Just sayin'... Maestro pedals have returned to the market (I believe via Gibson). I haven't seen a present-day Brassmaster from them yet. But they held on to the vintage-like design.
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Behringer announces Bass Brassmaster Fuzz
- Thread starter mattattack187
- Start date
Yep, got my pre-order in on Sweetwater… the Rep also said to ‘stand in line’ about it lol
had the Original Brassmaster back in the mid 80s. Got it for around 80 bucks… (I thought that was alot of money for it back then!) Left it at somebody’s house after a night of drinking, smoking, snort,……
um,…I mean,…. during Bible Studies,
And then never saw it again after that…
I can remember the Original sounded like the components were frying within the unit. (or maybe “I” was just the one who was “frying” idk lol) Sounded like the amplifier was burning out-almost “rapidly cutting in and out”—mixed with a big wet fart. the best way to describe it,.. It was a god awful broken distorted tone-in the most interesting funkiest way. lol
Heard the Malekko buttmaster version years later… didn’t like it… didn’t sound like the original to my ears..
Then during the isolated pandemic,…
I noticed a Kat out in England (Justin@LL) doing reissues of the brassmaster… his sounded more true to the original…{agn, to my ears at least} so for a couple of hundred bucks, I bought it… was/am very happy with it.
Now I just saw this Behringer version… and OMG it’s so cute lol
Looks like a mini version of the original… however who knows what’s under the hood.
BUT FOR JUST 70 bucks??!!!
eff it! Just buy it! lol
hell,… you can buy 4 (5?) for each string at that price!
just need to say this abt the aforementioned clones,
NONE of them today sound quite as “gnarly” “wretched-sounding” as the original,…
..but if you think I’m gonna pay $2500 for a box that makes your bass sound like a wet fart, I’m not that foolishly impulsive these days.
I can derail and open up the discussion about “silicon” vs. “germanium”,…. But let’s just say with a few of the maestro pedals, (the BB, as with the maestro fsh-1) the germaniums might be ‘fancier’, but the ‘silicon’ sounds truer to the original. If you do the history, they were building these things cheaply and using cheaper parts at the time- to minimize production cost, and also achieve a ‘desired quirkiness’ on purpose within the unit.
I think the germanium transistors/diodes/parts are more a marketing thing these days… definitely ‘better’ for some situations. But Not these specific maestro boxes.
OK, enough coffee rant.
had the Original Brassmaster back in the mid 80s. Got it for around 80 bucks… (I thought that was alot of money for it back then!) Left it at somebody’s house after a night of drinking, smoking, snort,……
um,…I mean,…. during Bible Studies,
And then never saw it again after that…
I can remember the Original sounded like the components were frying within the unit. (or maybe “I” was just the one who was “frying” idk lol) Sounded like the amplifier was burning out-almost “rapidly cutting in and out”—mixed with a big wet fart. the best way to describe it,.. It was a god awful broken distorted tone-in the most interesting funkiest way. lol
Heard the Malekko buttmaster version years later… didn’t like it… didn’t sound like the original to my ears..
Then during the isolated pandemic,…
I noticed a Kat out in England (Justin@LL) doing reissues of the brassmaster… his sounded more true to the original…{agn, to my ears at least} so for a couple of hundred bucks, I bought it… was/am very happy with it.
Now I just saw this Behringer version… and OMG it’s so cute lol
Looks like a mini version of the original… however who knows what’s under the hood.
BUT FOR JUST 70 bucks??!!!
eff it! Just buy it! lol
hell,… you can buy 4 (5?) for each string at that price!
just need to say this abt the aforementioned clones,
NONE of them today sound quite as “gnarly” “wretched-sounding” as the original,…
..but if you think I’m gonna pay $2500 for a box that makes your bass sound like a wet fart, I’m not that foolishly impulsive these days.
I can derail and open up the discussion about “silicon” vs. “germanium”,…. But let’s just say with a few of the maestro pedals, (the BB, as with the maestro fsh-1) the germaniums might be ‘fancier’, but the ‘silicon’ sounds truer to the original. If you do the history, they were building these things cheaply and using cheaper parts at the time- to minimize production cost, and also achieve a ‘desired quirkiness’ on purpose within the unit.
I think the germanium transistors/diodes/parts are more a marketing thing these days… definitely ‘better’ for some situations. But Not these specific maestro boxes.
OK, enough coffee rant.
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Please correct me if I’m wrong,Just sayin'... Maestro pedals have returned to the market (I believe via Gibson). I haven't seen a present-day Brassmaster from them yet. But they held on to the vintage-like design.
But from what I heard on all these “new maestro reissue” pedals,
The only thing they have in common with the original ones, is “the way they look”… (sorta)
I found nothing special sounding/original spec about those “re-issues”..
Pure & Total Marketing using the Maestro brand name.
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These have come in stock in China. I'm thinking badly of buying one, but my girlfriend needs to build a computer and I've got to be careful with my spending.
I'm currently listening to Genesis' Wind and Wuthering as I'm typing this. Was Mike playing a Brassmaster on Eleventh Earl of Mar? It's a GREAT sound, heavy yet smooth, unlike the overly raspy sound I used to get with my Malekko Bassmaster.
I'm currently listening to Genesis' Wind and Wuthering as I'm typing this. Was Mike playing a Brassmaster on Eleventh Earl of Mar? It's a GREAT sound, heavy yet smooth, unlike the overly raspy sound I used to get with my Malekko Bassmaster.
