Radial Engineering Stage Bug SB-1 Acoustic Compact Active DI Box Overview | Full Compass

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David 'Shuu' Guidish, Sales Manager at Radial Engineering, demonstrates the Radial Engineering Stage Bug SB-1 Acoustic Compact Active DI Box for Acoustic Guitars at Full Compass Systems.

The Radial SB-1 Acoustic is a high-performance active direct box made for players that are on the move. Made to fit inside a guitar case, the SB-1 is the smallest Radial DI box ever.

The design begins with standard 1/4" instrument input with a thru-put to feed your tuner or your on-stage amplifier. The ultra-quiet active circuit at once converts the signal from high to low impedance to reduce susceptibility to noise, buffers it and then balances the signal for long runs to the PA system. And with 48 volt phantom powering, the SB-1 does not require batteries or external supply to make it work.

The active circuit features a carefully selected 220k-ohm input impedance to eliminate problems with loading while delivering a smooth, warm sound to the audio system. This is particularly important when interfacing vintage guitars with low output pickups when should you plan to do some recording or Reamping. The SB-1 is also equipped with a -15dB pad that reduces the input sensitivity to gracefully handle even the loudest instruments. This makes the SB-1 perfectly well suited for electric bass and keyboards. To reduce feedback, toggling the 180° polarity switch helps eliminate hot spots on stage that can cause low frequency resonance.

[fullcompass]

Featured Gearcast: Radial Engineering SB-1 Stage Bug

The Radial Engineering Stage Bug SB-1 is the perfect direct box for acoustic guitar. With an ultra-compact design and no batteries needed, this is a great tool for the musician on the go!

[martijnvanspaendonck]

The product itself is decent, but there was no need to demonstrate the sound as it doesn't say anything if you don't hear it in comparison with another product or a straight signal. Besides, the guitar wasn't even in tune, so it instantly sounds like shit!

[PietroRumenta]

Hello.
I have a little problem:
I own an active bass guitar whose on board preamp is quite powerful, while my head amp is very sensitive; it has neither -15db pad nor a -15db input meant for active basses, so in order not to make the clip light go off, I have to be very careful using the preamp knobs, thus being unable to boost them more than about +6db each. Besides, when I play heavy genres with the pick, of course the clip light goes off even more often, although both the head gain and the on board preamp are set quite low.
My technician has told me the head may suffer if I keep on making it clip so often and hard;, he has seen that happen several times to other bass players' amps.
He suggests buying an item that allow my bass signal to get directly into the amp head at -15db, yet not changing its character, shape or tone at all. I do not care about the balanced signal at all, I simply need the bass sound not to be changed at all in any way, while being lowered -15db in order to be able to use my amp head properly.
He says your products are the best, but he is not sure which one I should get. So far, I have tried your SB I mono D.I. box and your SB 6 isolator, but they both change something in my bass tone, each in its own different way; I would say the first one cuts out something and the second one "cleans" the signal and makes the output a little lower.
What shall I do?
Of course, I know if I owned an amp head with a simple -15db pad, I would not have this problem, but my head sounds wonderfully and I am not going to give it up, unless I really have no other choice.
Thanks a lot in advance and sorry for the length of my message.

[alessandroformenti]

Maybe you could tune the guitar... I own the same DI and it's maybe the best you can get for the money but boy oh boy ... in this demo the whole thing sounds like crap. 😢

[danielparedes]

Good evening. this sb-1 model, does it have the Jensen transformers incorporated? Thank you

[TheDoctorBlues]

Would this di work with electric guitar preamp pedal? I play through a tech 21 british character and then into the PA, but on bigger stages I would like to balance the signal. Do you think that this could be a good solution or I'd better go for a passive box like the sb2 (l am a little bit short of money, at the moment 😢)

[pierremilleret]

Owner manual say, s that it can work with active Basses, if put the switch -15db ON ... Someone has experience, information about? - Thanks.

[alessandroformenti]

The guitar is out of tune...and why most of these demos feature guitar that sound like piezo plastic crap? Don't you have ears?