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dUg Ultra Bass 1000 - Tech 21

#242
@tech21nyc , yesterday I showed the dUg to Devin Townsend, Jean Savoie (bassist for the Devin Townsend Project Ki album) and Jahmeel Russell (ex-Black Halos, KEN mode, current Red Vienna).

Everyone thought it sounded great. "Best built in distortion from a bass amp", "channels blend together so well", "build quality is very good", "3 DI's is smart", "Whoa!"....
 
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#244
Had a few minutes with the dUg last night. Tentative thoughts so far:
  1. Pro: This amp has a better sound than any other crossover-type distortion I've tried. I have a Brimstone XD and had and EHX Deluxe Bass Muff Pi that each had cool sounds, but I couldn't quite get my sound out of them. That's why I went to a rather complicated pedalboard setup.
  2. Pro: the 3-button footswitch only needs a 2 conductor, standard instrument cable. A subtle but handy feature.
  3. Con: As andrew mentioned before, I find that if I dial in my "mix" tone, switching to the clean sound is too bassy. Would be nice if the treble gain had an internal trimpot, instead of being fixed at "noon", when in clean mode (alternatively, if the mid boost had a selectable center frequency).
  4. Con: The "Comp" control on the clean channel has a huge effect on the volume. It seems like you have to have the compressor up past noon just for volume reasons.
  5. Observation: The amp isn't quite as loud as I expected. Not that it isn't loud enough, I just expected more of a difference compared to my Mesa M6 or my TC RH450. I guess this probably isn't really a fault of the amp, just an illustration that adding speakers is a better way to get more volume than adding watts.
  6. Con: I think the hpf should disengage when selecting the high channel, like the lpf does when selecting the low channel. I don't see a need for the high channel solo'd and the crossover engaged, but maybe other people do.
I still need more time to see if this will replace my pedalboard or not. I still need a tuner and HPF (fdeck for me), plus the pedalboard allows me to use my amp to EQ my stage tone without affecting the FOH signal. But the dUg is definitely the only amp that I would even consider using as a single, standalone rig for my personal tone preferences. A treble adjustment for the low channel and disabling the high pass when the dirty channel is solo'd would give this amp a lot more versatility, IMO.
 
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#245
re, 4. : the manual states that both the drive and comp also add gain up to the noon position of the knob, and the eq is active so it adds volume too. I was talking with Husky123 about this as well, the amp has gain tied to nearly every knob! :D

To get the most volume from the amp, set all your eq above noon and have both the Comp and Drive knobs above noon too.
It's a very loud amp with everything set just so, but the Mesa M6 is not exactly a quiet amp either.

Also, equate your eq settings by "hours apart", so if you have your treble set at 12:00, your mids at 1:00 and your bass at 2:30, move your bass to 4:30, mids to 3:00 and treble to 2:00. It should give you relatively the same tone but with a tad more volume and presence.

Anyone who gets a dUg I recommend you read the manual. It is a pretty straightforward, intuitive amp in most ways but from reading the manual you can catch all the little things about it that are different. You can tell from the manual too that tech 21 know the amp is unusual and try to make a point of conveying that in the manual. It is not a "set everything to noon and tweak it by 5 cents here and there to get the best sound" like a lot of modern amps are. You definitely need to use your ears and not be afraid to use extreme settings on the knobs.

re, 1.: I 100% agree. I also have both the Brimstone and the Bass Muff deluxe and while I like the sound of both (EHX BMD is a really under rated pedal imo), the dUg's balance between separation and unity in the channels is fantastic.

re, 3: I'd also like an internally adjustable trim pot of the treble control for the low channel. Anyone who uses the Mid control past noon on the Low channel will struggle to get a normal clean tone. unless you use the Red Ripper trick but it's a compromise for sure to add cost and the need for a separate pedal. Tech 21, is that something you could do for us?

What's your pedalboard set up?
 
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#246
andrew said:
...You definitely need to use your ears and not be afraid to use extreme settings on the knobs....
What's your pedalboard set up?
Click to expand...
That makes sense. I didn't have a lot of time to play around, so I may get the hand of the controls a little better with some more experience.
My pedalboard setup is
fdeck HPF->Hardwire Tuner->Rolls Crossover->highs into Tech 21 Leeds-> lows and highs into cheap Nady mixer-> Boss parametric EQ -> Markbass Compressore
Nice that the dUg does almost all of that in a single unit!
 
