Dr. J Sparrow (Joyo)???

[stingray69]

Could it also be used as a pedal into an amp or is that definitely not what it's designed for?

Yes, the 1/4" output is there to allow you to send the output to your other pedals or straight to your bass amp, whichever is the case that pertains to you.

If you are talking a straight poweramp like a Crest, or QSC, etc, I don't know if the Sparrow has enough output gain to drive the amp efficiently or not. A lot would depend on the input sensitivity of the exact poweramp you are hoping to drive directly with the Sparrow. I've not tried it yet in that scenario. Perhaps others who have might chime in. The XLR out is for going to a mixer board/PA/FOH.

 

[GeoKinetic]

A lot of testimonial for a mid scooped sound, but what about a mid boost? Could you get a relative mid boost by cutting the bass and treble? Also I'm not really sure what the harmonics knob does, could anyone explain? Thanks!

 

[John D Harris]

A lot of testimonial for a mid scooped sound, but what about a mid boost? Could you get a relative mid boost by cutting the bass and treble? Also I'm not really sure what the harmonics knob does, could anyone explain? Thanks!

Mine is still in my gig bag from my last band practice (where it sounded great, but I did boost the mids on my StingRay5).
I'll try to check it out tonight & report back.

 

[John D Harris]

A lot of testimonial for a mid scooped sound, but what about a mid boost? Could you get a relative mid boost by cutting the bass and treble? Also I'm not really sure what the harmonics knob does, could anyone explain? Thanks!

Not sure how the harmonics works, but the more you turn it clockwise the upper mids/highs have more Presence (of course, only when using Drive with Mix not CCW).

 

[John D Harris]

A lot of testimonial for a mid scooped sound, but what about a mid boost? Could you get a relative mid boost by cutting the bass and treble? Also I'm not really sure what the harmonics knob does, could anyone explain? Thanks!

If you run the Drive & Mix all the way CCW, you can get a pretty balanced tone even with the Bass & Treble on the Sparrow all the way down.
If you keep the Mix fairly low 9:00 o'clock or less & the Drive less than 3:00 o'clock it is still close enough to balanced to work for most (I would think).
Disclaimer: I have a fairly light touch when playing fingerstyle, so you may get different results with these Drive & Mix settings as far as OD &/or distortion (signal stayed clean for me).
This is with my StingRay 5 set flat & PUP selector in Series - YMMV...

I would be interested in how players with passive basses get good tone w/o too much scoop.
I think it's possible, but less versatility in tone & settings as with an onboard 3-band preamp.
You can use your amp's EQ controls to get there, but if you use the Sparrow's DI for FOH, those extra EQ settings will not be in FOH.
My GB combo has a great DI, so I may just continue to use that.
I was leaning towards using the Sparrow as more of a fail safe against my amp going down mid-gig.
GB do have great reliability reports from the field, so maybe I'll roll the dice.
I'll probably use the Sparrow at the next gig just to find out how well it does, just to make sure that it will serve OK in that role.
If we're doing a high dollar event, I would be more prone to use the Sparrow just in case & I want to make sure the FOH sound doesn't suffer when using it.

 

[stingray69]

One thing I've noticed with the Sparrow is that the High knob (on the clean side of the pedal) seems to be generally more effective than the Harmonics knob of the Drive side. Even when I have a very high Mix & Drive setting, the Harmonics knob doesn't seem to really start adding highs until about noon-ish, whereas the High knob is pretty responsive at cutting and boosting highs all throughout its full sweep. For this reason, I usually leave the Harmonics knob about noon and tailor my overall highs with the High knob.

On a further note, I'm digging the Sparrow very much especially after spending even more time with it since I first got it. Just when I think I may have found an amp sim on my Zoom MS-60b that might be even more useful in a mix, I always seem to come back to the bass driver tone of the Sparrow. This goes for the Bass Driver emulation in the Zoom as well - the Sparrow has a ton more meat & heft to its tone when A/B'ing it against the digital simulation. Perhaps due to the full out analog-ness (is this a word?) of it. To be fair though, I am also adding mids via my onboard EQ. For a passive player - this would require an EQ pedal before (or after) the Sparrow to boost some mids (low mids in my case). Adding them at the amp would only work if you were feeding an EQ'd signal to the FOH with the amp's DI out.

 

[jj4001]

The Sparrow will give you plenty of mids if you want it to. All you have to do is turn down the bass and treble and compensate by turning up the volume. It's a great pedal.

 

[stingray69]

The Sparrow will give you plenty of mids if you want it to. All you have to do is turn down the bass and treble and compensate by turning up the volume. It's a great pedal.

Good advice - thanks, I'll give it spin.

 

[jj4001]

Good advice - thanks, I'll give it spin.

I'm so used to active type EQ that it feels wrong to look at settings where the bass and treble knobs are set so low. It can take a long time to beat it into your brain that those knobs are boost only, as opposed to boost past noon and cut under noon.

