Tech 21 SansAmp RBI

very straightforward, classic (old) looking dial pots..3 band tone controls . ..dial in your tone... dial in growl with the drive pot and brightness with the presence pot.. main level out ... and xlr level out(handy) ...manual has a couple of pages of settings diagrams (kings x,funk,svt,etc) but its easy to get a feel for the thing ...now heres the only down side,... presets would have been nice ...it takes a bit of dialing to change sounds ...i suppose it has something to do with it being analog but im not sure ..

from 4 string f bass or ibanez sr 480 she splits through an A.R.T 341 e.q... ,mdc comp-limiter ... yorkville A.P.800 (monster) into fender 4x10 atop 15 stack ...bring da noise ! i hover near the svt setting(in the manual) with a little extra drive .. seems to lend itself nicely to slappy funky stuff (though i dont) or classic clean (very warm bottom) ..add some drive to the clean and watch out ...

seems pretty sturdy, my rack took a tumble off of a 5 foot stack only once and she works fine still ....a pretty nasty fall though, bounced off of some concrete onto the floor...this should be an ad for skb cases..mine gets a 10 ....

i hope i dont have to talk to them .....havent so far ......

i would buy another in a minute, heck id buy 2 if they had a preset feature.. really warm, tube-like, can sound like what you want or damn close... for that price nothing touches it ...it replaced an svt tube pre-amp and i never looked back, and who wants to mess with tubes any more when you can get this warm without em ..try one out ..if its good enough for geddy lee then its good enough for me !!

extremely easy. the tone knobs are very sensitive,which is great for adding a little more bass or alot more bass. manual is very helpful but it is doubtful you would need one.

I use this behind a korg rackmount tuner and in front of an Ampeg SVT3 pro. I already had the sansamp for my practice amp which made an incredible difference. then when I bought the awesome sounding SVT I was amazed at how much versatility the sansamp gave me. I could dial in a think tone with my ampeg that suits my Ibanez srx505 great and then dial the sansamp up for a little more added highs and mid punch (this is where have a footswitch comes in handy) I also have a 86 yamaha bb450 that is a little thin on the bottom end compared to the Ibanez, but I dont like messing with the ampeg since its set where I want it, so I'll mess with the sansamp and get more bottom end and even more clarity. the drive function is execptionaly awesome on a passive bass like the yamaha it doesn't overdrive it to the point where it just sounds bad it simply makes your bass growl with authority. I like the presence knob for the Ibanez. since it has great bottom end but lacks the highs the presence knob alows you to get more clarity on the top end without dialing in en excessive amount of treble and mid. I can also get new tones out of it faster then the ampeg but with it being run in front of the ampeg changing the tone before it gets to the ampeg and then run through the ampeg I can always get a loud and powerful tone that isn't their when you run it direct. I'm sure if you run direct you can find the tone im looking for but I have always been a fan of miking the cab.

no problems so far. use it all the time with no backup. (well I guess the ampeg is backup)

dealt with the company and they answer all your questions no problem and make helpful suggestions to boot

I play all styles for baroque Bach suites and inventions to slap funk, hard rock-metal, smooth jazz and r&b it can find the tone you for your style. I was actually thinking of getting another one to get two channels that could be mixed or setup seperate. (this would give me an insane amount of preamps active preamp on my bass, 2 sansamp preamps, the ampeg preamp and 9-band graphic EQ) only problem is I would need a bigger rack and I like the size of the four space and wouldn't want to deal with a six.

You could use it without the manual, but there are enough knobs and switches that most people would need to read the manual to understand the fine points. It's as simple as possible for the versatility it provides.

I tried to get it to sound like my Marshall bass amp, but never could get a VERY close copy. I did, however, get an approximation that was good enough. This is not a digital modeler, instead it's an analog emulator. None of the presets in the manual would sound very close to the original amps they are trying to emulate. The major point that needs to be understood is that you can get a wide range of amp tone that is very pleasing. It doesn't need to sound just like anything else. It's hard to see how anybody could fail to get great sound out of this preamp.

