Appropriate Multipurpose DI Box for Guitar and Bass

Confusitron

Confusitron

New member
I am looking to buy a DI box to use with either guitar or bass, but mostly guitar. I am unsure what I should purchase and have done searches on these forums for information, but nothing particularly helpful has come up. There were suggestions of Whirlwind and Countryman DI boxes, but those were the only ones I remember. Should I be looking for active or passive DI boxes? What kind of advantages and disadvantages would those provide? I'd like to use this for instrument signals or for amplifier signals, as I intend to experiment with some things. I'd like to spend less than $100.00.

Your input would be helpful.

Thanks!
 
If you need to go low budget, an active box is often better. A good passive box is generally just as good as a good active box- there's very little that it can't do that an active can (usually involves very high frequencies). But a good passive box needs a good transformer, like a Jensen, so a good passive box will be a little more expensive. Active boxes require a power source though, although some models can add gain if you need it (like if you have low output piezos, low output vintage pickups etc.).

A good passive is easier all-around for me- Radial is a great company, and you can get an excellent Jensen-equipped passive JDI for $180, but you're not going to find a great box for too much less. You can get an active Stewart ADB-1 for a little under a hundred that's probably quite good.

Being guitar or bass doesn't really matter (unless you're using very very high/low frequencies)- what matters more is the application and what kind of output/pickups you're using
 
Thank you for the above help.

I just remembered a feature I'd like to have for the DI box as well. I intend to also use it for keyboards. As many are in stereo, I would like to have, possibly, a two channel DI box, or two DI boxes. Does anyone have any suggestions for this?

Thanks.
 
The Radial Duplex is a two-channel DI box- it also allows you to blend the signal of the two channels if you choose. Bit pricey though.
 
You could get 2 ART Tube MPs. I got one from Amazon.com because someone gave me a $50 gift certificate and I needed an outboard phantom power supply for a condenser mic. I think it was $39.

It's pretty good as a DI box on bass, kinda punches it up a little. I haven't tried it with a guitar or keys yet. Having a phantom power supply laying around isn't a bad thing either.
 
I recently purchased a Behringer Ultra-DI100 active box just to make recording quick bass tracks a little easier when I'm writing. It works, it's not great, but it works. It has a link on it so I can play through my amp and through the DI at the same time and I just mic my amp and send a signal from the DI at the same time. The sound I get from the DI just doesn't get enough fat low end, not sure if it's because it's a cheap box or just because that's what happens with DIs. I noticed the same thing when I was in school using their equipment too. So I end up just making my amp sound as deep and fat as possible and blend the two tracks and it comes out sounding pretty nice for having all cheap equipment.

I've been using it to record clean guitar too, same setup as the bass. That actually works great with this box, since I don't need my guitar to sound particularly thick or anything.
 
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