VT Bass Deluxe

[cassius987]

I'm interested in one of these. I sold my VT Bass because I thought it sounded too growly and I was always fighting to tame it but now I'm wondering if I just didn't know how I was supposed to use it. I know a lot of people here like theirs. Since the Deluxe has three memory settings I feel like it would be very useful on the gig.

How do you use your VT Bass pedal? Any favorite settings? Particular sounds it is really good for? Etc.

[woodyng]

i love mine,at first,i thought the volume knob was a little sensitive,but have learned that ALL the controls on this device are very interactive,and very small tweaks will make huge differences in the overall tone/volume. generally, i have the vol set at about 11,mids at 9,bass and treble at 12,the other 2 controls at about 10. (as in clock facing,not actual numbers). it makes all my basses sound so warm and with that small bit of grunge that i like. the tone settings will vary depending on which of my basses i am using,but i don't even think of it as an effect anymore-its part of the amp as far as i'm concerned.
edit-just noticed you got rid of yours because you thought it too growly---hmm,well that is the basic reason i LOVE mine. i mean you can push to extremes,but you can also dial in a nice "touch of growl",too.

[jps]

Yes, small changes to the setting go a long way. How did you have yours set usually? The programmable one would be cool if you change things often.

[cassius987]

I like warm, "subtle growl"--like the first thing you notice is the enveloping warmth of the tone but then there's a bit of a bite afterwards. I never really got the VT bass to do that in a way that I liked, at least no more so than just good strings and a compressor. But I probably could stand to have one of these around anyways...

It's been too long to remember exactly what I did with mine. I think the knobs I was fighting with the most to figure out were "Character" and "Mids". I could never really land anywhere permanently with them and I hate that, I always want to "set and forget"--even if that means three different configurations in the case of the Deluxe, I'd prefer if I could dial them in once and then forget about it.

[woodyng]

....which is pretty much what i did with mine,it could be nice to have several presets for when you change basses,but now that i have a handle on the sound i am looking for,it's pretty easy to just tweak it a bit to accomodate the rics,jazz,and dano differences ....personally i have never been able to use a compressor with any success-i just don't like what it does to the overall sound. must be my playing "technique"......

[cassius987]

I bought Jeff's Aphex Punch Factory a while back and recorded several songs with it. A few of them are up on a Myspace page my band is still working on (it's pretty fresh). It's great as a preamp with the added bonus of compression, and the cool thing is, it's very subtle. It does increase your sustain--but the inherent sound of your bass really doesn't change much.

A sample of the PF songs are here:
http://www.myspace.com/midnightsunsband

[FretlessOnly]

I bought Joshua's VT21 and I feel much as he did. I've messed around with it plenty at home, but I've yet to rely on it live. Indeed a little goes a long way with each knob, and I'm not nuts about the distortion, but at least you can get an edgy sound that doesn't sound like just fuzz. My main gripe is that the sounds I like the best are accompanied with too much string pop and other undesirable string percussive noises.

I really dig in with my right hand and that gets me some tone I can't get otherwise. Maybe effects like these aren't meant for my style of playing...

[jps]

The seven demo songs here were made through the VT Bass using various settings depending on my needs for the songs.

[woodyng]

"girl like You" is getting the general warmth and crunch i tend to go for-nice demo's,Jeff!
also i think i probably have a pretty light touch in general,so i tend to like to have a higher powered amp and turn up the juice a bit on the pedal.

[cassius987]

Jeff, it is abundantly clear you know how to use the VT Bass way better than I ever did. The only thing that comes close to what I had it doing was the Depeche Mode cover but I still like what you are doing better even with that sound. Maybe I should have spent more time with it--oh well.

[jps]

Thanks Joshua!

I think part of the sound is what is coming out of the bass in the first place. I could get a fairly grindy tone just from my playing style and TI Jazz Rounds on the basses I used for the recordings, my '73 4001 with stock pickups and my former 4003 that had a scatterwound toaster in the 1/2" position and a magnetic horseshoe pickup with .0047 µf cap in line. IIRC, I usually had the Drive set around 11:00 to 12:00, the tones controls set to taste with the Bass control cut a bit in general. The controls are quite sensitive so a little goes a long way.

You could always get another VT or the Deluxe version.

[cassius987]

I will watch for a used Deluxe to come around some time in the coming year. Right now I am actually having a lot of fun with my relatively new TC Classic450, it's a great amp and is really letting the rounds on my 4003FL sing.

[whojamfan]

I have a VT Bass pedal myself, and absolutely love it. I mostly have used it inbetween my bass and a hard disck recorder, and the results have been awesome. My recordings sound just the way I want the bass to sound, well defined with a bit of that SVT clank in there. Perfect for the powerpop, hard rock, and punk type stuff I typically record. With just a little bit of fiddling, I can get a really nice 60s type tone, as well as just a simple clean, but full bass tone.

I played with some guys last year that needed a very Motorhead distorted type sound. I plugged the bass into the VT and straight into my Vox T25 combo. The sound was brutal with days of 'tude.

Just last friday I plugged my bassplayer into the VT through the return of the efx loop on his solid state Ampeg head, as he was really unhappy with the sound of the onboard preamp. For the first time, I heard every single note he played with great clarity and tone. Needless to say, he's buying one this week instead of having to come up with a ton of money for a new head.

Never regretted this purchase for a minute, but I really don't call myself a bassplayer. I can play, but am mainly a guitarist. This may be why I like this pedal so much, as I don't have all the search for the Holy Grail of bass tone imagined to contend with. I am very thankful for that, as I have that problem with my guitar sounds enough without having to do it for the bass as well

I guess the point I'm trying to make is that the VT pedal sounds really excellent for what I need it to do, and would imagine if you spent enough time messing around with it, even the most discriminating players could get a few different sounds out of it that would at least get them in the same ball park for the exact sound they were looking for.

[cassius987]

I wonder if you couldn't use the memory feature of the VT Bass Deluxe to just do "simple" modifications to your tone for live purposes. There's a song my band does where I take a minute-long solo in the middle, kind of roots-funk thing, and I want a bit of a boost every time I get there; especially for the upper register parts. With the VT Bass Deluxe I guess you could dial in "your sound" on one setting, then save a second that modifies that tone for soloing by boosting the gain and/or drive a bit. Maybe some more treble bite... some fun possibilities.

Hmmmmmmmmmmm...

[whojamfan]

I would definitely think that was in the realm of possibility
Let us know how it works out!