Tech 21 SansAmp GT 2

I am not a guitarist. But I do record them often. And I also have a 24 fret 6 string bass, which sounds like a guitar near the top of the fretboard. So I bought this for recording.

When I plug this thing in, I can get really great tones out of it straight away. It sounds fantastic on any settings (apart from the EQ, which I always leave flat, and EQ ITB instead). There's no harshness which you might get from digital FX. (Not that digital amp emulators are bad, but many of them just use waveshaping instead of proper circuit simulation). And it's always better to record through a distortion effect instead of adding it afterwards.

I can also get great distorted bass tones out of it too. If I want to get a Motown distorted P-bass sound (where the distortion becomes invisible in the mix, but helps the bass stick out) it's very easy to dial in.

I do wish this had a parallel dry output though. I know there are other SansAmp models which do this, but it didn't have many options. So I just use an active signal splitter before going in to record the dry signal too.

This pedal is built like a tank, really solid, the footswitch has an expensive kind of “click” to it, you get what you’d expect as far as build quality, given the price. I like the fact that it’s analog and simple to dial in, but what makes this stomp box great is that it can be used in various ways, you can have it in front of the amp as usual, or use it fully on its own as an amp sim. I find that using it as a preamp, by plugging it straight into the power amp can also get the job done and adding other pedals in front of it works well, so all in all it’s a good sounding, well made, all in one pedal.

I already have a great DI box, so I was looking for an in-line pedal format amp simulator for recording bass and occasionally guitar with. I decided to take a chance on the GT2, because it looked like it could provide more versatility than the ubiquitous and class Sans Amp Bass Driver. It's turned out to be an excellent choice. I can't really vouch (and don't really care) for how accurately it simulates the different amps, but it sounds fantastic on various basses, and obviously fantastic on guitar. The clean Tweed setting and California settings are particularly pleasing for bass recording, and the added gain modes provide very useful overdrive or distortion tones. This thing is a classic for a reason.