ditching my hematoma

bovine mind · #1 02-12-2009, 11:18 PM

in favor of a boss ODB3. never thought i'd do so, but the hematoma is far too muddy for what i need. i've spent hours bullying this thing into ejecting a dense, punchy, heavily distorted sound with reasonably crisp highs and i can't seem to get it. i guess that's why it's an overdrive and not a distortion pedal. the EQ switch is nice but the clarity of the hi's just aren't there. when i try to get the heaviest distortion out of it the character is more similar to a murky fuzz. the boost section alone just pushes my already lightly overdriven SVT classic into pure mud territory. once i overcome my laziness and figure out how to sell pedals on this board it's up for grabs.

the ODB3 on the other hand, i can't seem to get a bad sound out of. i'm looking for an overdriven tone similar to unsane, the jesus lizard, young widows, torche, old man gloom, converge. basically a very crushing, dense, fat, punchy sound with note definition. surprisingly enough the boss delivers, even when i'm trying to purge my board of digital FX and thought i'd never buy another boss pedal. i laid down some DR hi beams on my stingray and with a pick, the bass is casting beams of pure swollen rage.

rratajski · #2 02-13-2009, 05:09 AM

Old Man Gloom's tone comes from a fulltone.
Torche comes from a black russian muff (which Jonathan was not happy w/ last time I talked to him).
Young Widows comes from a vintage RAT and Boss Bass EQ.
Converge comes from bad mixing and a Thunderverb head.

The odb3 is close but no cigar and would get better swollen rage w/ the above effects, IMHO.

yeoldefortran · #3 02-13-2009, 07:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rratajski

Converge comes from bad mixing and a Thunderverb head.

So I'm not the only one who thinks Kurt Ballou has an uncanny ability to destroy otherwise good records with his awful mixes?

RCCollins · #4 02-13-2009, 07:36 AM

if it is purple please PM me!

rratajski · #5 02-13-2009, 12:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by yeoldefortran

So I'm not the only one who thinks Kurt Ballou has an uncanny ability to destroy otherwise good records with his awful mixes?

I love some of his mixes, but on his own stuff I'm not completely sold on it. The new Young Widows is the best mixing ever though.

No more thread hijacking. haha

Does anyone feel that the ODB3 is good for those bands' sounds or something different? Let's help out the OP!

bovine mind · #6 02-13-2009, 12:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rratajski

Old Man Gloom's tone comes from a fulltone.
Torche comes from a black russian muff (which Jonathan was not happy w/ last time I talked to him).
Young Widows comes from a vintage RAT and Boss Bass EQ.
Converge comes from bad mixing and a Thunderverb head.

The odb3 is close but no cigar and would get better swollen rage w/ the above effects, IMHO.

thanks for the info on the vintage RAT. i actually used to play one myself but was using it for more a fuzz with the distortion completely dimed. the few times i rolled it back it sounded very good as a heavy OD/distortion, similar to the setting i have on the ODB3. the boss has a clarity to the distortion i haven't heard elsewhere though.

i thought nate newton used an ODB3 and big muff?

i tried the fulltone bassdrive - not gainy enough, and the GT500 - had the gain but cut the lows and sounded sterile.

i regret selling off the RAT but pocket change called for it. maybe i'll look into getting another.

rratajski · #7 02-13-2009, 12:50 PM

RATs come up a lot on ebay and the mods for it are VERY easy to do!

I don't know what Nate's currently using, but they've got a tour coming up (or it's already started), so maybe someone can snag a pic for us...

I haven't tried the fulltone, but I like my transistors over mosfet

.

bovine mind · #8 02-13-2009, 12:56 PM

right on, finding a vintage RAT may be the way to go eventually. care to elaborate on the transistor vs. mosfet favoring? i'm ignorant to that subject.

upgrading my amp and cab to an 810e and SVT classic was definitely the best move towards getting this sound. volume is the best effect there is.

karter2000 · #9 02-13-2009, 01:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rratajski

RATs come up a lot on ebay and the mods for it are VERY easy to do!

On that note, is there mods available that make the RAT better for bass? I've searched, and I've not found anything definitive.

Thanks,

Lyle

bovine mind · #10 02-13-2009, 01:07 PM

also, the boost on the hematoma sounded OK for certain pedals...my harmonizing effects and phaser have a volume drop sometimes and i found it useful for beefing them up, but i recently figured out my tel ray era morley power wah fuzz works as a volume boost with the wah and fuzz off and it seems brighter than the hematoma's pre amp boost.

stingray69 · #11 02-13-2009, 01:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by karter2000

On that note, is there mods available that make the RAT better for bass? I've searched, and I've not found anything definitive.