IIRC the only thing "germanium" in the Brassmaster is the clipping diodes. It should be an easy swap if Behringer uses silicon. OTOH, Behringer's Hyper Fuzz uses Si diodes, but sound reasonably similar to the Univox Superfuzz with Ge ones. Even the Boss FZ-2 with Si diodes (which Behringer copied) doesn't come as close!
Mine has arrived today and I've just had a quick blast on it. I like the pokiness of it and that shines playing high up on the neck and can get some real cool spluttery robotic vibes playing harmonics in riffs. The sensitivity control is cool too and aids the degree of splutteryness somewhat. You can hear the bitcrusher when playing chords and can get some nice messed up sounds going on.
I've never played an original or a clone before so have nothing to compare it to in that respect.
The unit feels well made and sturdy in its metal housing and reasonably heavy.
A couple of negative things for me are..
1. the delays when hitting the foot switch. When I switch it on it takes some milliseconds before the effect comes on. This lag is only when switching on as when switching off it's like any other pedal.
2. The clean bass volume doesn't go to unity volume when the pedal is off. I have it on full and there is a significant drop in volume between on and off.
I've never played an original or a clone before so have nothing to compare it to in that respect.
The unit feels well made and sturdy in its metal housing and reasonably heavy.
A couple of negative things for me are..
1. the delays when hitting the foot switch. When I switch it on it takes some milliseconds before the effect comes on. This lag is only when switching on as when switching off it's like any other pedal.
2. The clean bass volume doesn't go to unity volume when the pedal is off. I have it on full and there is a significant drop in volume between on and off.
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My biggest gripe with "traditional" Brassmasters is that the dual volume control setup makes it difficult to dial in a tone that's unity gain with my clean sound. The Hiero BEAD solved this by replacing that setup with a blend control. I've seen people mod the old GGG DIY Brassmaster with a master volume control, so maybe someone will crack open the Behringer and do the same.
Sounds like some malfunctioning with electronic bypass? They claim "true bypass", so I guess it might be some types of electronically enhanced true bypass, like a RAT or relay bypass?
Just tried this again with my passive T bird and the clean blend sounds better. Think I had a phasing issue going on when I first tried this with my Warwick. With the fuzz control totally off and just using the clean volume it gives a nice clunky sound on its own.
Made a Behringer inspired mini board up and it's pretty fun and funky having the brassmaster into the vintage phaser! It's going through an added clean blend loop too for the lows. Could play this sound for hours.
I don’t know what fuzz pedal Mike used, it could definitely get raspy like on Lamb lies down on Broadway.
Chris Squire was very fond of his Maestro, seemed like it could do a very creamy smooth fuzz sound. (The crescendo solo near the end of Safe:Canon Song is one of my favorite examples, or the beginning of Silently Falling, both from Fish out of water).
I’m very happy with my Tech21 clean boost/fuzz pedal for that sort of sound.
Chris Squire was very fond of his Maestro, seemed like it could do a very creamy smooth fuzz sound. (The crescendo solo near the end of Safe:Canon Song is one of my favorite examples, or the beginning of Silently Falling, both from Fish out of water).
I’m very happy with my Tech21 clean boost/fuzz pedal for that sort of sound.
The Behringer VP1 Vintage Phaser is amazing!
Better than EHX's own Nano reissue of the Small Stone (and yes, I've owned one, so do know what I am speaking about).
The Behinger clone is more true to the original big box one.
I own two.
Bought two at the same time, cause they were so dirt cheap, and I knew about Behringers questionable quality control.
They both sound great though, however not entirely identical, one of them doesn't just sound great, it sounds amazing, with a slightly fatter tone.
I assume this difference is down to high tolerance of the not doubt dirt cheap electronical components used to build these.
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Mine has arrived, and fortunately it seems to keep the unity gain when bypassed. It seems to leak a bit of distortion if I turn "bass volume" to 0 but leave the "sensitivity" up. It sounds slightly less raspy than my previous Malekko (good for me), but it's still gated fuzz and the voicings are largely correct.
Some fuzz pedals are designed this way, in order to get optimal cleanup with your bass' volume knob. Being a gated fuzz this won't exactly "clean up", but it's still useful for dialing in different shades of fuzz.
Mine just arrived. I'll plug it in later this week, but the first thing I notice is that it's a boat anchor. Very heavy pedal. Pleasantly surprised at that fact.
Behringer is showing the pedal market how it's supposed to be done. If they can afford to sell this pedal so cheap, what's up with the boutique guys? Especially after the R&D time has been paid for a million times over.
Behringer is showing the pedal market how it's supposed to be done. If they can afford to sell this pedal so cheap, what's up with the boutique guys? Especially after the R&D time has been paid for a million times over.
Was able to fire it up briefly. Glad to say I have no issues with the bypass. To me it's an amazing pedal, especially for $69. With the two switches I can get 4 totally different tones so plus one for versatility. I don't really care how it stacks up to an original since those are so old they don't sound like they did in the 60's anyway. For $69 bucks this is the no brainer of the century
Just got mine as well, and I concur with all your sentiments here. I cant fully compare to the real deal, but from clips I've heard of the real thing, this sounds just like it. if anyone thinks they are interested, its definitely worth the 70 bucks.
