Tech 21 Acoustic DI

Very easy to use. Manual is very helpful.

The magick of this box is most noticeable with passive piezo pickups. Bought it for my passive fishman power bridge equipped ASAT. Now I can make it sound like a real acoustic, not as nice as my brazillian 810ce however, and this box could not improve my factory on board blender sound. The best surprise of all was being able to un-plug my electric rig (budda wah>foxrox-CC2>mesa bottlerocket>DL4 from my 73 bandmaster and get a direct sound that rivals my best MICed sound.
The bass worked very well too.

Just got it

Very flexable DI. Blend in as much "SANSAMPNESS" as you need or not.
Use it for all your MIC modeling needs. If you already have electric guitar "tone gear" like ODs/DISTs, and have acoustic DI needs, you can't go wrong with this. Small, easy to get great sound, uses 3 different power sources (9v battery, DC, or phantom)

The Tech21 Acoustic DI is basically a DI with some EQ controls and a tube "blend" control. Very easy to use. The manual is very good and gives some good starting points for dialing in a sound. Powered by phantom power is an awesome feature! I also love the i/o options. I don't use the loop as an effects loop, but I do have it going to a tuner and sometimes an amp.

The sound quality of this unit is top notch, depending on what you're doing. For live, the box is mana from heaven. I hate piezo's, but mic'ing isn't always the best option. I'm able to get a good live sound and kill feedback with the mid/notch control. For my steel string, it takes a bit of tweeking depending on the mood my axe is in. For my nylon string, it doesn't matter what I do live, I can get a good sound... even with the box in passive mode. For recording, you'd be hard pressed to find the sound believable as a tube mic'd guitar. My nylon sound is very usable recorded with it. I've used it with my electric and a Sansamp Original and got some very good recorded tones. I even tried it as an insert on some vocal tracks and got some good results! Live I'll give an 8, recorded I'll give a 7

Typical Tech21/Sansamp. Built like a tank. I've had mine for 3 years and no probs whatsoever. Both of my acoustics have xlr outs, so technically I don't even need a DI, so yeah... I'd gig without a backup.

Awesome!!! I've only dealt with them regarding my Sansamp Original pedal and they were very supportive, polite, and prompt.

I play primarily fingerstyle... open/alternate tunings, blah blah blah... I do gig and do record. My Sansamp Acoustic DI definitely gets used and has been a very useful tool in my box. It is pricey, but I know I've gotten my money's worth out of it. If stolen or lost, I'd replace it.

Everything is very obvious on this little guy. One brief glance at the manual and you're off to tweaking away.

I had to write a review of this unit after somebody actually made a comparison to a guitar miked with a Neuman! Has this guy actually HEARD an acoustic guitar miked up properly? Doubt it.
Anyway, I use this between my Taylor 514ce and the FOH mixer and it has done a pretty good job of smoothing out some of the brittle piezo "quack" as everyone seems to be calling it. This guitar also has a built in mic which I can sneak just a little into the blend, too much and the whole guitar becomes a giant mic - the audience hears every squeaky move on the fingerboard and even the buttons on my shirt sound like someone rapping their fingernails on the cedar top.
I've also used it with my Taylor 510 which has a Dean Markley pick-up of some kind in it, not sure what. The guitar sounds pretty harsh and shallow right into the board. With the Acoustic DI things definitely become more pleasant, but NOT to the point of being a revelation. I play in an act with another acoustic guitarist who uses a Shure SM98 attached to the pickgaurd of his Santa Cruz dreadnaught, and after all my tweaking with my Fishman blender on the Taylor, through the tweakings on the Tech21, my guitar still doesn't sound NEARLY as natuaral. I won't go his route mostly because my style would knock the mic right off the guitar on the first song every night, and I don't think I can change. Along with the fact that he has a definite low ceiling of feedback problems that I don't have...
Still, I just want to warn anyone out there who reads some of these reviews stating how this amazing box made their Ovation sound like a miked up Martin D28 - please... be wary.
This unit is still a valuable box and I intend to keep mine and use it every week. It WILL smooth out those nasty sounding acoustic guitars with pick-ups, that's what it's for.

