Whoah ... Never seen one of these before: Tascam Bass Amp Simulator

  • Thread starter Thread starter famous beagle
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I've seen the guitar version of that in the same case design along with a couple of other devices like the MTS-30 which was a midi-tape synchronizer unit, also in the same case design.

Both the guitar and bass versions were basically direct boxes for home recording users who these units were sales-pitched to as a means of recording quietly at home without having to set up loud guitar amps and mic'ing them. I wouldn't exactly consider these "effect pedals" as the plastic cases wouldn't have survived being stomped on for very long. They were just tascam's attempt to break into a pretty healthy direct box market, dominated far more-so by other manufacturers like Whirlwind, Jenson, etc.

Cheers! :)
 
Oh wow ... so there wasn't really any amp sim circuitry at all (a la Sans Amp, etc.)? Granted, I don't exactly know what's entailed with that, but I guess when I think of amp simulators, I think of a speaker simulator along with it.

It was basically just a direct box/impedance transformer with EQ and a limiter? What was the "turbo" button? Overdrive or something?
 
famous beagle said:
Oh wow ... so there wasn't really any amp sim circuitry at all (a la Sans Amp, etc.)? Granted, I don't exactly know what's entailed with that, but I guess when I think of amp simulators, I think of a speaker simulator along with it.

It was basically just a direct box/impedance transformer with EQ and a limiter? What was the "turbo" button? Overdrive or something?
Click to expand...
Yeah, probably a simple overdrive circuit, I'd imagine. These products came out around 1990, which was a few good years before the era of digital modeling products, so I don't believe there was any A/D digital processing, D/A going on inside of those boxes. Though I don't have access to any schematics to prove that....so I might be wrong.

Cheers! :)
 
Was just looking through an older tascam catalog from 1991 and these units are mentioned in it and not a word is said about any digital processing going on inside of them. And based on the era, that would have been a technological breakthrough that they'd of talked up big time if it was. So, basically, these were purely analog "modeling" devices. Though the word, "modeling" is never used in any of the descriptive text in that catalog.

Cheers! :)
 
Is there an easy analog way to just add a touch of comb filtering at fixed frequencies to simulate freq. nulls and such in a room (to make it sound like an amp sitting in a room)? Seems stupid to do that to your signal, but that would be funny if that's how this worked. That plus reverb would probably do the trick.
 
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It's a guitar/bass preamp in a box. Simple. I think that was thought of as innovative in 1990. Modeling wasn't a term that was even thought of yet.

I got a GS-30D off eBay quite a few years ago, but never used it. Still in the box.

It would be similar to a stomp box, but is not made to actually be stomped on.

I also have a Yamaha MA-10 mini-amp with headphone-type thing, that was a battery op preamp with line outs and two headphone jacks for the home recording market, but could also be used as a live-play inline component. Same type of thing. Something to give you some overdrive between your guitar line and your mixer input.

:spank::eek:;)
 

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Here's your Tascam BS-30

:spank::eek:;)
 

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A Reel Person said:
It's a guitar/bass preamp in a box. Simple. I think that was thought of as innovative in 1990. Modeling wasn't a term that was even thought of yet.

I got a GS-30D off eBay quite a few years ago, but never used it. Still in the box.

It would be similar to a stomp box, but is not made to actually be stomped on.

I also have a Yamaha MA-10 mini-amp with headphone-type thing, that was a battery op preamp with line outs and two headphone jacks for the home recording market, but could also be used as a live-play inline component. Same type of thing. Something to give you some overdrive between your guitar line and your mixer input.

:spank::eek:;)
Click to expand...

Ok, so it is kind of like the SansAmp then?
 
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