What is your favourite setting at this point?Really nice pic!
I looked for years for an overdrive that sounded like tubes just on the verge of breaking up. Never did find it until I tried The Accountant. It took some playing around with the switches and it's different for each of my basses, but when it's right, it's perfect. Sounds just like a tube amp on the edge of breakup.
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Fairfield Circuitry - THE CLUB
- Thread starter liveburning274
- Start date
Turning the Sag counterclockwise reduces the voltage, so it should be a "dirtier" sound with less headroom, sort of like a dying battery.
My baseline is RATIO on 1, PAD on 2 and VOL the same as with the effect off.
Ratio 2 is when I want an extreme, unnatural sound. Ratio 0 is VERY subtle. I pretty much can't tell if it's on or not.
I start Pad at 2 which is no cut. I'll also try it on 1 and 0, upping the vol with each setting but I usually end up back at 2. Remember though, I want to hear this thing on. I'm looking for the grit. At my baseline setting, I can control the grit with the vol on my bass.
(As an aside, when gigging, the last effect in my chain before the amp is always a volume pedal. This way, the volume on my bass is used to determine how hard of a signal my effects get. If I turn the bass up or down, I'll compensate for the volume change with the volume pedal.)
Back in the club...albeit, a little leaner this time around. I’ve now owned all three incarnations of the Barbershop and it was an integral part of my rig for the last 6 or so years. I tried going without the BS on my board for a bit in an effort to shake things up and now I know why my tone has been less than inspiring the last few months. Since it’s an “always on” for me, I decided to go with the Modele B this time around. I friggin love this pedal and I’m not giving this one up:
You can think of it as a knob that interacts or changes the “grit” of the Drive function. It will quiet things down if you’re rolling it back (which is actually turning it up) and not compensating with the drive and volume. Think of it more as a “character” knob, except one that doesn’t necessarily drastically cut or boost any frequencies. To me, the Sag is where the real magic is on this pedal. My personal settings are as follows: If my Sag is just below noon, my Drive is just above noon. That’s pretty much how I’ve left it since my first Barbershop.
One thing I’ve definitely noticed is what must be a slight variance in the tolerances of pots used across models, sometimes within the same run. All of my Barbershops behaved somewhat differently from the one prior with regards to the sensitivity of the Sag and Drive controls. So far, the Modele B to me is the most like the original big box version, which also happened to be my favorite. The one a few posts back that I sent out for repair came back with a Drive control that was WAY more sensitive than any other I owned before or after. Whatever it was FFC did to it wasn’t for me, but a guitarist I knew loved it so I sold it to him and bought another one (worth noting here how super cool FFC was about the repair, only charging me shipping to get it done). My second and third ME were all within the scope of what I’d consider “normal” function for a Barbershop. The Modele B reminds me most of the original, though I know on paper they’re all supposed to sound the same at the “stock” setting. The variances I’m talking about are subtle and probably something most people wouldn’t notice unless they’ve owned multiple examples...maybe not even then. Or it could all be in my head!
I don't find my B'shop too confusing. I turn knobs & flip the switch until I hear something I like.
I'd probably arrive at a desired setting faster if I paid attention to which knob did what...
It's fun.
I'd probably arrive at a desired setting faster if I paid attention to which knob did what...
It's fun.
Sounds about right. Maybe I just remember my old one (which I used for quite a while) to be a tiny bit different. Also I've fooled around with it on guitar a lot more so far. And the guitar has a pretty low output compared to my bass. Thanks for the interesting observations.
So for those of you who own an Accountant and a Barbershop: Which order are you using them in?
Depends on what I want, but more often than not, Barbershop>Accountant .
Sounds about right.
Currently I‘m wondering why I ever sold these two guys.I was mainly wondering whether I might be in the mood to boost the BS with something at times. As mentioned, the guitar I sometimes use has a rather low output so it doesn‘t drive the BS that much.
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I too am thinking about boosting the bs a bit. Maybe with a clean boost...or try the accountant in front of it again at a very low setting...Sounds about right.
I was mainly wondering whether I might be in the mood to boost the BS with something at times. As mentioned, the guitar I sometimes use has a rather low output so it doesn‘t drive the BS that much.
I found that it was really easy to overdrive the BS into an unpleasant tone. I ran boosts after it because of that.
Yes, that's why I was wondering about the order. But I played around with it and think I like the Accountant after the BS.
The boost would be mainly for my rather low-ish output guitar. I'll think about it.
Really digging my Modele B.. thinking about maybe selling to fund an actual big box version with an actual switch though.
I haven’t popped the top to adjust the internal jumper yet- does anyone know which position is which setting? Gonna give this a go later today.
I haven’t popped the top to adjust the internal jumper yet- does anyone know which position is which setting? Gonna give this a go later today.
Just remembered that I still got a Wampler Tumnus. Might test it with that tomorrow…even if it's probably more of a mid than a clean boost kind of thing.
Have you tried playing around with the sag whilst running the BS into high OD territory?
I found that this was a way to play with the character of the OD.
I also find that the BS reacts to playing style and the way you pluck your string.That too is a way to sculpt the character.
Boosting it with the Wampler Tumnus is not unpleasant at all, but it being a Klon-circuit, it has its very own middy sound, which I kind of hate when comparing it to the clean sound. But other Klon-type things I had sounded quite good in a full band mix (despite me not accepting that fact) so I'll have to check that out next week (couple gigs coming up).
are you familiar with/have you tried the wampler db booster/buffer?
If so, what are your thoughts on it?
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