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I'm in the market for a new DI, mainly for recording bass guitar.

Opinions/recommendations, please.

I tried UingTFSF but came up empty.

Just don't buy a Behringer one.

They distort with some bass guitars despite having a pad and are poorly made.

Try and buy something that will last made by a more respectable company like BSS, or get something which is made in the US.

Thanks, and another question: passive or active and why?

I think active models tend to have more capabilities with respect to what sources and load they can interface with.

For instance, the shitty Behringer one is active and can accept a PA speaker level of up to several KWatts at its input and still provide a balanced line output. Weird.

If you are just wanting to record bass, then I'd just get something simple and inexpensive, but not nasty.

For recording take a look at the Dunlop/MXR Bass DI+.

I mainly use DIs in a live context.

The features I would pretty much expect of a DI are
Rugged Construction
Active (Phantom Powered)
Transformer Balanced Out
Pad Switch
Earth Lift
Passive/Buffered Unbalanced out.
High quality electronics (ie inaudible distortion/noise - ability to deal with a wide variety of inputs (level & impedance) / abilty to drive very long lines). Whilst I know of several DIs where you are supposed to be able connect them to a high level speaker out (as Rodabod mentioned), I can't think of an instance where I have had a use for this.


BSS and Klark Teknic make very good DIs like this.
Of course these are essentially 'flavourless' which is good thing live, but may (or may not) be considered boring for recording. If this is the case then an instrument preamp with balanced out may be a good option.

JLM Audio make a kit that will get you most of the way there if you like to build your own.

Rugged is the way to go for stage work. There is some company that Tony Levin recommends for his as his di I think it is Radical brand I believe they use Jensen transformers.

For home recording I use a Presonis tube preamp which has a DI as part of it. I think the tube aspect does nice things for the bass and it is reasonably cheap. Of course I also am mikeing a amp as well (two mikes) as the sounds of the bass is different through a amp and the DI seems to capture more low end than through the amp with my mikes.

I have a couple of DI's (whirlwind and a ART which I use for other stuff) the Whirlwind is a stage standard piece of gear (it is the one I run into playing live in clubs all the time) the Art is nice in as much as it has a phase and pad switch comes in handy in the home studio.

I hear people who recomend the "Countryman" brand but they seem to be doing acustic guitar work.

I'm looking at one of THESE.



I got a $50 gift certificate for my birthday, it's burning a hole in my new wallet (which I also received for my birthday.)

As I say have not used one myself but they have a very positive buzz and ad campaign about their quality. I would think the Jensen transformers would make them of higher quality than other brands. They are in the expencive but top of the line gear.

I'm a big fan of the Tech 21 Bass Driver for bass...but I mainly use it for it's overdrive tones. Don't really use it as a true DI unless I'm using it for something other than bass.

http://www.tech21nyc.com/bassdriver.html

I've also heard really good things about the Whirlwind DI's...and they make pretty good quality stuff.

http://www.whirlwindusa.com/dirbox.html