Ibanez SB7 vs Digitech BSW?

[Bob C]

Who has tried both? I've only tried the Digitech.I've demoed it in the store three different times, and it is growing on me.

As has been mentioned many times here, some of its modes and settings are worthless. But the good ones are REALLY good. Tracking is great too. And it seems pretty quiet. It lacks a bit of "in your face" clarity, and the filters are not very quacky, but oh well - for the price ...

The Ibanez SB7 is often mentioned in the same breath when discussing budget bass "synth" pedals. But that's about all I know about it.

I looked one up on eBay, and checked out what knobs and switches it has. How does it compare to the BSW or anything else regarding tracking, envelopes, octaves or general "synthiness"? Also, how about volume or tone suck, and exteraneous (sp?) noise?

[bassman1185]

I used to have an SB7 back in the day, and I currently have a BSW on my board, but just for the sub-octave sound. The SB7 is not as versitile as the BSW, but the sounds are generally more organic and useful. The SB7 is analog, if I remember correctly, so it does lose to the BSW in terms of tracking. The BSW is built a LOT more solidly than the SB7, but the "tone lock" knobs are pretty clever.

[Bob C]

Thanks for the info. I know they're in the "budget" department, but it's good to know the ins and outs.

[G0rilla]

Tried both, and took the BSW. Tracking is much better, it has more sounds, though it is harder to get those dub sounds, but not impossible. Actually only thing i liked about SB7 more than BSW, was the fact that SB7 doesn't sound like analog, it actually is analog (as previously said). But BSW does this job pretty good, only complaint about it is fact that synth sounds doesn't cut through mix well. But i decided that for serious synth/organ sounds i will get one of EHX synth pedals (BMS/HOG/POG2) later, and after comparing HOG and BMS, i decided to save up for BMS.

So, if you need multi-functional filtering pedal at bargain price, BSW is your choise. It can do a lot of synth and filtering stuff very well, and actually droped my gas for BOD, as it is great sub octave pedal. Also it is great for funk stuff, because the envelope filter is very bright sounding, but also can do some dark sounds with delay or reverb (Bootsy Collins ). If you want generally dark sounding filter, or dub noise, SB7 is your choice.

[bassman1185]

Oh, one thing I should mention... the BSW has a lot of settings with pretty significant volume/low end loss. I run mine into a Boss LS-2 and blend the BSW signal with my fundamental clean or dirty signal. That makes it a lot more useful overall.

[René_Julien]

Originally Posted by bassman1185

I used to have an SB7 back in the day, and I currently have a BSW on my board, but just for the sub-octave sound. The SB7 is not as versitile as the BSW, but the sounds are generally more organic and useful. The SB7 is analog, if I remember correctly, so it does lose to the BSW in terms of tracking. The BSW is built a LOT more solidly than the SB7, but the "tone lock" knobs are pretty clever.

Originally Posted by G0rilla

Tried both, and took the BSW. Tracking is much better, it has more sounds, though it is harder to get those dub sounds, but not impossible. Actually only thing i liked about SB7 more than BSW, was the fact that SB7 doesn't sound like analog, it actually is analog (as previously said). But BSW does this job pretty good, only complaint about it is fact that synth sounds doesn't cut through mix well. But i decided that for serious synth/organ sounds i will get one of EHX synth pedals (BMS/HOG/POG2) later, and after comparing HOG and BMS, i decided to save up for BMS.

So, if you need multi-functional filtering pedal at bargain price, BSW is your choise. It can do a lot of synth and filtering stuff very well, and actually droped my gas for BOD, as it is great sub octave pedal. Also it is great for funk stuff, because the envelope filter is very bright sounding, but also can do some dark sounds with delay or reverb (Bootsy Collins ). If you want generally dark sounding filter, or dub noise, SB7 is your choice.

Uhm... you guys are talking about the Ibanez SB-7 Bass Synthesizer, grey one, Tone Lok series, right?

