A few minutes with the Boss FDR-1

bigchiefbc · #1 01-17-2009, 11:55 PM

If you guys aren't familiar with this one, its an amp modeler, specifically modelling the '65 Fender Deluxe Reverb (my favorite guitar amp of all time).

First of all, its a model of a guitar amp, so bearing that in mind, I wanted to see if I could get a good bass tone out of it. The answer is yes, but you do need to tweak the settings a bit. With everything at noon, your bass will sound neutered. However, I was able to get (what I consider to be) a nice vintage reverb tone out of it. I started off playing my SG (guitar) through it and though it sounded just like a deluxe reverb. As a matter of fact, I would say this is one of the most dead-on-b$#%s-accurate amp sims I have ever heard.

This got me in a classic rock mood, so I played some Zep and Floyd in clips 3 and 4 for ya to show this one off.

For all of these clips, I have gain at about 10:00. To compensate for the low gain, I have the volume at about 2:00. Bass is at 3:30, treble at 11:00.

Clip 1 - a few seconds of clean, then a few seconds of the pedal on with no reverb, then I turn the reverb on and play a little ditty of mine

Clip 2 - Same ditty, but now I have the "vibrato" on (god, why can't they just call it tremolo correctly)

Clip 3 - Me playing some Zep

Clip 4 - Me playing one of my favorite Floyd songs. Echo is DD-20 on tape mode, and I crank the "vibrato" in the middle section.

warwick.hoy · #2 01-18-2009, 12:45 AM

Thanks for the review.

I've seen those before but never thought of using it on bass.

The last clip is especially cool.

Kitsapbass · #3 01-18-2009, 12:46 AM

I love what you did with it...not really my cup of tea, but you sounded great with it - Keep it up Bro!

katri · #4 01-18-2009, 02:20 AM

I tried one out as well as the FBM-1, the FBM was a little dissapointing, but the FDR was quite nice and supeisingly good with bass.

bassman03 · #5 01-18-2009, 07:36 AM

I've used this with my praise team before. I like what it does, but ya, tweaking is necessary.Luckily my guitarist is the one who has it, i kinda don't wanna shell out 150 for a pedal that i use on 2 songs..

**DosiYanarchy** · #6 01-18-2009, 07:46 AM

wow, the clips sounded great, by all accounts their Bassman pedal sucks for bass, but it sounds like the Dlx reverb is amazing, really nice tube-sounding pedal, have you tried it in a band mix? I find some pedals often sound great on their own (as i think this does) but get lost in a band mix easily.

oh yeah, is the 'vibrato' built in?

bigchiefbc · #7 01-18-2009, 08:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bassman03

I've used this with my praise team before. I like what it does, but ya, tweaking is necessary.Luckily my guitarist is the one who has it, i kinda don't wanna shell out 150 for a pedal that i use on 2 songs..

Yeah I was able to get this one for about half that on eBay, so I figured I'd give it a shot.

To answer the other question, yeah the vibrato and the reverb are both built into the pedal. The one thing I wish it had is you could turn the vibrato on and off with a stomp, instead of having to turn a knob, which can be a pain mid-song

No, I haven't tried it in a band mix yet, as my band gig is on hiatus at the moment.

**DosiYanarchy** · #8 01-18-2009, 08:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bigchiefbc

The one thing I wish it had is you could turn the vibrato on and off with a stomp, instead of having to turn a knob, which can be a pain mid-song

hmmmm, still very tempting to me tho, TBH my VTbass does all the tube amp sim i need, and im not a big reverb fan on bass, so ill probably skip on it, but if i saw one going stupidly cheap, id definitely think twice

warwick.hoy · #9 01-18-2009, 09:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bigchiefbc

Yeah I was able to get this one for about half that on eBay, so I figured I'd give it a shot.

To answer the other question, yeah the vibrato and the reverb are both built into the pedal. The one thing I wish it had is you could turn the vibrato on and off with a stomp, instead of having to turn a knob, which can be a pain mid-song

No, I haven't tried it in a band mix yet, as my band gig is on hiatus at the moment.

Yeah; they could have thought of that with a remote input and make it switchable with the FS-5U.

BTW: Sweetwater is selling them for about $120 with free shipping.

Mark Olson · #10 01-19-2009, 11:16 PM

Definitely a vintage vibe! Very cool! Out of all the clips, I liked the two that are your song the best. Cool stuff. I like that descending part where you hit that D (or is it Db?) chord or whatever it is at the end, it reminds me of part of New Rising Sun (not that you're ripping anything off, it sounds cool).

If they made a Fender 57 Deluxe modeler, like this guy:

http://guitars.musiciansfriend.com/p...Amp?sku=485052

I'd be all over that in a heartbeat! My brother wanted me to buy a 65 Deluxe though. He likes when I've got good guitar amps around so he can borrow them (he's a guitard).

bigchiefbc · #11 01-20-2009, 06:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mark Olson

Definitely a vintage vibe! Very cool! Out of all the clips, I liked the two that are your song the best. Cool stuff. I like that descending part where you hit that D (or is it Db?) chord or whatever it is at the end, it reminds me of part of New Rising Sun (not that you're ripping anything off, it sounds cool).

