User Manual

FRONT PANEL
INPUT JACK
Faithful to the original designs of traditional tube amplifiers, this piezo-friendly 1/4" Input
is high impedance 4.7 MΩ. The typically additional low sensitivity input, however, is not
needed due to the Pad switch. When the Pad switch is engaged, the input changes to
low impedance, approx 10 KΩ, which helps decrease line noise interference and pro-
tects the pre-amp from being overloaded by high output, active pickups.
PAD SWITCH
For active basses and cleaner tones, there is a -10dB Pad switch. To engage, push the
switch in.
GUIDE TO CONTROLS
DRIVE
Adjusts the overall amount of gain and overdrive, similar to when the output section
of a tube amp is being pushed. The first half of the rotation will increase the volume
as well as the overdrive.
CHARACTER
Sweeps through an entire range of tonal possibilities. In addition to modifying the fre-
quency response, the Character control also influences attack and drive. Therefore,
you may need to adjust your gain and tone settings after tweaking the Character control.
Settings below 12 o’clock will give you the ‘70s powerhouse, the SVT.
Around 12 o’clock will introduce you to the studio staple, the flip top.
Above 12 o’clock increases the gain and crunch for less polite, modern
rock, indie bass sounds.
Full up gives you vintage and modern distorted bass tones.
MID, LOW and HIGH
The VT Bass 500 is designed with active controls, which boost and cut, rather than
traditional passive controls which only cut. This effectively doubles many of the con-
trol’s capabilities, giving you a much larger range of adjustability and, ultimately,
more variety. It should be noted that you need not necessarily set everything at max
to achieve maximum results. As you experiment and become familiar with the interre-
lationship of the controls, you’ll easily be able to customize your own sounds.
The tone controls cut or boost
±
18dB from unity gain (12 o’clock). Low is tuned to
55 Hz; High frequency is 3 kHz; Mid is selectable between 500 Hz (with the Shift
switch in the in position) and 1K (with the Shift switch in the out position).
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BLEND
Allows you to blend the direct instrument signal with SansAmp Tube Amplifier
Emulation circuitry. In most cases, you will probably have this set at maximum (100%
SansAmp). For certain applications, however, such as an ultra-transparent sound or
for use with piezo pickup-equipped instruments, you may want to blend-in the direct
signal to achieve your desired sound. Note
:
When Blend is at minimum, the SansAmp
Tube Amplifier Emulation circuitry is bypassed (affecting Drive, Character and Bite).
However, the Mid, Low, High, Level and input Pad remain active.
LEVEL
Acts as a master volume and is interactive with the Drive control. For clean sounds,
set Level at max and control the overall level with the Drive control. For dirty sounds,
use Drive to set up the overall amount of distortion and Level for the overall output.
BITE SWITCH
Engaged (in position), Bite activates a presence boost. This tightens up the sound
when you are in distorted settings and adds definition to your notes in cleaner set-
tings (when Drive is set below 12 o’clock).
LOOP SWITCH
Engages when the switch is in the in position.
SEND and RECEIVE (Effects Loop)
1/4” Send unbalanced line-level output; 1/4” Receive unbalanced line-level input.
HEADPHONE
1/4” headphone output. Mutes the power amp. NOTE: For best results, we recom-
mend using stereo headphones rated at 32Ω. Otherwise, performance may be com-
promised by efficiency loss. Also be sure the Level control is turned down to reduce
the risk of hearing damage.
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