How can it track worse since that pedal doesn't do tracking?



It's not a synthesizer, it doesn't track your note, it's a synthesizer emulator.
Basicly a fuzzbox combined with a filter.


I love the SB-7. IMO great analog syntheziser simulation.
Easy to use... "for dummies" as I like to classify it.

Set and forget.
But you are not learning to work with a synthesizer.

[Bob C]

Originally Posted by René_Julien

It's not a synthesizer, it doesn't track your note, it's a synthesizer emulator.
Basicly a fuzzbox combined with a filter.

I guess I didn't know that. So, it doesn't do an octave at all? Just wondering in general, which pedal sounds more "synthy" with the least side effects?

What I'm getting from this thread so far, is that the SB7 is a one or maybe a two or three trick pony, but does those tricks well.

[bassman1185]

The SB-7 has a sub-octave function, so yes, there is tracking involved.

[René_Julien]

Originally Posted by Bob C

I guess I didn't know that. So, it doesn't do an octave at all? Just wondering in general, which pedal sounds more "synthy" with the least side effects?

What I'm getting from this thread so far, is that the SB7 is a one or maybe a two or three trick pony, but does those tricks well.

You have to realize that it is a completely different animal than the BSW.
Comparing the two is like comparing a chorus pedal to a distortion pedal for example.

If you tested the BSW and already kinda liked what you can achieve with it, then you're best bet is to go with that.
I don't know if there is anything better out there than the BSW.

The SB-7... you've got to try it out. Yes, it does only several tricks. IMO it sounds very well. Many people hate it. It might be that they expected something else out of it.

I love it... I don't have much use for it but it was cheap.
You can't go wrong with this kind of Ibanez pedal.
If I were to replace it with the same type of pedal, I'd get a Crowther Audio Prunes&Custard. (I might order one anyway... pedal GAS )

Occasionally... when feeling funny, I run my EHX (big) POG in front of it.
"The Organ of DOOM".

Originally Posted by bassman1185

The SB-7 has a sub-octave function, so yes, there is tracking involved.

Yours has an sub-octave function?
I know it tends to produce some heavy harmonics on some settings.


What settings do you use?
I usually start my way with the "analog synthesizer" setting from the manual and work my way from there.

[bassman1185]

It's been a long time since I used the SB-7, but I thought that on the synth settings there is a low octave present. If you have one, then you could trump me on this, but I was pretty sure there was an octaver involved.

[René_Julien]

Originally Posted by bassman1185

It's been a long time since I used the SB-7, but I thought that on the synth settings there is a low octave present. If you have one, then you could trump me on this, but I was pretty sure there was an octaver involved.

Well, I'm going to play with it tonight and let my ears find out if there is an octaver somewhere in the circuit.
So far the way I used it I never noticed such a thing.
And I can't find any definitive info about the circuitry of this pedal.
Ibanez just states in its manual "dude, our pedal is so awesome, it doesn't work with tracking... which sucks..."
Or something like that.

One thing I learned around here is never be certain about marketing description without actually seeing a schematic of a product.


But we can agree that there is no tracking involved for the faux-synth sound. The SB-7 doesn't track your bass signal to produce a wave-form like the BSW. It's just processing like a fuzz pedal. So there can never be tracking glitches on this.

I don't wanted to come off as a smug hardass.
But I think it's very important that potential buyers know about this.
Like Bob here (the OP).
It's a different category of an effect pedal than the BSW or than the BOSS SYBs.
You can't compare these.

You can either like one over the other to have as an effect on your pedalboard. That's perfectly fine with me.


(We're still friends, right? )

[ga_edwards]

Originally Posted by bassman1185

Oh, one thing I should mention... the BSW has a lot of settings with pretty significant volume/low end loss. I run mine into a Boss LS-2 and blend the BSW signal with my fundamental clean or dirty signal. That makes it a lot more useful overall.

That's pretty similar to the problem I found with it: lack of blend control.

