It retains the low end well without requiring boosting highs. I think it shines in a band mix even better than isolated at home.
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Earthquaker Devices Blumes
- Thread starter xJasonSmithx
- Start date
Can mode two get all the way down to clean if you want it to? There aren't any great low gain demos on YouTube yet...
deepestend
Commercial User
- Feb 21, 2003
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Yes. Turn the gain way down and the vol up. Then adjust the gain to taste—it fills out the sound and then breaks up at a certain point.
https://static1.squarespace.com/sta...reamp.mp3/original/Blumes-Bass-Hot-Preamp.mp3 From the earthquaker website
For anyone wanting a different color scheme, Sweetwater has an exclusive one in-stock as of this morning in Ruby/Citron:
deepestend
Commercial User
- Feb 21, 2003
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Looking at maybe trying one of these, the touchy volume knob/unleveled modes concerns me a tad but im curious, can you get a midheavy overdrive to kinda slice through the mix on this, or more the former where it only wools up your sound to sound a bit fatter?
Alot of the demos show people just cranking the gain and fuzz and making it sound like a fuzz and distortion pedal (which is nice it can do that) but im also looking for a more cutting modern bass tone switch.
Alot of the demos show people just cranking the gain and fuzz and making it sound like a fuzz and distortion pedal (which is nice it can do that) but im also looking for a more cutting modern bass tone switch.
this hasn’t been a problem for me. It makes sense when you think about the varying amount of “compression” that comes from different types of clipping. Mode 2 bypasses the clipping so it is louder. Functionally it hasn’t been hard to dial in for unity gain.
Most definitely. Especially on mode 2.
This is exactly what I use it for. Keep the gain below 9 o clock on any of the modes and you’ll get sone great options for cutting through the mix without mega dirt
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deepestend
Commercial User
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The demos can be extreme…that’s just how people make demos. But the heart of this pedal is a solid tone that cuts through the mix.
For anyone wanting a different color scheme, Sweetwater has an exclusive one in-stock as of this morning in Ruby/Citron:
My Blumes came in on Sunday and I'm really impressed with it.
I'll do my best, but it'll be hard to add much more to the demos that are already out there... It really does sound exactly like it does in the demos!
The pedal has a TON of headroom; on modes 1 and 2, setting the level at about 9'oclock is pretty much unity for me. Mode 3 (being the lowest output mode) I bump it up to maybe 10, 10:30? So still a ton of room there.
Mode 1: Not my favorite mode, but I don't dislike it at all. It's not quite as smooth and fuzzy as mode 3, but still useful.
Mode 2: The clean boost in this mode is super transparent. I already love the sound of my SGT-DI, so this is super useful when I want a little bit (or a lot) more of the SGT's flavor of drive.
Mode 3: So warm and fuzzy that you'll want to cuddle it on a cold winter's night. This is most likely going to be my go-to mode. Again, even though this mode has the lowest output, there's so much headroom available that it's a moot point.
I would say the Westwood is a little darker and tubey to my ears. And it doesn’t keep the lows quite as well as the Blumes. (Though the Westwood does surprisingly well)
For me the Westwood is kind of a low gain tone fattener. So kind of a first gain stage. And the Blumes is better as a second gain stage. At least that’s how I use it.
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I just got a chance to try out my new Blumes pedal. First I'll say that it does one thing really well, and that's being a transparent, slightly dirty boost in mode two. Even with the gain all the way down in mode 2, I do get slight OD with my passive jazz bass, but it's just about right for slight saturation. I don't like the character of the OD after pushing the gain past 9 O'clock though, so to me this really is just a slight saturation pedal. I'm afraid modes 1 and 3 might be too overdriven for my tastes, even with the gain all the way down. I heard that they upped the gain for the bass version, which I have to say confuses me. If the other two modes had more range to drop the gain, this pedal would have so much more potential, in my opinion.
But even if I only ever use it in mode two as a slight dirty boost, it's still worth the money. In that role, this pedal is basically what I wished the Spaceman Saturn VI was. To my ears, the Blumes is actually more transparent than the Spaceman, compresses the signal way less, but has more satisfying breakup. I got mine for 85 dollars shipped (B stock), so it's really a no brainer. But the real test is is with the band, so I'll have to wait and see for sure. My plan is to try the Blumes as the "always on" sound, with my Grizzly as the second gain stage.
Also, the build quality is amazing for the price, especially when you consider that it's made in the USA.
But even if I only ever use it in mode two as a slight dirty boost, it's still worth the money. In that role, this pedal is basically what I wished the Spaceman Saturn VI was. To my ears, the Blumes is actually more transparent than the Spaceman, compresses the signal way less, but has more satisfying breakup. I got mine for 85 dollars shipped (B stock), so it's really a no brainer. But the real test is is with the band, so I'll have to wait and see for sure. My plan is to try the Blumes as the "always on" sound, with my Grizzly as the second gain stage.
Also, the build quality is amazing for the price, especially when you consider that it's made in the USA.
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deepestend
Commercial User
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this about sums it up…nice review
Yeah it’s worth pointing out that this pedal is best when it’s pushing an amp, or preamp pedal, or saturator. It is like a classic Tube Screamer in that sense.
Especially when you’re using it for its dirtier sounds. It needs to be pushed through something or combined with other dirt to get the full effect. Otherwise the higher gain stuff sounds pretty unruly.
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One of the Sweetwater special editions is waiting in my mailbox. I’m excited to get home and try it out. I can report back once I have had some time with it.
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Anybody know if running this pedal at >9 volts will fry it? I know some pedals you can do that, even it if doesn't specify that it's okay (the Pork and Pickle comes to mind). I wonder if that could help the headroom issue I'm getting, with all settings overdriving even with gain all the way down.
Edit: answered my own question. Their website says "DO NOT RUN AT HIGHER VOLTEGES" in bold.
Edit: answered my own question. Their website says "DO NOT RUN AT HIGHER VOLTEGES" in bold.
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I just got my Blumes last night and played with it for about ten minutes. The longtime king of overdrive on my pedal board has been the Grizzly Bass. I play a Musicman Bongo with an 18V pre, and the Grizzly just soaks up all of the gain it puts out with the volume wide open. However, whenever I have played any EQD drive pedal with the gain too open it causes weird things to happen. The Blumes kept low end wonderfully, especially compared to the Plumes and the Dunes (both of which I own). I think I am going to have to play around a bit more with the Blumes to see how I am going to make it work. I may keep the Gain at under 9, and just use the controls on my Bongo to control saturation. Has anyone else with an active bass done anything like this when using the Blumes? Unfortunately all of the demos I have seen of the Blumes use passive fenders, and I do not have a passive bass.
I have both right now. To me the Grizzly seems to have way more headroom and flexibility to dial in just the right amount of gain you want. It's a more refined OD sound, and sounds good up to moderate gain. The Blumes sounds way more raw, especially if you get the gain above 9'ockock or so. With a high output active bass, you may not be able to get any of the modes into low gain, as even mode two with the gain all the way down does some OD on my passive jazz.
My plan is to try the Blumes as an "always on" sound on mode two with low gain, then combine it with the Grizzly for moderate OD. To me they seem to stack together well. The rawness of Blumes might sound cool with the band though, even at higher gain levels. Bedroom tone can be deceiving sometimes. I'll find out for sure next time I meet up with the band though.
