Genzler 4 on the Floor

[Lowendtech]

I received mine and confess I'm a little surprised. Even at the high gain setting, it doesn't seem to have a ton of gain. I'm using medium-output instruments (EG, a Bill Lawrence P pickup), and while it's great for subtle, I guess I was expected 4th gear to really roar based on the demos, and it's not doing that. Do I have a faulty pedal or am I spoiled for high gain by my Dr Scientist The Elements and Idiot Box Blower Box?

TIA.

I wouldn’t consider the 4OTF to be a high gain distortion pedal. My description of overdrive and distortion are very different. This is more like an adjustable array of overdriven amps.
But if you want to explore the gainiest part of it then drop the clean all the way down and the drive all the way up. Sensitivity on high, drive volume to taste and stick it in top gear. That’s too much for me though.
I’m still discovering great tones in this box with all gears and drive/clean mixes. It’s warm and as versatile as I’d ever need in a SS overdrive pedal. One of the things that I love about it is that it’s not over the top fuzzy and splatty and has a great warm drive that can get as gnarly as I’d ever need. And I’m a huge fan of the filters.
Just a fantastic pedal IMO. The perfect compliment to the rest of my board setup.

 

[SteveC]

I use mine as an always on pedal to give me some enough to not be a clean tone.

 

[Bartrinsic]

I received mine and confess I'm a little surprised. Even at the high gain setting, it doesn't seem to have a ton of gain. I'm using medium-output instruments (EG, a Bill Lawrence P pickup), and while it's great for subtle, I guess I was expected 4th gear to really roar based on the demos, and it's not doing that. Do I have a faulty pedal or am I spoiled for high gain by my Dr Scientist The Elements and Idiot Box Blower Box?

TIA.

There's plenty of gain, but tons of headroom. I've been pushing the gain in front with a FEA-Labs DECL (light limiting, lots of gain). That works well to get the kitty into more of a roar (in High Drive Sensitivity mode), though not like a distortion pedal. Also, EQ in front--hi mid and treble boosts.

 

[dedpool1052]

can you describe what your ideal pedal and tones might be, and your feature set priorities?

One thing I think would be useful, would be an additional LPF, that's applied to the CLEAN side, as a LPF'd clean can blend much better with a dirty signal than a full range clean.
Also, maybe a bit of compression that can be applied to the clean side.

 

[micguy]

I've used mine at half a dozen gigs at this point, and have realized that, in the heat of a gig, when we get to the part of the "biggest" song where the vibe is "unleash the Kraken" (or something like that) I apparently dig in and play much harder than I do when practicing at home. The 4 on the floor, when hit that hard, releases all manner of noises (all good) that I don't get to experience at home. That has endeared me to the thing all the more.

 

[Bartrinsic]

I've used mine at half a dozen gigs at this point, and have realized that, in the heat of a gig, when we get to the part of the "biggest" song where the vibe is "unleash the Kraken" (or something like that) I apparently dig in and play much harder than I do when practicing at home. The 4 on the floor, when hit that hard, releases all manner of noises (all good) that I don't get to experience at home. That has endeared me to the thing all the more.

Thanks for the report--I haven't had mine out of the 'lab' yet, so I'm glad to have something more to look forward to!

 

[danyosound]

For those of you interested in higher gain, more distortion oriented tones, can you describe what your ideal pedal and tones might be, and your feature set priorities? Maybe give some examples of your favorite pedals?

As a user of the Mesa D800 and a pair of GB212t cabs and an obsession for pedals, I probably will get the 4 on the Floor, but as others have pointed out, it really sucks to have to bend down to change the cab settings. Also, as a user of the Bass Sansamp, I don't like the noise, and someone on here commented that the 4OTF raises the noise floor (by 4?); hopefully less so than the Sansamp. What I like best about the 4OTF is the filters. Damn, all dirt pedals should have filters like that.

In the late-90s I saw Cibo Matto play at CSU Fullerton with Sean Lennon on bass. He had one pedal, the same one I have: a Green Russian Big Muff, and when he activated it the sound was glorious. In my own practice I have found that Muffs need the tone almost all the way up, or the low frequencies take over everything and kill the mix. Thorpy makes a Big Muff clone that low and high knobs, and I love my Thorpy clone.

I'm a believer that all dirt pedals for bass should have some clean blend. I think a Muff with low- and high-pass filter and a clean blend would work tremendously. That's five knobs. Maybe a sixth stacked pot sweeps the mids and boosts or cuts by a few dB.
What could be better? Well, maybe it could have a second output to send just the dirt to a separate amp: wet-dry.

Another idea:
Remember the Akai Unibass? No one has time for a second guitarist. A pedal that shifts up an octave -- or up an octave + fifth, or up an octave + fifth + second octave -- with optional overdrive or Muff, with excellent tracking, and those filters, would be an awesome second guitarist replacement or a fantastic effect on its own. I mostly like to play bouncy bass lines, which aren't great for such an application, but there are parts of songs when less is more, or when heavy guitar is more interesting: an octave maybe better is some scenarios and power chords better in others. This pedal covers it. Wet-dry option also.

Hit me up to prototype it at my next gig in Denver, or Austin after that, or Cruel World in May

 

[agedhorse]

The noise floor on the pedal is very low (especially in comparison to competing products), but in the highest gain, 4th gear setting, the additional gain will be amplifying noise from the instrument, on-board preamp, and any other electronics before the pedal. This is true of all such pedals however.