It looks like it should last several decades at least. These are very popular right now and should be repairable for many years to come. I expect it to become a classic bass preamp. Too soon to tell for sure.

The company is very helpful when talking on the phone. I have never sent them e-mail or had a warranty issue yet.

Even in an absolute sense, it rates a 9. It should rate a 10 for the street price you can get a new one for. I would buy a new one again for sure, but might go with the Bass Driver DI if I were just going to use it with a bass amp. I play mine through a 200 WPC high end audiophile amp and audiophile speakers in my home. I also play it through my Marshall bass amp for increased tonal capability, although the Marshall does not need it to get a good tone. The RBI just allows a wider variety of tones. If you are looking for the widest variety of tone, play it through a clean system rather than a dirty bass or guitar amp. Most good stereo systems will work well for home use as long as you don't get boneheaded with the volume control. Your stereo should never be driven into clipping. Use the drive control on the RBI for your distortion. I use a Rickenbacker 4004L bass, one of the earliest models built in 1993. It sounds fatter than the 4001 and 4003 Rick basses.

I see no need to lug around a heavy bass rig for live gigs as long as there is a good PA system for running the RBI through. The huge variety of tones possible should make this unit very attractive for musicians in a studio setting. It is great fun to practice with the RBI and conjure up different sounds to fit the mood. An ordinary bass amp just doesn't have the tonal range of this preamp.

Pretty straight forward and intuitive unit to use. Rear panel is well thought out and gives user a variety of options to integrate with other systems and gear. The manual is straight forward and simple, if none were provided, you could easily operate without one.

I'm using the RBI as my main bass pre-amp. I go straight into a bridged (600 watts@ 8 ohms) QSC 850 power amp. Then I plug both these into a Furman line conditioner to chill that 60 hz hum that clubs love to annoy musicians with.

I'm currently using the new Genz Benz XB2 410 cab with horn. My bass is a 30 year Donnell Bass with Seymour Duncan passive vintage jazz pickups. While I was waiting for RBI I was using a friend's Eden World Tour 800. I don't think a better bass rig is made for what do. I really feel in love with the Eden. However I must say I like my RBI better.

It emulates the tube thing quite convincingly. I dailed a sweet SVT sound right away with just a hint of overdrive. The only thing I change from room to room is the presence. I do agree with other reviewers, this unit has plenty of top end. So if you bass lacks in the punch department it won't once you plug into this preamp. I love the old school analog front end, but with active tone stack. I play blues, blues/rock and heavy doses of swing and jump style. I get all the fat and thunder I'm looking for. But there is plenty of snap and bite too. This is the perfect preamp for controlling your sound in a live room. I really think the 410 cab assists me from getting a muddy and mushy tone. This is the best defined and articulated tone I've had in years.

I intend to use it this fall in the studio on 3rd album.

I haven't had any problems with it at all so far. I don't use a back up. I am aware of Tech 21's customer service is pretty good. So I think if there were an issue it would be resolved quicky

See reliability...

As a American roots player, this perfect! I am not a slapper and thumper style bassists, but if you are you're going to find this to be a serious choice as a preamp. My choice for this unit was originally based on the budget I had available... the 2nd is Sans Amp's reputation. As it turned out, it was the best choice for me.

Tube amp purists can stick with there heavy heads and expensive tube maintainence, to tell the truth I couldn't tell any remarkable
difference between the two. This unit does everything Tech21 says it will. After playing and touring for 25 years... I pay more attention to the artform and less on the gear form.

Very easy to use. The manual really has "Bassman" and "SVT" settings which are a good place to start. A manual is not otherwise required but helpful.

