Tech 21 QStrip - Bass Preamp

Product Information

The knobs are precise and smooth, but without snap to the middle position. Anyway it sounds quite neutral with knobs at about a noon position and this is good. 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. Q/Strip isn’t just an EQ pedal. It’s a DI, a volume boost pedal, a speaker emulator, a classic equaliser strip, a ‘second amplifier channel’, a recording preamplifier and probably a whole host more of options I’m yet to think of. I did think at the time "why don't I get the vtbass DI instead? Or the two notes lebass" but this has a great eq and small footprint and isn't just for one instrument.

In reality all audio going into an ADC is going to be squeezed down to a 5V range or less. But attenuating directly before the ADC gives best SNR. Both are pedals that combine different functions, and different players will have different needs for the different functions. 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. In the end I would suggest trying one. Specifications are meaningless if you aren't happy with the tone or ease of use.

Customer Reviews

Dafür kann man aber mit dem QStrip sehr viele verschiedene Instrumente bewältigen. Ein Gerät zu haben, das eben genau in dieser Vielfalt stets ein gutes Ergebnis liefern kann, ist auch etwas wert. The 100% analog MOSFET circuitry in the heart of the Q\Strip provides the warmth, girth and larger-than-life tones for which vintage consoles are revered. Add in four bands of pro-audio-quality equalization, two parametric mid bands, as well as high and low shelving filters, and you have incredible control over how your instrument cuts through on stage or in a mix. I'm not in any gigging bands at the moment but it's a great tool for recording everything, guitars, bass, vocals. 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.

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. But I have to doubt the bit about MOSFET circuitry to give the characteristics of vintage consoles. Enjoy! (And this will be worse than the PDDI for 'forever twiddling' 'cos it's more versatile from what I've seen :) ) There are, of course, good reasons why mic level might be preferred eg the user simply likes the sound of a particular mic pre working at some gain. 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 low pass filter (LPF) is going to be useful for guitarists but also bassists who like using ‘gainy’ distortion. We often have problems when it comes to cabinets with tweeters in, or sending the sound of our pedals directly to the PA. Being able to emulate the sound of a paper cone speaker really smooths out the top end of heavy distortion. This button will go a certain distance to making that a tap of a foot rather than reaching for tweeter attenuator knobs on darkened stages to tame excessive top end fizz! Found an excellent review by Ed Friedland, which I've tweaked / put some headings in for my own ease of reference. He says it all much better than I ever could - attached in case it's of interest to anyone else. 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. 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. Much depends on what goes on 'under the hood' of the receiving channel in terms of gain/attenuation - but in general it's not a good idea to attenuate then amplify. It's all about 'Gain Staging' really.

Zum Aufnehmen würde ich den QStrip selbst nicht einsetzen, da ich hier mehr auf spezifischere Lösungen setze, doch wenn jemand mit dem QStrip genau seinen Sound findet, dann spricht da grundsätzlich auch nichts dagegen. Tech 21 is arguably best known for the SansAmp ‘Amp In A Box’ simulator—However, their quality product range has been rapidly expanding over the years, including effects and utility pedals. Today we have something else a little different; A recording console channel strip in a box! Dan Veall takes a look at the Q/Strip. Well this one is now sitting at the end of my home pedal board! I didn't get on at all with the BDDI (which Dave, I know, is a big fan of!) but I'm really loving the Q\Strip's tone shaping capability: it goes several steps further than what my amps can do, which is saying something as they're both pretty good (particularly the Mesa M6) in the tonal options they provide. And I finally have an XLR out on one of my pedals to boot Construction wise, the box is your standard aluminum box, but the knurled metal buttons give a premium felling when making changes to your configuration.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. 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.

Thanks for the reply. It does clarify things a fair bit wrt the transistors. I agree the specs' aren't the important thing but the advertising references the technology and 'inspiration' so the question arises.Good point about the limited power available via phantom. It does blur at the edges though as the Q-strip also includes HPF and LPF, albeit not sweepable, whereas it provides a variable/sweepable dual-band mid EQ which the RE/Q doesn't. I was just using the Q Strip as one example of preamp/EQ with DI, obviously there are loads of others similarly featured with a DI e.g. MXR M81 or the excellent value Laney DB-Pre. And then you have something like the Boss EQ 200 which is a 'pure' EQ and doesn't. 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. 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.Beispielsweise bekomme ich Akustikgitarren an meinen Mesa Rosette DI-Preamps immer besser eingestellt als am QStrip. 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!