Gear Review: Misguided Aggression bassist John-Ryan Godfrey on his Tech 21 RBI

The mighty Misguided Aggression has been ripping apart the Southern Ontario metal scene with their heavy tunes. They recently released their second album Flood The Common Ground which came out this year on Year Of The Sun Records. Bassist John-Ryan Godfrey recently gave us some time to talk about his Tech 21 RBI. Read on to learn more about the Tech 21 TBI.

What one piece of equipment do you use to obtain your signature sound?
John: I can’t give all the credit to one certain piece of gear or else I’d have a pretty light rack case, but I find the Tech 21 RBI bass preamp gives me the heavy low (yet tightly present) tone that i aspire for.

What about it makes it so important to you?
John: The Tech 21 allows me to blend tones with my Ampeg SVT4. This makes it so I can put my own spin on the already large tone of the Ampeg. the Tech 21 also has a 2nd input with a -20db option that I tend to favour due to the high output of my Spector’s tone boost, I’m all about tone boost.

What are the major pros and cons?
John: No complaints from this guy, it’s actually stepped in to save me from a situation or 2. One time during a show my head’s fuse blew out and nothing was coming out of my cabinet. Thankfully my Sans Amp was being run through the p.a. I, of course noticed the difference but the crowd was none-the wiser!

How long have you used this piece of equipment and would you ever change it?
John: The Tech 21 has been in my rack for about 2 years now and has been run through a couple of different heads. I find it complements the Ampeg very well. I wouldn’t necessarily change anything, but I could see my future self dabbling with further tone enhancement by pairing up the Tech 21 RBI with the Tech 21 PSA 1.1.

Any final thoughts or comments on the gear?
John: A good preamp goes a long way and the Tech 21 RBI has proven its worth to me and many other players that I have talked to throughout the years. Next time you’re at a show and show and you hear a massive bass that makes you say “THATS THE TONE”, see if you can catch a glimpse of what they’re running, you’ll be surprised how often you’ll see a Tech 21 product in there somewhere!

Check out the song: “Winter Soldier”