No problems in 3 years!

Never had to call!

6 knobs: Level, blend, bass, treble, mid boost/cut and mid frequency. 3 switches: phantom power/ground connect, 20db pad, and active. Two 1/4" inputs (one to preamp, one direct to XLR out); one 1/4" output, one XLR output. Neat trick: you can use the 1/4" output and the direct-to-XLR input as an effects loop.

Controls are largely self explanatory. Blend mixes direct signal with the Sansamp tube-emulation circuit: turn the knob all the way left, and the thing is a direct box w/EQ; all the way right, and it's nothing but Sansamp. The active switch is a bypass; turn it off, and the thing becomes a transparent direct box.

Difficult to use only to the extent that it gives you a lot of options. But you wouldn't buy an acoustic preamp if it didn't, right?

I'm using this device with three quite different instruments through an Ampeg B50R combo. The Ampeg has a passive four-band EQ, which I almost always leave flat.

Eminence acoustic/electric upright bass: This instrument comes with a passive piezo "Realist" pickup and no preamp. While its inventors tout the Realist as not needing a buffering preamp, it has a lot of microphonic harshness when used this way. Also, the Eminence, with its traditional violin-like construction, feeds back at high volumes. Through the Sansamp, both problems are cured instantly. No feedback at high volumes, no harshness and arco playing (often a problem with amplified violins) sounds particularly lovely. No tweaking of the Sansamp controls is is required to get a good sound, though cutting some bass can help eliminate speaker-rattling "boominess" on the E string.

Carvin AC175: this is a chambered, piezo-only solidbody guitar, along the lines of the Godin A4 or the Gibson Chet Atkins thinlines. Unlike a lot of instruments of its type, the AC175 has a balanced tone with little-to-no piezo quack, and the onboard two-band preamp is well-voiced and not extreme. That said, the Sansamp has its uses with the AC175. The tube-em circuit adds some musical, natural-sounding compression, which evens out the volume differences that can occur when switching between fingerstyle, flatpicking and hard strumming. Boosting the mids around 250 Hz adds some acoustic whump, making the thin-bodied AC175 sound more like a full-depth acoustic. Cutting the mids around 750 Hz cures some residual piezo harshness.

Fender Roscoe Beck V: This is a passive 5-string bass that has more pickup switching options than you can shake a stick at, but no preamp. The Sansamp makes this "old school" instrument sound like (everybody now) a Jazz bass on steroids, as well as a lot of other things. Again, the mid control is the standout feature. Boosting mids at 600HZ gives you a nice Jaco growl; at 780, Geddy Lee; cutting them in this territory (interestingly) can cure a jazz bass of most of its 60Hz hum. Cutting the mids between 700-100Hz gets you a scooped Marcus slap tone; kind of blah, in my opinion, but it's in fashion. The treble knob adds bite without becoming annoying.

Overall, it's musical, versatile, and plenty quiet. As good a preamp as any expensive rackmount.

All metal case. Sturdy knobs with sufficient resistance in their travel to avoid screwing up settings if you knock it. Jacks look solid. My only gripe: the 9V battery connector is the wired-clip kind that can pull loose. I'd prefer those sprung metal contacts.

Tone-wise, the Eminence necessitated this purchase; it's icing for the other two instruments. But it's a clever little box; as the name implies, you can ditch your bulky preamp/amp and use this in the studio or live (though you'd still probably want some kind of on-stage monitor). It does exactly what I wanted it to, which is to tame unruly piezos and eliminate feedback.

I was also considering the Sansamp Bass Driver, but the input impedance of that device (980Kohms) isn't as well-suited to piezos as the Acoustic DI (4.7 Megaohms). They both have the same tube-em circuitry, and the Acoustic DI can put out a mild overdrive when cranked. After sampling the versatility of the Acoustic DI's parametric mid, which the Bass Driver lacks, I think I made the right choice.

