Back Story: After several years "off" I returned to regular playing again. I play mostly older classics, early-mid 70's, blues, and wanted that classic thick, warm Fender tone. I don't use pedals but wanted a compressor so I bought an MXR, you can read that story here:
http://www.talkbass.com/threads/mxr-m87-compressor.1122636/
Long story short, although the MXR is a really good pedal, it simply was not a good fit for what I wanted so I returned it, saved a bit more and bought the Diamond.
First gig: An open stage Blues Jam, I brought my old EBMM-SR4, the house player had one of those 90's SWR rig's. I did not initially bust out the diamond, but after the first few tunes one of the guys out front said my tone was real treble-y and I was not about to muck with some other guys amp settings (it had like 15 knobs and the stage was dark). So...I thought we cant have that, busted out the Diamond, set it for a med-light compression, dialed the eq knob down a bit and BOOM thick rubbery old school MM tone. It was real quick to adjust and seemed to really do the trick, however this was not my amp and it was hard to hear in this particular room, so I knew this was not a true test.
Second gig: My regular Friday night classic rock gig playing my 77 Jazz (it has an old set of passive barts with Fender Pure Nickel strings).
Now like everyone else Ive read all the stuff about the tone "magic", yada yada, that the Diamond has and that certainly seems to be true, however I will try to refrain from such abstract descriptions. It allowed me to very easily dial in just the right amount of compression, notes were not squished or muddied what so ever. I was constantly fiddling with the MXR's very sensitive knobs all night long but I never really had to touch the Diamond after the initial set up. The eq really enables you to add a warm, low-mid, thick punch that really livens up the tone. The best overall description I can think of is that it helps get your tone more like the Bass on a really good recording, not too loud, not to soft or not buried in the mix. It sounded a lot like a many of the older 70's recordings, the Bass was present, notes where clear and articulate without being too dominate. I was getting the tone I was after warm, Fender-y, and just the right "sit" in the mix. Similar to the tone Kravitz had in the Let Love Rule era.
I feel this pedal is perfect for live situations, when you are looking for light to moderate compression, fewer knobs and a quick easy dial in. It adds just the "right" amount of compression and the eq really adds fatness without loss of clarity or mud.
http://www.talkbass.com/threads/mxr-m87-compressor.1122636/
Long story short, although the MXR is a really good pedal, it simply was not a good fit for what I wanted so I returned it, saved a bit more and bought the Diamond.
First gig: An open stage Blues Jam, I brought my old EBMM-SR4, the house player had one of those 90's SWR rig's. I did not initially bust out the diamond, but after the first few tunes one of the guys out front said my tone was real treble-y and I was not about to muck with some other guys amp settings (it had like 15 knobs and the stage was dark). So...I thought we cant have that, busted out the Diamond, set it for a med-light compression, dialed the eq knob down a bit and BOOM thick rubbery old school MM tone. It was real quick to adjust and seemed to really do the trick, however this was not my amp and it was hard to hear in this particular room, so I knew this was not a true test.
Second gig: My regular Friday night classic rock gig playing my 77 Jazz (it has an old set of passive barts with Fender Pure Nickel strings).
Now like everyone else Ive read all the stuff about the tone "magic", yada yada, that the Diamond has and that certainly seems to be true, however I will try to refrain from such abstract descriptions. It allowed me to very easily dial in just the right amount of compression, notes were not squished or muddied what so ever. I was constantly fiddling with the MXR's very sensitive knobs all night long but I never really had to touch the Diamond after the initial set up. The eq really enables you to add a warm, low-mid, thick punch that really livens up the tone. The best overall description I can think of is that it helps get your tone more like the Bass on a really good recording, not too loud, not to soft or not buried in the mix. It sounded a lot like a many of the older 70's recordings, the Bass was present, notes where clear and articulate without being too dominate. I was getting the tone I was after warm, Fender-y, and just the right "sit" in the mix. Similar to the tone Kravitz had in the Let Love Rule era.
I feel this pedal is perfect for live situations, when you are looking for light to moderate compression, fewer knobs and a quick easy dial in. It adds just the "right" amount of compression and the eq really adds fatness without loss of clarity or mud.
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I've been using the EBS comp for almost 10 years now and it still works fine. However, I'm thinking about a new comp pedal and the Diamond is the no 1 on my have-to-check-this-out list (followed by Bongo's Smoothie).
