***Club Verellen***

[franksgbass]

Originally Posted by NKBassman

I must have missed this original post... What's going on here?

I think he sent this dude an invitation to join because he digs that photo of what seems to be a custom ms pre, or the first one. It does look pretty cool, but what would all those knobs do? Anyhow, I think thats what he meant.

[mjac28]

Yes sir that is correct I wanted him to share some info on that beautiful looking device I'm like you wondering what all those buttons do I'm a sucker for switches and buttons what do you think of that prototype looks pretty cool.

[mjac28]

I wonder if it has tubes?

[franksgbass]

ok, no problem. you do realize he could have been away for the weekend. curious what the question was that wasn't answered. But something tells me that you'll be ok, and ben's business will as well. good luck sir

1- MrThunderfoot
2- twhitedc
3- Mjac28
4- franksgbass
5- Plays_For_Dog
6- Crucified
7- DV6
8- XfredrikX
9- OldCrow
10- (up for grabs)
11- NKBassman
12- helenforsdale
13- funkfaker
253- PWV

[BFunk]

I am considering this preamp too. I have a couple of questions for you. What is the nominal output? In other words, can this drive a power amp to full output if it has a +4 dbu input sensitivity? How suitable is this pedal as a preamp for those of us who are not into stoner/doom stuff? I am looking for something with a slightly aggressive voicing. This means a low mid growl and upper mid bite. I don't like the ~800hz mid bump a lot of amps seem to have. Oh, I play Precisions mostly, I also have a Jack Casady, a MM SR4 classic, and a custom P/J fretless running DiMarzio model p && model j. TIA.

[mjac28]

Frank I am also sorry for your loss NK don't leave I always enjoy your posts not only here but in other threads and I understand how you feel I think most of us have been there it happened to me just last week and what made it worse I see the person posting on Talk Bass? So I wish you would stay.

[mjac28]

Originally Posted by BFunk

I am considering this preamp too. I have a couple of questions for you. What is the nominal output? In other words, can this drive a power amp to full output if it has a +4 dbu input sensitivity? How suitable is this pedal as a preamp for those of us who are not into stoner/doom stuff? I am looking for something with a slightly aggressive voicing. This means a low mid growl and upper mid bite. I don't like the ~800hz mid bump a lot of amps seem to have. Oh, I play Precisions mostly, I also have a Jack Casady, a MM SR4 classic, and a custom P/J fretless running DiMarzio model p && model j. TIA.

It is my understanding that it was designed to drive power amps with that big transformer it's really not a pedal. I think club member Mr Thunderfoot could answer better but I think the Skyhammer which is for guitars has a slightly more aggressive bite to it. I also don't play stoner/doom I'm using the Meatsmoke just as a preamp to warm my tone I currently use a "Lights On The Way Out " pedal which has a single 12ax7 but doesn't have the headroom the Meatsmoke has.

[twhitedc]

Bfunk,

I'm not sure about the technical stuff regarding input sensitivity, but I can say that it is more than capable of clean tone with minimal bit or growl. Just keep the gain low and bring the master up. Check out the demo i did. I was playing a 95 Mexican P essentially into the SS preamp section in my old acoustic. During the demo I left the master consistent and brought up the gain however you should get an idea how it sounds clean on the lower gain settings. I'll try to get you a clip with consistent low gain, and if altered volume settings.

[NKUSigEp]

I will amend my statement on the Big Spider...it appears that it performs much better with a passive bass than with actives (I tested this with a friend's bass). The low-end meatiness appears to remain intact on a passive Squire P-bass tuned down to a whole step and also dropped to C. It's strange how much of a difference that makes though.

I've also deleted my posts regarding my experiences with Verellen as they do not seem to be shared by anyone else. I'm just going to bow out gracefully for now.

[mjac28]

I want to try the Spider but I'll wait until the Meatsmoke comes to see what it does for my Holy Fire.

[BFunk]

Great responses. Thanks all. BTW, can the meatsmoke do Failure-Heliotropic sound?

[BFunk]

Also, is there a functional description of the goze-intas, goze-outas, knobs, switches and stuff?

[mjac28]

Good question I was looking for a manual as well I had a question about the filter switch for recording? I also noticed most people are using high output?

[PWV]

Thanks for your forum Management Frank, sorry about your loss. Sometimes it is this "Bass-world" that gives us that needed therapy when the real world washes ashore it seems. We appreciate you brother.

I realize my 253 number looks a bit out of sequence, so I'll do all I can to sing Ben's praises and spread the word to get the other 238 future-Verellen fans on-board!

[Plays_For_Dog]

Originally Posted by BFunk

Great responses. Thanks all. BTW, can the meatsmoke do Failure-Heliotropic sound?

Fuzzrocious has a pedal specifically designed for that particular tone.

If you search "Meatsmoke" on youtube, you will get some videos Ben has put out there for the head and it get's pretty ballzy. There is one video up on the pre through youtube, but Ben put another up when he was doing his kickstarter. Only way I know to see that one is to search the kickstarter website for Verellen or Meatsmoke. Either way, you can get a good idea through all those vids.

[BFunk]

I just got a reply from Ben on the meatsmoke output level. He said it will absolutely drive a Crown DriveCore XLS to max output. Good news for those with power amps that are low sensitivity.

[BFunk]

More 411 from Ben, (who BTW, is very responsive to my emails.):

3 band eq (l to r), then gain, and master are pretty self explanatory. Bypass for using as an effects pedal. The Boost engages a gain boost.

ground lift, is a way around ground loop hum if it occurs.

in (obvious)

out: this is a non filtered output. w/ the adjoining switch in the "high" position, the output is suited to drive line level inputs (power amp inputs, fx loop returns, etc...), but w/ it in the "low" position, it's designed to drive the instrument level input of the front end of an amp. the master volume setting plays into the output of the effect as well, obviously.

rec out: this is a line level output that has some filtering for a crude speaker simulation for recording straight into pro tools or a tape machine and getting around that harsh direct distorted sizzle.

[BFunk]

More 411 from Ben:

Yes, outputs are unbalanced. Rec out filtering uses a brew of active and passive filters that includes LPF, HPF, and BPF. The bode frequency plot isn't so cut and dry where specifics would be very meaningful. The most noticeable effect is on a reduced HF sizzle, but it reigns in the bandwidth on both sides to approach the bandwidth limitations of real speaker and microphones, etc... It is crude, but useful for those who want to go direct with a distorted sound but get around that industrial sizzle sound that typically comes with direct distorted sound.

EQ is similar to the type found in most classic amplifiers, the 3 band tone stack which has interactive behavior. The symbols are a misnomer that stuck from our early days when the simplicity of those eq symbols was a good solution to home screenprinting each individual symbol Engineer guys will know that it's wrong, but it stuck all the same.

[mjac28]

Thanks great info I'm not a huge fan of the Fender tone stack controls but I have plenty of pedals for tone control.

[BFunk]

Yeah, i assumed a fender tone stack based on the description too. I asked him to confirm this.