So my primary bass guitar is a Music Man Bongo that has an 18 volt active pickup system. The pickups are REALLY hot. On my Line 6 Bass Pod XT I always had to turn the pad on because it would overload the input. I’m facing the same issue with my PiSound. I have the input gain all the way down and I’m still overloading the input (light flashes) if I pluck the low strings too hard.
Ultimately I would love to have a physical switch that would pad the input. Since that’s not an option, is there a way to pad the input on the device or should I look for an external option?
Pisound doesn’t have anything built in that could reduce the volume further, so it looks like some external solution is necessary.
I wonder what does the ‘pad’ function do - does it simply ‘enable’ a couple of resistors to send part of the hot signal back to ground? (kind of a fixed potentiometer)
Most modern bass amps have a pad feature built in. And generally they are just a simple -15db pad. How they work, I’m not sure but I think your guess about a simple resistor is correct.
You might want to consider a way to reduce the input gain on board as the Pisound gets more popular with bass players. I posted about it on talkbass and multiple people got excited about it.
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If anyone is curious, this is the device I ordered and will use as an input attenuator for an active bass:
https://www.amplifiedparts.com/products/pedal-kit-mod-electronics-step-ladder-input-attenuator
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Success! I built the attenuator tonight and it does exactly what I need it to! You can attenuate from 0db all the way down to -14db. I also just discovered that the input gain knob on the Pisound has a center detent. Who knew? I was never able to turn up the input gain that high before. Now I have plenty of headroom.
I highly recommend this device for anyone with an active bass and a PiSound.
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