Had a first gig testdrive with my new pedals (fuzz & synth wah) - WOW

mouthmw · #1 06-26-2011, 06:59 AM

First gig yesterday with my 2 new pedals - Digitech Bass Synth Wah and Way Huge Swollen Pickle.

I wasn't too overly optimistic on getting a great sound out of either pedals on the fly - I was expecting to probably get buried with envelope filter setting (setting 1) on the digitech pedal (I read people had problems with volume loss), and was expecting to take a lot more time to find a good sound out of Swollen Pickle since it has so many sound options and many TBers sold theirs because they just couldn't dial it. Basically, I was expecting to work on the settings before being satisfied with results.

Well I opened my SP only once to set the inner trim pots (I checked out a TBer recommendation). Got my basic loudness, filter and sustain settings to my liking. All at home, directly plugged into my soundcard.
Same thing with Digitech BSW. Found a nice envelope filter setting that isn't too boomy or trebly (it can really hurt your ears how squeaky this thing can get). Found some cool synth settings (3 and 4) to mess with during psychedelic jams - really cool stuff combined with a delay pedal (I use DigiDelay).

First thing Swollen Pickle - WOW. This thing was amazing. Scoop and Crunch pots are REALLY useful when dialing in sound according to venue. This thing felt like 10 tons of pure awesomeness pressure but never messing with my guitarist frequencies. Low end for days and insane smooth warmth with fantastic vintage grit. Total stoner heaven even if I'm not in a stoner band. My drummer and I just couldn't take our evil grins off our faces every time I turned this killer on.

Digitech BSW - damn this was a great surprise! Good thing I memorized my settings for each filter, even though I only used 3 filters this time (settings 1,3,4). This thing is friggin great. I don't know if some people have problems dialing in a good envelope filter wah like sound, but I got the funkiest crazy balls out tone out of this thing, and got complimented on it. Synth tones were fantastic too - long envelope filters were awesome for certain long note passages or crazy psychedelic moments combined with delay. I got to mess with range settings on fly which caused some freakishly good effects. Some dude even walked up after the set to ask if our guitarist used a theremin. Hell no dude, it's the bass insanity!

Equipment used: GK 700RB-II, Ampeg SVT 810E, Squier Classic Vibe Jazz.
Pedal chain:
Jazz -> Swollen Pickle -> Digitech BSW -> Digidelay -> GK
A Behringer tuner out of my GK tuner out.
Custom made stabilized power supply for all pedals. No batteries.

Well, that was my first live review of those pedals.
I just had to write it since I was so overwhelmed with my new sonic ventures

Thanks for reading!

EDIT: forgot to add, it was an outside gig, in the center of a park - bicyclists' event, so we used a borrowed PA.

vegas532 · #2 06-26-2011, 11:12 AM

The Swollen Pickle is the "swiss army knife" of fuzz, more or less.

mouthmw · #3 06-26-2011, 12:15 PM

I have to thank you vegas, I used your inner settings to test it out. Awesome fuzz!

vegas532 · #4 06-26-2011, 01:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mouthmw

I have to thank you vegas, I used your inner settings to test it out. Awesome fuzz!

My pleasure. Mark those down and play with the settings some more, there are a lot of tones in that pedal. I've spent som much money looking for the "perfect Muff" until I bought one of these and now I'm ruined for all other ones. The closest runner-ups for "the Muff" would be (in order) the Grey Stache and the Hoof Fuzz, but it's the Pickle for me.

Hutzbordello · #5 06-26-2011, 01:18 PM

hm....could you describe how one goes about changing tone for diff venue? unless its offtopic!

also when i read the title i expected a terrible story lol. good thing it went well. cheers mate

mouthmw · #6 06-26-2011, 01:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hutzbordello

hm....could you describe how one goes about changing tone for diff venue? unless its offtopic!

also when i read the title i expected a terrible story lol. good thing it went well. cheers mate

Well what I meant is that the Pickle responds really well with the scoop and crunch pots so you can really adjust the fuzz to the venue - if it's too muddy or too harsh.