Exar Tourbox Thread

[warwick.hoy]

Originally Posted by bongomania

Mises à jour! Le peuple demande une mise à jour! (Tryin' to talk Canadian here )

The best I could gather is that the "people demand".....something.


More info?

[cheapbasslovin]

Unless the interwebs have lied to me (and we all know that never happens) I believe he was asking for an update, eh?

[Eric!]

CBL's got it, essentially

[karter2000]

Sorry...don't speak a word of french .

Another sorry, I've had lots of overtime at work...now I have inlaws in town, so I've not had much time to do clips. However, I have some time with them enough to do a good review. I'll do a review in the next couple of days, then hopefully have clips. I'll also make sure they're are in the mail early next week.

[karter2000]

Alrighty, I'll preface this review by apologizing for no clips. My computer-based recording is not working, and rather than hold up the review/holding up sending the pedals, I chose to carry on. BTW, anyone know of a good stand-alone, reasonably price recorder?

Overview:

All three pedals looked to be very well constructed, as was said in the first review. The knobs, switches, battery compartments were very solid. I loved the size, as I'm a sucker for form factor with pedals. All three were fairly quiet both bypassed and in operation. I couldn't hear a difference in the bypassed tone vs not having the pedals in the chain.

Moby Dick (Chorus):

http://www.ovnifx.com/exarpedals/chorus.shtml

The controls are: Rate, Depth, Tone, E. Level

I'm not big on choruses (more of a flanger fan) so I didn't have much to say about this one. Most of the chorus pedals I've owned I've sold soon after for lack of use, so take my review for what it is worth. As said before, the pedal is quiet and could be as lush or subtle as you wanted it to be, thanks to the E. Level knob. I couldn't really get a handle on the Tone knob other than the chorus became brighter as it was turned clockwise. All in all, a nice chorus which I felt was pretty versatile.

Bass Distortion:

http://www.ovnifx.com/exarpedals/bassdistortion.shtml

Controls: Low, High, Mix, Level, Dist

I'm a big fan of overdrive and distortion, so this one I could give a good workout. First thing I found was...this pedal has serious bottom end! The Low when cranked was huge, even when the Mix was turned to 100% Dist. The eq controlled the clean sound as well as the distorted sound, similar to the Boss ODB-3, ie if you had the mix turned to 100% clean the eq was still active.

The Dist can go to subtle to all out fuzz. At high Dist settings, the fuzz was very synthy to my ears, especially when the low was cranked. One of my favorite settings was:

Low: 1 o'clock
High: 1 o'clock
Mix: 12 o'clock
Level: 10 o'clock
Dist: 2 o'clock

That setting, with my Ibanez GSR206 tuned to A (pick style), gave me a convincing Fear Factoryish sound. The same setting with my Geddy (also with pick) also sounded great. I felt I could get a great heavy distortion, but yet keeping some definition and bottom end in the tone.

I also found a good light overdrive tone which worked great with both basses:

Low: 12-2 o'clock
High: 10ish o'clock
Mix: 1 o'clock
Level: 10 o'clock
Dist: 10 o'clock

All in all, a great pedal which I would definitely consider owning (if I didn't build my own, I guess).

Octavium:

http://www.ovnifx.com/exarpedals/octavium.shtml

Controls: Oct+1, Oct-1, Oct+2, Direct, Tone-1, Tone-2

This one was lots of fun! My experience with octavers/pitch shifters would be an OC-2, and Whammy IV. The lower octaves seem similar in sound and operation to the OC-2. The upper octave is a fuzzy, or synthesized octave (hope I described that right). I only tried this with my Geddy, but the tracking on the -1 octave seemed to be very good. It was only on the E that some warbling was heard, and that was after the note was sustained for a second or two (similar to an OC-2). As long as you played cleanly, the tracking on the lower octaves was great.

My favorite setting was one based on a suggested manual setting, called "70's Synthbass". I felt the Octavium was worth it just for that setting alone. I grooving while playing along to Headhunter with that setting. I think if someone was looking for a good, possibly more versatile replacement for an OC-2, this pedal would be it.