This one is easy to use. The switches are obvious and the knobs really make things happen. It will operate on phantom power (a PLUS!!)

OK here's the story: My acoustic band was going on a cross country tour and we needed a bunch of preamps for passive acoustic pickups in various instruments. I bought a wide range of small portable boxes: the ART Tube MP, LR Baggs Para Acoustic, Boss AD-3, SansAmp Acoustic DI and Fishman Platinum. This unit, the Tech21 SansAmp Acoustic, was second-best overall for acoustic instruments. We ended up using it for the main acoustic guitar. See my reviews of the other boxes for more about the winners (and losers) of the lowbelly acoustic preamp shootout.

Very reliable.

don't know.

I like this box. If I lost it I'd probably buy another one, although the LR Baggs Para Acoustic DI sounds better and costs less. This one is "sexier" than the LR Baggs, if that matters..

Pickup features: Accoustic DI box
Impedence or other specs:

Model of guitar or bass: Yamaha L15A
Position: all positions
Pickup being replaced: na
Other pickups on guitar: Fishman Natural II
Artists using this pickup:
You musical style(s): Finger Picking
Reason for pickup change: Purchased the DI box because it claimed to eliminate the Piezo churp and provide a more balanced sound

Perceived output level: Added more volume and presence to the pick-up
Tone: totally balanced
Sonic evaluation: Running this through a Yorkville MP6 Pa using Yamaha SV10 speakers. This accoustic DI box did everything it claimed to do. It eliminated the piezo churp and brought the natural bass back up in the guitar. Even to a non musician ear the difference can be noticed right away. The pickup now sounds like a mic'd guitar and exceeded my expectations. The unit has a bass and treble control with a notch filter. There is also a gain control to adjust the unit's electronic effect on the sound. In the store I compared this to an LL bags parametric DI and it did not approach the sound transformation of the Sansamp

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: Mainly fingerpicking. Perfect match in the bass notes retake their natural place in the presence of each chord.

Comments: I would replace it although the price hurt a little. I have played guitar for 30yrs. Provided exactly the natural full sound I was looking for.

Pretty easy to use. Good manual. Straightforward layout and controls.

Has a very nice 20 db boost function for passive guitars. Also love the phantom power you can get with the XLR output...very handy to not have to worry about another AC adapter. Also works as a direct box.

I play modern contemporary worship/praise music in a band setup. Have used this with a LR Baggs X-Bridge-equipped Strat, and now using with X-Bridge equipped Godin LGXT. From the Acoustic DI the sound goes straight to a Mackie soundboard.

This unit absolutely brings these fauz-acoustic bridge units to life. You can still tell, side by side with a nice electric-acoustic (Takamine, etc.) that this is not the real thing. But in a mix it fills the space perfectly. The controls are EXTREMELY sensitive (slight turns yield obvious changes in tone very quickly), and at times this has almost been frustrating, especially trying to make my fake acoustic sound like the real thing...it seems I am always doing slight tweaks. But this is not a complaint...it's rather easy to dial in something great right away. I just drive myself crazy thinking I can make it better. With this thing it's like you have infinite sound/tone options.

The dual mid controls are a little hard to combine...takes some time. The blend control (which purportedly removes the brittle "piezo quack") was interesting...it does what it says it does, but I found that I liked to leave a little of that "piezo" sound in there...if I took it all out it sounded too much like an electric guitar again. It seems to sparkle and breath a little more with the blend control at like noon.

FYI: I also run my midi output from the LGXT (synth out) through this as well, which beefs up that sound, too.

Built like a tank. The dials are stiff, which is good cuz then they don't move when I throw it in my gear bag.

I called these guys once for something, can't remember what it was, but the man with da Bronx accent on the other side was very helpful and friendly.

