Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I know there's been some discussion of the Sansamp RBI in other threads, but I've been hearing more and more about it lately since Geddy started popping up in magazines talking about it. I'm just looking for some feedback and/or soundclips to help understand this thing better. How "worth it" is it? $329 might not seem like a lot but to me it is!

I don't have any soundclips but I do use the RBI as part of my rig which is an Ampeg b200r, MM bass, Shure wireless, Korg rack tuner. Prior to the RBI I used a Sansamp bass DI, basically the pedal version. In my opinion there is not much difference in sound between the two. The rack version has some extra bells and whistles but if you're just looking for the sound get the pedal version. I bought the rack version strictly because it's rackmountable. It sounds close to an SVT but doesn't hurt my back.

I'm already playing an SVT-3PRO. Does this mean the pedal would have little or no effect? Or is there more to it than just amp emulation?

I believe it was originally build as a DI box that did tone shaping/emulation. I guess it really depends on what you are going for. I think it's a great pre-amp but I was looking for more of an SVT sound out of a solid state amp.

I used a SansAmp bass DI in the past and felt it took away the nice middle freq of my Rics so I got the original SnasAmp (with the "tic-tac" presets) of Ebay and use it to get a little more crisp and some overdrive. It has an SVT preset amongst others shown in the manual and does help getting a "rounder" sound out of a solid state amp. Works for me better than the bass DI.

I had the pedal version but felt it "scooped" the mids out to much. The RBI version has a dedicated "mid" control which may or may not eliminate this problem.

I've been thinking about an RBI.

you can also use the "acoustic" version, which has a para mid. Works great on bass. Also look into the Hartke "bass attack", and do an apples to apples comp of the behringer BDDI clone..in a loud club mix, there was no difference.

I had a sans amp and liked it a lot ... the one thing lacking was compression ... But I sold the sans amp and I use a line6 bass pod instead ...

My podxt live is ready for someone to buy. Jeff gets first crack, but with his move and all.....

It will be a great price. I'm thinking 250, no box, but no use either!!!! I could never figure it out! The reg card has not been filled out.

Charly, did you download the Monkey software from Line6? It really makes editing the patches on the Bass Pod XT Live a cinch. It will also help you figure out how to edit right on the pedal.

I've been using a Sansamp RBI for about 3 years now and paid about $250-275, I didn't realize they had gone up so much. Never had the pedal version so I can't comment on the mids issue, but the RBI has a mid control and I've never had a mids issue or felt that I had to over compensate in that area. I really liked what the RBI did to my B100r when I had it, it increased the volume and gave some great tonal variations. Now I'm using the RBI as a preamp in front of my LittleMark 2 and I really like the way a 60/40 percent blend of LM2/RBI sounds. I feel that the RBI gives you that little bit of "tubeyness" that some of us miss when we switched to lighter solid state amps. With the two sound shaping filters on the LM2 and the drive/presence on the RBI there are a staggering amount of tone combinations you can dial in.
My favorite sound combination now is the LM2/RBI + 4004 w/hb1's + DR Hi Beams, almost ESL-like tone.

Are you running through the effects loop Mark? Or going through the front as if the RBI were a pedal?

Going through the front like a pedal, the blend control divides up the clean/affected signal as desired. It also has another output on the back to send another clean signal to another amp. There's also foot controls available as an option but I haven't pursued that.

I use the Bassdriver pedal and I really like it. My amp, an Eden WT300 is very clean and the Bassdriver ads some growl to the sound. At home I use a Mesa Engineering 2 x 10" cab, and I have a Peavey 4 x 10" added on stage. With my sort of Jazzbass I get the new Geddy Lee sound and with my 4003 the old sound. All in all should I have bought the Bassdriver years before, but he then I did not know it......

Marks definately on to something here. I just picked up an RBI off of Ebay and put it in front of my GK 700RB II. I've only had about 10 mins to play with it, but it really opens up some doors.

More to follow........

Thanks Mark.