Aguilar AGRO bass overdrive pedal

[Double Agent]

Coming soon...

http://www.themadape.com/Aguilar_Agr...l_p/a-agro.htm



Saw this on the Aguilar Twin Filter thread and thought it deserved it's own thread. Looks pretty sweet to me. I always thought this should be available in pedal form. The AG500 overdrive circuit is my favorite bass distortion. I don't know if I'll have a need for it, but I might need to make room for this on my fledgling board.

[oldno.7]

I've wanted to add a "grit"/overdrive pedal to my pedalboard and knew this was coming out soon. I'd like to compare it with the Tech 21 Sansamp VT Bass and see which one comes out on top.

[theavondon]

Ever since I started listening to Bongripper, I've wanted an AGRO. So, hey, kick ass.

[faceinbass]

Want to try. NAO!

[uaudio]

So Aguilar is taking over the world? I'm okay with that. Need to hear clips asap.

[JoeVictim]

Originally Posted by Double Agent

Coming soon...

http://www.themadape.com/Aguilar_Agr...l_p/a-agro.htm



Saw this on the Aguilar Twin Filter thread and thought it deserved it's own thread. Looks pretty sweet to me. I always thought this should be available in pedal form. The AG500 overdrive circuit is my favorite bass distortion. I don't know if I'll have a need for it, but I might need to make room for this on my fledgling board.

Yep! I want this comparison to happen. Head to head. Passive bass with some standard type pups, like a P with 62' RIs.

Originally Posted by theavondon

Ever since I started listening to Bongripper, I've wanted an AGRO. So, hey, kick ass.

Hell Yes!

[JoeVictim]

[P-oddz]

I know this seems to be an old thread these days - but I CAN do some clip comparisons if you guys want. Tools I can work with:

Basses: '62 RI Jazz, Highway One P, Jaguar
Pedals: Agro, VT Bass, Tone Hammer, Distortron

Tell me what you would like to hear sampled.

Go.......

[JoeVictim]

Originally Posted by P-oddz

I know this seems to be an old thread these days - but I CAN do some clip comparisons if you guys want. Tools I can work with:

Basses: '62 RI Jazz, Highway One P, Jaguar
Pedals: Agro, VT Bass, Tone Hammer, Distortron

Tell me what you would like to hear sampled.

Go.......

Heck ya!

First, Jazz Clean. So we know what your bass sounds like without the pedal coloring it.
Jazz with Agro vs. Jazz with VT bass. I think the Jazz is just about as standard of a tone as you can get. I am more interested in grit and dirt more than anything else, but still be musical. I would like to hear straight up which pedal does it better.

You made my day

[P-oddz]

Sounds good. I'll probably have the time tonight.

[P-oddz]

So I took a clip with some comparison of the VT and the Agro...

First off, let me start off by saying I went into this very doubtful of the situation. Not because I thought either pedal wouldn't stand up, but my opinion is that these are two VERY different pedals. It would be like comparing apples to oranges. What I was really surprised to find is that both have a pretty unique voice, but share similar qualities in a way.

Next, let me say, that my experience with the VT bass has been less than stellar up until this point. It's a great pedal (don't get me wrong) but I found that as a dirt/od pedal (which was my intention for it), I didn't necessarily care for it. I found it too touchy for my preferences (again this is just my opinion), and I never liked the way it made my amp sound unlike my amp and more an Ampeg rip (and for those that will say "duh, it's an Ampeg emulator" I would say yes, I realize that NOW , but when you've got GAS sometimes it just takes a hold?). That being said, I've never tried it directly in for recording purposes, but was kind of pleasantly surprised. It is a good sounding pedal.

My experience with the Agro is limited at this point, as I just got the pedal last week, and up until tomorrow night, I have yet to try it on my amp with the band. This being said, at home on my practice amp I think this pedal will slay (admittedly, I seem to be in a current love affair for Aguilar products as of these days, so my opinion may be slightly tainted). I guess you guys can hear for yourselves.

So here it goes with the breakdown:

'62 RI Jazz bass played with a pick, recorded directly into my Tascam US-122, into Garageband. No EQ, no compression, just level adjustments on the individual tracks to keep things sort of at equilibrium volume wise. I did a version of each pedal on a low drive setting, a medium drive setting, and a full nuts setting. In between each I re-recorded my flat tone so you can remember what the Jazz sounds stand alone (as after awhile you get to have too much tone saturation and can't remember where you started). This makes for a longer track, but deal with it

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page...songID=9562702

Take 1: Flat Jazz
Take 2: VT on Tech 21's "Fat Tube" setting
Take 3: Agro with mild saturation (sorry I forgot to write down settings on this one)
Take 4: Flat Jazz
Take 5: VT on Tech 21's "Rage" setting (with low end boost to about 3:00)
Take 6: Agro (with saturation at about 2:00, presence 12:00, contour 10:00)
Take 7: Flat Jazz
Take 8: VT "Rage" (with drive = dimed, low end = dimed, and high rolled off to Noon)
Take 9: Agro ( with saturation dimed, presence at noon, and countour at 1)

I'd like to hear what you guys think. Bear in mind that whatever settings I chose as a "showable" version of mild/heavy OD, can still be tweaked beyond that. The VT gets twangy (which can be adjusted by rolling off the highs and boosting some mids). The Agro, can get slightly muddy (which can be improved with more presence and scooping some of the mids with the countour dial). Like I said, curious to hear what you guys think (if anyone is still reading this long-winded post).