As I said, I play mostly modern worship/praise music, from hard rock/alternative stuff to delicate acoustic, to country. Before this unit, I used a Fender acoustic/electric into a Zoom 500 series acoustic processor, which was fine for that guitar (but that guitar had a great piezo tone anyway). With these LR Baggs X-Bridge units, they need some help to sound great, and the Zoom wasn't cutting it. I also tried an LR Baggs acoustic DI, which wasn't bad, but then when I tried the Tech 21, I was blow away.

I don't like a lot of bells, whistles, hoo-hahs and doodads to fiddle with when I'm playing. I prefer a very organic sound and prefer to go straight into amplification. So this is a real basic, low-thought tool to be sure.

I'm sending a Godin Acousticaster through a PA, as well as into a spring reverb unit and into my sound card for recording. The Godin is an extremely thin, tinny-sounding axe without a little help, and this is just the ticket. Evens out the piezo quack, and while retaining the essential sound of the guitar, gives it a more natural, acoustic voicing than going straight in. Extremely low noise -- silent operation. One thing I've noticed is that when you use the XLR output, the effect of the midrange shift does not seem to be as pronounced. Am getting some great Latin sounds.

Haven't had this long, but I've dropped it several times from up to 5 feet. No effectt whatsoever, even on the finish. Left off a point on the rating because I have not owned this long, but based on how simply and solidly it is constructed, I have no worries.

Great information on the TECH21 Web site -- they have the whole user's manual on there, which was key in getting me tp purchase.

I play Latin jazz and blues, and needed a more natural-sounding acoustic signal. I was looking at the BOSS AD5, but they are hard to find and had a lot of features I didn't want or need. The deal price on the Sansamp was chump change, and now I can get the mellow, round acoustic sound I want without hours of tweaking and smoothing in SoundForge. EVEN MY WIFE CAN HEAR THE DIFFERENCE IN MY TONE THROUGH THE FLOOR.

This DI is fairly easy to get the hang of. The tone controls are powerful without being touchy. The trickiest aspects are the blend control and the sweepable mid eq. The manual is pretty straightforward though, and I found it helpful getting started. As long as you're not going for a radically tweaked acoustic tone, you should find getting a decent sound out of this thing a snap.

I've been using this with a '97 Lawrence Nyberg Commodore with a McIntire pickup, and a crappy viola with an even crappier Barcus-Berry stick-on pickup into a '79 Vibro Champ. I usually run it straight into the board with the guitar, but when playing the viola I run the 1/4 out into the Vibro Champ to use it as a monitor, to give me a slightly more cutting sound than what's coming through the mains.

This DI packs a considerable amount of boost, and I've had great success with both the guitar and viola. The bass and treble eqs are very intelligently voiced, and the blend control is quite useful for lessening the dreaded piezo "quack".

With the guitar, this DI brings out the richness of the tone while smoothing it out and giving the level a little kick. The difference in tone with the viola is a minor miracle, and has basically made buying a better pickup for it unnecessary.

This box is very quiet on its own, and does not add too much noise to a longer signal chain. I once ran the viola through the DI into a ProCo Rat and a DOD analog delay without too much extra noise. With guitar I prefer a darker, jazzier tone, but this DI is definitely capable of doing bright (not brittle). It really makes harmonics on the viola jump out too.

As far as sound quality goes, let's just say that if this box were to go out before a gig, I'd prefer a mic on my guitar over plugging into some mystery box at the club.

Some of the points I've taken off in this category are for the direct recorded sound. Granted, the best recorded acoustic guitar sound is always going to come from a microphone, but I figured just for the heck of it, I'd plug this sucker into my 4-track. It was not pretty. Even the recommended bass and electric guitar settings in the manual were pretty poor. Luckily, this was not why I purchased this DI, and I was not too heartbroken. But, this box's usefulness as a direct recording device is questionable at best.

This is a very reliable little box, and appears to be solidly built. There is very little play in the pots, and the 1/4 and XLR connections are very impressive. The cheap battery cover is really the only weak link here. Frankly I don't understand why so many companies skimp on this design feature.

