GAS - Gear Acquisition Syndrome (Part 1)

I did not know that, my SWR certainly does. I think it may be more of a volume, but it is also so you can still use the SWR pre-amp with other effects blended in. It is not for wen you are replacing the pre-amp, rather when you want to use the amp pre-amp before your effects, and some fx work better before pre-amp and others work better after, so it just opens up the options.

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The “Level” knob on the VT Bass DI would do exactly the same thing. Does that not have enough gain to drive the Rumble to full power?

Power stages always run wide open and are only attenuated by the preamp anyway.

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Oh my. These things have a +10dB boost button on their output. They are designed to drive anything to max level.

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Thanks for posting this @DaveT. I can pick up most of what’s going on through context clues but I don’t really know how to read this.

Does this say the AUX in signal go up to the Circle with cross…
To 2nd order HPF…
To triangle…
To black dot and up to other black dot…
To the left through the Speaker Cab Sim…
To the DI?
Or is there something I should be reading as a stop?

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The circle with a cross is a mixer (summer, hence the + sign). The line without the arrows is the output of the cross. The Aux L, the Aux R and the FX return (bass guitar) all go into the big circle-plus and get summed together.

All of that then goes out to the HPF and onward out to the power stage of the amp.

Just before the POWER AMPLIFIER stage that signal gets sent through a CAB SIM to the LINE OUT. That means CAB SIM applies to the LINE OUT, but not the POWER AMPLIFIER stage of this combo.

Just before the STEREO HEADPHONE AMPLIFIER we see two little plus sign mixers. This says we mix the Aux L with the FX RETURN (Bass guitar) and send it to your left ear. This also says we mix the Aux R with the FX return and send it to your right ear. The FX return goes through a CAB SIM block before hitting these mixers. Therefore, headphones get cab sim and the stereo separation of the aux input is preserved.

You can find the feedback loop that people will encounter if feeding the AUX IN with a DAI output and using the LINE OUT to the DAI input. The AUX IN goes to the big plus sign, then to the HPF, then to the LIMITER then to the CAB SIM then to the LINE OUT. If the monitoring in the DAW isn’t set up right, this can make a complete loop and squeal.

You can also find where the MASTER volume control on this unit changes the level on the LINE OUT DI to the DAI when you may not want it to. That takes a little more tracing through, but with the same technique you can see if you plug a bass into INPUT and turn the MASTER knob it changes level on the line that eventually gets to the LINE OUT.

BONUS QUESTION - SKILLS CHECK
Can you send a clean bass signal to the front of house mixing desk from this amp without the ACTIVE EQUALIZATION that you used to dial in your stage monitoring tone?

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@eric.kiser

Does this say the AUX in signal go up to the Circle with cross…
Yes, and it says that Left and Right get summed to mono.

To 2nd order HPF…
Yes.

To triangle…
Yes, This triangle is the DELTA-COMP LIMITER.

To black dot and up to other black dot…
Yes. And also through the triangle POWER AMPLIFIER stage to the right of these black dots.

To the left through the Speaker Cab Sim…
Yes.

To the DI?
Yes.

Or is there something I should be reading as a stop?
No.

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If I’m understanding you, the answer is, No.

Because that happens before the FX return which then goes to the line out DI connection. Correct?

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Correct. If we wanted that feature, we would need a “Pre/Post” switch. This particular one would keep our drive and our vintage on the DI, but not the contour, EQ or master level control. It would also eliminate our feedback loop problem to the DAI.

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@DaveT Thanks for taking me to school on this. I find it all very interesting.

I had assumed the bright/contour/vintage were all just EQ filters and would all be happening in the same spot (right before the EQ) and was surprised it wasn’t set up that way.

Do you have any idea why they would be in three different places?

You’ve already spent a lot of time on explaining all this, if that gets too complex for a forum post, I get it.

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I had to go look up the block diagram for my amp so I could see how the pre/post was implemented. Pretty cool stuff.

Rumble 800 HD Owners Manual (page 4)

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Happy to. It seemed like a good opportunity and people may be interested.

There could be a lot of different reasons for a particular product design. I could talk about it with the caveat that I’m wrong.

I’d first notice that some of the EQ is before the DRIVE and some after. It could be that some things want to be changed to influence how the distortion behaves and it could be that some things are there to clean up the results of the distortion.

It could have to do with consistency with older products. Sometimes things get locked in because people are used to them that way.

It could have to do with circuit topology and component capability. That EQ block looks like it could be a chip with a buffered output that is needed to drive the SEND so they may be joined at the hip.

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@PamPurrs something for you? You’d have to come to Melbourne though :wink:.

Ta Dah

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Actually, just saw it’s a copy and not an original. Oh well.

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Not too bad a price though :nerd_face:

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Whoa. Sounds like Onyx were originally MIJ lawsuit-era clones. That might actually be better than a current production Hofner if it is one of those :slight_smile:

If it is a current production Onyx, apparently they are now made in Indonesia, and probably excellent instruments.

Looks way too new to be an original :slight_smile:

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This is the reason I ended up getting a Peterson Strobostomp. I was surprised that GT had such a finicky tuner and even the plugin tuners for my DAW were not cutting it.

The Peterson was a bit pricey but worth it. I tune quickly and it recognizes the lows with ease. For setups especially intonation I found it to be simple and spot on. I have so far not become obsessed even as I see the wheel spin. A bonus with the Peterson is has a buffer mode.

I almost didn’t get it cause I am selling off most my pedals (18 so far with only a few to go) and didn’t think a tuning pedal would help the cause. I have decided to keep my VT Bass DI and MXR Compressor. Any other effects or tone shapers will come from my GT or DAW which I have not been diving into much. Go figure.

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Surfing is dangerous, yo! I came across a website I hadn’t heard of, in Canada, and they sell all kinds of gear. So I decided to go see if they had anything cool or different. Not that I’m not thrilled with my EB MM Stingray, because I love that bass, but staring at my guitar rack, it was lookin kinda empty. Anyway, I was blown away by this baby and I have to get it. It’s so pretty!
29238_ibanez_sr300ecub_IBANEZ-SR300E-CUB-ACCLAIM-DI5
29238_ibanez_sr300ecub_IBANEZ-SR300E-CUB-ACCLAIM-THUMB
I’m going to be ordering it pretty quick. No stores in my area carry it in stock so this will be awesome. I liked the sound of my bass instructor’s Ibanez and I considered getting a 5 string, but I really don’t have any songs that require it so I’ll just stick to the 4. GAS is REAL! LOL

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Awesome color!!! NICE

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I need my Rolaids. Nice!

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They also had a black and metallic silver burst which I liked but my other bass is already silver/sparkly so I thought I’d go with something different. I just like that the headstock matches the guitar body. I’d probably still have my blue fretless if the headstock was the same color, but the light colored wood just put me off and my OCD couldn’t deal LOL

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