Thanks,

Lyle

Mods aside, the TURBO RAT retains more lows than a standard RAT2, so that might help for a starting point.

yeoldefortran · #12 02-13-2009, 01:15 PM

On a more constructive note than my previous post:

The black russian muff can cop the torche (and kylesa) tones. It's a sweet tone, but I find that it completely disappears in a mix. Maybe there is a way to make that work. GGG-tuned muff maybe? I haven't tried one.

Unsane is also in the rat boat (into a b2re if I remember...). I'm 1/2 way through my byoc mouse and I'm hoping to cop that type of tone. I fell in love with the turbo rat after hearing "youth against facism," and I'm not sure that the young widows tone is too far off that. Might be worth trying out a turbo rat before shelling out $$ for a vintage rat.

I really think that the aguilar agro can cop some of these tones. Not dead on, but definitely match the vibe. The rack business sucks though... If you can try one it may appease you.

bovine mind · #13 02-13-2009, 01:25 PM

the black russian muff was my first pedal ever, and i quickly tossed it for that exact reason. fighting with a droptuned or bass heavy guitar stack was pointless with that pedal. i'm using a depth charge for fuzz now and it has all the meat of the muff with more punch and the slight octave up gives it a percolating buzzing cicada type of sound, kind of like the tone of debby googe of my bloody valentine or autolux. so i'm OK in the fuzz territory.

i also play in DGCA is that helps. tuned to A so i can play chords on the last two strings. i play in a power trio and need to mimic the sound of a heavy guitar power chord at times.

rack distortion isn't for me... but if the turbo rat keeps the beef i'll go with that instead. i used to be a vintage dude but i've shed most of my vintage gear in favor of reliability and bass friendliness.

stingray69 · #14 02-13-2009, 01:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by yeoldefortran

Might be worth trying out a turbo rat before shelling out $$ for a vintage rat.

+1

I'd just as soon use a blend pedal like a Boss LS-2 or similar to retain even more low end. IME, almost any bass distortion units benefit from some clean signal blended back into the mix. If the pedal/unit doesn't do it itself (SansAmps, VooDoo Sparkle Drive, etc.), then a blend pedal is very handy. That said, I've always wanted to also try this pedal in addition to my SansAmp(s) for a different flavor of distortion: http://www.procosound.com/?page=view...=746&currimg=1

bovine mind · #15 02-13-2009, 01:38 PM

i'm using a barg concepts VFB2 but i haven't found a good blend yet. i have a lot of other effects in my chain and most have blend knobs on them but it's been an irritating balancing act trying to get the blends right on them all so i've got the VFB at full blend. i'll toy with it some more.

OriginalCrash · #16 02-13-2009, 01:53 PM

Quote:

the ODB3 on the other hand, i can't seem to get a bad sound out of

I've never been able to get a good sound out of it...

But by all means, to each his own. Personally, I'd have recommended the Fulltone Bass-Drive to you, as it has all the highs in the world... far too much for me, in fact. But you said you already tried it, and it wasn't gain-y enough for you...

Anyway, my $.02.

Brian

bovine mind · #17 02-13-2009, 01:58 PM

yeah, the bassdrive just didn't jump out at me. i was having some issues with my cab at the time...so it could be time to give it another try, but all this back and forth at guitar center has them addressing me by name now ha. the gain on the drive just wasn't crushing and gritty enough. it got lost in a band mix easily.

rratajski · #18 02-13-2009, 03:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by karter2000

On that note, is there mods available that make the RAT better for bass? I've searched, and I've not found anything definitive.

Thanks,

Lyle

Proco RAT modifications!

the pics are dead on it, but the videos still work.

when i changed the chip to a LM308 can, the bass improved more and got dirtier. sooooo good. read the thread for the mods i did

.
Ry

Also, ask user vegas532 about his bass response! I just modded his vintage reissue RAT for him!

bovine mind · #19 02-13-2009, 03:36 PM

how does your mod measure up to the turbo rat?

rratajski · #20 02-13-2009, 10:53 PM

The turbo rat is two LEDs in there, so it sounds different for sure.

I think the LM can/chip + a germanium makes a HUGE difference...and I just did some Beavis mods in there (replacing resistors w/ pots). If you're handy w/ a soldering iron and a desoldering braid, then go for it!

Ask vegas532 how he likes his RAT w/ 1 LED in it instead of two.