Now the good part. Buy it. Buy it now before everyone finds out. The reason I held off for awhile on this review is because if everybody gets this thing then everybody will sound as good as me and I don't need the competition. Let me admit I haven't had experience with preamps except some single tube preamps (blue tube, Etc.) I have been playing part time pro for over 20 years. Since day one I have been put off by tubby inarticulate sound even as an amateur. I don't slap and pop. Fingers only, no pick. I use a Warwick FNA Corvette 5 string, controls flat, contour off, volume full (new strings). And then forget the bass. My big rig was not running when I got this so I found an old guitar amp (yikes) sitting around unused for practicing. Using any setting in the manual, except for turning up the bass knob on the RBI to compensate for it being a guitar amp, yeilded super solid bass tone. I was really happy because I knew this would really crank on ANY! real bass rig. If I have a soft speaker I turn up presence and drive until it bites. If a small speaker back off the same and maybe mids and voila, good tone. So now I have something I can take anywhere with ANYTHING and KNOW I will get great tone! So just to be sick I went out and bought a Hartke Kickback 10 (used) with some replacement speaker inside. I positively can't wait to get to a practice or gig with this small-butt amp and blow. I'll try to be laid back, and I've practicing saying things like, "Oh, is that O.K.? I may be out of tune." and stuff like that, and generally keep a straight face. The Hartke has a rating of 120 Watts, even into their 10 inch model. Unreal! ( I think they discontinued this model because it would kill their aluminum cone speakers.) Yes the RBI is noisey on treble. Turn treble down and crank presence or drive and it's good to go. Please hold off buying one of these so I can have a rep at least for a short while. I would rate this a 15!

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Rating? If you want good SOLID, SOLID bass tone this is it, even fingers. The price isn't bad also.

10
So easy to get any, and I mean any, great sound out of this thing. It's kept me pretty busy turning knobs since I picked up a few months ago.

I run this through my Hartke in the effects loop. Without this plugged in my Hartke would sound way to weak for my tastes(extreme styles). When I plug my old PJ Spector through this, wow, it just pounds on your skull. But, in the best way possible.

Without a doubt, this thing is great. Can I say any more? As a backup, just bypass your pre-amp in the fx loop, plug it directly into the return. I used mine this way when I first got it on my Ampeg B2 when the pre-amp fried. It was probably the best equipment failure to every happen to me. The Sansamp simply blew the Ampeg out of the water. Plus, the XLR output has it's own volume knob, sound guys will love for this option alone.

Not a problem, except the footswitch is sold seperately. Kind of sucks. I doubt if I every could play without this piece of equipment every again.

Pretty basic setup. Everyone else's description pretty much sums it up. The only point of confussion for me is the "blend" knob. It blends the 'effected' signal with the 'uneffect' on. On my rig the uneffected sound is pure crap. Why the knob then?

I had been looking to find an SWR Grand Prix to replace my ailing SWR Bass 350 head. I wanted an SWR sound with a bit more power and the ability to run multiple cabs. I kept missing auctions on ebay for the Grand Prix then I found some reviews on the RBI that were just glowing. It's not exactly an SWR sound, but it does come close, especially with some tweeking and an outboard aural exciter and some slight compression. But I can also get a few other very usable sounds. I found some really nice "bluesy" tone sounds with my jazz bass and some great funky sounds with my stingray. I also love to dime out the "drive" knob and play up on the dusty frets. Nice convincing drive sound. Still looking forward to recording with it. I used the BDI on my last project and was floored by it, so I'm assuming this will be even better.

Time will tell.

Haven't talked to them yet.

I play in a Storyville/Arc Angels type band and we're playing pretty large rooms lately. Sound guys love it when you can send them a good sounding direct signal and the onstage sound is killer too. I'm running a Carvin DCM1000 power amp, and a DBX286a that has my compression and a decent aural exciter. I run a SWR Triad cab and a Goliath. If it were lost or stolen... I'd still be interested in checking out an SWR Grand Prix, but they're hard to find lately at a decent price so the RBI would probably get replaced. For $300, it really is a great unit. I'd suggest one for just about anybody looking for a range of sounds out of their preamp. It might also ad some life to dryer sounding rigs.

