Z. Vex Box of Rock SOUNDCLIPS

[assboglin]

Ok so I did some soundclips of my favorite bass overdrive, the Z. Vex Box of Rock. Check it out:

The first clip is the Box of Rock with an Analogman Mini Chorus for a really cool funky sound. I think it's funky anyway:

http://media.putfile.com/BoR1

The second clip is some heavy riffing. I think it sounds mean and tubelike for a little pedal:

http://media.putfile.com/BoR2-14

The third clip is some normal playing, so you can see what it sounds like adding some grind to a normal bassline:

http://media.putfile.com/BoR3

The fourth clip is with a 105Q before the Box of Rock. The wah effect is clearly heard through the distortion at every point of the wah's sweep. A lot of overdrives aren't so good for that in my opinion:

http://media.putfile.com/BoR4

The last clip is with the 105Q after the Box of Rock, which works equally well, if you're into that:

http://media.putfile.com/BoR5

So that's basically the sound I've been wanting, might not be what you're looking for, but please let me know what you think. Question, comments, criticisms, whatever, all welcome.

And some higher gain clips. Gain at 3 o'clock:

http://media.putfile.com/BoR6

Gain Maxed:

http://media.putfile.com/BoR7

[Ryan Mohr]

Nice clips. Sounds very gritty and natural. Would you recommend this as an overdrive or distortion?

[arbitrary]

I know this was about the Box of Rocks, but I'm curious if I could get some more soundclips of the analogman chorus.

Thanks!

[OhThePeacock]

Are you willing to record some higher gain clips for us?

[Ryan Mohr]

Originally Posted by arbitrary

I know this was about the Box of Rocks, but I'm curious if I could get some more soundclips of the analogman chorus.

Thanks!

He posted another thread today with these clips - Analogman Mini Chorus SOUNDCLIPS

[arbitrary]

Originally Posted by AqueousView11

He posted another thread today with these clips - Analogman Mini Chorus SOUNDCLIPS

Thanks for that!

[assboglin]

Originally Posted by AqueousView11

Nice clips. Sounds very gritty and natural. Would you recommend this as an overdrive or distortion?

It can work as an overdrive or a distortion, depending on where you have the gain set at. I've got it set at a little above noon and there's PLENTY more gain available. I personally wouldn't use it for a full on distortion because I think bass distortion sounds like garbage (overdrive and fuzz can be ok), but as far as bass distortions go it's right up there with the Turbo Rat in my book.

[assboglin]

Originally Posted by OhThePeacock

Are you willing to record some higher gain clips for us?

I don't like the way high gain bass distortion sounds but I've done it before so I could get some higher gain clips for you when I get a chance. Exactly how much gain would you like to hear? The Box of Rock will go all the way to cranked Marshall if that's what you want. Actually I've got an old higher gain clip:

http://media.putfile.com/One-Take-on...ong-Im-writing

There's some delay and wah in there. I don't like the sound but I figured someone else might dig it.

[assboglin]

Ok I realized my link from the last post didn't work and I fixed it.

[dancehallclasher]

sounds surprisingly middy/nasal to me... not my thing but thanks for clips, they're worth a thousand words.

[assboglin]

Actually the pedal is very transparent, so it's either the sound of my Jazz Bass you don't like, or you need to listen to the clips through more speakers or at least through some decent headphones.

[assboglin]

Played around with this thing some more with an SG Bass, and even with the SG's mudbucker cranked on the settings I'm using I have no loss of bottom end pressure. That's more than I can say for a lot of pedal designed specifically for bass.

Oh, but don't think about using this thing with a clean blend. The pedal will change the attack so much compared to your clean tone the two signals blended together sound bad. If you want a pedal that retains the attack of your clean signal, the Box of Rock is not for you.

Also I forgot to mention anything about the clean boost on this pedal. Pretty transparent. Apparently less "glassy" than the Super Hard On. Really handy for boosting yourself over the guitars when you want to whip out a solo. Plus you can easily kick the boost and distortron engine at the same time for an overdriven solo. Way handy.

[assboglin]

I added some higher gain clips, as requested. Here's the gain at 3 o'clock with that same riff in D:

http://media.putfile.com/BoR6

And heres the gain maxed with a riff in E:

http://media.putfile.com/BoR7

Listen with a sub so you can feel the bottom. It's intact. I think this pedal is as close as you can get to a cranked Marshall without hauling around a cranked Marshall. But that's just me. What do you think?

[assboglin]

Ok, just a little update. I realize I said this is my favorite bass overdrive but I didn't really do any "light grind" soundclips. You'd probably expect a pedal like this to lose bass at lower gain settings. I do find you have to kick up the volume as you turn the gain down, and you might want to adjust the tone too, but if you do, well, I've gotten the pedal to give me that light grind while keeping the bass. I actually like the way it does light grind better than the Fulltone Bass-Drive in Comp Cut mode, but that's me. If anyone is interested I'll do some "light grind" soundclips when I get the chance.