When I was gigging the Sparrow, I liked it with the bass around 10 o'clock and the treble around 11:30. If I remember correctly I liked the mix around 3 o'clock and the drive around 2. Those settings with a SolidgoldFX Beta in front of it was really nice with the bass I was using. I'll probably go back to that setup at some point. I love how the Sparrow stays clean when you play light and then breaks up when you dig in. I think it cops tube tone surprisingly well for such a cheap pedal.

 

[stingray69]

I'm so used to active type EQ that it feels wrong to look at settings where the bass and treble knobs are set so low. It can take a long time to beat it into your brain that those knobs are boost only, as opposed to boost past noon and cut under noon.

When I was gigging the Sparrow, I liked it with the bass around 10 o'clock and the treble around 11:30. If I remember correctly I liked the mix around 3 o'clock and the drive around 2. Those settings with a SolidgoldFX Beta in front of it was really nice with the bass I was using. I'll probably go back to that setup at some point. I love how the Sparrow stays clean when you play light and then breaks up when you dig in. I think it cops tube tone surprisingly well for such a cheap pedal.

I gave it a spin - sounds pretty good! Retains a lot more mids this way. It's funny - I started off with just keeping the lows and highs rolled down and upping the Volume as suggested after tweaking and settling in on a great tone, came back to your post only to see the rest of the settings (Drive & Mix) were also pretty much dead on, lol. Great settings tips, thanks!

Only slight difference is my Highs are lower but that comes down to a per-bass situation - the Aguilar DCB's in my Ibanez are clear and extend further out in the top end than say single coils, split coils, etc. But yeah - much happier with keeping the lows and highs below the noon settings - still sounds just as deep & meaty as before - nice!

 

[stingray69]

Hopefully not too far off topic, but slightly related. I know some people in this thread (myself included) are interested in adding some mid punch back to their signal while using a bass driver pedal such as the Sparrow. Just wanted to say that I've been wanting to try (and recently picked up) an Xotic EP booster clone on Amazon - the Mosky/Andoer XP Booster pedal.

This thing is a winner both on its own & especially paired with the Sparrow! It's even more effective than using my Ibanez's onboard EQ, which only frees me up to use my onboard EQ for other per-song tweaks if desired. Super inexpensive, super effective, sounds fantastic!! Seriously worth checking out!

 

[John D Harris]

Hopefully not too far off topic, but slightly related. I know some people in this thread (myself included) are interested in adding some mid punch back to their signal while using a bass driver pedal such as the Sparrow. Just wanted to say that I've been wanting to try (and recently picked up) an Xotic EP booster clone on Amazon - the Mosky XP Booster pedal.

This thing is a winner both on its own & especially paired with the Sparrow! It's even more effective than using my Ibanez's onboard EQ, which only frees me up to use my onboard EQ for other per-song tweaks if desired. Super inexpensive, super effective, sounds fantastic!! Seriously worth checking out!

View attachment 2762262

I might have to check one out - thanks!

 

[John D Harris]

I'm so used to active type EQ that it feels wrong to look at settings where the bass and treble knobs are set so low. It can take a long time to beat it into your brain that those knobs are boost only, as opposed to boost past noon and cut under noon.

When I was gigging the Sparrow, I liked it with the bass around 10 o'clock and the treble around 11:30. If I remember correctly I liked the mix around 3 o'clock and the drive around 2. Those settings with a SolidgoldFX Beta in front of it was really nice with the bass I was using. I'll probably go back to that setup at some point. I love how the Sparrow stays clean when you play light and then breaks up when you dig in. I think it cops tube tone surprisingly well for such a cheap pedal.

One of the songs my band covers is "Wild Wild West" by The Escape Club & to get that thick, powerful low end I have to run the Bass control on the Sparrow at about 2 o'clock & then run my SR5 bass up most of the way to get there.
I'm now running with the Mix fullly CCW as well.
I don't want to futz with anything other than the EQ & Volume control on my Bass guitar on a gig, so that's probably around about where I'll leave it (at least that's the plan at this point).

 

[stingray69]

I might have to check one out - thanks!

Seriously, seriously, worth checking it out - it sounds stinking amazing with the Sparrow! I was expecting some improvement, but wow! If I could merge these 2 types of circuits into one unit, I'd sell a million copies because together it sounds better than any bass driver on the current market. It's that good - I would recommend this to anyone with any bass driver type of unit & if you don't like, you can come back to this thread and call me names, throw stones at me, etc. lol. Or just send it back. But again, I can't stress enough how greatly this little guy enhances the bass driver type of tone.

 

[John D Harris]

Seriously, seriously, worth checking it out - it sounds stinking amazing with the Sparrow! I was expecting some improvement, but wow! If I could merge these 2 types of circuits into one unit, I'd sell a million copies because together it sounds better than any bass driver on the current market. It's that good - I would recommend this to anyone with any bass driver type of unit & if you don't like, you can come back to this thread and call me names, throw stones at me, etc. lol. Or just send it back. But again, I can't stress enough how greatly this little guy enhances the bass driver type of tone.

OT (some more...) - have you checked out the internal settings on the Boost?
Also, do you run the Boost in front or behind the Sparrow?

 

[stingray69]

OT (some more...) - have you checked out the internal settings on the Boost?
Also, do you run the Boost in front or behind the Sparrow?