If you are familar with the Sansamp Bass Driver this thing should be a piece of cake...but if you are not don't worry. This was my 1st Tech 21 product and I can say getting the hang of this thing wasn't bad at all. Tried each knob to see how it affected the sound, then started dialing in what I liked. Within a short amount of time I had a very nice tone! Much easier to use than the Carvin R1000 I had!

Playing through different brands of amps like SWR, Ampeg, Crate, Peavey, and Carvin I can say I have finally found a piece of equipment that gives me "my tone." The one thing Tech 21 does best is tube emulation so you can dial in some good tube distortion on this thing...but I haven't even got past the awesome clean sounds it has to even see what the distortion sounds like.

No problems yet...only had it for about 2 weeks though. With that in mind I won't give a rating for this category.

Believe it or not, this is the 2nd RBI I've owned. The 1st one I got had to be replaced as I heard something moving around inside the unit (like a screw or something). I had contacted Tech 21 on the issue as well as Musician's Friend (which is where I purchased the RBI). MF contacted me first and said they'd send me a new one if I send the old one back...so that leaves me with the current one I've got now which apears to operate just fine. During this pocess of exchanging the "broken" RBI for a new one, Tech 21 responded (within a day or so) and seemed very friendly about the issue. I emailed em back saying that the issue had already been resolved with MF and that they were sending me a new RBI. Tech 21 was understandable throughout the whole situation.

While this is the 1st Tech 21 product I've owned I doubt it'll be the last. Like I said, it's so nice to finally have a product that can give me "my tone." I chose the RBI over some of SWR's preamps for a couple reasons: 1 being cost (SWR Interstellar Overdrive runs about $500 whereas the RBI runs around $300), the other was that many people highly recommended it...and now I see what all the fuss was about. I think SWR is probably one of the best sounding amps I've came across...but they still always lacked really good bass and warmth to me. The RBI on the other hand, covers it all, clarity (SWR-like) to the warmth and sweet bass of an Ampeg...and some thunderous overdrive in there as well. =) Versatility in tone is what the RBI offers. If it were stolen, I'd buy another one. Highly, highly recommended!!!

This is a follow-up to my previous entry on the RBI. I previously commented that the footswitch for the RBI is a ripoff at $100. It turns out that I had the FSWA footswitch (for the RBI) confused with the BFSW footswitch (3 switches on a stompbox) which is for the monstrous Landmark 600 bass head. The FSWA is only ~$25. I still feel that for what the FSWA footswitch is, the RBI's price justifies inclusion of the footswitch. As far as the comments I made about the footswitch being a complete rip-off, they still apply with the $100 BFSW. Probably even more so since it is intended for a product that on it's own costs ~$1,700 at Musician's Friend. At that price, the BFSW should be included. The following is a message I received from Tech21 in response to my first entry:
Dear JC,

Thank you for your review of our SansAmp RBI on Harmony Central and for
taking the time to elaborate your opinion in such detail.

I write only to clarify the footswitch issue. The BFSW is actually for
the
Landmark 600 bass amp head and lists for $94.95. The FSWA is an
alternating footswitch designed for the SansAmp RBI and lists for
$24.95.
I checked the Musician's Friend website, and do not see the FSWA listed
by itself or as an accessory for the SansAmp RBI (which it should be).

I am confident you will be able to rectify the situation with Musician's

Friend and get the proper footswitch for your unit.

Sincerely,

Dale Krevens
Vice President
Tech 21, Inc.
Tel: 973-777-6996
Fax: 973-777-9899

Don't get me wrong. I love Tech21! I love their products and I am always impressed by their customer service. This e-mail sent to me demonstrates that they care about communicating with and staying close to the people who will make them or break them. Let's hope they never go the way of Fender and other big entities who just don't care about their musician's anymore.

