While passive DIs proved to be quite useful for recording bass or sending bass to a console for live performance, people began to notice a decrease in overall response and punch. That's when active DI's came to the rescue. But how many are tailored to the response of a bass guitar? The Seymour Duncan SFX-06 Paranormal Bass EQ DI is, featuring a three-band active EQ that's optimized for bass along with a contour switch for slapping styles.
The three-band EQ allows you to dial in your tone in any room, sculpting your lows, mids, and highs quickly and easily. So, along with performing the normal functions of a DI, you get the benefit of adding an active EQ to your bass without having to make any modifications to your instrument. The EQ provides ±12dB boost and cut for each band, which have center frequencies at 30Hz for deep lows, 650Hz to contour the mids, and 5.2kHz for presence, clarity and attack.
The SFX-6 also features Seymour Duncan's proprietary Slap Contour switch, which applies an additional preset EQ curve. As the name implies, this is a dedicated switch for slapping styles, but it also adds an extra dimension to fingerstyle or pick playing. Slap Contour gives you a 6dB boost at 80Hz to bring out the bottom and cuts 6dB at 650Hz to reduce the mud that can occur in the low mids. The result is a solid low end and more room for attack. By using it with the 3-band EQ, you can bring out more attack information if needed, as well as extra bottom below 80Hz.
Built like a tank with a 16-guage steel chassis and powered by either a single 9V battery or a regulated DC power supply, the SFX-06 features a balanced XLR output with ground lift to eliminate electromagnetic interference and AC-hum. Between that and its active electronics you can drive longer cable runs to a feed a front-of-house mixing board or a recording console without noise or signal loss.
In Depth
- Gain Range: +/- 12dB - Input Impedance: 1MOhm - Output Impedance: 2KOhm - Maximum Output before Clipping: 2.6Vrms - Noise and Hum: -92dBV - THD at 1Vrms out at 1 KHz: 0.002 percent - Circuitry: FET Input OP-Amps with Discrete Gyrators - Power: DC 9 12V; Battery or Regulated DC Adapter - Current Consumption: 2.9 mA Max - Dimensions: 5.50 x 5.20 x 2.20 inches - Weight: 1.9 Lbs - Chassis Material: 16 Gauge Steel - EQ Center Frequencies: Bass - 30Hz, Mid - 650Hz, Treble - 5.2KHz - Slap Contour Frequencies: +6dB at 80Hz, -6dB at 650Hz - 1/4" input - Balanced XLR output with ground lift - 3-band EQ - Bypass footswitch - Slap Contour preset EQ footswitch - LED lights for both footswitches - 16-gauge steel chassis