#247
BrBss said:
That makes sense. I didn't have a lot of time to play around, so I may get the hand of the controls a little better with some more experience.
My pedalboard setup is
fdeck HPF->Hardwire Tuner->Rolls Crossover->highs into Tech 21 Leeds-> lows and highs into cheap Nady mixer-> Boss parametric EQ -> Markbass Compressore
Nice that the dUg does almost all of that in a single unit!
Click to expand...

That sounds like it'd be a pretty great sounding pedal set up. I'd like to hear the Leeds through the crossover. You choose it for the Entwistle/Hiwatt sound?

It's hard when you put a lot of time and money into refining your set up to sound just the way you like and then try to get that same sound from different gear.
I definitely tried to dial the dUg in to sound the same as my pedal/pre set up it stood to replace. While I was lucky that it was already sounding really close, it wasn't exact and that bugged me until I started to get into the dUg's own sound and what it is about. The two rigs are still pretty similar but now I like the dUg for what it is and being practical (which admittedly I'm not when it comes to gear most of the time), whatever the dUg doesn't give me from my other set up it makes up for in being a lot smaller and lighter and that's a joy of it's own I can do a bit of give and take on. I still use a couple pedals but it's a far more simplified signal chain than before thanks to what's built in to the dUg.
 
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#248
After some more tweaking today, I was able to get a pretty balanced clean tone. I turned down the bass and mid controls to get a brighter sound when the bottom channel is solo'd, and turned the bottom channel volume up to compensate when in mix mode. Unfortunately, the mid boost seems quite noisy. I get a pretty significant hiss from it, even with nothing plugged into the amp's input. So it seems like it's impossible to switch between clean and dirty tones without having either a muted, bassy clean tone or a balanced but noisy clean tone. Also, there's a fairly significant "pop" when turning the amp off, even with the master volume all the way down (edit:engaging the mute switch before powering down seems to fix that).

OVERALL SUMMARY: What this amp is designed for, it does exceedingly well. It is the best, most cohesive crossover ditortion I've encountered, and as far as I know, unique for an amp. But while you can get a pretty wide range of tones from the amp, it seems difficult to be able to achieve settings for switching tones on the fly. If you're looking for an "always on" distortion on the highs with an "always clean" low end (me 95% of the time), this amp is fantastic. But if you want to be able to switch on the fly to a good clean tone or distortion on the lows, you'll likely need additional outboard gear.
 
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#250
BrBss said:
Unfortunately, the mid boost seems quite noisy. I get a pretty significant hiss from it, even with nothing plugged into the amp's input.
Click to expand...

Try turning up your master volume and see if the hiss diminishes. I can't take credit for the suggestion, @husky123 pointed out to me it's a thing some class D amps do when the master volume is set too low.
I havn't experienced it because I habitually leave my master volume in the 11:00-12:00 range.

...except when turning the amp on or off. then I turn the master all the way down and engage the mute. Tech 21 mentions the need to turn the master down to power off the amp a couple times in the manual so I'm guessing it's a thing with the type of power section they chose. Your method is the best I've found too (engaging the mute).

Speaking of, anyone know what power section is in the dUg? ICE module?
 
#251
If there's anyone out there who is able to talk about or actually perform an A/B with a Landmark 600, PLEASE DO.

I love love love my Landmark 600 but the Dug sure looks like it could fix what isn't broken:D
 
#252
sevdog said:
If there's anyone out there who is able to talk about or actually perform an A/B with a Landmark 600, PLEASE DO.

I love love love my Landmark 600 but the Dug sure looks like it could fix what isn't broken:D
Click to expand...

I'd love to be able to do that comparison for you but I don't own a Landmark 600. Long time RBI+RPM user but that'd be a different animal as much as similar to the Landmark 600.
 
#254
Mongo Slade said:
So it's been a few weeks; are we still in love? Who returned it and why?
Also - can it dial in a(relatively) flat signal with only slight overdrive on the top? Has anyone experimented with a combined but clean sound?
I remain curious...

Peace
Click to expand...
I don't plan on returning mine. Yeah, I use it for a subtle overdrive on the high end, rather than a full grind like dUg. I have the LPF and HPF set somewhere around 800Hz or so.
 
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#255
I'm still very much in love with the dUg Ultra 1000. Just a phenomenal dirty tone.

You can turn down the high channel to lessen the gain. It won't be the same as running a mild overdrive into the front of a regular amp (you'll still have clean lows) but it doesn't only do a heavy distorted top end.
 
#260
Looks like Jeff is on board with a dUg! Crappy pic but I know he's a big King's X fanboy. Go look at the Stephen Colbert show clips.
He had some nice grind going for Mind Your Manners.
Untitled.jpg
 
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