Tech 21 SansAmp Character VT Bass DI

After a few weeks of recordings, gigs and rehearsals, I can honestly say: this is a very serious bass tool.

I use it in gigs as a direct box - on bypass, it delivers a very high quality direct signal, which is cool. But the true wow moment is when it's on. The majority of the gigs are played with no amp, monitored with in ears. What this box does to my tone is unbelievable. With the character knob between 9 and 11 o'clock and speaker simulator engaged, the high frequencies never sound metallic or clicky. The low end is huge, up to the point they need to be cut with the EQ. The drive adds more character, and together they deliver a huge tone. Fingers, pick, thumb, slap, it all sound much much better than a simple direct signal. This box does exactly what it's designed to do, and nothing less.

In recordings, I use it as an overdrive, in parallel to the clean signal. With the character knob turned above 2 o'clock, it delivers a real bad ass drive, which is very dynamic, touch sensitive and rich in harmonics. it's recommended to blend in the dry signal in that application, simply because the lows decrease dramatically with the character knob beyond the 12 o'clock position.

In rehearsals, I use it as a preamp, in any room that has an amp that I don't like its tone. I just connect it to the power amp input - and suddenly I don't hate the tone! If the room has a good amp (such Mesa Boogie/Ampeg all tube classics), I use the box as an extra drive, blended with the dry signal.

If I want a more "vintagey" sound for things like old school funk etc. the character knob just above the 12 o'clock position and a healthy amount of drive gets me there very quickly.

It's hard to believe how versatile this box is.

I never leave home without it.

Ok, heres my review -

Firstly the service from Thomann - great price and prompt despatch although it seems that DHL got my address wrong and i had to hunt around to find where my new toy had been delivered to. Not Thomanns fault and they were quick to offer assistance when i first thought it had gone missing.

Now the VT Bass DI - good packaging and the product feels well made. Its lighter than i thought it would be but still feels tough. I bought this after trying a Behringer BDI21 as a cheap Ampeg simulator. I was impressed with that product so thought i wouod invest in the Tech21. It has more tweakability due to the mid control and the character knob. With the character knob left of midday it sounds like an SVT, midday is sort of B15 and right of midday starts getting thinner. If i have the gain past about 9pm it starts breaking up the sound and the character and mid knobs really change the sound. I like it clean and fat so have settled on character around 9pm, gain at the same and mid backed a little off from 12pm. You can use it as a dedicated preamp into a power amp or effects return by engaging the little boost button. The speaker simulator button tightens up the sound even further and the bright button gets a real rasp going on if you like that sort of thing (you can back off the treble to tame it)
Great product, really pleased with it as an always on effect.

I was weighing up whether to buy this or just the standard BDDI and I went for this given the idea of "tube emulation"..

.. and what a good call it was. You'll never get a 100% perfect recreation of a full Ampeg stack as that's literally impossible in a little box but this is unbelievably close. I play mainly grunge/stoner rock stuff and this has all those Nick Oliveri-esque tones on tap, whenever you need them. I too bought this because I was sick of lumbering bass cabs and heads around the place for some sound engineer guy to pop a DI box on top of my amp and completely bypass my whole rig. Like, seriously? Anyway, I bought this because of the DI capability and it works perfectly. It even has a -20b button on the XLR out for the soundboard if you play a little bit loud and their systems can't cope with it.

Overall it's perfect, it comes with a little booklet that has loads of presets, my favourite being the Chris Squier "Roundabout" type preset, and the speaker emulation is incredible for recording out of the box. 10/10, wouldn't leave the house without it.

I have been using the original Tech21 Bass Driver DI (the two-band EQ model) for 20+ years but recently bought the VT DI because I wanted a way to quickly change my tone when switching between active and passive basses.

I love the tone of the original bass driver, but now I find myself using the VT almost exclusively. It has all the features of the original, plus 3-band EQ and a much better drive section. The drive knob works together with the Character knob to create some really nice overdrive tones. I mostly like a warm SVT tube-like tone, but you can get heavy distortion also.

I originally ordered the YYZ pedal, which sounds great if you want Geddy's tone, but I returned it because I wanted something more versatile. The VT is it. You can dial it in from clean to dirty.

On top of that, I'm sold on the build quality of Tech21 products. They last forever.

This pedal has saved me thousands of euros. I no longer need to buy a giant expensive Ampeg stack to get the Ampeg sound in my bands rehersal space. I no longer need mics and a ton of knowledge to record my basslines.

I use it as a preamp into my Kustom DE300 with Kustom 410 speaker and it totally makes up for all the shortcomings of that amp: EQ section that does nothing.

The versatility is also tough to beat. This pedal is a preamp, a stompbox, an EQ (when the pedal is not engaged, and when it is engaged), a DI and a distortionpedal if you turn the gain up. For the price you get a lot of different uses out of it.

The best part: I love how it sounds! It may not be totally authentic according to the corksniffers, but it sounds tubey (is that a word?) and warm. I play anything from blues to death metal and it works for both. Thats how versatile it is.

If there is anything bad about it I would say that the knobs are a little too easy to manipulate. They are really sensitive, which is a good thing as it gives you a wide range of sounds, but it can be bad if you are clumpsy like me and get your bass cable tangled in it while running around and it either changes the level or the gain which are at the corners of the pedal. But I suppose a little common sense or a wireless system would solve that.

For the price, and if you like Ampeg, it is a no brainer! Hurry up and buy!

Must have tool for recording and live playing. If you need fat and warm "ampegish" sound, phantom-powered DI/preamp, distortion stompbox, this is THE thing. It is really useful and especially the blend knob makes it really easy to make your sound better while retaining character of the original sound...
I use it mostly for "basic" sound, if there is no possibility to bring my Ampeg V4B. I set quite distorted "SVT" tone and put the blend knob just around 9', then it works somehow like "parallel compression" and I've got clean and punchy sound with "tube honey" in background... Love this preamp!

I bought it as an alternative for my gallien krueger amp since I play mostly with in-ear monitors. The second I turned it on I knew this was the best thing my bass could get. The operation is so easy that You forget You're operating something. The possibilities of sound creation are endless, even with just a slight touch of EQ the sound changes tremendously using a combination of character and drive knobs. The speaker simulation and bite switches are great, they will stay on most of the time.
I use a wireless system and I could listen to it through the front house speakers. The sound was fat, rich, full and sweet in the same time.
I definitely recommend this product for all sound solutions. Thank You Thomann.