How is the Catalinbread SFT with active basses? My main bass is a Spector Euro 5LX with EMG TW's, and it's pretty useless with a lot of dirt/OD pedals.
This pedal seems to get a lot of praise around here. And it's a nice price . . .
I've only run the pedal with my passive basses and at 9V so far. But after some testing last night I'm not liking it so far. For a pedal that is supposed to be the best in 'transparency,' it definitely messes with my tone, even with the gain control all the way down and the EQ set flat. It gets muddy and less '3D' sounding. The EQ frequencies do not seem to be useful to bass, and it is very noisy, even at moderate gain settings.
I wonder if running it at 18V would help with any of these problems? I have an 18V adapter at home so I'll answer my own question later this evening.
Megadan - remember that there's a midscoop when the eq is flat. That might be what you might be hearing!
I don't think so. I experimented with various EQ settings and even turned both down to get a mid hump. To be honest I didn't hear a serious mid scoop with the EQ boosted - it was more that the treble control was too high for upper mids, and too low for 'sizzle;' and the bass similarity was too high for rumble but too low for low mids.
Also was using it with a p-bass that's pretty mid heavy. The tone loss I was hearing was definitely in the lows and highs.
Hey, I was in the mood to do some clips so I hope this helps some people out.
I recorded a quick clip with an active bass (G&L L-2000) with the SFT running at 9V and at 18V. The only change I made between takes was to reach down, unplug one adaptor, and plug in the other. I didn't change the settings on the pedal or any where else in the chain (Bass --> Diamond Bass comp set for light comp --> SFT --> Ashly preamp --> Delta 1010LT --> Abelton Live, wav mixdown to LAME 192kpbs mp3)
As you can see (below) the most obvious difference is that it gets louder, no surprise there. But I thought the sound improved significantly at 18V (great, just what I need, ANOTHER wall wart coming from my board). Better highs, better lows, better tone (and no, it wasn't just the volume boost - in my initial testing before the clips, I turned the volume all the way down and then set it to unity with the bypass signal for each adapter.
The difference is really apparent, isn't it? The way I see it, this pedal works with 9V, but this pedal is meant for 18V. That has been my experience with this pedal, and with my Fulltone Bassdrive, as well as the Fulltone OCD clone I built.
I love this pedal with my PJ bass run either active or passive. I like to run it with the gain about 10:00 and the highs dialed down to get a growly, warm sound without any real fuzz. My P5 seems to distort much much sooner in the range of the gain knob, making it almost impossible to get the fat subtle effect I get with the other bass. Will an 18v power supply make this pedal work better with the hot pickup in my P5?
I love this pedal with my PJ bass run either active or passive. I like to run it with the gain about 10:00 and the highs dialed down to get a growly, warm sound without any real fuzz. My P5 seems to distort much much sooner in the range of the gain knob, making it almost impossible to get the fat subtle effect I get with the other bass. Will an 18v power supply make this pedal work better with the hot pickup in my P5?
From what I heard and experianced, yes it probably could. Can't say for sure; the G&L is pretty hot, but I didn't notice any serious clipping at either level.
I haven't tested enough to know about the gain range at the two voltages.
The Dunlop 18v power supply makes a huge difference in the way the SFT works with a hot bass. My P5 would break up pretty noticeably at even the 9:00 gain position at 9v. With the 18v supply it acts like it should with a gradual increase in grit from 9:00 through 12:00 and real distortion happening at settings higher than 12:00. It worked that way at 9v with my ADP 4 string, but with the hotter bass it was uncontrollable.
FWIW it even sounds good now with my RA Mouse (low gain of course) which is the highest output instrument I have ever experienced. Great stuff here.
anybody using the SFT with the Boss LS-2 (mix A/B mode!)?
I just ordered the SFT couple days ago and NOW i did read somewhere
that the SFT shifts the phase by 180°??? Since the LS-2 does not have a
phase switch i think that LS-2/SFT combination would not work out and
in the blending/mix mode it would kill the sound.
I've only run the pedal with my passive basses and at 9V so far. But after some testing last night I'm not liking it so far. For a pedal that is supposed to be the best in 'transparency,' it definitely messes with my tone, even with the gain control all the way down and the EQ set flat. It gets muddy and less '3D' sounding. The EQ frequencies do not seem to be useful to bass, and it is very noisy, even at moderate gain settings.
I wonder if running it at 18V would help with any of these problems? I have an 18V adapter at home so I'll answer my own question later this evening.
I've never heard of this pedal as a transparent pedal... it's an ampeg emulator and that is what I use it for. For a transparent OD, I use a Xotic Bass BB.
I've never heard of this pedal as a transparent pedal... it's an ampeg emulator and that is what I use it for. For a transparent OD, I use a Xotic Bass BB.
Sorry, I guess transparent wasn't the right word... 'touch sensative' was what they claim; to mean that means that the sound when played lightly is akin to your clean tone - I feel like my polish love OD achieves this much better than the SFT.
