love with the SGT-DI even more... Broke out the 115 to throw under the 410. Amp is an old Ampeg B2R from 1995 or so, but I bypass the preamp completely and have the SVT-DI going directly into the power section.   This thing loves to be played loud. Again it may be 100% confirmation bias, but to me it not only sounds but just feels like I'm playing through an SVT. Scarf fucked around with this message at 00:33 on May 8, 2023 |
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May 8, 2023 00:22
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My Ampeg B2R died on me... middle of second set of a gig too. I'd been having some overheating problems but thought I had solved them (and maybe I did and this was completely different). Sound cut out completely but still had signal going through my compressor and in FOH coming off my preamp on my board. Walked over to the amp and it was super hot in the back and had that wonderful ozone smell. Limped through the rest of the show thanks to the guitarists back-up 15w Egnater head, just to give me a little bit of stage volume at least. We created... The AmpEgnater!  To replace it I decided to just go with a straight up power amp since I use the SGT as my pre and just bypass into the power section anyway... grabbed a QSC GX5. 
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May 25, 2023 23:06
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Yup, La Bella DT Flats are fantastic. Higher tension compared to Thomastik, which is why I prefer them.
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May 26, 2023 18:08
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Laserface posted:Anyone got advice on oversized/laaaaarge cases/gig bags? Gator claims that the Pro-Go bag will fit a Tbird. I have a Gator Transit bag and it's fantastic.
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May 30, 2023 18:54
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Risky Bisquick posted:It's only really a concern with older tube amps, sending a hot signal to the transformer with nowhere for it to go. Newer amps have fancy dummy load switches built in. From the looks of the logo and the fact that it's a Magnavox-era Ampeg, it'd be anywhere from '71-'85... So yeah, it definitely needs to have a load connected.
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Jun 23, 2023 18:41
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I want all the unnecessary switches. Basically I want Phil Lesh's Godfather bass.
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Jul 4, 2023 16:13
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Risky Bisquick posted:You sound like you'd be interested in a Peavey T40 I regret not getting one back when they could be had for like $300...
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Jul 4, 2023 21:45
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Picked up an SLM-era Ampeg SVT-410hlf for a really good price from a local bassist who was downsizing. 4ohms, 500w rms. Sounds absolutely wonderful, nice deep low fundamental and all the punch of a 410. Got an outdoor festival gig this weekend and can't wait to stretch its legs. Following that we're playing some of our favorite rooms, so lots of fun ahead with this! I'm actually gonna keep an eye out for another one... since moving to a poweramp setup, I now have 2 channels of 700w @ 4ohms each... I'd love to be running what would essentially be an 810hlf Since 2006 I've been playing thru an Ampeg BSE410H and BSE115, and while I love that stack, I got a feeling they're gonna get off-loaded soon...
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Aug 1, 2023 04:58
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Solumin posted:What are some good starter pedals? I've already got a DI box (that I don't really know how to use) and a simple compressor (that I don't really know how to use). I'm in a metal jam group, some kind of distortion would probably be a good idea. Check our Darkglass pedals for overdrive/distortion. I have a B3k v2 from Darkglass and love it.
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Aug 2, 2023 02:20
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DrChu posted:What DI box do you have, and what’s your amp situation? Being able to be heard is much more important than any pedal. Truth. Newish players are always eager to get a pedalboard going as quickly as possible... and I get it, they're fun and interesting. And if having pedals means that you pick up your bass and play it more, then by all means, knock yourself out! But having a good amp (or preamp/DI) is gonna make you sound better both with or without pedals.
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Aug 2, 2023 17:44
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muike posted:i'm currently using the effects loop of a bandmate's bass head to power my helix as a pre-amp, is there any sort of amp people would recommend to replace that? the tc electronic BAM200 seems sick but if there's something simpler and/or cheaper it'd be nice. I use a QSC GX5 as my power amp pushing my cab(s), and I absolutely love it. Didn't see any point in getting an actual bass amp when my b2r died because I had been bypassing the preamp on that for like 15 years. Having the flexibility to push two separate channels either full-range or crossed-over is pretty nice too, even if I don't really have a need for it. If you have a preamp that you absolutely love (like me), I think it makes more sense if you don't mind toting around a rack case of some type.
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Aug 11, 2023 00:03
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Laserface posted:Orange make amps called "pedal baby" that are just 100w power stages designed for this purpose, if you didn't want a rack mount sized unit. Its a great idea, but 100w won't get you very far for bass in a live setting. It'd be nice if they had a 300w-500w unit specifically for bass, but this is definitely geared towards guitarists.
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Aug 11, 2023 15:36
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Risky Bisquick posted:I just scored an absolutely mint Fender 410 Pro bass cab locally for $170usd. Never been gigged Great find! That's an absolute stupid good price for a 500w rms cab
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Aug 11, 2023 19:23
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The seller was telling me people were still trying to lowball him on it at that price 
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AFewBricksShy posted:I lucked into getting an ampeg SVT 8x10. It's loving huge but it's completely beat to poo poo. Unless it's from the first few years of production, like pre-Magnavox era (before 1971) you're likely not going to affect any collectors value in refinishing it. And even then, most collectors are going to want it in good original condition. I'm firmly of the mindset that this poo poo is meant to be played, HARD. So hell yeah, get it up and running!
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Aug 15, 2023 18:01
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Is your friend just not comfortable doing PCB soldering? Because you can 100% swap out that pot if you don't want to drop money on a new preamp.
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Sep 9, 2023 18:56
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| # ¿ May 10, 2024 01:05 |
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ewe2 posted:I've been wanting to pull the trigger on an East for my cv70's squier jazz for quite the while, I'm just trying to decide between the J-Tone and the J-Retro, has anyone A/B these? I know the J-Tone gets its preamp from the Uni-Pre which is great but sounds fiddly, requiring opening up the cavity a lot to reset, and the J-Retro has the mid-sweep but on the other hand they've mostly sold-out of the flat response and I'd have to make do with a built-in contour which may colour the tone a bit. Decisions! I have no experience with those preamps, but man that's super cool that they're self-contained and don't require you to route the body for the battery compartment.
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Sep 9, 2023 22:45
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