Tech 21 GED-2112 Geddy Lee Signature SansAmp Preamp Reviews

I bought the preamp for my rehearsal space to control a PA amplifier and bass speakers. All the players that have used it or thinking about getting one, it's so great sounding. Another wonderful experience dealing with Chris at Sweetwater

I use 2 of these, with drive and deep channels bridged on both. 1 of these pres is for my tone and effects, the other just handles my low end. The rear inputs make everything convenient and neat, and the sound is huge. I recommend every bass player get 2 of these

I was actually building my own version of a two channel signal chain using a pedal board when I found this piece. The problem with most bass gear is that you can get great overdrive on many bass heads or pedals and make your stage rig sound great, but when you send that signal to a single channel on the PA it sounds totally different. The two channel out gives the FOH the ability to balance the "deep" and "drive". Their mains and subs will definitely respond differently than your bass cabs and they have to consider the sound in the space vs standing five feet from your amp. Even if your band runs it's own sound from the stage, using two channels is great if the PA is doing the work of sending bass to the crowd. At a small gig where my amp is doing all the work and I only use one cabinet, I use a Y cable and and blend the two channels easily on the preamp. When I run a full "stack"(4x10 and 15") at a bigger show, I use a two channel QSC power amp that allows me to send more power to one cab over the other which solves the problem that arises when you use two different cabs from a single amplifier source. You have to physically adjust the drive channel if you want to change the settings. This preamp isn't designed for those who use drive on the occasional song and switch back and forth often.

Totally blew me away sounds good for every genre of music , I did a gig with it last night playing rock, funk , jazz , and some blues, it totally blew me away as I listened to the recordings compared to previously recorded gigs, definitely a winner

It's pretty good.

I love Geddy but I almost didn't buy this because of the whole 'signature' thing. Screw that! This is the preamp I would have built if I was a Canadian rock star 'eh. Two outputs is one better isn't it?

Take off you hoser and buy it!

As a huge fan of Geddy Lee and his work with Rush, I wasn't surprised how great this unit sounded. What really baffled me was the versatility! This unit sounds great through everything, headphones, PA, tube amp, solid state amp, studio monitors, and more. If you looking for a amazing unit to cater to both distorted sounds and clean. This is the unit. AND, it's amazing how all this sound is packed into just 1U!! Of course Sweetwater is always great when it comes to ordering. I love the unit, and my candy ;)

Seriously, if you're thinking about buying this thing just do it. I plugged straight into it, with a Mackie 1400i out to an old Eden 210 cab, I hate to say it but this thing puts my vintage Eden head to shame. Straight out of the box, I could hear tones of Radiohead and of course, The G Man himself. For real, Geddy's dirty clean tone is right here in this box, I've barely had a day to explore it and my mind is blown. I'm not much on signature gear, but this one's worth it. Buy it, do it now, you can thank me (and Austin Gerali at SW) later.

There is no substitute for two amp bass......This lets you have it in your PA or DAW or one EQ for both amps. As a DI it has real amp controls that actually shape sounds.

My only caution is that if you use the effects loop, make sure the 50/50 mix button isn't engaged or you'll wonder where the effects went.


This will make a big difference in your sound no matter how you use it. So my last two words....BUY IT

I wasn't happy with the sound of recording any of my basses direct..not enough EQ control and it just didn't compare to a two amp live sound. In recent years I used an SVT4-Pro as I liked the bi-amp and having a cab for the lows and one for the highs......but this is playing two different basses at the same time.

It is quiet and exactly what I hoped it would be. Thanks to Jon Casarow for his help in all matters Sweetwater

Being a huge Geddy fan I needed this for my arsenal. That being said it does sooo much more than Dirks tones. It's super fun, super customizable, and super cool. I have it running through a small Ampeg combo or as a DI into a Scarlett 2i2. I used the internal jumper to run both channels out of a single output instead of running separate outs for each channel like its set up to do out of the box. I also noticed it helps to run power out of a direct source vs a surge protector when its running into my amp, it eliminates any hum. Now that I've had it for several months, even without the Ged seal of approval, I would still but it in a heartbeat!

