I've been searching for the right bass pedal for a long time. I've been playing for 20 years, and the Sansamp finally did the trick. It sounds great on stage, in the studio, and at home. Depending on how much you want to change your guitar's sound, you can achieve anything. The three programmers are very useful, and the whole thing is very easy and intuitive to use.

I have been using this active DI for a long time. It has never let me down. I bought it (I think) in the mid '90s as an addition to my rig, and I was pleased with the sounds I could get out of it...everything from classic rock to jazz.
It never failed.Now, at 72 years old, I primarily play at church on Sunday and an occasional gig around town. My main bass is a Dean EABC5 acoustic, that I play through an old Peavy Combo 300 head hooked up to a 'workingman' 2x10" cabinet.it does an excellent job reproducing the acoustic tone quality of the bass.Alas, after nearly 30 years on the road, it is starting to have problems. Guess it's time to buy a new one. Of course, it will be the same unit as my old one. You cannot miss with this unit.

Just used the SansAmp for the first time at church worship service. I play a Fender Aerodyne bass. We long ago stopped using live amps on stage and I wanted to have great tone...the kind of tone that clearly separates. Everyone enjoyed the set and got lots of comments about how clear and nice a tone they heard in the congregation. I will likely used more than one program next week as there is a song that would do well with a little drive added. Totally happy with this product at this point. I am just learning to be proficient at playing and to have 3 programs readily available (more if I wanted) is perfect.

I grew up playing punk/emo music, and now all I really play (outside of my home) is worship music on Sundays. I say that to explain that I have a very specific tone in mind when dialing in my bass/amp settings. Like if Ian from New Found Glory or Pete Wentz from (early) Fall Out Boy joined Bethel or Elevation Worship. This pedal hits that tone on the nose. That open, treble and mid heavy punk tone, AND the round, full worship tone. I have my SansAmp set up with warm, open, and distorted channels. The only thing I think that's missing is a mid control- add that, and there's no stopping this pedal!

I definitely have only positive impressions from this. I'll tell you why I bought it and how I got to this decision. There are a lot of guitarists like myself who record at home and who need to play and record bass tracks themselves, but who don't want to or who can't buy an expensive bass rig.

I have tried recording bass a few different ways over the years. I have used the regular interface DI and then added various software amps. I have tried the Sansamp Para into a interface DI. I bought a 25 watt bass amp and ran the DI out of that. I put a mic on the amp. All methods had good sound and had pros and cons, but I was still looking for something that gave me a greater sounding mix down option.

When I saw a used bass driver DI for sale I decided to buy it and try it. I had a gift certificate for that seller that covered most of the cost so I used it. Otherwise, Sweetwater is where I do my gear shopping.

As usual, I was looking for a lowest cost/ highest return on investment piece of bass gear. As a guitarist I view having to buy bass gear kind of like having to pay a car payment or having to buy heating oil. I am very grateful to have a set of wheels and some heat in the winter, but it's not what I want to spend my money on and bass is not my preferred instrument so I bought the used bass driver used with that mindset and I am very impressed with the options and results that I get from it. However, I can now say that it's still worth every penny that it costs new.

I run a Direct Line out of it, but I also run it to the amp, using the boost and EQ options and then mic the amp. The amp is only at speaking volume. It makes the most dramatic difference on the amp. It sounds like a much better amp. Together the mic on the amp and the DI give me so much more than I ever achieved before in a recorded bass sound and it makes mixing much easier. It's a much better starting point before I add any EQ, Compression or bass or amp plugins to the sound. It is my preference when recording to have the sound of a mic on the instrument or amp. I strongly prefer that sound. DI provides another color to mix with, but a great sounding instrument properly mic'd is still my favorite kind of sound, so the Bass Driver is a very essential tool for me now.

Have used this pedal for practice at the house for a little over a year. Able to dial in some good sounds. Word of caution, the power supply connection is very poorly designed. If any pressure gets accidentally placed on the power input connector, it will come completely loose and rattle around inside the pedal housing. It isn't soldered to anything inside and only held in place by pressure. If it comes loose the whole pedal has to be disassembled to fix it.

only took 20 minutes to dial in all 3 programs (spicy, medium, and mild) and balance the levels with amp and within pedal chain.

My Markbass combo (which I love!) is relatively sterile and this add a nice, thick character to my PJ bass on my 'mild' setting.

I was on the fence after reading a lot of reviews about the classic SansAmp sound, and the mid scoop that gets lost in the mix. Tech 21 does a pretty good job of explaining that combining their amp simulator with an amp could result in extra unwanted mid scoop, and how to overcome it. I had no issues dialing a punchy low-mid tone while maintaining the amp sim sound, without completing cutting the bass and treble cutting the balance (amp sim balance). If I want more bass I cut the treble, rather than boost the bass. It works well! There are tons of sounds. The programming helps to dial in settings. I dial > save > dial > save, etc. I keep two settings very similar, that way I can make a subtle difference depending on song or which bass I am using while maintaining my sound. The third is for an overdriven sound.