I did open the XP Booster and have it engaged in the circuit so I could change the dip switches on the fly. I like to think I have a pretty good ear even to subtle changes in tone but to be honest I did have a hard time hearing much of a change no matter how I set them. I eventually got tired of futzing with the dip switches for seemly minute changes and opted to put them both back to the default (On/On) settings and close up the pedal. Although I have owned an Xotic BB before, I haven't owned the EP so I can't comment on how effective those dip switch changes compare to the EP. Although at least one of the reviewers I saw stated that they did own both and had an opportunity to A/B them and this clone is apparently pretty darn close to the Xotic EP booster - to the point where the Xotic pedal was sold off and this clone replaced it. I will have to assume this applies to the dip switch settings too?

As far as placement, I did put it in front originally (albeit briefly) and it definitely helped push the drive tone of the Sparrow, which was cool, but found I prefer this after the Sparrow. I dig the Sparrow drive tone as-is and decided it worked best for me behind the Sparrow.

On that note, my gosh - what a powerful tone it gives in conjunction with the Sparrow! It definitely solves the mid scoop but moreso - improves every facet of the Sparrow/Bass Driver tone. Even without the Sparrow it works well with a clean tone - it really firms up everything - gives a real solidness to every note. When I turn off the XP Booster, notes (clean or bass driver tone) now seem weak, blurry, etc.) So this is definitely going to be an always-on device for me.

 

[John D Harris]

I did open the XP Booster and have it engaged in the circuit so I could change the dip switches on the fly. I like to think I have a pretty good ear even to subtle changes in tone but to be honest I did have a hard time hearing much of a change no matter how I set them. I eventually got tired of futzing with the dip switches for seemly minute changes and opted to put them both back to the default (On/On) settings and close up the pedal. Although I have owned an Xotic BB before, I haven't owned the EP so I can't comment on how effective those dip switch changes compare to the EP. Although at least one of the reviewers I saw stated that they did own both and had an opportunity to A/B them and this clone is apparently pretty darn close to the Xotic EP booster - to the point where the Xotic pedal was sold off and this clone replaced it. I will have to assume this applies to the dip switch settings too?

As far as placement, I did put it in front originally (albeit briefly) and it definitely helped push the drive tone of the Sparrow, which was cool, but found I prefer this after the Sparrow. I dig the Sparrow drive tone as-is and decided it worked best for me behind the Sparrow.

On that note, my gosh - what a powerful tone it gives in conjunction with the Sparrow! It definitely solves the mid scoop but moreso - improves every facet of the Sparrow/Bass Driver tone. Even without the Sparrow it works well with a clean tone - it really firms up everything - gives a real solidness to every note. When I turn off the XP Booster, notes (clean or bass driver tone) now seem weak, blurry, etc.) So this is definitely going to be an always-on device for me.

Thanks for the input!
Since I plan to use the Sparrow DI for FOH, I would need the Boost before the Sparrow.
Boost on for fingerstyle & Boost off for using a pick - currently I'm having to cut my volume back by about 60-70% at my StingRay 5 when using a pick - I guess my fingerstyle is a fairly light touch.
The Boost will be a real time-saver for me - the band likes to keep the dead air time to a minimum between songs.

 

[John D Harris]

A weird thing happened Sunday at band practice, I tuned my bass before I left the house & when I set up for practice, I did not set up my tuner, but used it's power supply for the Sparrow.
Very Loud Rude Noise ensued!
I swapped back to the power supply that is had been using (luckily I had it in my gig bag) & all was well.
Both are 9V supplies - I'm guessing the one I've been using for my tuner has reversed polarity??? Not sure.
I was just running through the Sparrow to the input of my combo amp, not using the DI.
Like i said weird.
So WARNING:
Don't just randomly grab a 9V supply & expect happy sounds - make sure you test it 1st!

 

[stingray69]

A weird thing happened Sunday at band practice, I tuned my bass before I left the house & when I set up for practice, I did not set up my tuner, but used it's power supply for the Sparrow.
Very Loud Rude Noise ensued!
I swapped back to the power supply that is had been using (luckily I had it in my gig bag) & all was well.
Both are 9V supplies - I'm guessing the one I've been using for my tuner has reversed polarity??? Not sure.
I was just running through the Sparrow to the input of my combo amp, not using the DI.
Like i said weird.
So WARNING:
Don't just randomly grab a 9V supply & expect happy sounds - make sure you test it 1st!

That is weird, but absolutely, some pedals can be finicky about regulated/unregulated power/filtering, etc. I run my pedals off a 1-Spot (regulated) power supply with an 8 connector daisy chain strand and never had an issue yet.
However, I did have something very similar to this happen with my Zoom MS-60B once - high pitched screeching noise out of blue, mid-song - yeah, that was fun. However, I believe in that case a questionable/wonky instrument cable was the culprit. I chucked that particular cable in the trash, replaced it & never had any problems since.

 

[kcmoe]

Has anyone ever determined if the Sparrow can be used to drive a Crown power amp? I've looked all over TB and the web and haven't found anyone that has confirmed one way or another yet.