This unit is versatile. I was trying to figure out how to sum the two channels into a single line level output. Turns out the feature is built right into the unit. If you open the bottom of the unit (6 screws) there is a "tie" jumper you can move over 1 pin. Once done, the either output will output both channels. Also the same result can be had by jumping the FX loop a certain way. Despite this ability to sum channels, the "drive" channel is the main attraction here. I have this unit running in the FX loop of my Bass Pod XT Pro (so using pod for FX and patch control only) and then into crown power amp and it works great this way. No ground loop issues running it through the Pod FX loop or anything like that. Anyway, I have not yet used this at band volume, but i can tell already this has what i need. Should be able to get a nice aggressive but natural sounding tone at band volume.

This is it, Other then maybe picking up and RBI preamp for kicks, I will probably not be buying anymore amp gear anytime soon. At this point, I haven't found anything I couldn't do with it. As the title says, I did buy 2, I have one for home and the other for the worship band to use. At home, I have the preamp mated to a QSC GX3 power amp with the Drive channel into Channel 1 of the power and then to my Markbass 2x10 and the Deep Channel into power 2, then into my Markbass 1x15. I don't think I have ever had such a full rage sound before in my life. I can get pretty nasty for rock/metal/stoner settings and by simply rolling off the drive and blend, I can get clean as well. The Drive channel for me does most of the "vocal-ness" of my tone, the Deep channel provides the lows and the subs-foundation so that when I do get nasty, my lows are always there. Even better, you don't have to run both channels at once, each channel on it's own will do the job as needed for taste, running my deep channel into my 2x10 gives me a whole different animal and vice versa with the drive and the 15 and even cooler, running my drive or deep solo into both cabs is just as killer...there are numerous possibities!!. When doing a Sunday service, I usually pack 2 basses and plug into the back inputs and use the input switch to toggle while both preamps are XLRed into the sound board. No matter the headphones or ear monitors, she sounds amazing regardless and you will NOT get lost in the mix... all the bandmates agree too. A few tips, 1. USE THE -20dbs on the outs when you first start out with, it will send a LOT of juice to the power amp/soundboard etc otherwise. 2. The type of bass you use be it hot, cold, active, passive etc have a global bearing and effect how hard it drives whatever your running it to. and 3. it almost begs you to play hard....look who designed it!!

As I said in the title, I ended up returning a Mesa Boogie head in favor of this. I was at Gearfest 2019, and bought this and a WD800 head. Now don't get me wrong, The mesa is a fabulous, if not one of the best, head they've ever done, however, the Geddy just works for me better and saw no need to keep it. It rocks that much!! plus I already have a Mesa M6 carbine anyways.

I'd like to address some of the negative reviews on this unit. 1. "The saturation on the Deep Channel does Nothing??!!", trust me folks it DOES that guy is deaf!!, not as dramatic as the drive channel but it definitely adds the 3D grunt, maybe a little fuzz to it. 2. "Can't toggle between channels"?? no kidding sherlock!! it's two channels running in parallel and is meant for those who like to biamp! and 3. I can't really say much for the fella who had low end hum as I don't know the whole story and it's great his RBI is working out for him (even though the RBI has no ground lift on the XLR...just sayin') I will say this, A good sound guy is rather important, HARD to find and can make or break your sound. I've met several operators who didn't even know what a Ground lift was!!

In closing, this sucker is great, had no problems with either one, buy with confidence

cheers

Yeah it's pretty awesome. Make sure you have some fresh 66 rotosounds on the bass. Internal jumper ties the 2 outs together.

We've only used this 3 times so far, but WOW...anything you want is easy to dial up. This has been a game changer for our low end. It's tight and clear if you want that, it's thunderous and full of super deep lows if that's what you want. The drive knob allows you to get some nice fuzz. It seems like it can do anything.