I use this without a backup all the time (not that I could really afford one).

I've never dealt with them, so I really can't comment.

I like things pretty straightforward when it comes to gear, so to my ears, this is a pretty magical little box. This definitely blows the Fishman stuff out of the water. It does a good job producing the characteristics of a well mic'ed instrument, and puts the tone control in my hands instead of the sound engineer's. I usually just ask for no eq on the guitar and adjust the DI until I'm happy with the sound coming through my monitors. What a concept!

For those seeking honest acoustic tones with little fuss, this is a great little box. "Acoustic" musicians who just aren't happy with their sound until it's washed in cheesy chorus and tinny digital reverb should probably buy one of those silly little floor processors instead.

I was a confirmed piezo pickup hater before I bought this box. A friend bought one of these and I had a chance to try it before buying the Nyberg. I was planning on skipping the pickup and just micing it, but playing his guitar through this changed my mind.

My biggest complaint about this box would have to be the lack of a low cut filter. The Nyberg is a very large bodied guitar, and the McIntire pickup is an under the bridge job (as opposed to an under the saddle pickup), so the threat of low end feedback is ever-present. Sure, it's my own damn fault for courting feedback with this stuff, but for almost $200, it would be nice to be able to roll of some low end howl I get sometimes. Beyond the feedback aspect, this would be helpful for getting an acoustic rhythm guitar to sit in a live mix with a minimum of hassle.

This little quibble aside, this is a great DI. Every decent club should own one of these. It can make even the crappiest instrument with a piezo pickup sound decent, and a good instrument and pickup sound amazing.

GOOD SOUNDS RIGHT FROM THE START. ADJUST THE MID FREQUENCY KNOB TO THE FREQUENCY YOU WANT TO CUT OR BOOST AND FORGET ABOUT IT..GOOD MANUAL TOO

I USE ALVAREZ ARTIST AD65E ARCHTOP(MY FAVORITE GUITAR),WASHBURN RR200,SIGMA TB1,GIBSON BLUESHAWK...THIS IS THE QUIETEST UNIT I'VE EVER SEEN.(BELIEVE ME,I'VE OWNED EVERYTHING)..BOSS EFFECTS..FENDER BLUES JUNIOR AND PASSPORT 250 PA..TRACE ELLIOT TA 30R..THE SANSAMP ACOUSTIC DI IS IRREPLACEABLE FOR GETTING A TRUE ACOUSTIC FULL-BODIED TUBE SOUND NO MATTER WHAT YOU RUN IT THRU..

ONLY HAD IT FOR A MONTH........SEEMS TO BE BUILT VERY WELL

BEFORE BUYING I CALLED TECH21. EXPLAINED TO THEM WHAT I HAD,WHAT I NEEDED. THEY WERE VERY HELPFUL,FRIENDLY AND TOOK THEIR TIME HELPING ME. THAT MEANS ALOT. I WILL NOT HESITATE TO BUY THEIR PRODUCTS IN THE FUTURE..CUSTOMER SUPPORT IS A TOP PRIORITY WITH THEM UNLIKE FENDER,WASHBURN,MARSHALL,MARTIN WHO NEED TO FIRE SOME PEOPLE AND REVAMP THEIR SERVICE DEPT.

I PLAY BLUES/CLASSIC ROCK IN A SOLO ACOUSTIC ACT. BEEN PLAYING 13 YEARS PROFESSIONALLY IN BANDS GOT TIRED OF THE BULL#$%*!! AND SET OUT ON MY OWN. GEAR LISTED ABOVE IS ALL EXCELLENT STUFF AND I HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT ALL, ESPECIALLY THE ALVAREZ AD65E!! IF THE SANSAMP WERE STOLEN I WOULD BUY 2 MORE. THERE IS NOTHING BAD ABOUT IT.GREAT STRAIGHT AHEAD ACOUSTIC TONE, NO BELLS NO WHISTLES JUST GREAT TONE.