Sansamp Bass Drive DI For Guitar?

pdadda

pdadda

Captain Sea Boots
So here's the deal. I got a $75 Guitar Center Gift Card. I am about to move to a smaller place, so I am looking at getting an amp emulator for recording. I have my eye on the Sansamps. The GT2 goes new for $189, but I see them go used for around $75 on craigslist. I can't seem to justify using this card to buy a new one that will still cost me more even after the gift card.

So I started looking at the sansamp bass DI. I used to work in a studio, and this thing sounded great on bass. Anyone tried it out with acoustic or electric guitar for direct recording? They seem to retain their value alot more. Can you get a good overdrive sound for electric guitar if you push it hard enough?
 
Haven't used one for that but I would doubt it. Bass is usually a generally clean signal so I imagine those units have been optimized for bass which would mean they wouldn't give the thick obscuring distortion we like on guitar.
Hopefully someone who's tried this will come along but it'd surprise me if it has a good distortion for git.
 
I also have a Big Muff and Turbo RAT that I use for distortion in front of my current tube amp. But they sound even better when the amp is a bit overdriven.
 
i used to own all 3 - gt2, Bass and Acoustic DI. The Bass DI has a "drive" control, even has a distorted bass setting. It won't have the flexibility of the GT2, but you could get some grit.

I currently own the 3 respective "knockoffs" of the Sansamps - the Behringer GDI21, ADI21 and BDI21 (they are exact copies, except they look different, also the GDI21 has an XLR-out unlike the GT2). To me they're just as good ($30 each! and I don't worry about them "holding value").

I love Tech21 stuff, but IMO it's way overpriced. If you can get 'em used, at maybe 50% off, they're a good deal.

Ideally I'd recommend GT2/GDI21 for guitar, if that's your main purpose.
 
Hmmm...I hadn't heard of those Behringer ones. So you really think its just as good? It doesn't look like I can get that through Guitar Center. But at that price, I could just buy it elsewhere and save the gift card for strings and such.
 
pdadda said:
So you really think its just as good?
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well, I really think that they're 30 bucks. I avoid saying "just as good" lest I be accused of anything :D

I avoid saying it, but I think it :cool:

I have another cheap gadget from them - the Ultra-G GI100 active direct box and "4x12 guitar cab simulator". I got it in the hopes of having a "2-channel" sound - a clean with GI100 and any "crunch" I pick from GDI21, all footswitchable.

I never had a chance to try them together, because I bought a tube amp (Fender SCXD), but we tried it yesterday. GDI21 -> GI100 -> the PA with a touch of reverb. WOW! The GI100 wasn't just "solid-state clean" - it had a tube-like clean bite when you dug in (ok, the guitar had a hot humbucker, but still) and with GDI21 engaged we had the needed "dirt" at the tap of a foot. It competed well with the SCXD, drums and bass - I think mostly the difference in tone was due to different guitars/pups - I play a solid les-paul type guitar with alnicos and the guest player had a semi-hollow gibson with "dirty fingers" bridge hot ceramic pup. It's a "tom delonge" model.

I still prefer my SCXD, but I keep the behri setup for my guests, so they don't have to lug their amps (and I usually hate when people bring 100wt solid state amps, which drown out everything with a massive wall of ice crystals. Or is it "silicone crystals"? so cold!)

I am really impressed (though I still wish it was a single dual- or triple-channel box). GI100 is also phantom-powerable, which is one thing sorely needed on all the behri sansamp copies (they're called "v-tone").

So this whole analog tube emulation may not be the real thing, but it's usefully close, usefully portable and usefully cheap! Hope this helps.

And did I mention they're all 30-35 bucks?

P.S. I've successfully used the GI100 as a passive direct box for voice applications (you can turn off the 4x12 sim) and it has +/- 20db buttons and ground lift. All V-Tones also have ground lift.
 
I use the behri Vtone Bass BDI21 for guitar quite often. It has Treb, Bass, Vol, Presence, Drive & Blend (that's a tube emulator it seems).
With those options a crunchy sound can be dialed up easily & quickly. It's not the same as mic'ing or a dedicated guitar outfit (though better than some I suspect) but it's solidly built, very cheap & versatile.
Oh, with ground lift!
 
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pdadda said:
I also have a Big Muff and Turbo RAT that I use for distortion in front of my current tube amp. But they sound even better when the amp is a bit overdriven.
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I have all the various SansAmps pedals, they all sound very very similar, but some of them are more flexible than others, and some require more tweaking.

Okay so you were wondering about the BASS DI SAns, well it will be great for acoutic guitar, it will shine on electric as well. If you want overdriven tones, use your Big Muff or Turbo Rat, be sensible with the volumes and inputs, and work with the drive on the SAns pedal. The Sans pedal will give you a more valvekind of sound, and it will help a great deal if you fatten up the sound with a distortionpedal --or some kind of boostpedal--infront of it. The boost will make the distortionsound more convincing and hotter. Can you get distortion from the SansBAss without a distortion-pedal? Yes, but the overdriven sound may be more pleasing if you give it a kick with another pedal which will boost the input of the SansBAss.

The GT2 would be better for just electric guitar, has more voicingoptions, but would be good for bass and acoustic as well, will give you similar kind of results. If you want it to use for direct recording the BAss SAns may be better because it does have a DI-and Jack output. The GT-2 only has a Jack, and is designed more for playing live.

Yes SAns pedals are not cheap, but look around for second hand ones and try Ebay. I lot of people sell them, because they do not really understand how to use them very well, you may be lucky to get a good deal. All of them are great for both live and studioapplications, so they are a worthwile investment.
 
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