So glad I decided on the GED 2112 preamp. This relatively small rack mountable preamp has brought a whole new level of punch and power to my bass sound. I love that it has two separate preamps that you can blend between drive and clean. It seems like I've been trying to get a decent driven sound for my bass for years and years, and now I finally have it. It's not artificial sounding like some of the overdrives I've used in the past. My bass sits better in a mix and has a bigger footprint. I opted for the demo model which saved me a few bucks, but it was completely spotless. Basically brand new. As always, my sales engineer Dave Brow had it out the door and on its way in no time. Showed up only a couple of days after I ordered. This thing is awesome. If you're looking for a great preamp, this is it.

Having owned and used nearly every SansAmp model that Tech 21 has made over the years, I was very familiar with the evolution of sound between each. For the last few years, I had been using the VT Bass Rack and RPM models.When I heard that my inspiration of reason for playing bass was coming out with his self-branded unit, I could hardly wait. I was not disappointed. I would not have thought it to be possible, but my basses have so much more presence and punch than ever. Budget-permitting (however, budget-friendly!) I may have to get a few more of these units! Make sure to check out the "Deep" setting. Wow. I am beyond impressed.Thank you Tech 21 and most definitely Geddy Lee!

Honestly the best pre-amp I've used so far, and this is without mixing both preamps at the same time! Both are really great on their own and just sound very good and natural sounding. The Drive section has a very versatile EQ section and the Deep just has a great pre-EQ'd nature. This is THE amp if you are a fan of Geddy's tones- the first thing I tried was my fretless and it sounded great both for "normal" use and for getting that crunchy sound (On fretless with just ONE section of the amp)!

I love, love, love, love, this preamp. Being able to mix the dirty and clean sides of this preamp really helps retain clarity while still getting that tube-like grind. Throw some Roto's on your bass, play with you neck pick up dimed, and play HARD, and you will get that Geddy Tone. You don't need a J-Bass or a Rick to sound like Geddy, it is right here in this box. I play on an old PJ Fender, usually with just the Precision pickup, and I can make my bass sound straight out of a rush album with the right amount of attack (a lot).

It is also more versatile than expected. Using your drive and blend control, you can dial back the distortion and get a more conventional bass sound, especially if you push the deep channel. You can also keep the Geddy-ness in the tone, but really make it your own. I crush the mix with a lot of mids, dial the bass back a bit, and give it a bit more treble, and it sounds thunderous and cutting and I love it. It is the sound I have always wanted.

If you are on the fence, just get it. You won't be disappointed. It is not for everybody, but if you are reading this review, and looking at this product trying to attain a tone similar to Geddy Lee's, it is probably for you.

I have had this racked up for a couple of months now, and let me tell you, I could not be more satisfied.

This IMHO is the best bass pre I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. The parametric mid EQ alone are worth the price of the preamp. Not only is the sig Geddy tone in this box, but there is a world of other tonal possibilities at your fingertips. Not only does it make Jazz and Rickenbacker's sound great, but it works wonders with all my other basses, including my Wyn 5 string and Roscoe fretless 5'er.

I do not have a stereo power amp, so I am unable to run this in a typical stage rig, but I do run it through a Presonus SL III-16 board and QSC speakers live when I have the opportunity and it kicks butt.

Folks, you need to understand that this is a 2 channel preamp. Each channel is independent of the other. It was not designed to blend both outputs in the out-of-the-box configuration. there seems to be a lot of confusion about this design element out there on the Interwebs.

Finally, kudos to my rep Drew Foster for his outstanding service!

If you want "The Geddy Sound", it lives & breaths in this preamp.
If you plug a Ric or Jazz (strung with stainless rounds) in, and play with conviction & a moderately aggressive attack, you will achieve those tones we've all chased for years.
If you are super-picky (like me) and want the exact tones off the "Moving Pictures" & "Permanent Waves" album, just spend a little extra time tweaking the Geddy Lee-written settings in the manual, and you're there.
I only wish they had made this 30 years ago - I would have saved thousands of $$ chasing the tones that live in this little green box.
Highly recommended!

