Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

OF COURSE some of you hate the SansAmp or Bass Pod through your regular bass amps because THEY WERE NEVER MEANT FOR THAT. When I use my Marshall practice amp, I go straight in and forget about the SansAmp RBI. The SansAmp RBI works better into the best audiophile or PA amp that you can get your hands on, preferably solid state if you are playing bass and want accurate reproduction of the RBI output. Nothing beats a B&K amp if you want the best sounding clean amp for a reasonable price. I like the older ones with the rack handles. They have legendary reliability, and instead of paying $600 for a new bass head, you might consider getting a SansAmp RBI and a used B&K stereo amp rig for the same price. Over 12 years on my old B&K amp in almost daily use, and never so much as even a blown fuse. NOT ONE PENNY EVER SPENT ON PARTS OR SERVICE, and if I get 12 more trouble free years, it won't surprise me. B&K tested EVERY SINGLE ELECTRICAL PART that went into my amp before it was built and tested again after it was built on lab grade test gear. Bass amps that have reduced their power supplies for lighter weight simply will not sound as good. The B&K was made to power persnickety audiophile speakers with highly reactive crossover networks and low impedance dips without breaking a sweat. Your 20-pound solid state bass amp head that pretends to have the same power and driving ability would choke and puke. Why didn't B&K sell to musicians? Because the increased warranty costs compared to what they saw from audiophiles that let them sit still in the rack system for years would have meant huge price increases and service headaches without a very big sales increase, and to paraphrase John Hall, B&K sold every amp they could make anyway, and still do to the home theater crowd, which is HUGELY bigger than the musician crowd. Guitarists hate clean amps, so no market there either. They hold the #1 sales position among high quality domestic amp manufacturers, and there's no need for B&K to waste time on a much smaller and overcrowded bass amp market. That means I can buy a better power amp at a cheaper price, IF I KNOW WHERE TO LOOK. Try to find a negative B&K power amp review from anybody, professional reviewer or B&K owner, if you feel like wasting some time.

yep ... today's ampeg, eden, GK, and other amps are desighed to be clean with plenty of overhead ... with an amp like this you can now use a pod or sans amp and get some amazing sounds ... with a few different presets you can get a lot of cool sounds ... this is a whole lot better than owning a lot of classic marshall, ampeg, acoustic, fender, and other big amps and cabinets ...

If you own one of those old big classic amps ... by all means keep it and use it ... but for the rest of us there is the pod ...

Jeff, I'm not sure I know that much about the Pod, but I think comparing the Pod and the SansAmp DI is an apples/oranges thing. My Sansamp has got bass, mid, treble, presence and drive controls on it. I think your pod has flanger, chorus, phaser, octave divider, and probably a lot else, addition to what the Sansamp has. The sansamp is just a little preamp section in a box on the floor, IMHO...
Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the sansamp, and I can mimic amps with it, but it doesn't have all the effects and stuff that the Pod does....

I have a pod and a sans amp ...

The pod is self contained ... with the sans amp you will need a compressor and a few effects ...

I am addicted to the pod ... it makes a bad amp sound good and a good amp sound great ... some of the effects are cheesy and don't work right but there is enough there to get some good sounds ... I love the built in tuner ...

The pod needs a true bypass and an xlr out ... I am still using the old pod ... I will have to try the new one someday ...

The pod

How does the Pod sound compared to the signal straight from the bass? Does it color it with everything bypassed and tone controls set for flat response? Or does it have a sound of it's own?

Actually, all these music equipment comparisons are piddly nitpickings next to something that REALLY counts in allowing you to appreciate music and just about any of the other finer things in life.

I bought a couple of IQAir HealthPro Plus air purifiers and have been upping my indoor air quality for the past couple of weeks. This was on the advice of a world renowned environmental health physician that I know who practices environmental medicine in Dallas. I used to think about going outside to catch some fresh air, but now the outside air smells like an automobile exhaust compared to my indoor air. And realize that I live in a small town, where the air is supposedly good. People in the city will notice the difference even more. I slept better the very first night under my IQAir than I had in quite some time. After your head really clears out in a week or two, you can hear, smell, and taste like you never did before. Well, at least better than you could since about age 20. If you think I am full of ********, realize that the modern man must endure an environmental toxic load about 500 times greater than a medieval Europan man had to endure. You pick up more toxins in 2 months than he did in a lifetime. About 12 pounds a year, to be precise. A lot of that is in the air you breathe. You realize you have been on a "drug trip" of sorts for the past couple of decades due to toxins you inhale 24 hours a day. I installed a third unit in my office at work, and after only 3 days people are saying that I seem to be feeling and looking better. I kicked both units on high in my apartment when I left for work, and when I got home the air was so clean that it was like standing on a snow covered landscape in northern Minnesota with a north wind blowing out of Canada. It was a rush of sorts, all the outside smells just disappeared. One side effect is that outside my "clean air bubble", I have the nose of a dog and notice smells that I never paid attention to before. This is a good or bad thing, depending on what you decide to go sniff. I also appreciate other things more, like food and music. Women really dig the units. Better than any music equipment upgrade, and it enhances the rest of indoor life as well. After owning some of these things for a while, you can turn them off for a while and really notice what you're missing. These units are WAY beyond the old HEPA standards, and filter everything down to the size of a gas molecule, so they really get rid of bad odors. Guaranteed to catch at least 99.5% of viruses on the first pass. My units came with individual lab test reports showing that they each captured particles down to 0.3 microns with at least 99.98% efficiency on the first pass at full airflow. With my head all cleared out, little nuances in recorded music are being heard for the first time. Simply amazing devices! Say to hell with all the other **** until you get a couple of these things! This is NOT that Sharper Image "Ionic Breeze" ******** yuppie bait **** that lands in my mailbox every couple of months. IQAir is the number one brand of indoor air purifiers for European hospitals and high tech industry. Building this small residential unit was child's play for them, and it's the only residential unit made that meets the latest ultra stringent EN 1822 standards. No ********, it works! If you live in a city, it's a necessity.

It also comes with a remote control, and is programmable.