Max at SFX has just introduced a new pedal to his "production" line of pedals, the Micro-Black Dragon (Micro-BD) and I have purchased one of the bass versions.
The pedal is fairly simple in its form, its the now ubiquitous SFX micro pedal size enclosure with three knobs and a clipping swtich:
Volume - this is the volume control (duh!)
Tone - this is the tone control from the SFX Ultra-Tone / B3 pedal with a slight mid adjustment
Distortion - this controls the amount of distortion
Clipping Switch - this switch moves between two different types of distortion / clipping. One is slightly more "polite" and the other is more pronounced in the mids. (I don't know exactly the types of clipping that is used).
The pedal runs of typical 9v centre negative power.
Basically in talking with Max about what would be ideal in a distortion pedal, I thought something that hit right in between the dirty boost / overdrive of the Micro-Red Dragon and the smooth fuzz of the Micro-Fuzz so that if you have the three of them (like I do now) you end up covering a real range of tone from OD to Fuzz.
The pedal really delivers and is a top notch little distortion unit. The tone control means that there is a lot of variety in the way the distortion sounds because it can do that wooly "blanket over the cabinet" sound (the BBBOD sound) with the tone control rolled counter-clockwise and a quite bright mid present tone with the control rolled clockwise. I generally like the tone set between 11 oclock and 2 oclock depending on the bass. It gives it a nice bias towards the low end without getting too wooly at 11 oclock or a punching "cut through the mix" mid distortion around 2oclock.
The distortion control goes from a heavy OD sound (there is no "clean" sound even with the distortion dialed off) to a balls to the wall almost fuzz like sound when distortion is dimed. I find for getting a nice chunky distortion that isn't quite hitting fuzz territory I like to have it about 1 oclock with a high output bass or around 3oclock with a lower output bass.
One thing worth mentioning is that this is a pedal made specifically for bass and the low end retention (like all the SFX bass pedals) is amazing. So much so that to get the distortion to cut through distorted guitar tones , I find i have to roll off the low end by turning the tone control clockwise and running a slight volume boost (without moving the tone control you just end up with too much bass in the mix!).
After speaking with Max he also made a slight mid boost to the tone circuit from the ultra-tone to help the distortion cut through a mix with distorted guitars. I think that change is a big help because there is no point having a distortion unit that sounds good on its own but can't cut through a mix. The mid boost combined iwth the low end retention means this is a great choice for live use. The form factor is just a bonus. There is a photo of my PT-Mini above and basically you can get 4 of the SFX micro pedals in the space take up by two "normal" pedals. It makes using a small board for a variety of tones very achievable (if only max made a chorus I would be set with an all SFX board!)
For a small pedal there is an incredible range of distortion tones, but ultimately it is a small, three knob pedal. Its not going to have the flexibility of something like the FEA Dual band in terms of tone. However, for what it does its excellent and its form factor and compatibility with other SFX pedals is great. Driving the Micro Fuzz it sounds absolutely brutal!
Max has some clips up at:
http://www.sfxsound.co.uk/mainpage.a...black_dragon_b
The price is about £120 I think which is about on par with what you pay in the UK for a boutique pedal and a lot less than what you pay for a lot of pedals (IIRC the AGRO here is about £159) so basically you are getting (IMO) great value for money - particularly when you think of the space saving on your board and the build quality is top notch. You would not believe how fussy Max is when it comes to build quality!
I think the downside of the pedal (and its not that bigger issue) is that there is a bit of a trend at the moment towards super flexible distortion circuits with multiple bands of distortion that offer immense amounts of tinkering. If that's the kind of distortion you are after, this probably isn't the pedal for you. Like most of the SFX stuff this is build to give you excellent bass friendly tone out of the box, but without the "bunch o'knobs" that allow you to tweak every aspect of the pedal. That said, when you get the tone as right as SFX does, why tweak?
In terms of the pedals that I use everyday, its the SFX stuff. I have lots of cool pedals from different manufacturers, but the board that sits under my desk for everyday use (running into my PC practice / looping rig) is the one you see in the picture with the SFX stuff. The reason is that because when you hit the bypass switch you know you are going to get an excellent bass friendly tone without the need to mods of knob tweaking. The Micro-BD is no exception and that's why I purchased it - it sound great and it does what it says on the box!