It took a little while dabbling around with my rig to see how to best incorporate this unit. It always sounded good in tandem with another amp head through Mark Bass cabs BUT, I really fell in love with it when I decided to just try it stand alone. The opportunity came up to switch to an IEM system and there's a very good chance I'll never carry another amp/cab to a gig again.
I play mainly Fender Jazz and Rickenbacker bass's and this thing is way too easy to carry, set up and use and it sounds incredible. Until (or if) something better comes along, I'm sold on it!!

Most of my audio work focuses on music production rather than live work, but I wanted a preamp that would work great as a zero latency front end to try out ideas while also serving as a way to reamp bass DI's. I've had prior experience with other Tech 21 products and I was originally eyeballing one of their other units until I discovered this gem with its ability to split the signal so you can process the low end separately from the top end. This is the way that I prefer to work with bass in my DAW, so when I saw that Tech 21 offered a unit that could do this in the box it was an easy decision to make. After spending a few months with it it has become a staple in my system. Bass guitar always runs through this unit on the way to the daw, and while I still capture a DI of the performance just to be safe, more often than not I usually keep the original tone or run the DI back through the unit after editing. The tones and versatility this unit offers are super impressive for the price. Also I'd like to give a shout out to my sales rep Brent Leuthold for helping me find this awesome unit!

In our previous review (The Fender Road Worn Limited Edition "Flea" Jazz Bass) we stated that we don't often do gear reviews but this piece of gear deserves one.
We waited quite a while for the reviews to come out (YouTube etc.) before we decided to purchase this and it was with no regret. We wanted to use this with the aforementioned "Flea" Jazz Bass, if you don't know the history of both the Fender Jazz Bass & Precision Bass guitars you need to do yourself a favor and dig into these two iconic instruments. A good place to start is by getting a copy of the "Fender Bass Handbook" by Paul Balmer (with the forward by the legendary Carol Kaye).
Anyway back to the SansAmp, the Jazz bass has a unique "growl' to it based on the two Jazz pick-ups, that being said we did not want to plug the bass into a distortion pedal and then into an amp. Most bass amps can be "over-driven" and most of them have EQ, that is cool but we feel it is redundant in that you go into distortion then the amp where you can adjust the EQ.
On the SansAmp you have the best of both worlds without sounding muddy too "over-driven" (unless that is what you are going for), you can retain your 'bottom-end" without losing definition by adjusting the "Deep" control and the Parametric EQ makes it easy to dial in what you need.

As we mentioned we paired it up with the Fender "Flea" Jazz bass, but this will work and sound great with any bass guitar both with passive and active pick-ups, in our opinion we are sure that this will be a staple in you studio or maybe live gig where you really want some potability. Another point is that we did not necessarily purchase this for the "Geddy Lee" sound, but if you are a fan of both Geddy Lee and RUSH that's a good thing more reason to give this a try.We hope this review will inspire you to purchase this great piece of gear from TECH21 and sold by the great people @ Sweetwater.

Many thanks to our sales engineer and friend Tim Harrington.

I"ve been using the Tech 21 SansAmp Bass Driver DI for a couple years, but recent upgrades to my bass rig afforded me the opportunity to upgrade to this really cool component. I took delivery only a few days ago and haven"t played yet with the effects loop or saturation features, but I"m very happy so far with the Drive side of things. The component mounted easily into my rack under my power conditioner, and connected to my bass head with a 12" unbalanced patch cable. I"m finding the drive control doesn"t need to be set very high to activate the clip warning on my head. Tone shaping controls are responsive and I"m very much enjoying the tone this unit provides. The instruction manual is a quick & easy read and even includes the settings Geddy Lee uses to achieve his sound. So simple a drummer/bass player can read it (haha!). This is another quality Tech 21 product and a welcome acquisition.