Great for inexperienced users, because it's very difficult if not impossible to get a bad sound out of this thing.

It's awesome! I took it out of the box, plugged it in, set every knob flat, and started playing. Just set flat, this thing sounds wonderful. I could even see everything flat as being one of their sample settings. Anyway, this thing makes a very wide range of sounds that all sound very good. Now, time for my critique. I have extensive experience with the SansAmp Bass Driver DI. I was very apprehensive about purchasing the RBI fearing I would be spending a lot more for it than I would on a Bass Driver DI and that there would not be any sound difference. Rackmountability alone was not enough of a reason for me. I tried many of the sample settings in the manual (all of which are very good), and many of them sounded a bit more refined than the sample settings of the Bass Driver DI. My main question was will the added mid control of the RBI make much of a difference? To my ears, the answer is yes. In many situations, I would say the difference the mid makes is subtle. It's possible that the mid control is what added a bit of refinement to the sample tones. I do feel that having the mid control makes tone shaping a bit more intuitive than tone shaping with the BDDI. If you have a great deal of experience, you may be able to manipulate the exact same tones out of the BDDI without the mid control (e.g. lower the high and low eq and raise the overall level, etc.). I'm a big Geddy Lee fan (incidently, I'm seeing him tonight in Columbus...YES!). When I am playing with my main band, I am using my own personal sound, but when I'm jamming with some fellow Rush fans, I try to copy his sound as much as possible. I am wanting to run two channels, one clean with lows and mids and one overdriven channel with mids and high-mids. I attained a fairly authentic overdrive sound with the BDDI when I pushed it with the mid-eq of my active bridge humbucker. The big question was, would the RBI get me any closer with that added mid control? The answer is a very strong YES. The RBI allows me to push more mids which are a bit more authentic to Geddy's dirty channel and it allows me to back off a little on the highs that I had on the BDDI which could be a bit obnoxious (sp?) when using the G-string. Anyway, the mid control was helpful for what I wanted to accomplish, but I could easily see it being a waste of money for other's who are looking for other tones where the mids are not a big player. I have one glaring disappointment I must mention. The RBI was fairly noisey. The BDDI was noisy until I backed my active treble down to flat. That resolved it. Even with my active eq set to flat, the RBI was noisey. Now, unlike the BDDI, the RBI is plugged into the wall and not battery powered. I live in a fairly old house and that may be a major contributing factor. Some outlets in this house don't even have grounds. If I find that this is a problem elsewhere, it's worth it to me to get a noise gate in order to keep this tone machine. I'm very happy with it. When I get another preamp for the clean lows channel I spoke of, it will probably be a BDDI because the mids will not be a big player in that sound, the BDDI gives me a very portable preamp if it's a small gig that doesn't warrant my full rack, and it's half the price of the RBI if I buy the BDDI on EBay.

Oh yeah, I forgot. I received a brand new Tech21 FSWA footswitch along with the RBI. These are almost $100 at Musician's Friend. That is an absolute rip off! There's nothing to it. It's just a black box with a switch and an LED. That's it! I'm very disappointed in Tech21 for not including the footswitch with the RBI. The price of the RBI warrants it and $100? Gimme a break! Anyway, if your interested in getting the deal I did (if they have anymore or are still offering such a deal), try www.blackrosecustom.emerchantpro.com. They were offering on EBay the RBI and the footswitch for $295

If this turns out to be like other Tech21 products, it'll be very reliable. Since I just received this unit, I won't give this category a rating.

Have always been very helpful and responsive. Just go to their website and e-mail them. Quick and honest responses. I was talked out of buying their most expensive product (the Landmark 600 - $1,200) because after describing what I wanted to do, they told me that the Landmark 600 wasn't for me. Honesty, not sell sell sell at any cost.

I just received it, so I may have a more accurate critique later on, but I was never disappointed with my friend's BDDI that I borrowed for quite some time, and I don't expect that I will be disappointed with the RBI either.