Barber LTD SR coping a BFJE Bluberry tone (soundclip inside)

icarussmicarus · #1 02-11-2009, 11:51 PM

Well since there hass been a little bubble of discussion lately on some of the heavy weight overdrives, I thought I'd do a quick comparison post.

My blueberry has been sold to a fellow TB'er (enjoy!) so I've quickly recorded this before it goes off in the post tomorrow.

Now I personally agree 100% that the blueberry is one of a kind pedal. It's awesome. But I've found I can very closely match one of its possible tones using my Barber LTD SR.

Soundclip is just my modded Jazz into the two pedals then into a line level interface. This means theres is a weakass no amp clean sound, but both pedals completely bring it to life anyway.

All pick playing, Clean -> Barber -> Blueberry

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/defa...?bandID=873708

To me it sounds pretty darn close and through my amp, the difference between the two pedals is even less.

Now here's the catch.

To match these pedals two I had to put the Barber's gain right up to about 3 o'clock and the tone way down to about 9 o'clock. On the blueberry i had the tone way up to about 9 o 'clock and the drive way down to about 10:30.

This means there are still tons of tones that the Barber can't match, and it can't get the ridiculously bassy tones that the Blueberry is capable of when the tone knob is way down.

The reason the Blueberry is going and the Barber is staying is basically because for recordings the Barber gets close enough to the Blueberry and in a live band mix, the Barber is more adjustable to different scenarios. Additionally the Barber can clean up more for low gain sounds which I typically make more use of than the higher gain ones. The blueberry sounds heavy on most settings.

Also I need the money!

nad · #2 02-26-2009, 06:08 PM

Cool. I completely agree there is nothing like the Blue Berry, but there are other ways to achieve that sound in a Close Enough fashion. I replaced mine with a 3Xfx Fatman to cover the heavier end of its spectrum. Oh sure, it doesn't sound as good by itself, but in a mix it is close enough and is much easier to tweak.

icarussmicarus · #3 02-26-2009, 10:26 PM

Hehe, thought this thread had just passed without notice.

In addition to what I said before I also feel like the blueberry changed my perspective on what I wanted in an OD pedal. I don't think I would have liked the barber immediately as I did if i didn't get the lesson from the Blueberry. The world of warm fat not too grainy non TS style bass overdrive.

icarussmicarus · #4 02-27-2009, 12:11 AM

Aside: Have you done clips of the Fatman Nad?

nad · #5 02-27-2009, 04:06 PM

I have not, no. CliftonBonney's clips were so extensive I figured I didn't need to do any, haha. I'll try and get some up soonish though, along with Barracuda and some more Dredge-Tone in a band situation. That pedal sounds AMAZING in a mix.

Oh yeah, I missed this thread the first time 'round but discovered it in a search.

Swift713 · #6 02-27-2009, 06:27 PM

I keep thinking about that Barber. I love my Blueberry but I pretty much always have the drive down at 7:00 and sometimes I want it lower. I've thought of getting a loop pedal that could roll back the input for less drive and boost the output to unity. Or maybe just a 3rd hand and my bass' volume.

icarussmicarus · #7 02-27-2009, 07:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Swift713

I keep thinking about that Barber. I love my Blueberry but I pretty much always have the drive down at 7:00 and sometimes I want it lower. I've thought of getting a loop pedal that could roll back the input for less drive and boost the output to unity. Or maybe just a 3rd hand and my bass' volume.

If you like the Blueberry sound but want a little less gain. The Barber is best possible solution.

OriginalCrash · #8 02-28-2009, 07:09 AM

Totally off topic (and I should probably start a new thread with this in the title if I hope to get many answers), but with the dark and heavy sounds the Blueberry is so uniquely capable of... Has anyone tried using it in a synth setup, either with an actual synth pedal or as part one component amongst many?

Brian

Swift713 · #9 02-28-2009, 08:54 AM

The Blueberry into a Q-tron is nice but not as "synthy" sounding as a fuzz. It really is an amp simulator. Direct recordings I've done with the Blueberry sound very much like a cranked tube amp IMO.

jucas · #10 02-28-2009, 09:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by OriginalCrash

Totally off topic (and I should probably start a new thread with this in the title if I hope to get many answers), but with the dark and heavy sounds the Blueberry is so uniquely capable of... Has anyone tried using it in a synth setup, either with an actual synth pedal or as part one component amongst many?

Brian

I've tried it in with the usual fuzz, octave, filter, trem synth. I usually really like an overdrive in there, but it cuts off the highs too much for me in that situation. Really great for some sounds, and I loved the way it cuts the top end fizz off my woolly mammoth... but if you want the highs they just aren't there and I'm not usually going to use two OD's to get some synth sounds.

I did throw it into a parrallel blender for that kind of thing once, and used it to keep the vibrato just on the lows and overdrive them a bit. Sounds were nice, but way too much gear unless you had some of it already. (and probably not enough of a difference to bother with the space on a board IMO)

nad · #11 02-28-2009, 04:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Swift713

It really is an amp simulator. Direct recordings I've done with the Blueberry sound very much like a cranked tube amp IMO.

Agreed. That pedal works best alone, and going into as uncoloured a place as possible, like recording direct. It never really went well with the usual phaser/chorus/whatever whenever I tried.

Swift713 · #12 02-28-2009, 05:16 PM

I have used it to drive my fuzz. As Jucas said, it can mellow and warm a harsher fuzz but on the other hand, it pumps a little extra juice into my Lo-Tone. It's not really a sound that the Lo-tone can't get on it's own but it is like a 3rd variety of dirt. The Blueberry is so colored that anything I run into it gets lost.

Swift713 · #13 02-28-2009, 05:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nad

Agreed. That pedal works best alone, and going into as uncoloured a place as possible, like recording direct. It never really went well with the usual phaser/chorus/whatever whenever I tried.

Indeed, it's got to be the best od for a really transparent or hi-fi amp.

icarussmicarus · #14 03-01-2009, 01:12 AM

I actually really liked it with my OC-2 running into it. Since this particular octave is so synthy and non-organic I found I got some cool un-bass like tones running into the blueberry.

Also I liked it with digital delay because the roll of the highs gave it a muted and sombre feeling. Perhaps running it into an already muddy analog delay would be too far though.

I did some clips with it in another thread at one point.