I've been playing bass through a wide variety of gear since 1966. This preamp is very nice. I have one of the original Tech 21 pedals since IDK when and used it often so I thought I'd give the Geddy Lee model a try. Very versatile unit. I really like the dual outputs and the 'fixed' settings for the deep channel are great. My one little complaint and why not 5 stars is this: I have a bunch of basses, some active some passive etc. Using a MM Stingray (active) in order to get a non-distorted sound you have to go in via the back inputs with the -20db pad engaged. This is not a really bad thing, BUT the front input has no pad switch so I'm sort of forced to use the rear input or keep the bass output volume at about 1/2. Otherwise the signal, even with the 'Drive' control all the way down, I get a fuzzy tone. Not a lot but enough that it's annoying. So other than that it's a great unit. Maybe they could have made the -20db switch global instead of just back inputs.

I would use the levels on my power amp to fiddle with onstage volume. I'm a little dense sometimes.

I was about to pull the trigger on one of these. Then I realized, in my situation, I rely on an output to the PA which has a completely separate output level control from my output to the onstage speakers.

I may fidget with my onstage volume all night. Or at least to get started, it takes me a while to dial in the level I need. Sometimes, I have to turn up later in the evening, as our guitarist always starts to crank his volume as the night wears on. I need to know I'm not messing with the level going out to the PA. Sometimes we have to mix ourselves from stage, and I can't monitor what is going on. With a soundman, he doesn't want to have the level changing on him through the night. He'd probably just turn me way down. That's their typical response. I do try to keep stage volume down just enough to hear myself properly. I do like my own set of bass guitar cabinets behind me, not just a stage monitor.

Does anybody see a way around this? I think an output level control on the XLR outs to the PA is sorely lacking here. Geddy may not need that, because he has in-ear with a dedicated monitor mixer man at his beck and call.

I am struggling with this review as I am trying to separate my love of Geddy Lee and his playing and a piece of gear that that has been released in his name.

To be frank, I do not think this was worth it. Running out of the Deep channel is nice and has a decent tone, but nothing you can't really get out of any kind of average gear.

So far, the Drive channel has been useless to me. I run Drive and Deep out of separate channels for recording and I end up muting the drive channel track most of the time. For one thing it is too quiet and has a weak signal if all you want to have is a "touch of fuzz" on the bass. Is it possible that mine is faulty? If I want to get a decent signal from the Drive I have to turn it up to the point where I have Metallica distortion on the bass.

There is a apparently a jumper on the inside that allows you to run both channels out of the same output. Perhaps this is an option? I do not want to open it up at this point as it is likely that I will be returning it.

Loved the tone!!!
Sound technicians at 3 venues couldn't handle the low frequency hum it produces.
After being positive it was the GED 2112 that produced the hum I told Sweetwater about it. They (as they always do) took exceptional care of me. They shipped me out a replacement GED immediately. Unfortunately the new device also produces the hum. I videotaped switching between the GED and my Tech 21 VST pedal to show that it was the device itself and not the chain, other pedals, power etc...
They gave me a refund and I couldn't be happier with my experience though Sweetwater. I bought the RBI - plugged it in - SILENT - and what an awesome tone! So my experiences "could" be unique to me. After 2 units both causing the hum - I encourage you to be on the look out for the hum if you purchased the GED. Hopefully you will have a better experience than I did!

I've never seen gear that had 2 channels and you can't toggle between them. The outputs are independent of each other. So if you want to plug it into a power amp, you'd have to select one channel or the other, or maybe use a Y-cable. I was bummed I couldn't use both at the same time without having to mess with the rear panel.

The saturation knob does nothing. According to the manual, it's supposed to give you a classic tube sound. But I tried it at a low setting and al the way up and it sounded exactly the same to me. I was expecting a little more "dirt" from putting the saturation knob up all the way.

So for home-recording, this unit is made so you can plug 1 channel into one input and the 2nd channel into another. I wish I would of known that before I bought it. It's too bad the 2 channels can't be combined and you can't even toggle between them.

I posted a negative review on the Geddy Lee YouTube video Tech21 posted. They actually replied to my review and said it was built to Geddy's specs, so there. That's why you shouldn't let musicians design gear. Leave it to the engineers, Geddy. All you need to do is play bass and sing about Tom Sawyer.