My experience with the Swollen Pickle

[socialleper]

On my way home from work today I stopped at the closest guitar place hoping to try some Fuzz pedals. They had a Swollen Pickle, and since so many people seem to like it, I thought I'd give it a shot. I wanted to share my experience and get some feed back because I'm not sure if what I heard was par for the course or something else.

Set up:
Geddy Lee Fender
GK 1001 RBII head 4x10 Backline cab &
Ampeg SVT head 8X10 cab
Way Huge Swollen Pickle ($109.99) (fresh battery)

The pedal was flexible and had a lot of tone options as well as having very good bass response. The thing that threw me was that it only responded well on the E and A strings playing slow whole, half, or quarter notes. If I played faster (finger or pick) the high end sizzle that kind of defines Fuzz pedals dropped out for half a second and left only muddy low end. It almost sounded like a digital processor of some kind being unable to keep up with the signal hitting it so it occasionally drops part of the signal.
I'm not THAT fast of a player, so I'm wondering if:
1.) The pedal was bad
2.) Fuzz pedals tend to do this
3.) Swollen Pickles tend to do this

Any thoughts?

[eddievanbassman]

swollen pickle. hahahahahaha what a name

[millsbass5]

My Swollen Pickle doesn't do that!!By the way,the only pedal I have is a chorus.j/k.

[socialleper]

It is odd that almost all Fuzz pedals have oddly suggestive names:
Swollen Pickle
Big Muff
B:Assmaster
Pork Loin

Seems to be a lot of mention of food and animals too. Weird.

[M@ddest_H@tter!]

I just found out that Dunlop made the Way Huge line of effects......*slaps forehead*

[MAMMOTHvolume]

Originally Posted by socialleper

On my way home from work today I stopped at the closest guitar place hoping to try some Fuzz pedals. They had a Swollen Pickle, and since so many people seem to like it, I thought I'd give it a shot. I wanted to share my experience and get some feed back because I'm not sure if what I heard was par for the course or something else.

Set up:
Geddy Lee Fender
GK 1001 RBII head 4x10 Backline cab &
Ampeg SVT head 8X10 cab
Way Huge Swollen Pickle ($109.99) (fresh battery)

The pedal was flexible and had a lot of tone options as well as having very good bass response. The thing that threw me was that it only responded well on the E and A strings playing slow whole, half, or quarter notes. If I played faster (finger or pick) the high end sizzle that kind of defines Fuzz pedals dropped out for half a second and left only muddy low end. It almost sounded like a digital processor of some kind being unable to keep up with the signal hitting it so it occasionally drops part of the signal.
I'm not THAT fast of a player, so I'm wondering if:
1.) The pedal was bad
2.) Fuzz pedals tend to do this
3.) Swollen Pickles tend to do this

Any thoughts?

sounds like your overloading the circuit, turn the volume down going into the circuit or play less hard

[fightthepower]

Originally Posted by MAMMOTHvolume

sounds like your overloading the circuit, turn the volume down going into the circuit or play less hard

+1

I've also found that by drastically cutting or boosting volume going into some less traditional fuzz's can change the character and 'tracking' in a very pleasing way.

[Chronicle]

Originally Posted by M@ddest_H@tter!

I just found out that Dunlop made the Way Huge line of effects......*slaps forehead*

so? Tripps is in charge of the operation. He's been with Dunlop for a while now. Carbon Copy? Tripps.



Try adjusting some pots inside the pedal OP.

[stoneboy26]

Yeah - I don't have that issue with mine.

I think this is a great pedal - I first tried it with my 08 Jazz into a GK1001RBII 210 neo combo. Sounded freakin amazing...

A fellow bass player suggested to me that we should run a Swollen Pickle into a Big Muff - how's that for innuendo!!!


And yes Dunlop now make the Way Huge pedals - who cares who makes it, I thought it was all about how it sounded?

[M@ddest_H@tter!]

Originally Posted by Chronicle

so? Tripps is in charge of the operation. He's been with Dunlop for a while now. Carbon Copy? Tripps.



Try adjusting some pots inside the pedal OP.

I love me some Dunlop/MXR effects, so this a definite plus for me