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Durham Sex Drive = awesome!

bongomania

bongomania

Commercial User
Oct 17, 2005
35,688
3,919
PDX, OR
www.ovnilab.com
Disclosures
owner, OVNIFX and OVNILabs
#1
Link Removed

http://www.pedalgeek.com/cgi-bin/new_shop.cgi?command=link--dsd

It's a light overdrive or clean-to-dirty boost, with optional compression. I just received it today, so I can't properly review it yet; and I won't have time to record clips today, but I will do my damnedest to put some up by tomorrow night. But my first impression of it is so very positive that I felt compelled to post about it already. Good stuff:
  • very low noise
  • natural-sounding drive
  • NO LOSS OF LOW END
  • very articulate and dynamic
The tone knob just affects the high end, so the lows are the same at all points on the tone knob. With the tone at minimum it rounds the sharp edge off the drive, for a warmer tone; with the tone at max it enhances the sharp edge, for more nasty bite; and with tone at noon it's a nice general-purpose drive voice.

The compression is surprisingly good! I'll have to get more in depth about that in my proper review, but I have to say my initial thoughts about the compression are quite positive. The "soft" setting is a low ratio, and the ""hard" setting is a high ratio. It's a 3-position switch; the middle position bypasses the compression.

The one I have is an older model in the BB (Barber, Diamond, BBE) size box; the new model is in the smaller MXR-size box.

Anyway, I'm super excited about it, and of course I'll post more about it later--along with clips.
 
#4
bovine mind said:
This may have answered my prayers, I've been looking for a mild OD with compression options, but not so into the price of $220.
Click to expand...
most overdrives and dirt pedals compress your tone... its usually the ones that DONT that are hard to find.

EDIT: this pedal is far more interesting then i thought.. the dirt and comp the way it has it seems pretty sweet..
 
#5
Funny that you mention the tone pot doesn't cut any bass. I've been thinking of future versions of whatever dirt pedal I build will have just a simple tone pot that rolls off upper harmonics/high frequencies instead of a more full frequency tone stack. Seems to make more sense in the bass world (although a Big Muff stack - blend of high pass and low pass filters - with boosted or flat mids not bad either).
 
#7
Here's a couple clips!
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It starts off with the dry bass, then progresses through "stronger" settings of the Durham, and then goes back to the bypassed tone. You'll hear it is very subtle for much of the range, only becoming significantly dirty at the max gain and max compression.
Link Removed
This one follows the same progression. For some reason it's a lot harder to tell the different tones apart, with this clip. Maybe it's just got so much harmonic content already, with the chords, that a bit more is not noticeable.

passive bass --> Durham --> Focusrite DI --> computer. No EQ or additional compression was applied.

I really love this pedal. The one "complaint" I have about it is that the mids and low mids can sometimes sound less fat than I like, so I usually bump those mids and low-mids up with a bit of EQ post the Durham.
 
#9
bongomania said:
Here's a couple clips!
Link Removed
It starts off with the dry bass, then progresses through "stronger" settings of the Durham, and then goes back to the bypassed tone. You'll hear it is very subtle for much of the range, only becoming significantly dirty at the max gain and max compression.
Link Removed
This one follows the same progression. For some reason it's a lot harder to tell the different tones apart, with this clip. Maybe it's just got so much harmonic content already, with the chords, that a bit more is not noticeable.

passive bass --> Durham --> Focusrite DI --> computer. No EQ or additional compression was applied.

I really love this pedal. The one "complaint" I have about it is that the mids and low mids can sometimes sound less fat than I like, so I usually bump those mids and low-mids up with a bit of EQ post the Durham.
Click to expand...

JW Bongo - what kind of bass are you using in that test?
 
#11
I've only heard clips of the BDDI, I haven't used one myself--but based on the clips I heard, and other people's descriptions, I'd suggest that the Durham is a bit more "cutting" and clear, and it has the ability to compress more (as needed) compared to the BDDI. OTOH the BDDI has the ability to get much dirtier, and it has more EQ control.

The bass in the clips is a 1970's Electra clone of a Ric 4001: all-maple, neck-through, with Duncan pickups. I converted it to 5-string, and the pups are wired through an A/B toggle straight to the jack. This recording was 100% bridge pup.
 
#16
blastjv said:
Hey Bongo, I just grabbed a Sex Drive from another TB'r (should have it soon). Just wondering if you're still as happy with yours, and if you had any further insights...?
Click to expand...
I ended up selling it, but only because my money situation is terrible, so in order for me to get new pedals to review I have to sell off even the good ones. I'd have kept it otherwise.

There are some updated thoughts in my review on my site. I'd edit the first post in this thread but it's too old, edits are not possible. The main thing is that it does attenuate the lows a bit. If your bass is super boomy, like mine, then the SD will even it out and sound perfect; but if your bass is a little thin on the low end, this pedal will make that a bit worse.
 

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