hi ya all, yeah last week i had an LR baggs ibeam fitted in my classical guitar ....... my main workhorse instrument ......
and after trying it on weekends gigs i realised i needed a preamp .... so i made the calls and to my disbelief all the shops were out of stock of LR baggs preamps (due in 14 days) and the fishman i was told i just missed the last spectrum aura DI being sold by 48 hrs........... and took my number re the new stock and not heard a word...........
well desparation as i have a busy schedule gig wise and also have an outdoors gig coming up on sunday at a mall in northcliff and the sound guys use pretty big sound so mic'ing my guitar which i did the last show there is not an option. hence the expense to make this guitar big sound ready ........... but even behringer did not have a copy of their A DI 21 which is a rip off of the tech 21 sansamp acoustic DI (which btw is no longer in production)
so yeah to the rescue came squonk .......... thanks big time ............who sold me his behinger ADI21 ........
i fetched it this morning not expecting too much but i needed a DI with EQ so how bad could it be.......... and there was literally nothing else to do that job in stock that i knew about .......... and the open air gig was on sunday ......
so i started from the point of this being a 'bad noisy unit" which i will replace asap ....... but it will get me through the weeks gigs .........
well low and behold .... i plugged in the unit and it was dead quiet even out of the unbalanced output............ so amazed i was bracing myself for the buzz of background noise associated with cheap gear .... and it was not there...............
then the EQ is remarkably versatil it's bass (unspecified frequency but it's a deep bass so maybe 80 hz or if not the standard is 100hz ) but it adds back into my guitar the bottom end that the LR baggs pickup eliminated ( the pickup must have some kind of frequency cutoff in it's active section) and the behringer has a warm bass too ............ the mids are a sweepable mid (cut and boost) 170 hz - 3.5 khz and the tops also unspecified........ but truly a usable eq section .........
then the DI section has a -20 pad and a ground lift switch .........
but the other surprise was the preamp modelling...supposed to be a tube microphone pre amp simulator ........ and they(the manual... yes i read manuals) recommend you use it full... but not for me.yet at 50 % it adds a nice warmth to the pickup sound ... hinting at that mic'd sound....
so yeah i guess not the best or most well made piece of equipment on the planet but it sure works and without noise............
so the end result is a workable sound definitely for any pro live gig ......... actually much better than the sound my amps EQ gives me.... (amp has no sweepable mid or tube preamp modelling) the sound is noise free and very usable........... i'm using it not to create a different sound for my guitar but to try use the EQ to make it sound closer to the natural unplugged sound when using the ibeam pickup ........
so pretty much amazed that this unit works so well for a unit of the budget variety ... i was expecting much less and woulda
even accepted less from this unit as i saw it as the quickfix and .............it was only a few hundreds rands so very low expectations........and yet pleasantly surprised
again not saying this is perfect for the studio. but for live.............. it's a workable tool at the price of a few hundred rands ...where the top end tools for the same job are around the R3500-R4500 mark so extraordinary value for money and as i said it works....
butafter all that i will say i will still want the fishman aura spectrum DI ...... cos good top end gear is important ..........
thanks again squonk for the life saving sale ..... much appreciated..........
peace and light
keira
and after trying it on weekends gigs i realised i needed a preamp .... so i made the calls and to my disbelief all the shops were out of stock of LR baggs preamps (due in 14 days) and the fishman i was told i just missed the last spectrum aura DI being sold by 48 hrs........... and took my number re the new stock and not heard a word...........
well desparation as i have a busy schedule gig wise and also have an outdoors gig coming up on sunday at a mall in northcliff and the sound guys use pretty big sound so mic'ing my guitar which i did the last show there is not an option. hence the expense to make this guitar big sound ready ........... but even behringer did not have a copy of their A DI 21 which is a rip off of the tech 21 sansamp acoustic DI (which btw is no longer in production)
so yeah to the rescue came squonk .......... thanks big time ............who sold me his behinger ADI21 ........
i fetched it this morning not expecting too much but i needed a DI with EQ so how bad could it be.......... and there was literally nothing else to do that job in stock that i knew about .......... and the open air gig was on sunday ......
so i started from the point of this being a 'bad noisy unit" which i will replace asap ....... but it will get me through the weeks gigs .........
well low and behold .... i plugged in the unit and it was dead quiet even out of the unbalanced output............ so amazed i was bracing myself for the buzz of background noise associated with cheap gear .... and it was not there...............
then the EQ is remarkably versatil it's bass (unspecified frequency but it's a deep bass so maybe 80 hz or if not the standard is 100hz ) but it adds back into my guitar the bottom end that the LR baggs pickup eliminated ( the pickup must have some kind of frequency cutoff in it's active section) and the behringer has a warm bass too ............ the mids are a sweepable mid (cut and boost) 170 hz - 3.5 khz and the tops also unspecified........ but truly a usable eq section .........
then the DI section has a -20 pad and a ground lift switch .........
but the other surprise was the preamp modelling...supposed to be a tube microphone pre amp simulator ........ and they(the manual... yes i read manuals) recommend you use it full... but not for me.yet at 50 % it adds a nice warmth to the pickup sound ... hinting at that mic'd sound....
so yeah i guess not the best or most well made piece of equipment on the planet but it sure works and without noise............
so the end result is a workable sound definitely for any pro live gig ......... actually much better than the sound my amps EQ gives me.... (amp has no sweepable mid or tube preamp modelling) the sound is noise free and very usable........... i'm using it not to create a different sound for my guitar but to try use the EQ to make it sound closer to the natural unplugged sound when using the ibeam pickup ........
so pretty much amazed that this unit works so well for a unit of the budget variety ... i was expecting much less and woulda
even accepted less from this unit as i saw it as the quickfix and .............it was only a few hundreds rands so very low expectations........and yet pleasantly surprised
again not saying this is perfect for the studio. but for live.............. it's a workable tool at the price of a few hundred rands ...where the top end tools for the same job are around the R3500-R4500 mark so extraordinary value for money and as i said it works....
butafter all that i will say i will still want the fishman aura spectrum DI ...... cos good top end gear is important ..........
thanks again squonk for the life saving sale ..... much appreciated..........
peace and light
keira