[Ryan Mohr]

Originally Posted by assboglin

Ok, just a little update. I realize I said this is my favorite bass overdrive but I didn't really do any "light grind" soundclips. You'd probably expect a pedal like this to lose bass at lower gain settings. I do find you have to kick up the volume as you turn the gain down, and you might want to adjust the tone too, but if you do, well, I've gotten the pedal to give me that light grind while keeping the bass. I actually like the way it does light grind better than the Fulltone Bass-Drive in Comp Cut mode, but that's me. If anyone is interested I'll do some "light grind" soundclips when I get the chance.

I'm definitely interested in some low gain clips, if this pedal can do gritty distortion as well as light overdrive i might be sold. Also, can you post some samples with the drive maxed and the boost on?

[assboglin]

This clip: http://media.putfile.com/BoR7 has the gain maxed, and the boost is just a clean boost (it's after the distortion) so what you'll hear with the boost is just that but louder, not more distorted, unless the boost clips your amp. So if you want more distortion from the boost you're going to need a decent tube amp to push. I can get overdrive and distortion from the boost, depending on what guitar I'm playing, out of my ampegs.

[Ryan Mohr]

Originally Posted by assboglin

This clip: http://media.putfile.com/BoR7 has the gain maxed, and the boost is just a clean boost (it's after the distortion) so what you'll hear with the boost is just that but louder, not more distorted, unless the boost clips your amp. So if you want more distortion from the boost you're going to need a decent tube amp to push. I can get overdrive and distortion from the boost, depending on what guitar I'm playing, out of my ampegs.

That clip sounds great, you said it is right up there with the turbo rat in terms of bass distortion, and I think it sounds even better. It is very gritty, whereas the turbo rat can get fuzzy, which is not what I want in a distortion pedal.

[assboglin]

Yeah, the Turbo Rat gets a little fuzzy. The Turbo Rat and the Box of Rock are very similar in tonal color. I'd say the Turbo Rat has a little more bite than the Box of Rock, but the Box of Rock is a little more "amplike" and definitely more touch sensitive. It's also a more familiar tone, because it does sound (kind of) like a Marshall.

A couple things to consider: personally, for any distortion that uses transistors for clipping, I prefer to at least have a decent tube pre to run them through; overdrive on a solid state amp just doesn't feel right to me. I know the Box of Rock in particular is not designed to be run through a solid state amp. Z. Vex actually recommends trying it through a Marshall head. Also, I haven't had very good experiences with overdrive/distortion using cabs with horns. Sometimes it works out ok, but always eventually I get this nasty fizz coming out of the horn. Very unpleasant. You might want to turn your horn off, or better off in my book get a cab without a horn. At the very least, the Box of Rock is designed for use with guitar and guitar cabinets, not bass cabinets with horns that respond to frequencies all the way up to 19-20 kHz. I use Ashdown 1x15" cabs that only have decent frequency response up to 4kHz, no problem. Seriously, if I turn up the 5k and 9k sliders on my bass amp's EQ it has no effect on my sound. I say all this because I notice on your profile you're running a Fender Bassman 150, right? My advice to you is that, before you delve deeper into the world of bass distortion, you consider a more distortion friendly amp, because it would be a shame to finally pull the trigger on what you think is the right distortion for you only to find out it sounds like crap through your amp. Of course this is based on my personal taste, so take it with a grain of salt.

[Ryan Mohr]

Originally Posted by assboglin

Yeah, the Turbo Rat gets a little fuzzy. The Turbo Rat and the Box of Rock are very similar in tonal color. I'd say the Turbo Rat has a little more bite than the Box of Rock, but the Box of Rock is a little more "amplike" and definitely more touch sensitive. It's also a more familiar tone, because it does sound (kind of) like a Marshall.

A couple things to consider: personally, for any distortion that uses transistors for clipping, I prefer to at least have a decent tube pre to run them through; overdrive on a solid state amp just doesn't feel right to me. I know the Box of Rock in particular is not designed to be run through a solid state amp. Z. Vex actually recommends trying it through a Marshall head. Also, I haven't had very good experiences with overdrive/distortion using cabs with horns. Sometimes it works out ok, but always eventually I get this nasty fizz coming out of the horn. Very unpleasant. You might want to turn your horn off, or better off in my book get a cab without a horn. At the very least, the Box of Rock is designed for use with guitar and guitar cabinets, not bass cabinets with horns that respond to frequencies all the way up to 19-20 kHz. I use Ashdown 1x15" cabs that only have decent frequency response up to 4kHz, no problem. Seriously, if I turn up the 5k and 9k sliders on my bass amp's EQ it has no effect on my sound. I say all this because I notice on your profile you're running a Fender Bassman 150, right? My advice to you is that, before you delve deeper into the world of bass distortion, you consider a more distortion friendly amp, because it would be a shame to finally pull the trigger on what you think is the right distortion for you only to find out it sounds like crap through your amp. Of course this is based on my personal taste, so take it with a grain of salt.

Thanks for the input, I plan on getting a new amp and a new bass before I buy more distortion effects, the DOD 250 is enough for now, but I'm just planning ahead. I bet the box of rocks would sound great running into a SVT 2 Pro.

[assboglin]

Probably. Oh the gear aquisition never ends!