New Music Gear Monday: Ampeg SGT-DI Bass Direct Box

Every engineer and bass player knows how important a high quality direct box is, as a good one captures the low end of the instrument that a cheap unit simply can’t. There have been some great ones over the years, starting with the custom Dean Jensen models to the Radial JDI to a variety of custom active boxes. Most of them are a one-trick pony however – you plug it in and record. It’s helpful when you find a unit that can give you a wide variation of tonal possibilities, and that’s exactly what the Ampeg SGT-DI bass direct box does.

Given the heritage of Ampeg when it comes to bass amplifiers, there’s an instant trust that they would get a bass-oriented DI just right. They did, and then some.

Believe it or not, there so much to this unit that we can’t cover it all here, but let’s give it a shot.

If You Like That Sound

The SGT-DI takes what made Ampeg bass amplifiers great and puts it on steroids. For instance, the preamp section (which is switchable) provides Volume, Bass, Treble and output Level, as you’d expect, but then pumps it up with the addition of a one knob Compressor (the lower part of the dual concentric Volume control), and a dual concentric Midrange control with the bottom control sweeping the important frequencies between 200Hz and 3kHz.

There are also 3 way Ultra Lo and Ultra Hi switches, and a preamp Voice control that switches between the famous SVT and B15 amp circuitry sound. The Super Grit circuit takes this to another level where you can use the Grit control (the bottom portion of the dual concentric output Level control) to dial in just the right amount of preamp overload. You can switch this effect in and out with the SGT foot switch on the bottom right of the pedal.

If that was all the SGT-DI provided it would be plenty for most applications but the pedal takes it another step with 6 onboard cabinet simulations. You can switch between the sound a single 15″ speaker cab, a 4×10 or an SVT-style 8×10. Plus there’s room onboard for 3 additional user IRs, which you can load through a smartphone app, as well as a cabinet level control on the left side panel.

Plenty Of IO

There’s also plenty of input/outputs to fit just about any need. The top side panel contains the input jack, preamp out jack, thru jack, and a Line Out/Phones jack. These are all on ¼” TRS phone jacks.

The right side panel has an 1/8th inch stereo input and a ¼” phone Mono phone jack, as well as an Aux Level control. This is for inputing audio to practice with.

The left side panel contains the XLR output jack and a USB-C output for connecting directly to a DAW. It also has room for a ground lift switch and the previously mentioned IR controls. Power is via a 9V DC adapter on the top side panel.

The Ampeg SGT-DI retails for $349.99, which is a bargain considering what you get. A 75th Anniversary Blue Edition is also available for $399.99.

You can find out more here, or watch the video below.