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Envelope Filter with Good Sensitivity?

Charley Umbria

Charley Umbria

I'm Really a Drummer
Supporting Member
Jan 28, 2011
1,307
1,011
Rock City, TN
#1
I'm looking for an envelope filter that'll play nicely with my P-Bass. I had a 3Leaf Proton for a while and, while I loved the sound, I could never get the "quack" I wanted out of the pedal (see Spencer's demo video for excellent quackiness, BTW). My P-Bass has flats wounds and passive Fralin pups, which aren't super hot, but they're not wimpy, either.

I just need something for basic Bootsy/`70's funk/pop sounds. I won't be doing any crazy synth or dub stuff. I'd also like to stay in a "standard" single-sized box (which rules out the GR2, Q-Balls, and a few others).

Any recommendations? Are there any envelope filters known for having higher input sensitivity?
 
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#2
MXR Bass Envelope Filter. Search over.

I've gone through a Q-Tron, a Proton, and an EBS BassIQ, none of them quack like the MXR. Not sure how it would work with flats, though. The more high mids you have, the better an envelope filter works.
 
#4
I had good luck with the Boomstick Bottom Feeder (super quacky), though they are impossible to find these days. The remake of them is the Mojo Hand FX Analogue Filter 442 (same company, new name, higher price).

Do note that I'm using a Warwick Thumb with active pu's and eq, and still had problems getting several top end filters to trigger. So who knows what the deal is there.

I just purchased a Proton and am hoping it'll do what the Bottom Feeder did (wish I never sold that little gem).

Good luck!
 
#5
back in the 70's i had a seamoon electronic 'funk machine' and i loved that thing. i think that i still have it somewhere, but just hope that i can find it ;).

i currently have a Q-balls, a digitech bass synth wah, and mxr M82. IMO, they're all very good, but i right now the mxr is my favorite and it works great with my P basses (duncan spb1 or '62 AVRI pickups) with flats.

3-auto-wahs.jpg
 
#6
Thanks for the suggestions, guys. Keep 'em coming! The MXR sounds promising, though.

FWIW, I tried running my old filter with the volume and tone wide open, and it didn't help much. I also tried using a buffered pedal to boost the signal before the filter, but it ended up leveling out the dynamics, instead of increasing the quack.
 
#8
I had an MXR and it wouldn't quack for me, using a Warrior with humbucking Barts. I've had a DOD FX25B and it quacked decently. My favorite is my Qballs, and coming a close second is my Pigtronix EP-2.

Remember, the MXR is a little bit of a darker filter than others. With you using flats, I would think that you'd want a little brighter filter. I think the Qballs is what you want, it's very tweakable and has a separate switch for a little bit of dirt that I really like and it adds just the right sound for me and makes the filter kick you right in the face.
 
#14
morrisonhendrix said:
I had an MXR and it wouldn't quack for me, using a Warrior with humbucking Barts. I've had a DOD FX25B and it quacked decently. My favorite is my Qballs, and coming a close second is my Pigtronix EP-2.
Click to expand...

What kind of strings do you use? Just curious. If anything, the MXR quacks TOO much, it's near impossible to not get it to quack on all four of my basses. But, I use nickel rounds on all of them and like lots of mids. So if you're using dead strings like flats it may not quack.
 
#15
Nah, no flats. I can't remember what type of strings came on the Warrior. I will say that it was my first filter and may have not given a long enough trial. However, I did tweak the settings on the pedal and on my bass EQ quite a bit and just never could get what I wanted. At the end of the day, the other filters I've had do quack with the Warrior.
 
#16
i just made three quick and dirty clips of my three autowahs (pardon the clams!), going into the front end of an amp. the MXR and the q-balls allow you to mix/blend the level of the dry signal with the effect signal, the digitech doesn't. obviously, they are all capable of more tweaking but i just got these settings super quick.

bass: Pbass/Ti Flats
amp: SVT7Pro/215 3015 cab
recorder: zoom H4n

MXR M82

Digitech Synth-Wah

Q-Balls



hope this helps..............;)
 
#18
mmbongo said:
What kind of strings do you use? Just curious. If anything, the MXR quacks TOO much, it's near impossible to not get it to quack on all four of my basses. But, I use nickel rounds on all of them and like lots of mids. So if you're using dead strings like flats it may not quack.
Click to expand...

LaBella 760FL's on the P-Bass. I also tried a Rumblefish (J/J pups) and a Gretsch 5123B, both strung with rounds. I had a little better luck with the Rumblefish.
 

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