[DONZI97]

Thanks, and nice job on the recordings, I think the Agro sounds better than the Rage settings. Do you have any fingerstyle clips?

[tonymcbony]

+1 for fingerstyle clips too!

These were really well done, great job! Good playing too.

I think the agro has fuller mids the the VT (probably just settings); I'm really into the agro, eh. It's like they've taken the grind factor of the VT and mixed it with a fuzz. I like it a lot. I think the VT wins for very slight drive but I see what you're saying, they're very different pedals.

Glad I sold my VT and even happier I bought the AGRO now.

[P-oddz]

Originally Posted by tonymcbony

+1 for fingerstyle clips too!

These were really well done, great job! Good playing too.

I think the agro has fuller mids the the VT (probably just settings); I'm really into the agro, eh. It's like they've taken the grind factor of the VT and mixed it with a fuzz. I like it a lot. I think the VT wins for very slight drive but I see what you're saying, they're very different pedals.

Glad I sold my VT and even happier I bought the AGRO now.

Thanks for the good word! I actually didn't really know how to pin it, until you said it, (even though it seems pretty obvious now), but it's like the Agro is an overdrive/fuzz mix. Which is very strange to me, since I've never really liked the fuzz tone, but like what the Agro can do thus far. We'll see it in the band setting probably tonight, so I'll see what it can do live.

As far as finger-style clips, sure I can record something probably tomorrow night. Would you like to hear something along the same lines (A/B type setup)?

[Eublet]

Yup, that demonstrates the differences pretty well. You can really hear the harshness of the VT in most all of those clips, but especially the Rage settings. The Agro to me sounds warm and full on each track, even with extreme saturation. Another comment I'll add is that you were running the Presence at a medium level on all this clips. That should help folks understand that there's LOTS of room to turn that grind down much further, or to dial in a harsher grind if you want. That's what I like about the Agro, and what I've been saying makes it far superior to the VT in other threads.

In a mix, the subtle differences in OD styles between pedals is often lost. IMHO/E, that usually leaves only a couple of things to really define for me how well a pedal works. First, does it leave the bottom present and full, or does it suck it all out. Secondly, can I control the amount of upper-mid grind to get the amount of up-front presence I want in the mix. That is where the VT just fails miserably to me. No control over the Presence, and boosting lows makes it muddy and boomy, not full and present.

Nice job on the clips!

[P-oddz]

I'll play Switzerland in this and not come out as saying I liked either sound better.

But I will agree with Eublet's assessment on how to determine what a good OD pedal should encompass. I always found that when I was using the VT for a boost pedal - it failed. Drop off in presence or too much boom, I could never seem to dial in a tone and stick with it from show to show, much less between practices.

Recording these though, I was really pleased with some of the tones coming out of the VT. I would say in the future, instead of letting it collect dust or trying to sell, I could use the VT for a recording tool (another tone to dial in). I also have found that some of the clankiness can be cleaned up by running some sort of EQ after it (I've used my Tone Hammer and swept back in some of those lacking mids without creating the boomy after-effect). And heck, there are so many guys that swear by the VT, that it has to count for something.

That being said, I think the Agro is going to be a better suit as a boost function than the VT. When I want to kick in a boost, I want it to feel like a natural boost to my gain stage, and not a completely different tonal feel. Up until the Agro, I was using my Distortron for that purpose (which took over for the VT), but I really feel that the Agro is going to be what the Distortron was, and more (as the higher the gain on the Distortron, the less pleasing it becomes). The Agro seems to harness the gain (if that makes any sense) and give you a controlled chaos to your high gain setting.

[Eublet]

Originally Posted by P-oddz

I could never seem to dial in a tone and stick with it from show to show, much less between practices.

This is exactly what I experienced. Each time I thought I had a VT setting that I liked, it just didn't work the next time I put it in. I'm not sure I can explain why that is though.

Recording these though, I was really pleased with some of the tones coming out of the VT. I would say in the future, instead of letting it collect dust or trying to sell, I could use the VT for a recording tool (another tone to dial in).

I agree with this also. Alot of the Youtube videos out there of the VT sound great, and really make a case for it. It even sounded awesome recently when I recorded 11 tracks with it for a new album (this was before I got the Agro...sniff sniff). For me, this is where not only the VT, but most "modeling" type devices seem to work best. For live use, they always seem to be a bit lifeless to me personally...too boomy, or too harsh, or just too over-the-top in general. Hard to explain, but FX seem to work best for live use rather than a modeler. A definite generalization, but the rule has held true in my experience, which isn't vast at all.

[aledeville]

That was probably the first soundclip over 4 minutes that I really heard to the end.
Great, thank you very much.

I like the aguilar more.

[P-oddz]

Originally Posted by aledeville

That was probably the first soundclip over 4 minutes that I really heard to the end.
Great, thank you very much.

I like the aguilar more.

HAHA! Good for you! I EVEN got bored of hearing the same line after a bit!

Problems you face when recording a clip.... make a short phrase that doesn't suck too bad, and can compliment the voice of the pedals.

[busta_bird]

I've been looking at the Agro, and appreciate the recording very much. I don't use the VT to get OD, I only use it to dial in a fat tone. That said, I can see both pedals working together. Thanks again!