The synth patches sound fantastic, but sound weak in a mix due to lack of clean signal blended in. There is a mode that allows you to blend the synth tone (an sub-octave) with the clean signal, but the synth element isn't tweakable.

So you really need a blender to get the most of it in a perfomance situation.

[René_Julien]

http://www.schematicx.com/view-schem...ass-schematic/


Here is the schematic for the SB-7.

This is way over my head I admit.
I know how a basic analog octaver works in theory, but I don't know where to look in this schematic for something that intends to create a suboctave.

Some tech heads around here that build pedals can probably clear this issue up.

[Ja-Boo]

How does the BSW sound as a clean octaver? I dont know any soundclips for this...

[Bob C]

Originally Posted by René_Julien

You have to realize that it is a completely different animal than the BSW.
Comparing the two is like comparing a chorus pedal to a distortion pedal for example.

Point taken. I really don't like "this" vs "that" threads because they often are "apples vs oranges".

But since I've read so little about what the SB7 actually does or sounds like, I phrased the question that way. Also, I had the BSW fresh in my mind, having just come home from the music store.

I'm fine with the idea that no pedal -cheap or expensive, simple or elaborate can "do it all". That's at the heart of this thing we call GAS. Thanks for all the input.

[René_Julien]

Originally Posted by Bob C

Point taken. I really don't like "this" vs "that" threads because they often are "apples vs oranges".

But since I've read so little about what the SB7 actually does or sounds like, I phrased the question that way. Also, I had the BSW fresh in my mind, having just come home from the music store.

I'm fine with the idea that no pedal -cheap or expensive, simple or elaborate can "do it all". That's at the heart of this thing we call GAS. Thanks for all the input.

Hey, don't worry, I understand completely.

I didn't knew this either before I got a synth pedal.
What I just saw was that BOSS had a pedal named Bass Synthesizer and that Ibanez had a pedal named Synthesizer Bass.
I also assumed by the labelling that they were the same kind of effect.

I just wanted to advice you and people that are new to these effects realize the difference. In case perhaps you feel like ordering an SB-7 on good luck, and be surprised that it's not what you thought it would be.

[bassman1185]

Originally Posted by Ja-Boo

How does the BSW sound as a clean octaver? I dont know any soundclips for this...

Really, really good. That's all I actually use mine for. It has really good tracking (I use mine down to G# on the E, and it doesn't flinch) and it sounds nice and fat. It is much larger and more analog-sounding than the Micro POG, but it's not quite as fat as, say, an OC-2. It is a really good compromise for most people, I think.

[BassBrass]

I've had both but wound up just using the BSW for it's low octave sound and it became redundant when I got better octavers, so it's sold. Great budget pedal though. The Ibanez has very a nice envelope of a certain character (like all envelopes), but got bumped from the main board due to liking another better. I have better distortions to run into it so I never used those functions, but it's still part of my home set up (pile of effects I can't sell).

[DosiYanarchy]

i've owned both, currently own the BSW.

I'd steered cleer of the BSW for a long time, dispite its cheaper price bracket (compared to other synth-style pedals)

one day i tried it and realised what a fool i was, heres my brief rundown of the two.

Ibanez
The tonelok series are known for having switches that may crap out on you and not always switch when you want them to (i've had two separate tonelok pedals that this happened to me on).
you have 3 modes - one is a clean autowah type sound - synth1 is a lowpass envelope filter with distortion, synth 2 is a bandpass (or possibly high-pass) envelope filter with distortion - could be the other way round.
This basically means that one of the synth settings will kill your lows IMO.
can get some funky autowah settings and has a level control - VERY useful feature that most filters leave off.

Bass Synth Wah
really a multifx - its a clean envelope filter, its an octaver, its both, its a 'talker' style synth sound generator, its got so many settings im still exporing, it also has clean and effected outputs.


i've by no means covered everything, but my opinion is go for the Bass Synth Wah all the way, theres a wider array of synth sounds and tweakability available.