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Swolen Pickle Suggested Settings

C

chjohnst

Nov 24, 2008
465
3
#1
Picked one up for the weekend during the GC 4th of July sale.. played with it during two rehearsals with both of my projects. Doesn't fit in well with the acoustic rock trio which I expected. But my other project is a hard rock group so the fuzz/distortion use fits in perfectly. However my only problem is I can't seem to get it to "fuzz", I get more of a heavy overdriven sound. The name WAY HUGE is very true because pedal on/off is like a light switch, I have even been forced to turn my amp down to use it. I use an RH450 with a touch of tube tone and a fairly flat eq setting, mostly boosted mids and cut back the treble (still playing this amp is insane with its eq).

So does anyone have any recommended settings that would get me various tones of some big artists out there (ie, muse, ratm, the dead weather, etc). I have read that there are two trim pots in the inside and its likely the pedal is more tuned for a guitar out of the box more so then a bass.

Again I am not looking for a metal type of distortion but a mild fuzz effect that can cut through the mix like a razor. Thanks in advance..
 
#3
I have the same problem as I just bought a Swollen Pickle last week during the GC sale. When I was at GC the manager showed me the pedal on a Fender bass (Squire I think) running through a guitar amp. The pedal sounded AMAZING even running through a guitar amp. I got home, plugged it into my Acoustic amp and it just does not sound the same.

I'm thinking it's my amp, but I'm not sure. Maybe it's the settings. I'd love to see some suggested settings for this pedal as well if anyone can help.
 
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#4
Yea, but with higher input either means it has to be always on which I dont mind if I can figure out how to color the sound with fuzz then get it to be fairly clean with some slight coloring of my tone. If I really dig in though, I get more fuzz out of it which is fine but I guess I am looking for fuzz with a lighter touch and dare I say "clean fuzz" :-)

GC was pushing this pedal hard over the weekend, maybe they are getting some kickbacks or something with it but the guy at the effects counter claimed to be a bass player and owned one - swore up and down it was is THE best fuzz pedal on the market. Which I am sure its a great pedal but I just can't get it to sound right.

I can't see it being the amp. I am thinking the trim pots inside the pedal need to be adjusted which I am open to doing but wouldnt mind some suggestions or starting points on where to begin.
 
#5
Allow me to introduce myself, for I may be the Pickle's biggest advocate (search and see). ;)
The Pickle's "stock setting" is way too muddy, so you have to crack her open and change the trim knobs to open the magic. I myself keep "voice" set to about 12:30-1:00 and "scoop" at about 7:00.

The rest ( for me, at least) are as follows:
Scoop: 9:00
Crunch: 8:00
Filter: 1:30
Sustain: 1:00
Loudness: to taste

It's a fantastic pedal on bass, but you're gonna have to change the internal knobs. Another bass friendly start-up is to set the internal knobs at 3:00 (voice) and 9:00 (scoop). Experiment with the internals before giving up...there's a plethora of tones in this pedal. :D
 
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#6
What's funny is the manager at GC didn't even have to suggest the pedal to me. I was already looking at pedals and I asked "what's that awesome looking thing?" It was between the Swollen Pickle and Aqua Puss. I wasn't specifically looking for a fuzz though. Originally I was going to see if they could order me a Chunk Systems pedal (Agent OOFunk Mark II).

What happens with mine that bothers me is that the volume has to be WAY down. If I turn it up too much (like a over a quarter) it gives a kind of feedback sound like a very loud humming. I thought maybe I was standing too close to my amp, so I backed up a good 15 feet or so and it still does it. So I just play the pedal on a low volume for now until I can figure out what I'm doing wrong.
 
#7
vegas532 said:
Allow me to introduce myself, for I may be the Pickle's biggest advocate (search and see). ;)
The Pickle's "stock setting" is way too muddy, so you have to crack her open and change the trim knobs to open the magic. I myself keep "voice" set to about 12:30-1:00 and "scoop" at about 7:00.

The rest ( for me, at least) are as follows:
Scoop: 9:00
Crunch: 8:00
Filter: 1:30
Sustain: 1:00
Loudness: to taste

It's a fantastic pedal on bass, but you're gonna have to change the internal knobs. Another bass friendly start-up is to set the internal knobs at 3:00 (voice) and 9:00 (scoop). Experiment with the internals before giving up...there's a plethora of tones in this pedal. :D
Click to expand...

Awesome! :bassist:
 
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#8
Will be cracking her open tonight before rehearsal. Thx!!!!

Yea I went into buy an El Grande or a Big Muff. They had a Big Muff used for 40 bucks which I might still go back and get because the price was so damn cheap and I have a bunch of room on my pedal board. But he proceeded to show me the SP and I guess the marketing got me the name of the pedal cracks my wife up.
 
#12
chjohnst said:
OH man I am stuck @ work!! What did it end up changing for you?
Click to expand...

Well for one, the volume problem I was having went away completely. Now I can turn the fuzz up as loud as I like and it doesn't have that loud feedback noise. It also gave the pedal more of a distinct sound where as before I wasn't very impressed.

Very happy with the pedal right now. I used the 3:00 (voice) and 9:00 (scoop) for the internals.
 
#16
vegas532 said:
Allow me to introduce myself, for I may be the Pickle's biggest advocate (search and see). ;)
The Pickle's "stock setting" is way too muddy, so you have to crack her open and change the trim knobs to open the magic. I myself keep "voice" set to about 12:30-1:00 and "scoop" at about 7:00.

The rest ( for me, at least) are as follows:
Scoop: 9:00
Crunch: 8:00
Filter: 1:30
Sustain: 1:00
Loudness: to taste

It's a fantastic pedal on bass, but you're gonna have to change the internal knobs. Another bass friendly start-up is to set the internal knobs at 3:00 (voice) and 9:00 (scoop). Experiment with the internals before giving up...there's a plethora of tones in this pedal. :D
Click to expand...

The internal knobs on mine are "voice" and "clip"... I have my voice set to about 12 and the clip at about 11. Will try that out tonight and roll off the internal "clip" if it gets too harsh.

On the front of pedal I am using:

scoop: 9
crunch: 9-11
filter: 1
sustain: 1
loudness: adjustable depending on what bass I am using
 
#17
Played around more yesterday and to be honest not very happy with this pedal so far. It seems to really suck the tone of out my bass. At some settings it made my bass sound really muddy and made my notes difficult to hear (more boom if anything).

Need to try some more, but to give you an idea of the tone I am looking for here:

 
#19
Thanks Vegas,

I had almost given up on this pedal, but your instructions made me give it one more chance.

After starting out with your settings and tweaking it, I ended up with a completely different setting but I guess i like a more distorted sound.

Thanks again:)
 
#20
I emailed dunlop and these were their recommended settings:

Loudness – Set to preference

Filter – 3 O’Clock

Sustain – Max Clockwise

Scoop – 1 O’Clock

Crunch – Noon

Clip – 3 O’Clock

Voice – Max Clockwise
 

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