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boss lmb-3, useless?

#21
bigchiefbc said:
I find it amazing how hard it is for some people to figure this pedal out sometimes. I do not consider it a compressor at all. It is a limiter, plain and simple. It limits volume spikes, and that's it. The "enhance" knob is exactly like the presence knob on the bddi and so many amps. That's it
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AMEN brother! I always hate when someone trashes this pedal or sees it in my chain and asks what's wrong with me and tells me, basically, all the reasons why I'M the idiot because THEY are too stupid to understand this pedal. I use it strictly for slap and in such a subtle way that makes up for any of my own shortcomings in technique. And enhance = ZERO. It drives me crazy that people expect to turn this on and hear a tonal change like hearing a distorting or flanger.
 
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#23
I just picked one up at long and mcquade used for $35 in mint condition. The price seemed like a great gamble. This pedal is awesome. It really emphasizes my overdrive and phaser in the mix and keeps my tone. So happy I bought it. I find I great for a picking bass player. I'm not much of a slapper, but that sounds great with it as well. One pedal I recommend to you guys and galls is the dod FX91b bass overdrive. The foot switch sucks ass, but I've never been happier with my sound.
 
#24
bigchiefbc said:
I find it amazing how hard it is for some people to figure this pedal out sometimes. I do not consider it a compressor at all. It is a limiter, plain and simple. It limits volume spikes, and that's it. The "enhance" knob is exactly like the presence knob on the bddi and so many amps. That's it
Click to expand...

You hit the nail on the head! I think overall it is the same. Limiter, with the ability to use an enhance knob like you would presence on a DI. It is nice for squelching higher volume peaks from slap lines..etc. I.E the change from fingerstyle to pulled/popped notes in "Good Times" by Chic. I think people expect far too much from this people. It is nice to have, but a good DI or outboard preamp may be better suited to those that complain.
 
#25
I have the lmb3 as well and +1 for it being a limiter for slap and heavy fingerstyle. but as a full time Comp, I find it not as good. Enhance is not at zero for me though it is usually at about the 8 o'clock position or equally 1-1/12 way up. Just a touch so it brightens up a mid heavy tone. I use a ISP decimator at the end of my chain to tame the screamin blues OD and. Mxr-m80 blended to sound pure tube style clean with heavy fuzz/distortion. A lot like Justin chancellor's tone in H. And cliff burton. So the enhance don't bother me except cranked. Sound terrible anyways. So actually I really don't use a comp. but I have tried a lot and am currently looking into the new mxr bass comp. which is awesome or a bbw opto stomp... Cheer!
 
#27
I just bought this pedal. It's pretty nice. I have it set at 12/off/3/9. I like that punchy sound. I have a question about pedals in general. This pedal doesn't kick in if I have the volume knob on my bass turned down. Is this normal? Is it ok to have my bass volume knob all the way up and use a pedal? I don't want to send too much towards the pedal. Sounds like a dumb question...sorry.
 
#28
The pedal kicks in when it has to limit volume peaks above the set threshold, it doesn't effect anything below that. You can send all the volume you want at it, it isn't going to blow up, it will just limit the signal (that is its job).
 
#30
No idea I'm afraid. You should let your ears guide you more then whatever is written on the pedal, as long as I gives you the sound you like I wouldn't worry about it. Maybe one of the more tech minded guys could help you with that one.
 
#32
Resurrecting this thread. I did some digging here given I had an old LMB3 that hasn't been used in a while. Rebuilding my whole rig after purchasing a Mesa Prodigy amp. One thing I noticed was how much more sensitive this amp was to attack as I switched from fingers to pick and from various songs with differing intensity. I have to say that using this strictly as a limiter, this performed pretty well. Very quiet and smoothed out some of my more aggressive peaks without changing my overall tone. As other have stated, stay away from the "enhance knob" as it really acts as a poor "presence" control and should be kept on zero. All in all, I just might keep this one on my pedal board for a while.
 
#33
ImageUploadedByTalkBass1390474870.988900.jpgImageUploadedByTalkBass1390474888.572184.jpgImageUploadedByTalkBass1390474921.055344.jpg

I love mine! I use it to even out my sound and it's always on. EB MM SR5 with flat EQ going into the LMB-3 into the Markbass 102P combo with a pre EQ DI into the PA gives me a nice, even balanced sound. I've never been happier now that I've been going for a clean sound.
 
#35
The LMB-3 is a very capable compressor with variable threshold, fully variable ratio from 1:1 (no effect) to Inf:1 (hard limiter) and plenty of control over the make-up gain. It can be used as a clean boost by setting the ratio 1:1. There are no controls for attack or release. My experience with the LMB-3 is that it is a very transparent compressor that brings little coloration to the sound. It does not do the 'squeeze/swell' thing typical of the Dyna/Ross OTA type compressors so if you want that then look elsewhere. The point with a compressor more than any other 'effect' is that recommended settings, esp. threshold, make no sense. We have to use our ears and match the settings to our instrument(s). So if the input is always below the threshold (very low output vintage instruments, for example) there will be no compression regardless of the other settings. Maybe consider a line booster to give your compressor something to work with, or get a comp that has an input level control.
Ultimately, the compressor changes the envelope of the note, so you can get useful interactions with envelope filters and pitch-tracking effects. Placed after a Q-TRON, a comp can tame frequency peaks. But things get really interesting when you place the comp first. You could, for example use it to shape the decay of the filter - flattening the envelope will reduce the filter peak and slow the closing/opening of the filter in sustained notes. Combined with an appropriate sensitivity setting, a low threshold/high ratio might be used to keep the filter completely closed (or open) until you really hit a big note. If you are triggering synths or pitch shifters/octave pedals, then hard compression in front can really help tracking.
I like my LMB-3 - on it's own I don't know it is there until I turn it off (always a sign of a good compressor), but as a feeder/shaper for other things it is magic.
 
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#39
I recently picked one up and am loving it so far! I have it after my LS-2, so it limits both my boosted "clean" tone and my effects chain that includes a pretty wild fuzz and the Pigtronix EP-2 envelope filter. Doing a great job of keeping the levels even while still retaining the dynamics of my playing. Have it set to 1/off/3/10
 
#40
stambroker said:
I recently picked one up and am loving it so far! I have it after my LS-2, so it limits both my boosted "clean" tone and my effects chain that includes a pretty wild fuzz and the Pigtronix EP-2 envelope filter. Doing a great job of keeping the levels even while still retaining the dynamics of my playing. Have it set to 1/off/3/10
Click to expand...
I've not had mine long either. I tried all types of compressors - Wampler EGO, MarkBass Compressore, MXR DynaComp, Xotic SP2, BOSS CS-3 and the Rothwell Love Squeeze before settling on this one. The EGO was amazing with a guitar but not with the Stick. The MXR and SP2 were too squishy, the Compressore and Love Squeeze were great but too expensive and the CS-3 was plain nasty. In the end I got my LMB-3 on ebay for £30, what a bargain.
 
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