Barber Linden EQ Clips

Needed an EQ for my upright on my doubling gigs since getting the world's mostest greatestest DI in the world, the A-Designs REDDI. Decided to try the Barber Linden since it's so highly recommended. It came yesterday half an hour before I had to leave for my gig...phew! Set it to sound good in my B-15 with my upright, and I ended up with the knobs nooned. The soundman said my upright never had such nice treble response. Found out why when I got home...you'll see.

Just recorded some short clips with it and my REDDI into my soundcard. Bass was a 76 Precision with a 62 CS P pickup, dead D'addario Chromes for strings. Used a pick so you could really hear the frequency response.

REDDI by itself:

http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/4/27/1885410/Linden-01-REDDISolo.mp3

Linden set with knobs at noon, bass knob down, treble switch down:

http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/4/27/1885410/Linden-02-Nooned.mp3

Linden set to near flat response, gauging by ear in comparison with the REDDI (Treble 9:00, Bass 12:00, unity gain with the REDDI at approx 1:15):

http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/4/27/1885410/Linden-03-Flat.mp3

Linden nooned with bass knob pulled up:

http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/4/27/1885410/Linden-04-Nooned-BassKnob.mp3

Linden with treble switch up:

http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/4/27/1885410/Linden-05-Nooned-Treble.mp3

The Linden is an EQ based on the classic Baxandall EQ found on vintage Ampeg Portaflexes, which as everyone know, were built in Linden, NJ and were touched by the hand of God. Controls are very basic...volume, treble, bass, footswitch. Also included are a couple small twists...the bass knob has a push-pull pot that adds more low frequencies when up, and there's a 2-position toggle switch that gooses treble a little. It's has full-range frequency response, and doesn't have speaker simulation rolloffs or anything like that. It's about the same size/weight as the VT, and has a green LED, I guess to match the glowing faceplate on the original Portaflexes, and was very easy to see on a sunny day without burning my retinas like the blue LED's.

You'll notice that when the knobs are nooned on the Linden that it's a good bit brighter than the REDDI by itself, but it still sounds very musical, if a little bright for my tastes. But turn the treble down to 9:00, and all of a sudden I can't tell much different from the track with the REDDI by itself, although I did these quickly and I might be a little off. The treble knob won't cut highs and mids like the tone knob on your Precision, but it does knock them down a decent amount. The bass knob also has a lot of range and only starts to sound weak to me when getting below 9:00. Turn bass and treble up all the way, turn on the extra switches, and you can scoop your way to slappy tappy heaven. With a more modern bass, you can even go full-on Fieldy if you want. But I don't want, all respect to Fieldy

I struggled to find any unusable sounds on it, and really only started to find them when I turned bass below 9:00. Otherwise, there are a butt-ton of excellent EQ possibilities. It may only have treble and bass, but Baxandall style controls are tuned to give you many excellent sounds without having to screw around. I found it to be very transparent and didn't notice any dulling of the REDDI's awesomeness. Maybe some of you might spot it but I didn't.

I believe it's a keeper, and now it has me wanting to get another one and run it on my electric before the REDDI so I can do tonal things for effect and have it go to the board. I think I'll hold off on that till I get more time with it, but it makes a really good first impression.

 

Thanks, and shame on you for selling your B-15R!

 

That would make a cool clean/dirty small rig.

 

Cool Laurent...thx for the input, bro. The Linden is really is a great pedal, no doubt about it. Only wish I had need for fuzz now after that testimony for the Trifecta

 

Do you mean treble at 8:00 or 8 out of 10 on the dial? Any time you crank treble (or any frequency but it's more noticeable with treble), you also crank its noise floor.

 

Shouldn't be noisy at all. Definitely sounds broken.