Changing the settings is more involved with just changing the gear switch. In most cases, all of the settings would need to change (drive level, clean blend, and filters), which makes a footswitch change not practical without delving into the digital domain. This is a purely analog pedal, that was the intent from the beginning because this line is based on aspects of our earlier work going back several decades.

 

[danyosound]

The noise floor on the pedal is very low (especially in comparison to competing products), but in the highest gain, 4th gear setting, the additional gain will be amplifying noise from the instrument, on-board preamp, and any other electronics before the pedal. This is true of all such pedals however.

Changing the settings is more involved with just changing the gear switch. In most cases, all of the settings would need to change (drive level, clean blend, and filters), which makes a footswitch change not practical without delving into the digital domain. This is a purely analog pedal, that was the intent from the beginning because this line is based on aspects of our earlier work going back several decades.

Concerning the noise floor, someone else mentioned it, and it made me think of the Sansamp. I'm not that picky about it though because I can always switch the pedal off.

Concerning the gears, I thought that it might be the case that each gear may require a different tuning of the filters. I guess we'll have to be lucky to have 4 (on the floor) options.

Personally, I'm not allergic to a digital switching mechanism for analog pedals, and I certainly prefer it to bending down to change the settings.

I think I'm ordering my 4OTF today.
Is there a secret promotional coupon, Andy?!

 

[SteveC]

Mine is silent. But I am not using it for big time drive. It's my always on drive.

 

[Bartrinsic]

Mine is silent. But I am not using it for big time drive. It's my always on drive.

Same here. Very quiet compared to other drive pedals.

 

[danyosound]

4OTF just ordered. I can't imagine it not becoming a mainstay on my board.

 

[JES]

For those of you interested in higher gain, more distortion oriented tones, can you describe what your ideal pedal and tones might be, and your feature set priorities? Maybe give some examples of your favorite pedals?

1. Lots of gain and output. Both my VFE Woodchipper (fuzz) and Idiot Box Blower Box have that.

2. If you want to get a little more complex, different flavours of distortion. Fulltone bass drive did this, Dr Scientist The Elements does this. That’s the most flexible distortion I own.

3. Low passed or full range clean tone. The original Sound Audio OFD Bass pedal did this quite well.

4. High and low pass filters on the distortion channel.

if it’s a fuzz, midrange control can help, though maybe with the high and low pass filters that wouldn’t be necessary.

5. A cool feature sound be a sustain option like the old Boss feedbacker. But I probably use feedback a lot more than most bassists.

 

[odarellmc]

Its funny all the guys here making suggestions like its really going to happen. Just use it as is, how it was designed to be used. Its better to talk about its current functionality than wishing and hoping...its the best low drive pedal I've ever used..its always on and its never leaving my studio board...runner up... my MBD2..

 

[Lowendtech]

Its funny all the guys here making suggestions like its really going to happen. Just use it as is, how it was designed to be used. Its better to talk about its current functionality than wishing and hoping...its the best low drive pedal I've ever used..its always on and its never leaving my studio board...runner up... my MBD2..

Yeas.

 

[JES]

Its funny all the guys here making suggestions like its really going to happen. Just use it as is, how it was designed to be used. Its better to talk about its current functionality than wishing and hoping...its the best low drive pedal I've ever used..its always on and its never leaving my studio board...runner up... my MBD2..

I dunno, I have a lot of trust in @agedhorse and when he asks a question, I’ll answer it. I’m glad you love the pedal. It’s great at what is does. I suspect they will make another pedal.

 

[DrThumpenstein]

For those of you interested in higher gain, more distortion oriented tones, can you describe what your ideal pedal and tones might be, and your feature set priorities? Maybe give some examples of your favorite pedals?

One of the reasons that the Subway series is so freaking good is that @agedhorse seeks input from real world bassists as part of his research. The 4OTF is the first of what I anticipate will be a line of new and interesting pedals from a collaboration that has produced some awfully fine gear over the years.

I think some of the responses in this thread are kind of what he’s looking for.

 

[Bartrinsic]

Its funny all the guys here making suggestions like its really going to happen. Just use it as is, how it was designed to be used. Its better to talk about its current functionality than wishing and hoping...its the best low drive pedal I've ever used..its always on and its never leaving my studio board...runner up... my MBD2..

The designers asked for input on a higher gain pedal--I've noticed that some posts seemed to have confused that with requests for changes to the 4OTF. Regardless, and by the way, suggestions do really happen. . .sometimes.

 

[agedhorse]

The designers asked for input on a higher gain pedal--I've noticed that some posts seemed to have confused that with requests for changes to the 4OTF. Regardless, and by the way, suggestions do really happen. . .sometimes.

Correct, the 4 on the Floor is a done deal. We are asking what players would like to see in a higher gain pedal if we were to explore doing something along that path.

Mostly looking for descriptive attributes of distortion, tone, sustain tones that might be attractive. Maybe it could be done in a 4 on the Floor type pedal by changing the overdrive engine to more of a distortion engine, but we really need to know what players might be interested in rather than us just guessing.

- Are the HPF and LPF attractive to harder distortion users?
- Is the clean blend attractive to harder distortion users?
- How much of the dynamic feel are players willing to sacrifice for more distortion?
- Is the heavier compression that naturally comes with more distorted tones desirable?
- Where do you guys feel that overdrive becomes distortion? gear 3? gear 4? (different players are sure to have different answers for this as we saw how subjective it was in our test player panel)
- Are vintage or modern distortions more interesting?

 

[Bartrinsic]

Correct, the 4 on the Floor is a done deal.

MKI maybe