The presence plays well with the drive. On first try my thoughts were I'll never use the distorted sound. After tweaking quite a bit, there are many ways to use the overdriven sound from woofy low end overdrive to top end shimmering distortion over a full bass sound.

Do it. Buy this.

I've played bass for a long time, lots of styles, and lots of amps/equipment. What I immediately noticed was the classic tone that came out of this thing. Stop fiddling with all the knobs on your amp, just get your amp sounding "pretty good" and then let the sansamp make is "great"! I know when I have everything in the zone because I stop thinking/listening/adjusting and simply start enjoying the song.

The ability to program three different banks of tone is great too. Dial up and store a sound for finger-style, pick, slap, whatever and just switch between them all at any moment without walking over to the amp, twisting knobs on your bass, etc.

It's great. Just get it. One of the best pedals I have invested in for bass. Gives me fantastic iconic tones and makes playing so much more fun for me.

Sansamp - Make Bass Great Again

Big Geddy fan and was looking for a non-rack way to drive a jazz bass signal to get the growl he's so famous for. Obviously the signal is only one piece of the puzzle but man did this help! Super simple but incredibly versatile pedal. Love it!

As we've gotten older and been playing the club scene for many years it seems the amount of gear has been stripped down to just the basics. In our region most of the clubs are small. We've been taking just a powered sub, 2 multi directional speakers and the board. Using E-drums has enabled us to play with no amps. We can go in and be set-up in under an hour and we've been getting more compliments on our sound than ever before.. go figure!
The SansAmp has been helpful with the 'no amp' set-up. Having the option for 3 different configurations is also great for dialing things in. When playing larger venues with acoustic drums I still use the amp, but split the signal at the SansAmp for the FOH and stage mix. I'm happy with the investment and haven't regretted it at all!

Really loving this pedal!

Using it as a DI with 3 presets (personal favorite, slap, no treble/background-type setting when guitarist does his ambience-thing), which are super easy to set up (took a look at the manual's presets and crafted my own tone from there for each one).
The comfort of having 3 on-the-fly presets is amazing, as I don't have to do anything on my bass itself anymore.
Our sound engineer's face lit up when he saw I got this pedal, as my previous DI was making noise.
People have been complimenting me on the clear, beautiful tone that comes through it and I couldn't be happier (maybe I could be if it were the Deluxe version, I don't know).
Would really recommend it. It's amazing.

Thanks to Roq Martin and Matt South for the amazing quick service. I appreciate it!

Great product, fast (free) shipping, excellent customer service. Couldn't ask for anything better!

I can get so many sounds outta this pedal, good drive, good punch and a deep sub reggae tone. Strong casing and very easy to program. I'm impressed and definitely recommend.

Stay loud!

Easy to use. I can set up three sounds in a live application and switch between them at will. As a bass DI into my home studio (m-audio/protools 11) it is a dream and saves my CPU for other tasks. It's a 4.5 only because I never give a perfect score. For my application, though, this is perfect. Great through an amplifier or a PA direct, and fantastic for recording in any studio setting from a Tascam 424 cassette deck to Abbey Road.

I purchased the sansamp programmable bass driver from sweetwater and oh my goodness!!! its amazing! I use a fender dimension v and it made the bass sound even better!! and I don't use amps on stage (they are backlined and for stage volume only) and it sounds so good! sounds really organic and can cut thru just beautifully. I do lots of different genres, from pop,metal,rock, to punk and everywhere in between. Sounds so good! sound guys and FOH love it!! makes there job so much easier plus the 3 channels is perfect and the DI out is so clean (no hum or buzz) its perfect! recommend any and all bass players this pedal!

I chose 4.5 stars because, really... 5 full stars? Who'd believe THAT? But joking aside, this is my first foray into Tech 21 stuff, and I had a specific need - to be able to switch between multiple tone settings with a foot switch. This definitely does that. But what really blew me away was quality and variability of the tone!! I have switched over to this little unit as my primary EQ/pre-amp, running straight into the power-amp side of my Ashdown combo. Have not used the balanced output yet, or used it as DI into a board. But I have to think that it will not disappoint.

I first hooked it up to my Jazz Bass, WAY to much noise!! I then hooked it up to my 60's P-Bass and it really added tone control as well as level control and punch. I love it! I think my Jazz Bass has a grounding problem.

Super easy to use and program. Even an analog man can program it !!!! Great results. Easy to tweak on the fly. Probably the easiest piece of gear I own to use

Excellent versatility and simple to use. Opens up an entire new world of opportunities for my bass playing.

I have been aware of these bass pre-amps that Tech 21 makes for at least 15 years, but never thought I needed one. My hartke bass amplifier seemed to have all the doo-hickeys I needed to shape my tone but I have recently been dissatisfied with what I have been hearing, mostly in the bottom end. My guitar player recommended I get one of these because in their words "it makes a bass sound like a bass". They weren't kidding. I love this thing.

