bad monkey and a tube amp

Rugaar · #1 02-09-2009, 10:52 AM

I used my new badder bass monkey at practice last night for the first time. I play P basses through an old Ampeg V4 and the monkey very subtle changes to my sound, even with the gain maxed. We don't play very loud overall and I kept the level down so I wouldn't have a huge volume boost when I kicked it in. I like the sound but I guess I was expecting a more dramatic difference. I'm guessing that my clean tone with my Ampeg is actually not all that clean because when I tried the pedal at home through my little SS practice rig it made a huge difference in sound.

Anyone else notice something similar when using an OD pedal into a tube amp?

RCCollins · #2 02-09-2009, 10:57 AM

I have a feeling you would notice more of a difference if you turned up. An OD pedal works with a tube amp by giving the tubes an extra push - they won't reflect this push too much if your master volume is turned down really low.

I'd turn up the master volume and start with the volume and gain on the bad monkey really low. That pedal-amo combo should sound pretty nice.

dannybuoy · #3 02-09-2009, 11:10 AM

I can't compare to the stock one, but my Humphrey modded version sounds very overdriven at max gain, I wouldn't call it subtle at all. I wonder if anyone knows if the modded one has more gain than the stock one?

Rugaar · #4 02-09-2009, 11:44 AM

Amp volume is around the halfway point. Bass volume is around 1/3 or so. Turning the level up on the BM definitely brings on more drive but also a lot more volume. We're playing at reasonably loud small bar volume without making anyone's ears bleed.

It does sound good--even my drummer commented on it. I'll play around with my amp settings a bit at our next session.

karter2000 · #5 02-10-2009, 11:40 AM

Reading this thread, I decided to try my modded BM with my V4 last night at rehearsal. I modded my BM myself, so I can't comment on whether it's like the Humphrey modded version or not.

I have to agree...I really like the sound. Bad Monkeys sound great with tubes, as opposed to SS. As was stated by RCCollins, the trick is with the master volume. I set my master first, then dialed in the gain to the amount of breakup I wanted. I think that's how the guitarists dial in their tubescreamers (which is what a BM is).

I would agree though that my V4 is pretty dirty on it's own (which I like), and any dirt from a pedal is going to be buffered somewhat.

Lyle

dannybuoy · #6 02-10-2009, 11:44 AM

It also sounds really good with a VT Bass, which is supposed to emulate a tube amp. Like halfway through this clip:

http://www.box.net/shared/yb27mdqadr

Rugaar · #7 02-10-2009, 10:26 PM

Ok, I tried some different settings tonight and what I found that worked was turning the volume on my amp down to about 1/4 and running the volume on my bass higher. This let me turn the level on the BM up, giving me some nice OD, while keeping the overall volume about the same. I'm still working on finding the BM levels that work best for me but I'm liking the sounds I'm getting. Very nice.

lowendgenerator · #8 02-10-2009, 10:34 PM

Wait, you had the volume knob on your bass set at 1/3rd? That might be your problem. The BM won't make much noise if you're not feeding it enough volume on the input. Is there a reason you run your bass volume so low?

tomhanzo · #9 02-11-2009, 08:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lowendgenerator

Wait, you had the volume knob on your bass set at 1/3rd? That might be your problem. The BM won't make much noise if you're not feeding it enough volume on the input. Is there a reason you run your bass volume so low?

yeah thats probly it. if i turn my bass down i can make my BM have no dirt. That was for sure the problem.

Why did you have the volume down? to keep the static down?

Rugaar · #10 02-11-2009, 10:06 AM

I had the amp turned up a bit so I could dial in some tube grit by using the volume knob on my bass. 1/3 or so on my bass volume would give me plenty of volume and it'd start breaking up a bit if I went over that. That was generally how I'd run my tube guitar amps to get that sound, too. (power tube grind instead of preamp tube fizzle)

I prefer being able to access my sound faster using less spinning of the volume knob on my bass (when the amp was turned up) but I can see that's not how I need to run it using the pedal.

I was able to pull up some cool OD tones last night with the pedal, which is what I was hoping for. Definitely gave me more variety to my sound. It's the first pedal I've used, other than a tuner, so I've got some learning to do on how best to utilize it. I'll experiment a bit more to see what else I can figure out. You guys have been very helpful.