I thought I was the only one who couldn't get a useful live sound out of the X/D! It sounded like the gates of heaven at bedroom volume, but at gig volume, I couldn't get anything useful. Any small tweaks would cause ginormous changes in what the pedal was doing. I'm using the MXR and it's ok. I tried the Aguilar, and it wasn't bad, but it was the end all. My favorite filter-type pedals have been the 105Q or Strymon Mobius, but the 105Q is a wah pedal and the Mobius needs to be programmed. I'm probably still going to go back to one of those...
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Dingwall Owners Club
- Thread starter FroggyOne2
- Start date
I always like the MXR filter. It’s a good all around filter. I didn’t think it was outstanding but it was good enough to cover most filter needs for a good price and it was very easy to use. Having the wet/dry knobs is a plus also. I tend to like simpler ones. I had the SA Manga and I couldn’t stand it...ugh I get stressed even thinking about it. Although hard to find, the chunk systems agent double O funk reminds me a lot of the X/D and is a little easier to use in my opinion.
My old band broke-up, I went deep into modular synthesizers and barely touched a bass for a few years...until recently. I do spend a lot of my music time with my modular but have started playing bass again after I picked this beauty up: AB 2 six string, walnut body and neck, black burst maple top and Wenge fretboard. I AM IN LOVE!!!
I am feeling like some type of band situation is in my future and I will definitely recording tracks with this bass for my weird electronic based music.
I have a nice Ampeg PF-50t and a Mesa Powehouse Jr cab (4-8s and 1-12). I have a little board with some IE pedals, a Mountain King Magnetar, Eventide H9max, OC-2 and a few other pedals. I too am looking for a new Xero DLX.
Wait, isn't pornography prohibited on this site?
Holy smokes, I'd be in love too!!
I had both the MRX envelope and the 105Q wah pedal.
Both had their good points.
The spring loaded action on the 105 meant you had to stay on it, I couldn’t just roll it to a point and leave it. But is did some cool stuff as it came to life at the beginning of the sweep, and cool wah stuff. Another thing for the brain to do while busy. It takes practice to disengage your foot from the beat. Otherwise it gets very 70’s sounding wah, wah ,wah....
The MXR was cool but went overboard in the great gear purge. Solid pedal.
As little as I use filters, the Zoom suffices.
Both had their good points.
The spring loaded action on the 105 meant you had to stay on it, I couldn’t just roll it to a point and leave it. But is did some cool stuff as it came to life at the beginning of the sweep, and cool wah stuff. Another thing for the brain to do while busy. It takes practice to disengage your foot from the beat. Otherwise it gets very 70’s sounding wah, wah ,wah....
The MXR was cool but went overboard in the great gear purge. Solid pedal.
As little as I use filters, the Zoom suffices.
Pedals have become a major part of my sound over the years. The fun part is discoverying new combinations of pedals and settings. I'm fortunate to be in a couple of bands that play material conducive to pedalboard exploration - especially envelope filers, octavers, and synth pedals. My favorite bass player at the moment is Thundercat. He uses various filter, synth, and/or phase shifter pedals on almost every song.
BurningSkies
CRAZY BALDHEAD
- Feb 20, 2005
- 27,956
- 20,348
- Disclosures
- Endorsing artist: Dingwall Guitars
I think the X/D probably fails from having too much in the way of extremes in parameters, because it can adjust so very low to extreme high, and the resonance does the same (I find it turns into a feedback/self-oscillating mess up past about 1 o'clock. That that means is you have to be really careful with adjusting and those tiny fractions of a degree mean a whole lot. If you're getting away with one or two settings, then that's workable. Just mark your places and make sure you're hitting those marks.
The Divaricator fixed a chunk of this for me, and I have that marked as well. I do find that coming to a place where the effect is audible to me (and in the FOH) but not reading as 'too loud' is where I now futz with it on stage. Over the weekend we were on the road and the 'house provided' setup was traditional 8/10 Ampeg cabs. One night with a DG Microtube head (which I used) and the other with my own Jule setup. I had a REALLY hard time hearing effects through those 810's, and anything above low mid in general. Had my bass mid & 'high' control way less rolled than usual and then still couldn't hear the damn upper sweep of the filter.
Spending sometime dialing in the expression on the X/D is crucial, the top end of it rides out of 'audible' and good sounding if you're not careful and the low gets in the sub-zone and can really swamp your tone and potentially kill speakers or clip your amp (with my old Peavey IPR it would literally trigger the amp to shut down especially in the 'down filter' mode).
Feeding it is another matter. I spent a few hours the other night playing with just the Frazz's EQ, Vol. & Voltage settings and you can really get very very different vibes out of the X/D just with very small changes of what you're feeding it. I've sort of started to think of the Frazz as part of the X/D's control set. So yeah, lots of time in to get places you want to go, and still working but I like a challenge.
I'll spend some time playing with the Cali76B and let you all know what I find for clean envelope.
In the meantime, back to Dingwall content.
Everyone in my band, especially the tone tweaks are LOVING the NG-3 and are really happy with what we're hearing. It sounds tighter and faster and more coherent in the mids. I've moved to the 'traditional' series bridge/middle setup and have been finding that it's working great in our context. I still have plenty of low yet excellent definition on top of that.
I think they all come with the Tone Fusion feature. I have an early SuperP, and it has it. That said, Sheldon has gone through several versions of the Tone Fusion circuit. I "upgraded" to a newer version, and actually liked the original one better. So I put the original back. ymmv
Canadian Dingwall 6 strings are pretty hard to find used and are relatively expensive. I think we will see a lot more 6 string players emerge when the NG3 6 comes out next year. A mulitscale 6 string makes so much sense, and it will be relatively affordable and available. Smart move by Sheldon & Co.
6 strings in general are such a niche market, I feel like there are not many people playing them. I see gorgeous six strings for great prices sit in the classifieds because everybody plays 4s and 5s. I’m just making the jump to 5 myself after 13 years on 4s. Dingwall has certainly made the transition easy with the 37inch scale B
Agreed - The 6 string is definitely not a mainstream bass. But I've been seeing more 6 string players emerge in bands the last couple of years. Also, I am finding the transition from 5 to 6 much easier than from 4 to 5.6 strings in general are such a niche market, I feel like there are not many people playing them. I see gorgeous six strings for great prices sit in the classifieds because everybody plays 4s and 5s. I’m just making the jump to 5 myself after 13 years on 4s. Dingwall has certainly made the transition easy with the 37inch scale B
I could see that switch being very worth it depending on the type of music you play. I could get down with the extra high string for chords and being able to play solo runs lower on the neck. I’ve never seen a 6 string Dingwall pop up used. I’m hoping to find a Z3 5 string pop up. Really want one but munch impatient personality struggles with the concept of a 15-18 month wait. I’d rather pray one pops up used before then haha
I was contemplating buying it but kinda feared the jump from 4 to 6. Also, that bass has two low strings. Low F# opposed to high C
Or grab a COG T-16 - Cog Effects - T-16 Octave
Or the T-47 if you want two settings! (just happened to be doing a bunch of octave research lately, no thanks to Zach's videos...)
A big yes on the Cog Effects T-16 (or T-47 or T-65 varients). It's like a new-and-improved OC-2.
