• Ernie Ball
  • MusicMan
  • Sterling by MusicMan

backagain1

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At church, I play my SR5 directly into the snake leading to the sound board. I love the clean sound but miss the sustain and punchiness.

Can anyone recommend a pedal or rack-mounted unit that can be used to simulate a good amp or to provide sustain and punchiness?

Thanks,

backagain1
 

Powman

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I have used Sansamp products before and they sound nice. Various prices, all reasonable.

I have never tried the Markbass pre-amp, but 10 bucks says it would sound really nice as well.
 

Jimmyb

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A lot of people have good things to say about the Sansamp stuff. Mind you, this is the internet, so for every person that says it's good, there's bound to be at least one other that says it's the worst thing in the world...
 

Aussie Mark

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I use an Aphex Punch Factory as my compressor live - it lives up to it's name. Team one of those with a Tech 21 VT Bass pedal, which has a strong enough signal to go direct, and you've got a lot of tone at your disposal.
 

backagain1

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I use an Aphex Punch Factory as my compressor live - it lives up to it's name. Team one of those with a Tech 21 VT Bass pedal, which has a strong enough signal to go direct, and you've got a lot of tone at your disposal.

Does the great Music Man sound come through your Aphex Punch Factory, or is it colored?

Also, why would you need a Tech 21 VT bass pedal? Isn't the output od the active bass sufficient?

Thanks!

backagain1
 

Aussie Mark

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Does the great Music Man sound come through your Aphex Punch Factory, or is it colored?

The Punch Factory is an optical compressor, and in my experience is one of the most subtle and transparent compressors on the market. It's the type of compressor that you don't know is switched on until you turn it off - that's when you notice the impact it has on your sound. And it doesn't seem to colour the MM tone at all.

Also, why would you need a Tech 21 VT bass pedal? Isn't the output od the active bass sufficient?

Going direct without an amp, the VT allows you to warm up your tone to sound like anything from a B-15 to a SVT. Great pedal.
 

AlexBongoCrazy

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Paris, France, France
Could someone please explain what the difference is between an amp and a poweramp? i'm sort of in the same situation in that for some gigs i will have to plug straight into the mixing board so do i need a poweramp?
 

backagain1

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Could someone please explain what the difference is between an amp and a poweramp? i'm sort of in the same situation in that for some gigs i will have to plug straight into the mixing board so do i need a poweramp?

Most off-the-shelf musical instrument amplifiers have both the pre-amp and the power amp built in to the unit. However, the very top end amplifier lines sometimes have the pre-amp and the power amp split into two distinct modules, or cabinets.

The signal from your bass goes in to the pre-amp and the pre-amp output goes into the power amp. Sometimes effects units are inserted between the pre-amp and the power amp.

Some regular musical instrument amps have pre-amp output and line input jacks, so you can insert your effects units between the pre- and power amps.

I hope someone else who is more knowledgeable chimes in.

backagain1
 

five7

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A preamp has tone controls. A power amp only volume knobs.
 

LawDaddy

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Could someone please explain what the difference is between an amp and a poweramp? i'm sort of in the same situation in that for some gigs i will have to plug straight into the mixing board so do i need a poweramp?

With a Tech21 Sans Amp, you plug your bass into Tech21 unit, and then plug the output of the unit into the PA mixing board, just like a microphone. You never need an amp.

The Tech21 generates a signal as if you had an amp that was miced. The sound of your bass then comes through the PA. You'll need to have yourself in a stage monitor to hear yourself.

It's a very elegant solution, and sounds fantastic. Many pros travel to gigs with just one of these Tech21 units, and leave the refrigerator-sized amps at home.

Here's the version I have:

http://www.tech21nyc.com/products/sansamp/bassdriverdi.html

It's one of the more basic ones, but sounds great.
 

Powman

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Here's how I see it.

1. Pre-amp. Shapes and massages your tone. Usually has some sort of eq functions and maybe some drive control to give it a bit of distortion if you wish. It should bring the output to a line level and then you can run that right out to main PA.

2. Amp: The traditional way of doing things. You have some sort of a pre-amp built into it to shape your tone. Then it sends power to a speaker cabinet.

3. Power-amp. This is the amplifier that powers the PA system fo the venue. The mixing board takes various inputs and then sends it to a power amp which in turn drives the PA speakers.

Some bass players use an amp, but still send a signal to the mixing board and therefore the power amp. This is called using "PA-Support". All your big-ass concerts use PA support.

For smaller gigs, you might not wish to use PA support. Instead you might let your bass amp do all the work.

Or, you just don't bother at all with your own amp, but simply use a pre-amp to improve your tone, bring it up to line-level, and then send it out to the PA. But you better have a monitor speaker pointing at you or in-ear montors so you can actually hear what you are playing.
 
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