I feel your pain, my MTD can't come anywhere near a fuzz, OD, or anything crazy, just delay, chorus and flange so far. My sadowsky does sounds better when in passive mode. But nothing beats a passive bass for FUZZ.
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Calling all the filter freaks...
- Thread starter CliffD
- Start date
I feel your pain, my MTD can't come anywhere near a fuzz, OD, or anything crazy, just delay, chorus and flange so far. My sadowsky does sounds better when in passive mode. But nothing beats a passive bass for FUZZ.
What is it with active basses and the fuzz pedals?
Or any other pedal for that matter.
I was doing some research on the Zvex Wooly Mammoth and I read that active basses shouldn't be used with it.
Exactly what happens?
I just picked up a Mojo Hand Analogue 442 Red (formerly the Boomstick Audio Bottom Feeder, Analogue 442 Red before that lol). I've also got the Barge Grinder and while it's very cool, the 442 Red is nice for it's simplicity. Two knobs. It's based on the DOD 440 (and modded for bass guitar). It doesn't get as wild as some other filters, but it's got GREAT low end beef... so much so that at some settings it sends my Shuttle 6.0 into immediate clip. lol I could definitely see having both on the same board and using the Grinder for the wilder side of filter effects.
Some quickie reviews of other filters I own:
--------------------------------------------------------------------
MXR Bass Auto Q - Mild to wild, the "shimmer" function makes for some very watery, funky sounds. Good amount of control over sound.
Ashdown Bass Envelope+ - Not quite enough range, but still funky. More on the tame/subtle side, but not in a bad way. Decent touch sensitivity. VU meter is a surprisingly handy touch.
EHX Micro Q-tron - Nice range of the right sounds, but I noticed a slight volume jump which was a little annoying. Anything but Low Pass is pretty much useless on bass IMO, unless you're looking for "an effect."
Digitech Bass Synth Wah - Lots of functions. The synths sound good but aren't anything I'd ever actually use. Setting #2 (envelope with built in octave) is pretty tasty, blend control is nice to have.
Ibanez AW7 - Bassballs-esque in that it has distortion built in (selectable to before or after filter). Decent envelope sounds, but it seems to drop just a little low end. Also, doesn't seem to play well with my active basses.
I'd be happy to weigh in with more detail on any of these if anyone's interested. I've got clips of some, can record some of any others. My full review of the Grinder is over at Harmony-Central.com and I did the Link Removed.
5sg.
P.S. I very much want to get my hands on the Pigtronix EP-1... check out Doug Johns' track Chew On A Dog!
Some quickie reviews of other filters I own:
--------------------------------------------------------------------
MXR Bass Auto Q - Mild to wild, the "shimmer" function makes for some very watery, funky sounds. Good amount of control over sound.
Ashdown Bass Envelope+ - Not quite enough range, but still funky. More on the tame/subtle side, but not in a bad way. Decent touch sensitivity. VU meter is a surprisingly handy touch.
EHX Micro Q-tron - Nice range of the right sounds, but I noticed a slight volume jump which was a little annoying. Anything but Low Pass is pretty much useless on bass IMO, unless you're looking for "an effect."
Digitech Bass Synth Wah - Lots of functions. The synths sound good but aren't anything I'd ever actually use. Setting #2 (envelope with built in octave) is pretty tasty, blend control is nice to have.
Ibanez AW7 - Bassballs-esque in that it has distortion built in (selectable to before or after filter). Decent envelope sounds, but it seems to drop just a little low end. Also, doesn't seem to play well with my active basses.
I'd be happy to weigh in with more detail on any of these if anyone's interested. I've got clips of some, can record some of any others. My full review of the Grinder is over at Harmony-Central.com and I did the Link Removed.
5sg.
P.S. I very much want to get my hands on the Pigtronix EP-1... check out Doug Johns' track Chew On A Dog!
just had to say that because while it didn't work for you, the polyphase definitely does not "suck" haha
Soundclips of my Prometheus in my Chronicle of Effects thread, I love it
is yours modded or something? or is it the same as everybody else's?
Well there is always the moog, killer filter as long as you have it in a bypass loop..............
I think the Prometheus would be a great compliment to the Grinder. I have both, and despite not using the step filter on the prometheus, it stays on my board because it's easy to get good unique envelope sounds, it's tame with no spikes, and it just sounds great in my opinion.
no, I don't have one. I was confused by how you said you had clips of your promethueus
havent owned a grinder- but have owned a meatball clone. i also have a chunk os. honestly- i wasnt/am not a huge fan of the wah filter deal of either- much too subtle- not wet enough. the os is awesome for other stuff- but i wouldnt say it is a drastic departure from a meatball clone.
edit- thought id add comments on others ive owned/still own:
the qtron didnt play well with my setup- but was very much the opposite of my meatball-type filter. i really liked running both- qtron second- as they seemed to balance each other out- and provided an ungodly amount of wah-age. i replaced the qtron with a maxon af-9- which i like- but its also not quite as wet as the qtron. from clips ive heard- either a mutron III or a prometheus would be a good choice.
edit- thought id add comments on others ive owned/still own:
the qtron didnt play well with my setup- but was very much the opposite of my meatball-type filter. i really liked running both- qtron second- as they seemed to balance each other out- and provided an ungodly amount of wah-age. i replaced the qtron with a maxon af-9- which i like- but its also not quite as wet as the qtron. from clips ive heard- either a mutron III or a prometheus would be a good choice.
