Product: Tech 21 SansAmp Character Series VT Bass
Price Paid: euros 186
Submitted
03/01/2009
at
02:24pm
by
rikup
Ease of Use
:
9
Basically, you can't get a bad sound out of this. With the Sansamp pre-sets like for example 'Fat Tube' or 'SVT-style' you can have very nice sounds but everything is tweakable.
The Manual is simple but great. You have everything you need there.
Sound Quality
:
9
I'm using it with a Sandberg California JM4 and playing through an Ampeg BA-115. Sometimes I use a Dunlop bass wah, but that's very rare.
The VT bass pedal is about Ampeg -style amps: SVT and B-15 so what you expect is what you get. The character knob is the key point here. before 12 it's SVT, at 12 it's B-15 and after 12 it's going to crank a distortion. The SVT sounds are beefy and very, well... SVT. The b-15, fliptop -sound, is great and very motown-like. So if you like James Jamerson's sound, you'll love this setting. The distortion is very natural and dynamic. I don't like to hassle with it a lot, but it's one of the best distortions I've heard.
This pedal is 100% analog and so it's very dynamic. It actually has that tube character in it. And the sound is also very big and filling. My Ampeg BA-115 is not a powerhouse, just 100W, but when I kicked this little pedal in, it sounds like a powerhouse. I thought I had another amp on top of my amp :D ba-115 + vt bass is as huge as a stack of 1x15" and 2x10" or something like that.
I found it's best suited for fingerstyle and pick style, but the slap sounds are not too bad at all. If you're looking for a SWR -style bright slap sound, go for the Sansamp Bass Driver but a with a little top and bottom boost you can have a nice slapidy slap sound also.
The VT bass can be a bit noisy when 'level', 'character' and 'drive' knobs turned up, but you have to be stupid, if you're tweaking them like that :D
Reliability
:
10
The pedal is well rugged and metal covered, the knobs are tight so I don't see any reason why not to trust in it.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
No use here, yet.
Overall Rating
:
10
I play pretty much all sorts of music: funk, rock, pop, hardcore, latin, classical, jazz... and I would say that this pedal is an all-around match.
I've been playing for a little over three years now.
What other gear do I own... Well, Ibanez soundwave 20W combo amp and Ibanez gsr-180 bass. As I mentioned already my main bass Sandberg California JM4, my amp Ampeg BA-115 and my only effect, dunlop bass wah 105Q or what ever it is.
