Tech 21 QStrip - Bass Preamp

Product Information

Strange manufacturer decision that when you power-on pedal it's always in the ON-state, so it doesn't remember its last state before power-off. According to the support it's normal behavior and you can switch it to default ON or OFF-state by re-soldering some elements on the circuit board! I don't think it's quite elegant and intuitive solution :) Also ground lift is cable dependent: if your cable has I'm not in any gigging bands at the moment but it's a great tool for recording everything, guitars, bass, vocals. In the end it's always best to try both side by side if feasible, but I think I've covered the differences and similarities.

A DI is to take line or instrument level and bring it down to mic level, lowering the impedance and balancing the signal to match, usually, a mic preamp on a sound board. Based around MOSFET circuitry, the Q\Strip offers four bands of desk-style equalisation, comprising high- and low-shelf filters plus two sweepable mids (40 to 700 Hz, and 300Hz to 6kHz). The separately switchable high-pass and low-pass filters allow you to constrain the frequency spectrum by trimming the highs and lows — and the low-pass filter can be used in conjunction with the main EQ to approximate a speaker emulation filter. Also worth noting that signals that are impedance balanced or 'Ground Cancelling' are likely to be at -2dBu nominal level. Since the -ve leg of the signal isn't driven. The fact this little box can be used like a D.I. with phantom power may not be useful to everyone but can come in handy, especially for bass players who uses it as a cab sim. Early in your chain, the parallel output can be used for your tuner or as a secondary chain, if you are creative.Using these controls sparingly as I did in the video rewarded me with just the sound I was looking for. Watch how I zoned in on the frequencies I wanted to hear to accentuate the tone of my bass in the studio. The Q\Strip was inspired by those old vintage console EQ's but it is a unique design. The intention was that it would be a "musical" vs "surgical" type of product. While having different Q parameters might come in handy for a mastering engineer we chose a medium Q that makes the most sense for musical instrument applications. Build quality is decent, but not perfect: XLR output is a bit misaligned, soldering quality is average, internal board is thin and a bit bent. And I think it's a shame for such price! Enjoy! (And this will be worse than the PDDI for 'forever twiddling' 'cos it's more versatile from what I've seen :) ) Manchmal nehme ich es auch zu Auftritten mit, bei denen ich es selbst garnicht brauche. Hin und wieder kann man seinen Mitmusikern damit dann aber unter die Arme greifen, wenn mal ein anderes Gerät den Geist aufgibt.

The high pass filter works to de-emphasize the lower pitched E and A strings that dominate a 12 string's sound. The 2 sweepable midrange bands dial in the octave strings and the first octave harmonic. Finally, the low pass filter tames the higher harmonics that sound shrill while adding sufficient energy to the signal to eat up an amp's headroom and start clipping. The use of Mosfets was intentional for the sonic benefits, low noise and also so the unit could be phantom powered. Bipolar transistors would be too power hungry. I finally got around to playing with my Q/strip at home last night. Just Bass- Q/S - Zoom B3n in bypass mode and headphones. Ok, so its an EQ, not really much to expect. Plugged The Sire V7 in and had a play. Very powerful but i found the best tones were almost flat on the boosts. I never really had a 'wow' moment but i can see it potential. Saying that, even with it off and using my normal Zoom presets i wasn't feeling it last night. Verglichen mit anderen DI-Preamps und kompletten Verstärkern, die spezifisch auf eine bestimmte Instrumentengruppe abgestimmt sind, ist der QStrip meiner Meinung nach aber klanglich im Nachteil. A "Pure DI" function isn't intended to colour the sound. It just provides a low impedance balanced signal suitable for a mixing desk channel or similar.This cookie stores user-like settings for the chat system provider, which are required for our online chat service. Trusted Shops Both are pedals that combine different functions, and different players will have different needs for the different functions. The last three buttons are for the two separate outputs: You may wish to use this pedal instead of in front of your amplifier’s input on the front but rather directly into a slave amplifier. The +10db button will ensure that you can drive such a unit correctly with a strong enough signal. On board, the Q/Strip has an XLR ‘balanced direct injection’ output and the next button offers the option of changing the output gain should it need to be attenuated. Finally, again for the XLR output, a ground lift switch but also to allow phantom power connectivity, which means a mixing console will be able to power your pedal rather than an internal 9v battery or additional ‘wall wart’ supply. A convenient option to include. yes it can be useful to have the option to work at 'non-professional' nominal level eg -10dBv (lower level and different dB reference - standards are great - that's why we have so many 🙄) and I have been in the situation where I've chosen to configure a DIY attenuating pad to archive some stuff from DAT (remember when that was a thing ???) using my now old multichannel TDIF interface that has unbalanced inputs at a low nominal level. But I still prefer to work at +4dBu until I have to attenuate.

The equalization part is, in a few words, excellent. The ranges for low-mid (40Hz-700Hz) and high-mid (300Hz-6kHz) frequency selection are totally usable. Did not measured the +/-18dB with precision tools, but seem accurate. The manual gives quite a few propositions for settings regarding if you intent using it as an equalizer or en effect, but gut feeling is not restricted as an option. HPF and LPF are useful whether you need to clean a bit of ramble or, again, use them as an effect. But I have to doubt the bit about MOSFET circuitry to give the characteristics of vintage consoles. FEATURESHPF cuts unmusical rumble associated with many instruments when going direct.LPF rolls off undesirable frequencies. Can also be used as a speaker simulator. When used in conjunction with the studio-grade EQ section, you can recreate different speaker cabinet curves so you can go direct with your favorite distortion and effects pedals.Very high impedance accommodates piezos and handles low impedance sources equally well.XLR is capable to drive power amps and has a -20dB pad to accommodate mic level inputs on mixers and pre-amps.1/4-inch output has switchable +10dB boost on tap, which is useful to drive power amps or push tube amps into overdrive.Three modes of operation:Underneath the equaliser are some ‘fast access’ switches. A high pass filter (HPF) that will help to cut down on rumble for microphone users and maybe sub ‘boom’ from excessive EQ elsewhere in the chain. The roll off is gentle and actually, as a bassist, I would have preferred to have seen a 24db per octave roll off at say 25hz which is a great way to alleviate speaker flapping and really tightening up the sound of any bass, even extended range instruments.

I'm reasonably familiar with the technology of such consoles from 60s/70s - both UK and USA origin - but not aware of widespread use of MOSFET devices in Channel EQs. Whilst small signal (as opposed to Power devices) MOSFETS can be used for audio work, in my experience the console EQs tend to be based around Bipolar transistors as the active components (maybe JFET but these used more for signal switching in desks toward the end of this era).

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There are still products (including g interfaces and mixers) that can’t accept true nominal +4dBu line level balanced signals. This alone makes a mic signal more universal as a line level signal won’t work in that situation. Beispielsweise bekomme ich Akustikgitarren an meinen Mesa Rosette DI-Preamps immer besser eingestellt als am QStrip. I have a stereo bass rig centered around a couple of stereo amp combinations: a '90s SWR SM400S head or an Alembic F1-X preamp/SWR Stereo 800 power amp. One side is clean/wet and the other side is dirty/dry. The dirty side utilizes the Tech 21 VT Bass DI along with the Q/Strip. Darüber hinaus habe ich es mittlerweile auch für die Kalimba und den E-Kontrabass benutzt und bei all den Instrumenten war der QStrip gut brauchbar. In the end I would suggest trying one. Specifications are meaningless if you aren't happy with the tone or ease of use.