They shouldn't, at least for me my MTD and Sadowsky both sound like crap with my woolly, but when I plug in any passive bass it just blossoms!
I was just poking at you. I don't think the Polyphase sucks at all. I actually dug it, just not quite as much as the EP-1. My old guitar player keeps saying that I have to try a vintage one - he seems to think they are much better and he's not generally a guy that touts older gear as being better.
Personally I think the Moog is too subtle as a straight filter, but that's just me. It's got some cool sounds but it's also a bit limited (no down sweep, only low pass etc). Still, THE best pedal for dub and sweeping electronica sounds IMO. I don't even mind the bypass.
Interesting. I only thought about keeping it BECAUSE of the step filter sounds. As a straight filter I didn't care for it. A bit too tame and not as funky as I wanted. As a straight filter I thought it was most comparable to the MXR Auto Q which I liked better.
But again, a good indication of why it's so hard to get gear recommendations from other people. We all have our own ideas of what sounds good. I think envelope filters and fuzzes are the two categories that seem to be the most personal in terms of what sounds good to you.
I just picked up a Mojo Hand Analogue 442 Red (formerly the Boomstick Audio Bottom Feeder, Analogue 442 Red before that lol). I've also got the Barge Grinder and while it's very cool, the 442 Red is nice for it's simplicity. Two knobs. It's based on the DOD 440 (and modded for bass guitar). It doesn't get as wild as some other filters, but it's got GREAT low end beef... so much so that at some settings it sends my Shuttle 6.0 into immediate clip. lol I could definitely see having both on the same board and using the Grinder for the wilder side of filter effects.
Some quickie reviews of other filters I own:
--------------------------------------------------------------------
MXR Bass Auto Q - Mild to wild, the "shimmer" function makes for some very watery, funky sounds. Good amount of control over sound.
Ashdown Bass Envelope+ - Not quite enough range, but still funky. More on the tame/subtle side, but not in a bad way. Decent touch sensitivity. VU meter is a surprisingly handy touch.
EHX Micro Q-tron - Nice range of the right sounds, but I noticed a slight volume jump which was a little annoying. Anything but Low Pass is pretty much useless on bass IMO, unless you're looking for "an effect."
Digitech Bass Synth Wah - Lots of functions. The synths sound good but aren't anything I'd ever actually use. Setting #2 (envelope with built in octave) is pretty tasty, blend control is nice to have.
Ibanez AW7 - Bassballs-esque in that it has distortion built in (selectable to before or after filter). Decent envelope sounds, but it seems to drop just a little low end. Also, doesn't seem to play well with my active basses.
I'd be happy to weigh in with more detail on any of these if anyone's interested. I've got clips of some, can record some of any others. My full review of the Grinder is over at Harmony-Central.com and I did the Link Removed.
5sg.
P.S. I very much want to get my hands on the Pigtronix EP-1... check out Doug Johns' track Chew On A Dog!
Very cool, thanks for the input.
It's an impedance issue. But there are a number of fuzzes that work just fine with actives: All of the Electronix fuzzes (MessDrive, MessDrive Hybrid+, FaceDrive etc), the Chunk Brown Dog, Barker B:Assmaster (and other Brassmaster clones in general), Subdecay Flying Tomato, MXR Classic Fuzz & Blowtorch, and the MI Audio Neo & GI fuzzes just off the top of my head.
Oh, and I haven't tried it against a passive, but my OLC Chunky Cheese (Lovetone Big Cheese clone) seems to work just fine with actives too.
To me the original Mu-Tron and the Maxon AF-9 are good compliments because they have that dirty, greasy organic sound that contrasts with the more polite, clean and modern sounds of the Meatball/Grinder/Meatwad/Groove Regulator.
I think the Chunk O.S. is worth looking at over the 00Funk just because there are so many ways to set up the filter, and of course you can store your settings. It'll do stepping like the Prometheus (but with more options and tap-tempo), ADSR (I can't think of another pedal filter that will do this, the EHX BMS gets half-way there), envelope-following, LFO-modulated, and you can set exactly the sweep you want for each preset you create. And it sounds good doing it too.
I bought it mostly for the versatility of the filter, and the fact that you get a really good gated fuzz thrown in is just gravy. I would say though the oscillator stuff isn't solid enough yet though, so disregard that feature when making your decision.
FWIW my other "main" filter is a Meatwad which I really like, but I keep getting tempted to try the Moog MF-101.
I bought it mostly for the versatility of the filter, and the fact that you get a really good gated fuzz thrown in is just gravy. I would say though the oscillator stuff isn't solid enough yet though, so disregard that feature when making your decision.
FWIW my other "main" filter is a Meatwad which I really like, but I keep getting tempted to try the Moog MF-101.