If they made a Fender 57 Deluxe modeler, like this guy:

http://guitars.musiciansfriend.com/p...Amp?sku=485052

I'd be all over that in a heartbeat! My brother wanted me to buy a 65 Deluxe though. He likes when I've got good guitar amps around so he can borrow them (he's a guitard).

Thanks Mark. I was wondering what you'd think of this one. I think its a pretty damned good emulation of the '65 Deluxe.

As for the songs, yeah I usually like to demo pedals with my own songs. This one just got me in a classic rock mood, so I had to break into some zep and floyd.

that's a Db chord in that song. Some day I'll flesh that whole thing out into a real song

almix12 · #12 01-25-2009, 02:30 PM

so this is one of the two pedals that i know of that do tap tempo tremolo (or if they want to call it vibrato, i suppose i'll let them)
this and the empress tremolo which is several times the price and dedicated to tremolo)

almix12 · #13 01-25-2009, 02:31 PM

can you set this pedal to be pretty much transparent if you adjust it properly? (cant tell if it's on or off tone-wise) because if you could then could you then have it ONLY as a tremolo to be turned on and off?
thanks

subscribed

bigchiefbc · #14 01-25-2009, 05:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by almix12

so this is one of the two pedals that i know of that do tap tempo tremolo (or if they want to call it vibrato, i suppose i'll let them)
this and the empress tremolo which is several times the price and dedicated to tremolo)

Line 6 also makes a tap tremolo as part of their tonecore pedals, if you want another example of a cheaper one

Quote:

Originally Posted by almix12

can you set this pedal to be pretty much transparent if you adjust it properly? (cant tell if it's on or off tone-wise) because if you could then could you then have it ONLY as a tremolo to be turned on and off?
thanks

In general I would say no. This is meant to model an amp, and there is no "blend" knob, to mix in your dry signal with the emulation. You can turn down both the gain and the reverb, but it will still sound like a tubey, vintage-y tone

almix12 · #15 01-25-2009, 06:50 PM

thanks for the info i'll definitely check out that line 6 one

grovest · #16 01-25-2009, 10:55 PM

awesome floyd clip, big

jgsbass · #17 01-26-2009, 02:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by almix12

can you set this pedal to be pretty much transparent if you adjust it properly? (cant tell if it's on or off tone-wise) because if you could then could you then have it ONLY as a tremolo to be turned on and off?
thanks

subscribed

The problem with the pedal ( as far as its use for bass) is that not only is there Fender tube emulation but Fender open back cabinet with a 12" speaker emulation. Can't turn off the cabinet modelling and it needs additional tweaking with other EQs in order to to make it sound fat and deep. For guitar, its pretty cool. It just isn't versatile enough for a good bass sound. Mine was/is up for sale in the classifieds but I take it out every so often to do a guitar track or 2. Great Fender 'verb, great "vibrato", even if its only tremolo.

champbassist · #18 01-28-2010, 10:11 PM

Resurrecting an old thread here, but I'd be grateful for some help here. If I am not looking specifically for a modeler but for a cheap little something that gives me tremolo/reverb on one pedal, would this work? The fact that it "sweetens" the tone by "tube-fying", it wouldn't hurt at all.

That isn't my main target, though.

It's Boss so it's got the advantage over other brands because of Boss' availability around here (not too many options here apart from Boss).

Unfortunately,the links to the clips don't seem to work now.

almix12 · #19 01-28-2010, 11:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by champbassist

Resurrecting an old thread here, but I'd be grateful for some help here. If I am not looking specifically for a modeler but for a cheap little something that gives me tremolo/reverb on one pedal, would this work? The fact that it "sweetens" the tone by "tube-fying", it wouldn't hurt at all.

That isn't my main target, though.

It's Boss so it's got the advantage over other brands because of Boss' availability around here (not too many options here apart from Boss).

Unfortunately,the links to the clips don't seem to work now.

just from logic, i'd say this may not be the pedal you're looking for.
I say this because A: i've been told, having asked a similar question, that it will, in fact, effect the tone; and B: because it's primarily a cabinet/amp modeler, not a tremolo/effects pedal.

bigchiefbc · #20 01-29-2010, 05:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by champbassist

Resurrecting an old thread here, but I'd be grateful for some help here. If I am not looking specifically for a modeler but for a cheap little something that gives me tremolo/reverb on one pedal, would this work? The fact that it "sweetens" the tone by "tube-fying", it wouldn't hurt at all.

That isn't my main target, though.

It's Boss so it's got the advantage over other brands because of Boss' availability around here (not too many options here apart from Boss).

Unfortunately,the links to the clips don't seem to work now.

Hmmm, I just re-tested all of the links and they work for me ...

Anyways, as has already been said, this pedal really does color your tone a lot, and there really isn't any way to dial that out. It will always sound like you're playing through a guitar amp, with a 12" speaker. I don't know of any other pedals that have both trem and verb in the same pedal, other than a multi-fx pedal. I suppose you could check out a cheap Zoom unit or something like that.