I play in a Christian Rock band on Sunday morning. The space on stage does not allow for amps and other gear so I was asked to plug directly into the DI box. My 1995 Fender Jazz Bass sounded terrible. I did some research and found the Tech 21 SansAmp and it totally changed the sound of my bass. Plugged directly into the church sound board through the SansAmp my bass sounds better than using my bass amp.
Everyone in the band was impressed by the new sound. I have two preprogrammed patches, a deep fat and clear tube sound and a very nice distortion. I am working on a third sound but quite frankly I haven't needed it yet. I will probably dial in a nice funk sound.
The reason for the half star short of wow is because you have to play around a bit to get rid of the single coil buzz, but my two current settings are very quiet.
Small foot print and big sound make the SansAmp a perfect fit for me.

I'm a upright bass player that uses a piezo pickup. This unit makes my bass sounds tight, full, and rich. It lacks these qualities with out this unit. It has fully ajustable EQ, and a mix between the samsamp and pure instrument signal. I program one channel for pizzicato and the other for my bow. The last one I save for my j bass. I don't plug my bass in with out the samsamp tech 21.

I own the Deluxe version... its the best piece of gear i ever bought..
I now, only use the signal of the sansamp, i don't mind if there is a poor bass amp, or doesn't have any ... all my sound its stored there ... its amazing

There's only so much you can do with on-board electronics. This box gives you everything you need to get your choice of just about any sound you could want without effects processing.

I was very encouraged by the amazing reviews that the standard Bass Driver DI received. But for $10 more, WHY NOT GET THE PROGRAMMABLE?!!! It turned out to be the answer to my problems!

I play in a musical theater that performs almost every style of music available. Getting crisp, high-end sounds from most electric bases today is not a problem. But when you're looking for the ultra-phat, thick and smooth, deep and low tones, you're almost limited to finding the specific bass needed for that tone.

Enter the SansAmp Bass Driver DI. The factory setting #1 for a Fat, tube-amp emulation did the trick! I used the same setting with a slightly increased output level for my palmed-string, upright bass sound and received numerous questions and comments about how I was able to get that sound.

While it produces a slough of sounds, I only needed a couple and the sound techs program the rest with the house system.

Additionally, I own a Fender P-bass Deluxe with both active and passive electronics. The T21 DI really does an awesome job on the passive electronics! So, I can rehearse 3 times a week, and do 4 to 6 shows a week, and NEVER have to worry about the batteries (there's 2 in the P-bass deluxe) in my active electronics! Well, not 'never'. But I'm certainly not changing them out every two weeks!

Three channels for $10 more than the base model was a win-win for me! Several other professional bassists and even technicians have heard this box and immediately decided they needed one for themselves or their church equipment.

If you're looking for the HUGE, PHAT sound that bassists all over the forums are asking about, it's right here.

---------The sound-----------
This thing really is extremely versatile. The +/- 12dB three band EQ allows for a massive range of tone tweaking. The drive control can ad some of the richest overdrive I've heard from any stompbox for bass. From woolly Crossroads warmth with the highs rolled back, to brain damaging metal thrash with the presence boosted. That Presence control is a really nice one. Controlling the upper mids; increasing definition for punchy funk, or softening; for styles like reggae, in a way that compliments the bass and treble controls very musically. If you want a mid boost just roll back bass and treble and boost the level control.
---------Why four stars?---------------
I haven't brought an amp to a gig since I got this thing! Just plug it straight into the mixer, or the effects return of any bass amp and your three banked channels will kick out the tones you want. A great set up that this pedal allows is XLR out to the house PA and jack out to onstage amp for monitoring. It works a treat in recording situations too. Maybe if I had thousands to spend on all tube heads, and roadies and a truck to carry my gear I wouldn't need this. But for the price, the sound a features are unmatched in my opinion. To me this thing is a no brainer!
---------Why not 5 stars?--------------
I have a few small issues. The way the digital recall works; is that when you select a channel, the physical knobs do nothing. But when you move them, the value jumps to whatever the moved knob is set to. When this happens, the channel LED blinks. The faster it blinks, the closer the value is to the value saved on that channel. So you can manually reset the knobs to see what all of the saved values were. Great! ...BUT! When you do this, there is audible interference from the blinking LED to the audio signal. This only happens when the knobs are moved. If you save the new settings or recall the old ones, the interference disappears. This means that it will never really cause a problem if you have your presets saved before the gig. Another small problem I have is one of the channel switches has become very sticky, but I busk in terrible Irish weather, so this may be inevitable!

If you have a good bass amp and always use your amp, you do not need this Sans Amp. It is intended for connecting between your bass guitar and a mixer, PA or recording equipment, so that you have more control over your sound. I purchased it and I do not need it because I always use my amp. I will keep it because I know that one day I will play somewhere and just plug into the available equipment; this DI (Direct Box) should come in handy then. By the way, it is very easy to program and it comes in a sturdy medal casing.