Take my review for what it's worth, as I've not done this much before! If there's something I forgot, I'll edit this posting. I'll be shipping these out on Tuesday when our Post Office is open again.

Thanks for including me Bongo!

[bongomania]

Thanks for spending some thoughtful time with them!

I have been playing a bunch with the Bass Distortion lately, and figured I'd post my favorite settings. One thing to note is that the EQ is not flat with the High and Low knobs at 12:00. Instead, flat is closer to Low at 1:00 and High at 11:00. The exact flat spot will vary depending on the Mix and Dist knob settings.

Light OD: Low 12:30, High 12:00, Mix 11:00, Dist 9:00

Fuzzy Dub: Low 1:00, High 7:00, Mix 10:00, Dist 3:00

Angry Bees: Low 12:45, High 12:00, Mix 10:00, Dist 3:00

...and a good general starting point for experimenting with settings would be
Low 1:00, High 11:00, Mix 11:00, Dist 12:00

[superbassman2000]

just letting everyone I just got the box today--I gotta work in a little bit, but I hope to put in some quality time reviewing the pedals on thursday, aka my day off!

[Eric!]

Revival?

[TheMutt]

The way these pedals are meandering along, I'll see them sometime in Spring next year.

[bongomania]

Yeah, 'tis true. Maybe instead of saying people could keep the pedals "one or two weeks", which seemed like a realistic interval, I should have said "three days max", which would have ended up being one or two weeks in reality, and we'd be on track.

[TheMutt]

Originally Posted by bongomania

Yeah, 'tis true. Maybe instead of saying people could keep the pedals "one or two weeks", which seemed like a realistic interval, I should have said "three days max", which would have ended up being one or two weeks in reality, and we'd be on track.

Ah, but you know how it is...
New pedals arrive...
Initial testing begins...
Pedals are tested against currently owned pedals of the same type...
Other pedals are paraded around to see what interactions are to be had...
Favorite combinations are noted, and a signal chain is created...
More testing ensues (hopefully at some point in a live setting at full volume)...
Reviews/soundclips are made, or at least considered...
Pedals finally ship out...


What I think would be fun/interesting would be if everyone who gets the pedals could take a picture with them on their board, at a live show, or somewhere that is unique to their location.
It'd at least be something to look at while I wait.

[Eric!]

I'll do up something if it ever shows up! I'm next!!

[TheMutt]

Originally Posted by Eric!

I'll do up something if it ever shows up! I'm next!!

Only if it involves kangaroos...
LOTS of kangaroos...

[superbassman2000]

Originally Posted by bongomania

Yeah, 'tis true. Maybe instead of saying people could keep the pedals "one or two weeks", which seemed like a realistic interval, I should have said "three days max", which would have ended up being one or two weeks in reality, and we'd be on track.

3 days would be like a game of hot potato--i mean, if you want some in-depth reviews, some sound clips and even some real-world notes, some people might need at least a week or so.

[bongomania]

Oh yeah, I know a week or two is realistically best, I was just suggesting a little psychological trickery...

[My name is Mudd]

Originally Posted by TheMutt

Ah, but you know how it is...
New pedals arrive...
Initial testing begins...
Pedals are tested against currently owned pedals of the same type...
Other pedals are paraded around to see what interactions are to be had...
Favorite combinations are noted, and a signal chain is created...
More testing ensues (hopefully at some point in a live setting at full volume)...
Reviews/soundclips are made, or at least considered...
Pedals finally ship out...

...lather, rinse, repeat...

[superbassman2000]

Originally Posted by bongomania

Oh yeah, I know a week or two is realistically best, I was just suggesting a little psychological trickery...

aha!

i will say I really am impressed with the octave box!

[Eric!]

Wonder when it's heading my way....

[bongomania]

Yeah, hmmm... tap tap tap... it's been over two weeks...

[My name is Mudd]

Originally Posted by superbassman2000

...the octave box!

That one I'm really looking forward to playing with.